catapult magazine

Hi. Over the past few days, I have been wondering about something. I’m a freshmen in High School, and the other day we were talking about forgivness. In Numbers 15: 30-31, it talks about how anyone that Blasphemes the Lord should be cut off from his people. My teacher said that this had something to do with forgivness. However, I dont quite see the conection. The way I took it, it is saying that there is no forgivness. I could be totally wrong here, but for the better part of two days, I have been thinking about it and wondering what it meant. Can anyone explain that passage, and also forgivness?

okay . . . real quick on the don henley thing. i once saw him perform that song on “Saturday Night Live” and a woman in the choir (the folks who sing, “forgiveness . . . forgiveness”) was so amazingly off-key it was painful.

anyway . . . back on forgiveness.

jesus said to the pharisees (i think) when they asked how many times we are required to forgive our brother (the tradition was to forgive someone 7 times) that we are to forgive people 70 times 7. our pastor just referenced this idea last sunday. it’s not about the math. it’s about continual forgiveness, even if it’s painful for us to do.

in the same way, i think that God’s grace, being perfect, is so far-reaching that he can forgive us for anything if we ask.

Thought I would mention that the French-Jewish philosopher-media-star Jacques Derrida has been doing alot of work on this question of forgiveness recently. He was shown in a recent movie (Derrida The Movie) in South Africa, talking to white students about forgiveness and how true forgiveness is very rare. In these times of pragmatism, we talk about forgiveness because it works, because it makes things run more efficiently. But true forgiveness is pure forgiveness, Derrida says, a forgivingness that expects nothing in return (i.e. stability, good fortune, resolution, a big smile or pat on the back etc.). I don’t know if this applies to the OT verse because I haven’t read it yet, but I thought I’d throw that little morsel in there for all you hounds.

As we are transformed by Christ, it’s easier to forgive people because we realize that Christ forgives us even though we don’t deserve it. (See Parable of Unmerciful Servant)

I don’t deserve God’s forgiveness, and it’s hard for me to understand that God doesn’t hold on to my sin (although there are consequences for the sin).

Being bitter is totally exhausting and consuming. It’s extremely hard to forgive someone for an injustice done to you, but there is incredible freedom to have from forgiveness.

Laurence and Kristin brought up interesting points. I think you can totally forgive someone but you also forgive them continually as old memories come up. That’s my attempt at thinking outside the Western thinking box.

Does it follow then that Christians should forgive Osama bin Laden for September 11?

Yes. I would love nothing more than to Osama to become a Christian and lead an evangelical Christian movement in Islamic countries.

However, he does have to pay legally for what he has done.

But even Osama has not outsinned Jesus’ forgiveness.

Has anyone read Numbers 15: 32-36 (the next four verses)?

King David legally deserved to be put to death because he committed adultery and murder. God had mercy on him and kept him as king. But there were consequences for his sin. His son Amnon raped his sister Tamar and Absalom killed Amnon in revenge and later tried to kill David. So David’s sins affected him and generations to come.

Side note here. Was Amnon or Tamar a child of Bathsheba? What’s the correlation between David’s son and his unruly children? Is this God punishing David for sinning after he begged forgiveness and atoned according to the law?
What I’m getting at is why do bad things happen to good people. Did my friend Jeff die because he or I did something bad? Was Columbia disintegrating an act of God punishing America’s unfaithfulness?
I understand why we no longer have to sacrifice a lamb or doves if we stop at McDonalds on Sunday, but where does “Punish the children for the sins of the father” and “Jesus washes me pure as snow” meet?