The explosive power of forgiveness; It’s awesome
enough to soften an assassin's heart and dismantle global slavery…
It is May 1981. 4 shots are fired in quick
succession at Pope John Paul II. Two bullets lodge in his lower intestine, one
hits his left hand and the other his right arm. The Pope is badly wounded and
is bleeding heavily. John Paul's general health was never the same again
The gunman, 27-year-old Mehmet Ali Ağca, is caught,
tried, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. But John Paul asks
people to pray for his would-be assassin describing him as “my brother Ağca,
whom I have sincerely forgiven.”
Two years later, the Pope visits Ağca in prison,
takes him by the hand and says to his face that he has forgiven him for what he
did (though Ağca has shown no sign of remorse).
Over the years, John Paul becomes a friend to
Ağca’s family. In June 2000, at the Pope’s request, Ağca is given a
presidential pardon.
In February 2005 Ağca sends a letter to the Pope
wishing him well. When the Pope dies two months later, Ağca’s brother Adrian
gives an interview saying that Ağca and his family are in mourning and that the
Pope had been a great friend to them.
Was the Pope naive? Should he have waited for
Mehmet Ali Ağca to show some remorse? Or is this a testimony to the power and
authenticity of the gospel?
I've been reading the letter to Philemon. It’s one
of four New Testament letters written to individuals rather than churches. I
say letter; in fact, Philemon is only 25 verses; more of a postcard really!
It's written by Paul, to a wealthy Christian
landowner called Philemon, and it’s a real-life Prodigal Son story.
It's about a slave called Onesimus which means
“useful”. Maybe today he’d be called Andy because he was quite ‘andy to have
around.
Well, he turned out to be pretty useless. He ran
away and made for the bright lights of Rome, where he would have the best
chance of blending in with the crowd and escaping efforts to track him down.
While he was in Rome, we don’t know how, but in the
providence of God, he ran into Paul who was there at that time under house
arrest awaiting trial.
What are the odds!? Actually, it was not chance, or
fate or coincidence or anything of the sort. It was a “God-incidence.” Because
that unlikely encounter is what led to this young man becoming a Christian.
Paul told Onesimus he should put everything right
and return to his master Philemon and face the music. He said, “You’d never
believe this, but I actually know your former master. He’s a Christian too.
I’ll put in a good word for you.” And this is the covering letter.
Slavery was very common in the Roman Empire. About
one in three people, 60 million in all, were slaves. That’s about the entire
population of the UK today. Rome was built on slavery and it was into this
cruel world that Christianity burst onto the scene. Eventually, of course,
Christianity will lead the campaign to abolish the slave trade.
Anyway, each of the three main characters in this
letter has to make a brave decision.
Paul, the writer, has to let his new ‘son’ in the
faith go. That will have been a wrench for him, facing trial, his life in the
balance. This lazy runaway thief has become a friend and a brother, a great help
and encouragement. But Paul says, “You must go back, it’s the right thing to
do.”
Onesimus too has to do something really difficult.
He has to bite the bullet, go home and say sorry. The usual punishment for a
runaway slave was to have the letter “F” (for fugitive) branded his forehead to
show everyone who he was, should he ever dare to abscond again.
And it's hard for Philemon to receive him back too.
He has been badly let down and publicly humiliated. Onesimus has betrayed his
trust. To let him off might show him up as a soft touch and encourage others to
try their luck. But Paul is urging him to forgive him, and treat him not as a
slave but as a brother - as his equal. That is like putting a ton of dynamite
into the great cliff face of slavery and lighting a long fuse.
Paul, of course, knows all about forgiveness. We
first meet him in Acts 7 as Saul: a harsh, violent young man breathing out
threats, spitting abuse.
But he meets Jesus on the Road to Damascus and
amazing grace softens his heart. He never forgot how much God had forgiven him.
Even in his very last letter, he called himself the worst of sinners.
How did it work out for this runaway slave? We
don’t know. The Bible doesn’t say - but I think it is extremely likely that
Philemon did take him back, forgive him, and restore him.
If he refused, if he punished Onesimus severely,
how would this personal letter have found its way into our Bibles? If he
refused, Philemon would have torn the letter up and thrown it in the bin and we
would never have heard about it.
And we do know that about 20 years later the church
at Colossae (near where Philemon lived) appointed a Bishop by the name of…
Onesimus. It may well be the same man; it was not a common name after all. What
about that! A forgiven runaway slave who became a trusted church leader.
Does forgiveness work? I’ll leave the last word to
Mehmet Ali Ağca, forgiven by Pope John Paul.
“After John Paul II visited me in prison,” he said,
“I thought about it, and I studied the gospel at length. I know the sacred
books better than many others.” Years later, he converted to Christ.
Brief online talk, 30 April 2020
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