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Sermon Text: Luke 1:1-4; 24:44-53
Three words change lives. A family anxiously gathers around a computer screen. The email notification came in. Now begins the wondering whether or not the recently turned eighteen-year-old will be attending the college of his dreams. Login. Click. “I got accepted!” A mom and dad are greeted by their daughter and son-in-law at the front door. Small package in hand. They take it inside, open it, and see that its contents are small onesie. Their daughter says, “I am pregnant.” A young man stands at the doorstep of the girl he’s been taking out for a few months. They’ve enjoyed great times together, grown close with each other, and have been sad to say goodbye every evening. As he’s turning to leave, she says words he has never heard from a girl: “I love you.”
Three words of this variety create new, exciting adventures, open doors to long sought after responsibilities, or finally reveals that something you’ve wanted in your life for so long is finally here. It’s the best! Three words change lives in wonderful ways.
And also…in pretty devastating ways. The ones you hoped and prayed would never happen. A family opens the door to welcome the eighteen-year-old son home for Christmas break during his first year of college. “I got expelled.” A mom and dad are greeted by their daughter and her boyfriend. “I am pregnant.” The boy and girl who are dating, the man and woman who are married, the child with his/her parents, the two best of friends realize that this treasured relationship is changed or gone when the three words from the person that they love are, “I hate you.”
In those situations, when three words change lives in negative ways, the hardest three word phrase to respond with is, “I forgive you.” Talking about forgiveness and living and witnessing it are two different things…and being a witness of forgiveness becomes very real very fast. And yet, as hard as it can be, there’s something really good about the whole process. How can it be that the hurt we experience actually makes us blessed?
Who is Luke? He’s named three times in the New Testament. He was a close companion of the apostle Paul, going on some of Paul’s missionary journeys around the Mediterranean. He was a regular visitor to Paul while Paul was in prison. And, he was someone with big time credentials. “Doctor Luke.”
Luke authored two books in the New Testament. First, his gospel, which was meant to provide an orderly, complete, eyewitness testimony for his friend, Theophilus. Later on, Luke would write the book of Acts, recounting the beginning and growth of the Christian church after Jesus’ ascension.
Here, in Luke 24, we’re at the end of his gospel account. It’s the beginning of the end for the disciples’ time with Jesus. His life, suffering, death, and resurrection have happened. So it’s fitting for Jesus to be reinforcing for the disciples before he ascends into heaven why all these things took place.
Jesus says, “Everything in the law…the prophets…the psalms must be fulfilled.” Things like …the laws—keeping the Ten Commandments and every other command…the prophets—being, “pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities…”…the psalms—not having his body decay and rot in the grave but rise again. Everything promised had to be completed for sinners to be saved.
We know everything was completed because, as Luke records, Jesus ascended into heaven. He didn’t need to remain on earth anymore because all the messianic work for you and me was done. Be obedient to God’s commands? Never fell into temptation. Be pierced for our transgressions? The nail marks are there. Not have his body decay? That tomb is empty and always will be. Jesus’ ascension is another wonderful guarantee that everything you and I eternally need is secure and completely gifted through him.
And while the ascension marked the end of Jesus’ physical presence on earth, it marked a beginning for the disciples and us. Jesus says, “You are witnesses of these things.” Witnesses of how he fulfilled everything. Witnesses of the forgiveness that is preached in his name. Jesus makes us witnesses of forgiveness.
What does this look like? Being a witness? Talking about what Jesus has done? Yes. Absolutely. But being a witness incorporates more than talking about the forgiveness that Jesus has won. It also means living it…letting forgiveness be deliberately evident in what we say and how we behave…among our family, friends, and neighbors…which at times is very hard to do.
We’re thrown off by unexpected news that sometimes is shared in three words. It can be with rather simple, yet still things that we are sorry for and forgive each other for. You come home from the store and take a look at the grocery list. Tell your spouse, “I forgot something.” You trusted someone to use and return that thing you care about a lot…a tool, a bracelet, whatever it is. “I lost it.” Someone borrows your car and ends up backing into a pole. “The bumper cracked.”
But what about when it gets very real very fast? When suddenly it’s difficult talk to someone or look at them the same way? Child coming home from school: “I got expelled.” Daughter and her boyfriend, son and his girlfriend. “I am pregnant.” Family or friend relationships change: “I hate you.” Receiving a phone call: “I got arrested.” The spouse who surprises their spouse: “I am cheating.” The family affected by a lack of care: “Dad is drunk.” “Mom left us.”
What have been the three words you’ve heard? Could be one of those. Could be something else. Any situation where you hear someone say to you three words that mean something happened that was wrong and never should have happened: “I am sorry.”
We hear apologies said. All the emotion, frustration, disappointment, and anger come rushing out. Sometimes with our own three words. “How could you?” “Why did you?” “I could never.” Those words are real. Honest. You know how it feels. It’s hard to say, “I forgive you,” much less, “It is ok.”
Sometimes it all comes out with our behavior after the fact. You see someone coming down the hall, you see someone at church, you cross paths with that person. Eyes drop. Conversations end. When one of you walks into the room, the other person leaves. You see a behavior repeating itself in your spouse or your friend. The last time, they said sorry, you forgave them, but now that behavior is back. “Ugh, you’re doing it again!” Grade schoolers and high schoolers, this is probably fresher for you than the adults in the room. Do you still remember the name and face of your bullies after all these years?
All those thoughts and feelings…and then our Savior’s voice…three words… “You are witnesses.” To the people who keep leaving their dirty clothes on the floor…to the people who have done the unspeakable…the “unforgivable..?” “You are witnesses.”
How do you reconcile that? It’s hard! “It’s difficult enough to say it so how is it possible to live forgiveness? In my interactions, body posture, treatment of each other? What happened to me was wrong!” Yes, it was wrong! 100% wrong! The actions done and the words said…wrong. The way you were hurt…wrong. Your feelings? Right. You? Innocent.
You…a witness. This is the reality. This is the struggle. The thing that I know I am supposed to do…forgive…against the fact that the way I was hurt will affect me from that moment on. “It remains in my mind…sometimes I think about it on a random Tuesday morning and everything comes rushing back.” “I’m scared to let him out of the house…I’m nervous when I see the same signs starting in her again.” I look at him…her…in the eyes and the only memory that’s there are not all the good things from our relationship, but that you did that to me.” “I know I’m supposed to forgive someone who’s sorry for what they did to me. Some things are really hard to forget…to let go…to forgive.”
Luke the Evangelist’s gospel account helps us as we’re caught in this difficulty. There was hurt of being innocent. Acknowledgement of how wrong it was. Innocence received beating, scourging, spitting, mocking, insults, agony, nails, all that was 100% wrong. And a witness. Three words: “Father, forgive them.”
Those were the three words off Jesus’ lips. At his cross, the worst wrongdoing in history, as the sinless Son of God is put to death unfairly, he forgives. He does what we struggle to do. He forgives.
When we say that Jesus is our complete Savior, that includes him not doing the sins we do and also doing what is rightfully sometimes hard for us to do. It’s all done for a purpose. Every last bit of who a human being is designed to be and created to be is accomplished to perfection. Everything “written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms is fulfilled.”
When I say, “I know I should forgive, but it’s really hard! It’s really hard…” he does not look at us and say, “How bad you are that you have feelings that make forgiving difficult!” No, no, no! He says, “I forgave. For them. And for you.” Jesus forgives his crucifiers with no hesitation not because he’s supposed to do it. It’s so that we have forgiveness in his name. Here is Jesus who endured all but particularly this struggle, these feelings, thoughts, and loved me so much that he was everything for me to gift me a forgiveness so total, so extensive, so complete. A kind of forgiveness which can only be found in him.
You and I are witnesses of a forgiveness like that. Of a forgiving Savior like that.
It doesn’t cure the hurt. It doesn’t always restore the relationships. It doesn’t necessarily make us forget what happened. Witnessing acknowledges that in play is a greater forgiveness that points to what happened at the cross.
That’s what makes this whole process of being hurt, struggling to forgive, and forgiving a good thing. Witnessing forgiveness means giving people more Jesus…
That person who gets under your skin again and again. “I forgive you.” Jesus. You weren’t directly affected by what someone did but know what they did…and treat them as if you have no idea what happened. “I forgive you.” Jesus. The people who live in the same house as you…and every bone in your body might want them to not be around you because of what they did…or they won’t be around you anymore because of what they did. “I forgive you.” Jesus.
The heartbeat of this witnessing never stops as Jesus is given and Jesus is received. Souls are comforted. Pain…starts to heal. Witnessing forgiveness in what we say and especially do has Jesus saying through us the three words that changed lives. “It is finished.”
Amen.