Jim Belcher wrote a nice piece on forgiveness on SermonCentral.com. It got me thinking about the kind of prison bitterness can be. I wrote a post last July about the transferability of bitterness.

What struck me was that in an environment where deep bitterness has already taken root it is very difficult to even broach the topic of forgiveness. The notion of forgiveness is offensive to the embittered person. The beauty and hope that forgiveness can offer is eclipsed by the desire for the destruction of the adversary. Forgiveness is not only unwanted, it is offensive because the need and thirst for vengeance and vindication is all that remains.

This reminds me of CS Lewis’ treatment of “ghosts” in “The Great Divorce” where a person who grumbles in the end is reduced to just a grumble.

It also enlightened the irrationality of evil. We get to a place where we know the conclusion of our actions will simply be destruction but we go there anyway knowing that all we will leave is rubble, but we care not.

Even the mention to the embittered party by a third party that emotional relief from their suffering could be found in forgiveness is seen as yet another violation of justice or fairness. This person has taken it upon him or herself to be the guarantor of justice (something only God ultimately can accomplish) and intends to see that there be further violation if it is within their power. Forgiveness simply appears unjust and wrong and they will say so.

Last week I preached on Jesus healing a crippled woman on the Sabbath where the synagogue leader objected to her release after 18 years of bondage. From our vantage point we marvel at the obtuseness of the synagogue leader’s protest. How could he possibly object to such a glorious thing? But this is the subtle strength of the bondage of sin in our lives. We must save ourselves, we just position ourselves as the guarantors of justice and rescue (because we deeply suspect God has abdicated and will not come through) and therefore forgiveness, mercy and rescue on someone else’s terms are seen as a threat that must be countered. We see that in the elder brother of Luke 15 in his implicit condemnation of his father for his mercy and imagining himself as being more just and more wise than his father. Hell is exactly that place.

In the end hell is a place where all its citizens are united by only one thing, the conclusion that God is unjust and that they are prepared to commit to never having anything more to do with him. Their leader is the dragon of Revelation 12 who is already practiced in setting up alternative regimes. In such a kingdom forgiveness becomes the deplorable word that as in CS Lewis’ “The Magicians’ Nephew” threatens to destroy and is therefore banished from the language.

In the light of it’s reverse we can see its power. Forgiveness must be banished by the bitter because it holds the power to destroy their alternate world. This is why those who killed Jesus, who were bitter enemies of each other, could come together around only one thing, this thing.