Who hurt you?

Who hurt you? Do you nurse the hurt? Or do you live according to Romans 12:17-21? God has given us modern-day examples of how to live His way.

Just ten years ago in January, 1999 an Australian missionary named Graham Staines and his family were serving Jesus in India. Staines had spent 34 years serving the people of India in the name of Jesus. He was the director of a Leprosy Mission.

Staines and his two sons, Phillip, who was 10, and Timothy, who was 6, were attending an annual gathering of believers to strengthen to teach. In the night he and his sons were sleeping in the family station wagon. They were trapped inside their vehicle by a mob of radical Hindus who were opposed to the spread of Christianity. There was no escape. The mob set the station wagon on fire with Staines and his sons inside. They were burned alive. The three charred bodies were recovered clinging to each other.

Staines left behind his widow, Gladys, and daughter, Esther. So, what would be her attitude toward the people who murdered her husband and two sons? Her response was in every paper in India to the glory of Christ. She said, just a few days after the martyrdom, “I have only one message for the people of India. I’m not bitter. Neither am I angry. But I have one great desire: that each citizen of this country should establish a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who gave His life for their sins… Let us burn hatred and spread the flame of Christ’s love.”

It might be tempting to dismiss this immediate response as the “spiritually correct” response. Maybe she was in so much shock and grief that she was unaware of what really was going on deep in her soul. So, perhaps she just said what she knew the Christian community wanted to hear. We wonder, “What would she say now, ten years later?”

Well, just a few months ago, Gladys Staines went back to the very place where her husband and sons lost their lives. She said, "During these ten years, there have been times of sadness. I feel sad that I do not have my husband to support me, to guard me. But these are just momentary emotions of sadness which also fill me with great hope, the hope of heaven and of being reunited with my husband and children in paradise and seeing the Father face to face. This guarantee fills me with consolation.

"I cannot express how I felt when I got the news of my husband and sons being burnt alive. I told my daughter Esther that though we had been
left alone, we would forgive and my daughter replied, 'Yes, we will'."

Gladys still says, "I forgive… because I have first received forgiveness from Jesus. I have encountered the presence of Jesus in my life and this is the spirit I share. When we forgive, there is no bitterness and we live our lives and continue the task entrusted to us with His grace and peace… All Christians who have known the intervention of Jesus in their lives will have this gift to forgive and to be the witnesses of His peace and presence.”

So, who hurt you? My guess is that you haven’t been hurt this badly. If she can acess the grace of God to forgive this way, so can you.

You say, “But I’ve already blown this!” You’re right. You need Jesus. He’s your pardon. He forgives us for failing to live this way. He died on the cross to pay for all our sin – including our bitterness and revenge-filled hearts.

You say, “But I don’t know how to do this!” You’re right. You need Jesus. He’s your pattern. We can look at His life and see how to live this way. No one was wronged worse than Jesus. No one got a raw deal as bad as His. No one was abused more. No one was rejected more. And no one was as innocent. So what did He do. He said, “Father forgive them.”

You say, “But I don’t have the ability to live like this!” You’re right. You need Jesus. He’s your power. We can abide in Christ and have hope to live this way by His power.