Forgiving and setting free
Jesus gave some excellent advice, as well as the power to carry it out, to his disciples before he left their visible presence. He told them that if they forgive others, those persons will be forgiven. In other words, the persons will know they are forgiven and will feel forgiven, and that will set them free to renew their efforts. Jesus added that if the disciples didn’t forgive other people, the opposite effect would occur. And he breathed on them the Holy Spirit so they themselves could be freed from their fear and find the courage to forgive.
The disciples had been hiding in fear. They had locked themselves behind closed doors while they wondered what to do about their recent loss. They had enemies who had destroyed someone they loved and who might want to destroy them. They were far from being at peace with themselves or the world around them.
When Jesus came, ignoring the locked doors and greeting them with peace, he did not disregard or belittle the reasons for their fears. He showed them the marks of the torture he had endured and the wounds that had killed him. He shared the pain and the peace all in one gesture so that his disciples could know it was possible to have both together. He didn’t want them to remain where they were—locked in fear, unable to forgive, paralyzed by discouragement.
Then he sent them, as he had been sent, to spread the peace that he had shared. He invited them to heal as he had healed—by extending a forgiveness that would make whole and set free the unhealed parts in the spirits of others.
His warning, “If you hold them bound, they are held bound,” told the disciples how much power they had to help or hinder another’s search for freedom. If they were unwilling to forgive, they could block the healing process in the other person as well as in themselves, and the un-freedom in others would have a reverberating effect on them too. Yet if they could learn to forgive, new beginnings would be possible for everyone involved.
So much power for healing resided in the Spirit Jesus shared with his friends. The fear had seemed insurmountable and the pain intolerable and the hatred inevitable until Jesus said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Then, peace and healing and love became possible again. The way to freedom lay along the path of forgiveness. The power to forgive was within each disciple. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The disciples listened. They went forth. Jesus sends us to do the same.