What is it about being sentenced to die that brings the word "Jesus" to the lips of the condemned? For those of you who haven't read the news, Hussein called upon Iraqis, Arabs, and Kurds to forgive each other and put the killing machine to rest. He reminded the people of his homeland that Jesus and the prophet Muhammad both taught that we should forgive.Why did he include Jesus in his call? It might be worth remembering that former Iraqi foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, was a Christian (by the way, you won't find high ranking Christians in the Saudi cabinet). That's not to say that the Iraqi cabinet was somehow Christian friendly. The stories of the torture by the Hussein government are as pervasive as they are horrible.
Hussein, by all accounts, was a brutal dictator. And, yet, when it comes time to die, Hussein plays a small version of the "Jesus card." Which begs the question: Why didn't he forgive his enemies when he was in power?
Maybe it's because when we have power we rely on that power to accomplish our aims. Too often it is only when we have run out of power that we rely upon God. There is a lesson to be learned here. Now that Americans are helping run the Iraqi government we are finding that brutality, not forgiveness, is our most efficient weapon. If we asked the new Iraqi government to forgive the insurgent terrorist attacks on innocent people, then the new Iraqi government would quickly find itself pushed aside.
Power is heavy burden to bear. It's what makes God's willingness to come to earth in the flesh all the more amazing. All the power in the universe . . . given up in order to become a little baby in the arms of a young, amazed, mother.
If there is someone in your life you are having trouble forgiving, maybe its because you still have some power to do something else in that relationship, some way of punishing.
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