Embracing forgiveness

Stuart Crosson examines what forgiveness means.

A friend  has been researching New Zealand history and how the early Christians who came here, interacted with Maori in the early part of the 19th century.

Through journals and oral history of Pakeha and Maori, he has discovered a fascinating and profound change that took place.

Much of the European interaction left Maori in a weaker place in terms of stewarding their resources, especially with regard to land oversight (or ownership).

But some aspects of Maori culture were deeply affected by the Christian message of forgiveness.

From 1830 up to the outbreak of the New Zealand land wars in the 1850s, Maori embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ with remarkable enthusiasm, evidenced by the numbers who were in church on any given Sunday at that time.

Estimates of 90% of the total Maori population professing Christianity by 1850 are considered accurate.

The story of transformation is wonderfully captured in the account of Tarore, the 12-year-old girl from the Waikato tribe of Ngati Haua.

Tarore was attending a mission school and had been given a copy of the gospel of Luke.

Tragically, she was murdered by a raiding party from Rotorua.

What followed is hard to explain apart from the divine hand of God.

Her Father, Ngakuku, (himself a Christian convert), at the funeral, renounced the impulse to seek revenge (utu) as was customary, and at the graveside said the following:

''There lies my child, she has been murdered as a payment for your bad conduct, but do not you rise to seek a payment for her, God will do that. Let this be the finishing of the war with Rotorua; now let peace be made.''

The man who murdered Tarore, took the gospel of Luke with him but he hadn't reckoned on its power to transform a life of violence into the way of peace.

At some point he was baptised into the Christian faith and a beautiful account of him worshipping and praying together with Ngakuku is recorded in missionary journals.

How do we explain forgiveness apart from the grace of God?

The flow-on impact of this incident was to have a direct impact on South Island Maori.

The son of Te Rauparaha, the great warrior chief of Otaki, came into contact with this Christian gospel and converted to Christianity.

He and a cousin were responsible for taking the gospel to the South Island where it was embraced.

As is recorded: ''The missionaries brought Christianity to this country, but it was our people who gave it to each other''.

Recently, the French secret agent responsible for blowing up the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in 1985, apologised for his part in the death of one of the crew, Fernando Pereira.

The skipper of the boat responded to this apology by saying, ''Justice has absolutely not been done. No-one has ever paid the price for the death of Fernando''.

This response is one that we can easily identify with.

The desire to see justice be done is inherent in all of us but ...

 

One of the deep laws of human wellbeing is the ability to forgive.

To forgive is not to forgo justice, but rather it is the conscious decision to release another from our personal judgement.

For the follower of Jesus this decision is born out of the biblical witness that affirms God will one day hold all people to account for their actions.

Christians affirm God has also ordained a means for all to be forgiven through the death of his son and they have personally experienced the freedom this God-given pardon is to their lives.

In turn they seek to forgive others but it is risky and costly.

God's grace is offered freely but always involves a price.

On a micro level, the tragic consequences of holding on to our grievances is played out daily, as marriages and relationships break up.

On a global stage, the stakes get much higher as wars escalate with deadly consequences.

Imagine if you were to embrace this deep law of forgiveness.

What difference would it make to those whom you love?

What difference would it make to those whom you find difficult to love?

What difference would it make to you?

• The Venerable Stuart Crosson is the Archdeacon of Dunedin, and the Vicar of St Matthew's.

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