Forgiveness and the Cross

The bitterness of sin is a crushing load that only forgiveness can lift.  

Victor Hugo's classic "Les Miserables" tells the story of a man, Jean Valjean, who was condemned to 19 years in a French prison for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread.

Upon his release, Valjean is a hardened, hateful, hopeless man. Shunned by society, he wanders the streets searching in vain for help, until he is taken in by a kindly priest who offers him food and lodging. Determined to rob the trusting cleric of his silver, Valjean sneaks off in the night loaded down with the goods - only to be apprehended by the police and brought back to face the man whose testimony would condemn him to prison for the rest of his life.

To his amazement, however, the kindly priest insists that the silver was a gift, and Valjean is set free. Forgiven a debt he could have never repaid, the hardened criminal melts in a sea of grateful tears and is subsequently transformed into a totally new man.

Like Hugo's fictitious character, countless millions of people live their lives under a load of sin - unable to lift it from their own shoulders, and unaware that there is someone who can.

Some have been hurt so deeply they feel they can never forgive. Others have sinned so grievously they believe they can never be forgiven.

Indeed, in a world where unspeakable atrocities are committed against innocent people, forgiveness may seem almost scandalous. As philosopher Herbert Marcuse put it, "One cannot, and should not go around happily killing and torturing and then, when the moment has come, simply ask, and receive, forgiveness."

Many of the places where CrossWorld workers serve have been decimated by such wickedness. What do you tell someone whose family has been wiped out in the killing fields of Cambodia or the ethnic cleansing that ravaged the Balkans? How does one help a child who has been sold into the sex trade of South-East Asia by her own parents?

Is there any hope of transformation, or are we condemned to permanently carry the load of our guilt, or that of our inability to forgive those who have wronged us?

This is the message of the cross - one that offers not only forgiveness but the power to forgive. It lifts a load no man can lift, and replaces it with riches that no money can buy. This is the most amazing message that we have to bring to the people of all nations.

Dale Losch
CrossWorld President