On this blessed day of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, I once again came across the fanedit of Jesus with “You’re On Your Own Kid”. A year ago on Easter Sunday, I crashed out over a fanedit and the human nature of Jesus Christ. I imagined his human side would be very scared of what was coming. Today, a year later, I think about the unconditional nature of his love and forgiveness.
I think about whether we are worth saving for or not. Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Peter, Jesus’s bff, denied him three times. And Jesus said:
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. - Luke 23:34
I’ve always struggled to interpret the true meaning of this verse. As a young child at Sunday school, I assumed Jesus was sassing the people who put him on the cross… like, they have no idea I’m the actual Son of God. With that misinterpretation in mind, I once posted this verse on my public Instagram story after someone wronged me in the most minor way. Very stupid, in hindsight, to misread the word of God as ammunition.
But reading it again now, I think Jesus genuinely meant forgiveness. Not the irony reading, not “they are completing the full circle of salvation.” He was expressing compassion to us sinners. Pleading with God to forgive the people crucifying him, because their actions came from ignorance rather than malice. Even when he is suffering the pain of death, he prays to God for mercy, for us. This is why, in the Lord’s Prayer, we say: “Forgive us for our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
I think about my own pain and suffering when someone wrongs me. Oftentimes, it’s not even about how that person treated me, or dissed me. It’s about my ego feeling hurt because I’ve let them do me like that. But I don’t think Jesus would ever act this way. Jesus knows that our betrayal stemmed from our egos, and that we have strayed away from him, but he will always open the door and let us in if we choose to come back to him.
Jesus doesn’t care if we are worth saving for. To live in the image of Jesus is to forgive. He forgave Peter by asking him if he loved him three times, one for each denial. Jesus wouldn’t deny us even if we denied him. He would never be nonchalant. He does not participate in idgaf wars.
To be a true Christian is to try to mirror our way of living as close to Jesus Christ. If love is supposed to image God, then making it conditional, transactional, strategic, or withheld as leverage, is a theological statement too. It reveals how far we’ve strayed from what the word ever meant. His love is not transactional.
Why should ours be?