Remembered

Second Sunday of Easter; John 20:19-31

If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.”

In this Gospel, it’s easy, and not unexpected, to focus on Thomas and his reaction to Jesus being risen. But the first portion of the reading has some really deep stuff, that gets glossed over on our way to Thomas.

Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on his disciples and tells them if they forgive someone’s sins, they are forgiven. But if they retain someone’s sins, they are retained. [Jn 20:21]

At first glance, when I hear this passage, I think about the power to really stick it to someone and retain their sins. Oh boy, you are going to be sorry. Oh boy, your sins are not going away; you are stuck with them. I hear punishment for the sinner. God will bring down the hammer, and that’s okay.

And that’s what we hear most of the world wants, isn’t it., for sins are to be retained? Society calls for punitive justice. Our society calls for the death penalty, life in prison, massive fines, and ankle bracelets. If you have a particular tattoo, you don’t deserve due process, you deserve to be deported. If you are a particular nationality, you don’t deserve the student visa you have, you have to leave the country. If you have a certain skin color, you don’t deserve fairness, you can live in a ghetto. If you are LGBTQ, you don’t deserve equality, you are to be invisible.

Except Jesus never, ever, said any of that. Jesus never called for punitive justice. Jesus was always for restorative justice. He was always looking for ways to make people whole. It didn’t matter to him what day it was, the sex of the person, the rank of the person, or the race of the person. Jesus showed mercy and love to everyone.

Another word for retain is remember. If I retain someone’s sins, I am remembering their sins. It has nothing to do with the person I feel has wronged me. It has everything to do with me. Retaining their sins means I can’t let go or stop thinking about how the other person may have wronged me. So, I continually relive the event or the slight or the pain that the other person caused me. I lose sleep because I cannot let it go. I become a bitter person because I have to remember.

Jesus is trying to tell his disciples that there are much more important things that have to be done. There is a Gospel, the Good News, to be shared. Episcopal Bishop Barbara Harris writes,

“We are an Easter people, moving through a Good Friday world… We can believe… with the helpful presence of God’s Holy Spirit, we are strengthened and sustained on our earthly pilgrimage. Further, we can believe that we can fashion new lives committed to love, to peace, to justice, and to liberation for all of God’s people.” [1] 

And that’s the message Jesus shares with me. Don’t dwell on past hurts. Let it go! Forgive! Move on! Forgiveness sets me free. And when I am free, I can fashion a new life committed to love and forgiveness. If I want to live in the freedom of God, I have to learn to forgive sins, hurts, and pains. I am only hurting myself if I do not. I am limiting myself, if I do not. And there is no way I want to limit what I can, or will, do for God.

Every Day.

[1] Barbara Clementine Harris, “Easter Grace in a Good Friday World,” in Parting Words: A Farewell Discourse (Cowley Publications, 2003), 69–70, 71–72.  

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