One of the greatest barriers that we face in finding the strength to forgive others, or even to forgive ourselves, is the belief that they, or we, have not suffered enough. For those who have hurt us, we think of our own pain, how big and ugly and unbearable it is, and we see them, not wracked with guilt or laid low with remorse but going about their day as usual, laughing even, and we harden our hearts. Or, in the case of ourselves, we glimpse only dimly the full extent of the damage we have caused to others and yet are keenly aware that we do not have the time, talents, strength, or energy to make a full restitution for what we have done. Having compassion on someone who is so undeserving seems impossible. But there is a way. That way, of course, is with our Savior Jesus Christ. But I am not referring merely to pleading for the grace and tender mercies of our Savior and the Power of His Atonement to carry the heavy burden of forgiveness when we can not. We do need His grace and the power of the Atonement to forgive those that we cannot, but we can wrap ourselves in this grace and power much more effectively by shifting our perspective. For all of us who have truly sought to understand and acknowledge and appreciate the reality of Christ’s Atonement, we cannot look upon our Savior pierced and bleeding from every pore, garments dyed red from treading the grapes of wrath with none to help Him, and not feel compassion and pity for this Man of sorrows. As we think about the infinite suffering that He endured to save us from an eternity of endless suffering, we wish with all of our hearts that we could, in our own small way, lift or remove even the tiniest fraction of His burden to give Him some degree of relief. We can’t help but feel love and compassion and mercy and pity for the Sinless Man who alone deserved no punishment and yet nevertheless paid the price for every sin of all of God’s children. Before the Ultimate and Final Arbiter of Cosmic Justice, Christ took the place of each one of us and carried out the sentence and the punishment meant for us until the bitter ends of the law had been satisfied. We can and ought to allow Christ to stand in the stead of the accused as we hold court and exercise our own personal judgment. If we cannot face the one who has wronged us and frankly forgive them, then let us instead allow Jesus to stand in their place so that we may at least try to forgive Jesus on their behalf. If we do not feel that we deserve to be forgiven, then let us allow Jesus to stand in our place and try to forgive Jesus on our behalf. We may not feel compassion or pity or really anything at all besides anger, resentment and loathing for those of whom we are required to forgive. But it is much easier to look to our Savior and fill our hearts with His love and His grace. And unlike the fallible humans that we are required to forgive, Jesus Christ actually has the power to make things right in the end. Christ did not take the place of sinners so that only God Himself could forgive, but so that all of us could also choose to put the Savior in front of the sinners so that we may practice forgiving on Him until we grow more comfortable with forgiving those who have wronged us in their own right. I know that sometimes it seems impossible to forgive someone but it should always feel not only possible but downright easy to forgive our Savior and we can keep forgiving Him in the place of others until forgiveness becomes second nature.
