“WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THEM?”                          

 At the end of John’s Gospel Jesus appeared to his disciples who had gathered in that upper room because they were afraid of what might happen to them as followers of Jesus. They believed that the Jewish authorities who had had Jesus executed would now come after them and demand the same punishment. So they locked the doors and waited to see what would happen next.

What happened next was that Jesus suddenly appeared in the room and wished them peace, peace of mind and peace of heart. Then, according to John, he told them he was sending them off to be his disciples just as God the Father had sent him. Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23)

In other words, Jesus is giving his followers the power to forgive sins – his followers, those who believe in him, you and me. We can forgive the sins of those who have sinned against us. We don’t have to, of course, just as Jesus said. Sometimes we don’t. And sometimes, probably more often than not, even when we do forgive, it is not easy to do so. In fact, the only way we can forgive someone who has selfishly hurt us, sinned against us, is through the power and strength of the Holy Spirit.

That power and strength is always there to be accepted and utilized – or not. The choice is ours. We have that freedom. Over the years we have used it and we have rejected it. What I find telling about this ability to forgive or not forgive are Jesus’ words in another translation of the Bible, Eugene Peterson’s The Message. Thus, “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive, what are you going to do with them?”

That is the question, is it not: What are we going to do with all those sins that we refuse to forgive? Well, what we do do with them is hold onto them. We all have over the years, and I dare say we are all holding on to some of those past sins even today. We have not forgiven and are still not ready to forgive; and until we do forgive, we hold on to them. They weigh us down and hold us back. They are a burden and they become more and more of a burden the longer we hold on to them.

It is not easy to forgive someone who has deliberately hurt us, for all sins are deliberate. The other knew what s/he was doing when s/he said or did whatever it was to hurt us in whatever way we were hurt. For us to forgive that deliberate hurt is very, very difficult. The greater the hurt, the greater the difficulty in forgiving. It can’t be done unless we want to forgive and unless we allow the strength of the Holy Spirit fill us with the ability to do so.

The choice is always ours: we can hold on to the sins others have committed against us or we can unburden ourselves, forgive and move on with our lives, freed from the heavy load those sins truly are. The heavier the load, the more difficult life is. The lighter the load, the easier it becomes. What are we doing with those sins?