Releasing Hurt
Lives life in full recognition of the forgiveness won on the cross.
Head
Once we are able to help out children to feel and reflect upon the feeling of what it is like to both hold onto and to release the hurt and pain that can occur in their lives, it is good to focus on how they understand what it is that is taking place in the release of their hurt. As we already discussed, when we understand holding on to our hurt as something similar to holding on to too much luggage that we just cannot continue to carry, we can then learn what it feels like to finally let go. To place those burdens down and more once more, free. Free from the bonds that hold us enslaved to sin.
In John 8 starting at verse 31, Jesus discusses what it means to truly be free. Jesus begins by suggesting that “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) So freedom from sin begins with God’s Word. Earlier in John’s Gospel, we receive what is often called the Gospel in a nutshell in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Further in Romans, Paul connects us to Christ’s crucifixion to our own lives. “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Romans 6:6)
However, back in John 8, those who heard Jesus’ proclamation that abiding in His Word, that is truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ would set us free, they when another direction. Rather than trust in this proclamation, they looked back on their heritage. In John 8:33 they responded “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
When we hold onto our sin, we too are looking back rather than trusting in the truth of the Word of God. While the Jews were looking back trusting in their identity in Abraham to save them, we can fall prey to the idea that our identity as sinners is something that we either are unable to find release from or that we must in some way release ourselves. Paul continues in Romans 6, coming to verse 23 where he notes that “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The hard part is that we struggle to understand the free part.
When we release the hurt done to us, we release our bondage to sin and with it the wages of sin, our death. When we are able to release our hurt and receive Christ’s forgiveness we are able to enjoy the new life that we have in Christ. Further, we are able to share that new life, sharing the release from the hurt that comes with forgiveness.
Matthew shares a parable that Jesus used to help us understand how we can pass forward the joy and new life of forgiveness that the release of our hurt. Jesus tells the parable in Matthew 18 about a king who was settling accounts with his servants. One of those servants owed 10,000 talents and was unable to repay what he owed. Rather than imprison his servant, the king had mercy and forgave the man’s debt.
However, upon being released from his own debt this same servant went right out and confronted another servant who owed him a far smaller amount. Unlike the king, the servant did not show similar mercy and sent his fellow servant to prison for being unable to repay him. When the king heard how the servant was unwilling to do for others what was done for him, he was angered. Calling the servant back before him, he chewed him out, sending him to prison as he had mercifully not done before.
When we are unable to allow ourselves to be released from the bondage that we have to sin when it is freely offered through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, in our own way we fail to pay forward the forgiveness that is ours by sharing that forgiveness with others.
When we help our children understand that by receiving forgiveness from God we are not only able to live the life God calls us to, but we are able to be a part of God’s plan to proclaim His forgiveness declaring it in the lives of those around us. Those muscles that once burned holding onto those bags are now able to recover and are strengthened in Christ’s love to share the freedom from hurt and pain with others.
