Excerpt from Stubborn Perseverance by James Nyman
Discovery Group (Coaching the POP/Natural leader to facilitate).
Bringing Forgiveness to the Unforgivable
Abdullah and Umar learn no
sin is too great for God to forgive. Finding places to meet hadn’t been easy. Dressed like a hard-core
radical, Abdullah was not the kind of person with whom one wanted to be seen.
As a traveling honey salesman, Nasrudin knew many secluded places, so they had
varied the times, days, and places where they met.
Arriving
at the appointed place at the agreed upon time, Abdullah and Nasrudin greeted
each other warmly. “Are you ready to discuss the next Isa story?”
After
discussing the story, Nasrudin said, “This story teaches three ways to respond
to Isa: deny Him like the religious leaders, believe in Him but fear to confess
Him to others like the parents, or believe in Isa and confess Him like the man
born blind.
“Abdullah,
which person do you want to be like?”
“Do you
remember the day you and Faisal came to my house and cast the demon out of my
son, Ali?”
“How
could I forget?” Nasrudin laughed. “I was terrified of you, yet I knew God
wanted me to come to your house.”
“I
probably wouldn’t have been open to Isa in any other way, but I saw His power
with my own eyes. I had to know who Isa is.”
Suddenly Abdullah shifted nervously in his seat and began
bouncing his knee. He scratched the back of his neck, and looked blankly off
into the distance. His expression intensified, and his eyes narrowed.
“Do you
remember the day we sat in the grass hut, and you told me Isa forgave all my
sins?”
“I
remember it well. I also remember you said there was something in your past you
needed to tell me.”
“My parents wanted me to grow up to be a good Muslim, so
they sent me to a Muslim boarding school. There I studied more diligently than
all my classmates. When my teachers saw my devotion to God, they started giving
me special instruction. I was taught it is the duty of every Muslim to fight
for God to establish Sharia law. If an unbeliever wouldn’t submit to God’s
will, we were obliged to kill him.
“When I
finished high school I was sent to Afghanistan for further training. My friend,
Saleh, went too. There we studied verses about jihad in the Qur’an. Our
teachers taught us Muhammad (pbuh) was a great military leader. When he
conquered a people, he gave them three choices: convert to Islam, pay a special
protection tax, or be killed. I wanted to follow the example of the Prophet,
and became convinced violent jihad was the only way to establish Sharia. I
learned how to make bombs, too.
“I
returned to Indonesia and trained with jihadist groups. We were armed with guns
and machetes, and went to the Maluku islands to kill Christians there. We would
approach a village in the middle of the night, charge into the village, and go
house to house killing people.
“One
time, Saleh found the baby of a Christian, but he couldn’t bring himself to
kill it. So I took the baby and put it in a bag and began beating it against
the wall. The baby screamed and blood began to run out of the bag, but I kept
hitting it against the wall. When the crying stopped I threw the bag onto a
rubbish heap.
“We also raped girls, cut babies from pregnant women,
crucified children, forced circumcision on both sexes, played soccer with
severed heads, and took women captive and forced them to marry Muslim men.[1]
“In one village, all the Christians fled to a
church building. We surrounded it and threw in Molotov cocktails. The building
caught fire and burned to the ground, killing 170 Christians.
“We even kidnapped Christian children and sent them off
to Islamic boarding schools to train them as jihadists like ourselves.[2]
“The
day you came to my house, Saleh and I were teaching others how to make a bomb.”
Abdullah bowed his head, his face covered with deep remorse, guilt and shame.
Quietly he said, “Isa could never forgive me for all I have done.”
Nasrudin
glanced up at the overcast sky as the light rain became a downpour. Nasrudin
shivered in the brisk breeze. He felt nauseated by all the atrocities Abdullah
had committed in the name of Islam. He had read about these brutal murders, and
now he was sitting with a murderer who was asking for forgiveness. A person like
this deserves the worst form of torture, not mercy. Waves of anger, shock, revulsion, disdain, and
horror cascaded over Nasrudin as his mind raced with competing thoughts. What do I say?
Do I run? Do I call the police?
Then he
thought of his own life. I haven’t killed anyone, but I am still a
sinner in need of forgiveness. I too have dishonored God by breaking his law.[3] Isa forgave me, didn’t He? God’s love and
forgiveness know no bounds. No sin is too great to be forgiven. Isa died for
everyone’s sins. Even Paul participated in putting believers to death.
As if
on cue, the rain stopped and a ray of light pierced through the dark clouds.
“Isa
forgave the woman caught in adultery, and Isa forgave those who crucified Him,
so I’m sure Isa forgives even you. Would you like to pray right now and ask God
to forgive and cleanse you forever?”
“Yes, I
would.”
* * *
Abdullah waited for Umar to arrive.
They were an unlikely pair. One a former radical Muslim
who disdained all things irreligious, the other a former alcoholic who despised
all things religious; one the epitome of legalism, the other the embodiment of
debauchery. Yet they were drawn together by their thirst for forgiveness, and
then bonded together in their quest for new life.
Starting
as polar opposites, they were each attracted to the person of Al Masih, hearing
the words of Isa as being spoken directly to them: “Neither do I condemn you;
go and sin no more.” [4]
Together
they basked in freedom from shame and guilt like men just released from prison,
passionately seeking Isa and experiencing His transforming power to change them
from the inside out.
After discussing the next Isa story, Abdullah said, “As
you can see in this story, there are three responses to Isa, that of the
religious leaders, the parents, or the man born blind.
“Umar,
which person do you want to be like?”
“I was
stone drunk the day you found me on that road. I didn’t always drink, but then
I went from one failure to another. I got drunk to forget my problems, but each
time I awoke my problems were still with me. I used to rationalize ‘Everyone
has weaknesses. My weakness is alcohol; those who judge me, their weakness is
being judgmental.’”
“I
wanted to change but I was powerless to give up alcohol. I felt deep shame
every time I took money and used it to drink, but I couldn’t stop. I never did
anything right. The fear of failure and being rejected always haunted me.
“Others
ridiculed me. I was a big shame to my parents and friends. Worst of all, I let
my wife and kids down. I felt like a worthless stray dog.
“What gave me hope was the story Isa told about the son who
squandered his inheritance on wild parties until all his money was spent. Then
he had nothing to eat except what was given to pigs. As Muslims, we can’t eat
pork, so to eat the food pigs eat is the lowest humiliation imaginable.
Nevertheless, the son gathered his courage, returned home, and asked his father
for a job. He said to him, ‘I am no longer worthy to be your son, treat me as
one of your hired servants.”
“But
what did this father do? He saw his son coming from a long distance and ran to
meet him. He embraced his son, and prepared a feast for him.[5] The father covered his shame and restored his
honor.
“If God
is like that, and forgives us when we repent and turn to Him, if He gives us
power to break bad habits and be transformed, if He heals families that seem
beyond hope, if He removes our shame and gives us honor, and if He gives us
purpose and direction in life, then I want to follow Isa.
“I want
to be like the man born blind.”
[2] This reflects actual events which took place in
1999–2000. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laskar_Jihad and ea.org.au/ea-family/religious-liberty/maluku--eastern-indonesia--anarchy--jihad---cleansing-
