Nearly 100,000 people attended the Charlie Kirk memorial service on Sunday, September 21 (73,000 in the stadium, 20,000 in overflow areas), and millions watched it live. It was a four-hour memorial service, well done, with a host of speakers. I was impressed by the many business leaders, Turning Point USA staff, and governmental leaders that spoke, all lifting up Jesus Christ in their own way.
A couple of takeaways from my perspective: each speaker challenged everyone to be like Charlie Kirk. That reminded me of the Apostle Paul who told the Corinthian Christians to follow him as he followed Christ [1 Corinthians 11:1]. Paul was suggesting to follow him only to the degree that he himself followed Christ.
Another point continually emphasized was Charlie’s quest for the truth. That reminded me of Pilate’s conversation with Jesus in John 18:38 when Jesus told Pilate that He came to testify to the truth. And Pilate responded with: “What is truth?”
To me, the one point, the one statement that stood out over all the rest was Erika Kirk’s forgiveness. What does it take to offer forgiveness to someone who has committed such a heinous offense? To forgive someone who has maliciously robbed another of their life at such an early age, leaving a young wife and two young children? The subject of forgiveness is the focus of this article.
Looking at our culture through a magnifying glass, it would seem that forgiveness, like the dial telephone and the manual typewriter, has gone by the wayside and been eliminated from our standard of living, relegated to the past.
It seems that we can no longer agree to disagree and part friends. If we disagree, we are now enemies or at least on opposite sides of the fence. If my idea seems crazy, then I’m considered crazy rather than just a person with a crazy idea.
In the most basic sense, unforgiveness can be considered a form of divisiveness that results in polarization. And as we have witnessed time and again, the deeper the polarization, the more prone to violence. The more we rehearse the offense, the more we reinforce it. And the more we reinforce it, the stronger it becomes.
At that point, it becomes a stronghold. And biblically speaking, a stronghold has one purpose: to raise itself up against the knowledge of God [2 Corinthians 10:5]. “I’m not going to forgive! I can’t forgive! They’re wrong! They have to pay for what they did to me!”
Enter now the cross – and the higher standard that a Christian is called to live by. Jesus Christ, who gave up His right in heaven and came to earth so that we might have the right to be called a child of God [John 1:12], while hanging on that cross as payment for sins He didn’t commit, asked forgiveness for those whose sins He took on Himself [Luke 23:34].
What kind of strength does it take to ask forgiveness? The strength of the Christ who lives in us [Galatians 2:20]. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” [Philippians 4:13].
How important is forgiveness? Jesus answered this way: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” [Matthew 6:14-15].
A four-hour memorial service summarized in three words: “I forgive you.” If we are to take anything away from all of this, maybe it’s the need to reinsert forgiveness into our standard of living.
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