There is a passage in the Gospel of Mark where Peter says to Jesus, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” This sentence contains a Greek word which, in my opinion, is the most profound in the New Testament: ὰφίημι (af-ee’-ay-mee). It’s a compound word, combining the preposition “from” and one of the verbs for “to go.” Here it is in the Perfect tense and is translated “have left.” (In Greek the Perfect indicates a thing that is complete, something that has been done and will remain done.) In other passages the same word is used when Jesus asks John to baptize him, when he sends away the crowds after a sermon, and, most profoundly, every time he forgives someone’s sin.
This one Greek word which in the New Testament often means “to forgive” is also used to mean “to let go,” “to permit,” and “to send away.” When Classical Greek writers use it to mean forgive it’s almost always in conjunction with a legal question and is translated “acquit.” The opposite verdict is κατακρίνω (ka-ta-kri-vo) “judge against” or “condemn.” So forgiveness is letting go.
Maybe Peter was bragging a little in response to Jesus’ comments about how difficult it is for those who have earthly wealth to enter the Kingdom when he claimed to have “let go” of everything to follow Christ. James and John certainly had not “let go” of worldly ambitions because shortly after this they ask to sit on the right and left hand of Jesus when he “comes into glory” by overthrowing the Roman authorities. Peter later proved he hadn’t let go of everything himself. I am no less guilty of not letting go. Maybe you aren’t either.
This idea of forgiveness syncs nicely with an article my friend Stan sent me this morning from National Review about our current illiberal times. The gist of it is contained in this quote: “[C}lassical liberalism demands three key virtues. Humility, so that each of society’s competing factions might comprehend that it will not always hold power. Tolerance, so that the habitual reaction to a difference of opinion is the shrug rather than the bayonet. And forbearance, so that the immediate rush of victory can be subordinated to longer-term ambition. Little by little, we are losing all three and, as they go, forgetting the good practices that have built, sustained, and improved our remarkable society for generations.”
You may be confused by the term “classical liberalism.” It’s the political ideology that promotes civil liberties and economic self-determination under the rule of law. The ideas, first proposed by people like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Adam Smith, were liberal when kings still ruled by “divine right.” Today they are called “conservative” today by their proponents and “fascist” by their Progressive “liberal” detractors. This is only one of many ways in which Progressives have turned our language upside down and backwards to confuse understanding.
Under Progressive influence our culture seems to be losing the ability to forgive things which truly need forgiving while it forgives things which are truly wrong and divisive. Everybody has something to forgive and something for which to be forgiven. Everybody needs to let go of something.
Let go!
