Could you forgive the people who ate your grandfather?
There is a question you likely have never asked yourself!
In a 2003 article in The Telegraph entitled “Fijians killed and ate a missionary in 1867. Yesterday their descendants apologised,” Nick Squires, writing from Nubutautau, Fiji, wrote:
Tearful Fijian warriors in grass skirts and armed with clubs yesterday begged forgiveness from the descendants of an English missionary their ancestors killed and ate more than a century ago.
In an elaborate ceremony villagers presented woven mats, a dozen highly-prized whale’s teeth and a slaughtered cow to 10 Australian relatives of the Rev Thomas Baker, who was murdered, cooked and consumed while trying to spread Christianity in Fiji’s rugged highlands in July 1867.
Seven Fijian converts who were helping the 35-year-old missionary penetrate the mountainous interior of Viti Levu island were also clubbed to death, their bodies cut up on flat rocks and roasted.
“Thomas Baker died in this place and we need to confess our sins,” said a local woman, Elenoa Naiyaunisiga, 59. “It is time for repentance and an apology.”
Legend has it that Mr Baker, a Methodist minister born in Playden, Sussex, was murdered after breaking a taboo by taking a comb from a chief’s hair.
But historians say the real reason was resistance to the spread of Christianity and complex tribal politics. Mr Baker became the only white man to be eaten in Fiji, a former British colony once known as the Cannibal Isles.
He and his men were ambushed as they left a village early one morning. According to the sole survivor, a Fijian guide, Mr Baker had sensed danger and told his companions: “Boys, we shall be killed today. Let us go now.”
During the six-hour ceremony in the village of Nubutautau, overlooked by jungle-clad ridges and outcrops of black volcanic rock, locals implored his descendants to forgive them for his murder and help them lift a curse which they believe has blighted their lives.
Wiping away tears, the chief of the village, Ratu Filimone Nawawabalavu, offered gifts and kissed the cheek of Les Lester, 56, Mr Baker’s great-great-grandson.[1]
Richard John Neuhaus noted concerning this forgiveness ceremony:
The ceremony of reconciliation included the slaughter of a cow and the gift of 100 sperm whale teeth to the Rev. Baker’s descendants. At the end of the ceremony, the village chief, Ratu Filimoni Nawawabalavu, embraced the British visitors. He is the descendant of the chief who cooked the missionary.[2]
How fascinating! There were at least two fundamental realities at play in Nubutautau on this day: (1) the human need for forgiveness and (2) the astonishing power of forgiveness.
In 1 John 1, John concludes his first chapter with some astonishing words. He writes:
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
In these three verses we find the biblical grounding for the great line from the creed we are considering today: “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
We have sin that needs forgiving.
Our text is powerful in its simplicity. Hear these words from 1 John 1 again.
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Here are three verses which comprise what is called an inclusio or bracketing. This is when you have three basic elements in a passage: (1) a beginning statement, (2) the middle portion to which the statements are pointing, and (3) the ending statement that is similar to the first, thereby creating brackets for the middle, or bookends. So look again at the inclusio of our text:
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Do you see how similar verses 8 and 10 are? These are the bookends, the brackets. They are repeating something very important, it is true, but their repetition is also saying to us: “Look at what is in the middle!” And what is in the middle? Forgiveness! If the middle part of the inclusio is forgiveness then the bookends are telling us why forgiveness is needed. And why is it needed? Because, as verses 8 and 10 plainly say, we are sinners.
So certain is our sinfulness in scripture that verses 8 and 10 say we “deceive ourselves” and we make Jesus “a liar” if we say we have no sin or that “we have not sinned.”
Let us be clear on this: the Bible does not have an optimistic view of human nature. It tells us quite plainly in seemingly countless ways that something is wrong with us. This is so pervasive in scripture that, yes, it is simply the case that we are calling the Lord a liar if we deny it!
Consider two passages. In Genesis 6, we find the basis for the great flood. Listen:
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
This is not hyperbole. The language is unequivocal: “wickedness of man,” “great in the earth,” “every intention of the thoughts of his heart,” “only evil continually.” What heartbreaking words:
- great
- every
- only
- continually
This is the nature and pervasiveness of human sin!
Jesus, in Matthew 7, puts it in stark bluntness:
11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Did you see that: “who are evil.” It is almost an aside. It is certainly presented as indisputable. We are, according to Jesus, evil.
We must come to terms again with the seriousness of our sin! Richard John Neuhaus once wrote:
A young lady of our acquaintance has been working to memorize the Apostles’ Creed in preparation for confirmation this spring. She’s nearly got it too, until the last part, which she supplies as: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the resurrection of sins, and life everlasting. Amen!”[3]
We chuckle…then we shiver. For our sins do indeed seem to be constantly resurrecting, no? They keep coming back! Sin has marked humanity in a deep and corrosive way, yet we keep running to our sins! Calvin Miller has pointed to an Irish apocrypha entitled the Creation of Adam that says:
Adam was created in the third hour, was without sin for seven hours, and was driven from paradise in the tenth hour.[4]
Take that for what it is worth, but the premise is indisputable: humanity rushed into its fallen state! It did not take us long. Sin is universal. Sin is recurring. Sin is pervasive. Think again of Genesis 6:
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Who can deny it? We have sin that needs forgiving, and it is pervasive in our lives! In Cormac McCarthys chilling novel, Blood Meridian, he writes of the main character, “the kid,” the following:
But the kid only spat into the darkness of the space between them. I know your kind, he said. What’s wrong with you is wrong all the way through you.[5]
That is a good description of human nature: what is wrong with us is wrong all the way through. Dr. Johnson agrees. He told James Boswell (who had asked for his opinion on sin):
With respect to original sin, the inquiry is not necessary, for whatever is the cause of human corruption, men are evidently and confessedly so corrupt, that all the laws of heaven and earth are insufficient to restrain them from crimes.[6]
Dr. Johnson is correct, though in our day this is not a popular way to talk. We are sinners. Do you recall how, in our consideration of “the communion of saints,” we looked at Bonhoeffer’s Sanctorum Communio? He entitled his great bookSanctorum Communio which, when translated, means “the communion of saints.” But in that very book Bonhoeffer made the point that before we can take our place in the sanctorum communio we need to see ourselves as part of another communion. He writes:
Sin is the sign of belonging to the old humanity, to the first Adam; consciousness of guilt reveals to individuals their connection with all sinners. When individuals recognize that they belong to Adam’s humanity, they join the peccatorum communio [community of sinners].
This is critically important:
- Until we accept Christ = peccatorum communio (the community of sinners)
- After we accept Christ = sanctorum communio (the communion of saints)
The great tragedy of not recognizing our inherent place in the communion of sinners is that doing so removes any great burden in our own hearts to join the communion of saints. In other words, if you do not see yourself as a sinner then you do not see yourself as a person in need of forgiveness.
Church, hear me: what makes verse 9 shine so brightly is the fact that verses 8 and 10 are so terribly dark and terrifying!
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
We have sinned! We are sinners! The Lord has not lied about this. We have sin that needs forgiving!
Jesus has forgiveness He delights in giving.
But that middle verse…my goodness what a verse!
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we “confess” our sins. Confess. What does this mean
Homologeō and homologia are compounds of homos, the same, similar, and legō, say. Hence homologeōmeans say the same thing, i.e., agree in one’s statements; homologia means agreement, consent.[7]
“If we confess our sins” means then, “If we say the same thing about our sins that God says about them…If we agree with God about our sin…”
This is true confession. Confession with no qualifications. Confession without being the Artful Dodger. Owning completely and unflinchingly our sin: this is confession. To confess is to step back, look at our sinfulness in all of its ugliness, make no excuses, point to it, and then say about it exactly what God says about it: that is ugly, that is killing me, that stands between me and God! This is confession.
And what does the Word of God say? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We confess.
He forgives.
And He is “faithful” and “just” to forgive.
He is faithful to do it. You need not fear that He will not, if you confess your sin. He will hear and He will forgive the truly penitent heart!
But what of just. How is God faithful and just to forgive?
In Ephesians 1, Paul reveals to us the basis of our forgiveness.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace
We are forgiven, then, by the grace of God operating through the blood of His Son, Jesus, on the cross! The riches of God’s grace are demonstrated in the shedding of Christ’s blood.
But I ask you, how is this justice? It was my sin, no? These were my trespasses! But, on the cross, He took them upon Himself! He paid for my sin! How is that just, that Jesus would pay a debt that was not his and that we would be forgiven because of this payment.
The grace of God is demonstrated in the sacrifice of Jesus.
The justice of God is demonstrated in the fact that sacrifice was necessary and was made by Jesus.
Jesus meets the demands of divine justice by substituting Himself in our place!
Grace and justice meet on the cross of Christ, and we are the beneficiaries.
John can say that God is “faithful to forgive” because the Son of God has paid the price and the Father will honor the price that was paid.
John can say that God is “just to forgive” because the Son canceled the debt by His own death and so it is just that the Father sees the debt as canceled…that is, sees our sins as forgiven in and by the death of the Son!
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
See here the gospel! We bring our sin. He brings His forgiveness. And we are washed white as snow!
I believe in the forgiveness of sins!
We desperately need to recover this core of our faith: sin, forgiveness, the cross, the grace of God. In 1772, William Cowper got to the very heart of these realities:
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in His day;
And there have I, though vile as he,
Washed all my sins away:
Washed all my sins away,
Washed all my sins away;
And there have I, though vile as he,
Washed all my sins away.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its pow’r,
Till all the ransomed church of God
Are safe, to sin no more:
Are safe, to sin no more,
Are safe, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God
Are safe, to sin no more.
E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die:
And shall be till I die,
And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
When this poor, lisping, stamm’ring tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save:
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save;
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save.
And the church says, “Amen!”
[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/fiji/1446723/Fijians-killed-and-ate-a-missionary-in-1867.-Yesterday-their-descendants-apologised.html?awc=15609_1550594005_93b4fc 7a5317 cbb1eb48b803bc209769
[2] RJN, “While We’re At It,” First Things. February 2004.
[3] Neuhaus, Richard John. “While We’re At It.” First Things. (April 2011), p.67.
[4] Miller, Calvin. The Path of Celtic Prayer: An Ancient Way to Everyday Joy (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Books, 2007), p.141.
[5] McCarthy, Cormac (2010-08-11). Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West (Vintage International) (p. 60). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
[6] Berlinski, David. The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions (p. 33). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.
[7] Vebrugge, Verlyn D., ed. Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Abridged Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), p.410.