Vengeance seems so
logical, but it doesn’t really work: It doesn’t advance human history or us.
The wonder of the resurrection stories in the Gospels is that Jesus has no
punitive attitude toward the authorities or his cowardly followers; and the followers
themselves never call for any kind of holy war against those who killed their
leader. Something new has clearly transpired in history. This is not the common
and expected story line. All Jesus does is breathe forgiveness (John 20:22).
It’s
interesting that Jesus identifies forgiveness with breathing, the one thing
that we have done constantly since we were born and will do until we die. He
says God’s forgiveness is like breathing. Forgiveness is not apparently
something God does, it is who God is.
Richard Rohr
