Forgiveness (aphiemi) — To Let Go

From Philip Ryken’s, When You Pray: Making the Lord’s Prayer Your Own:

“Forgiveness brings great joy, not only to the forgiven, but especially to the forgiver. The Greek term “forgiveness” (aphiemi) comes from a word that means “to let go.” Forgiveness is a release, a letting go of self-destructive feelings such as anger, bitterness, and revenge. Those attitudes poison intimacy with God and harmony with human beings …

Mission founder Richard Wurmbrand once met a man who had experienced the divine release that comes through forgiveness. Wurmbrand was in a Communist prison in Romania at the time, lying in a prison cell reserved for those who were dying. In the cot on his right was a pastor who had been beaten so badly that he was about to die. On his left was the very man who had beaten him, a Communist who was later betrayed and tortured by his comrades.

One night the Communist awakened in the middle of a nightmare and cried out, “Please, pastor, say a prayer for me. I have committed such crimes, I cannot die.” The pastor feebly sat up and called for another prisoner to help. Slowly, he stumbled past Wurmbrandt’s cot and sat at the bedside of his enemy.

As he watched, Wurmbrand saw the pastor begin to caress the hair of the man who had tortured him. Then he spoke these amazing words: “I have forgiven you with all of my heart and I love you. If I who am only a sinner can love and forgive you, more so can Jesus who is the Son of God and who is love incarnate. Return to Him, he longs for you much more than you long for Him. He wishes to forgive you much more than you wish to be forgiven. You just repent.” There, in the prison cell, the Communist began to confess all his murders and tortures. When he had finished, the two men prayed together, embraced, and then returned to their beds, where each died that very night.

The pastor had learned how to forgive. He had learned how to forgive everyone for everything, even those who had wounded him most. He had learned how to forgive … over and over again. He had learned all this from Jesus, who first forgave his own debts and then taught him to forgive his debtors.”