“If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”
In Genesis 2, God breathed into Adam, and he rose up inflated and sustained by life.
In Ezekiel, God breathed into a valley of dry and dusty bones, and they rose up inflated and sustained by life.
In his book, Luke tells us that Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Father, I surrender my Spirit into your hands.” And he took his last breath and died.” (Luke 23:45-46.)
In Ancient Hebrew, the word for Spirit and Breath are the same: ruach. It means “air in motion.” They believed that the spirit of God and the breath you take are one and the same: life force, energy, essence, spirit, breath.
John tells us that when Jesus appeared to his disciples and friends after rising from the dead, he breathed into them (John 20).
Breath and spirit, life force and energy: new life happens when ruach happens. Air-in-motion filling dead things with life. From Adam to Ezekiel to Jesus to the Disciples to you and me: breath was/is life.
Breath is a miracle in motion.
“Learning the cycle of forgiveness might just be the greatest miracle we witness and experience in our lifetime.”
Powerful, two minute reads that have helped change the script in thousands of people's lives.
When Jesus breathed into his disciples – that’s what the text says he did – he could have spoken about anything: judgement, doctrine, creeds… He could have said things like: those guys from the temple last week will know what I was talking about (reference yesterday's post) now!
Nope.
Instead, he said this:
“Receive the Spirit [ruach, breath, life]. If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?” (John 20:22-23.)
Receive – receive breath, receive life. And forgive.
Resurrection is not so much death conquered as it is death forgiven.
Forgiveness is like the cycle of breath. We give it, we receive it, we wrestle it out, we continue.
Which is wonderful and horrific all at once because on the one hand, I want it. On the other, the fact that I need to breathe it in means that I need to breathe it out too is almost offensive.
Sure, I can forgive my barista for making a bad coffee, or my kid for getting toothpaste on the lounge (barely, mind you)…
But those who have hurt me? Deep wounds? To the point of death? To those hurting others in our world? The unseen and untold tragedies and abuses? The wars and damage and violence? The manipulation and greed? The murder of an innocent Rabbi on a Roman cross?
(“Father, forgive them” he said with his final breath.)
Learning the cycle of forgiveness might just be the greatest miracle we witness and experience in our lifetime.
It takes breathing it in and out, and in and out again. It takes practice. It IS a practice. Not something you do in an instant, but a way of life you learn and grow into. It’s a miracle of grace.
In his book, The Shack, William Paul Young wrote:
“Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, [The Divines] purposes are accomplished, and nothing will be the same again.”
Forgive? Receive forgiveness?
Just breathe.
Breath and spirit, life force and energy: new life happens when ruach happens. Air-in-motion filling dead things with life.
Written by Liz Milani
0 Comments