“Then Peter came to him and asked, ‘Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?’ ‘No!’ Jesus replied, ‘seventy times seven!’ ” (Matthew 18:21-22)
I’m not sure I agree with some Americans who argue that John Rocker pitches something far more destructive than a baseball. But I do tend to agree with a friend of mine who suggested that he might have let his tongue get ahead of his brain.
It was ironic that Rocker’s comments ignited civil rights and church leaders in Atlanta as they organized celebrations for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. While it’s certainly arguable whether Rocker really meant everything he said, there’s no question about his timing. It couldn’t have been much worse. You shouldn’t say those kinds of things anyway, but say them around the MLK Holiday and you’re just asking for trouble.
I’m not as concerned about what Rocker said as I am about what I hear others saying in response to him. For example, I recently saw an African-American pastor and other civil rights leaders praying in front of Turner Field, the home field of the Atlanta Braves. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Here was a man of God, supposedly committed to the principle of Christian love, asking the Father to rain down on John Rocker. I wish he’d remembered something Dr. King once said: “Hatred begets hatred.”
In spite of what some are saying, hope abounds. Former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young has stepped forward to help with Rocker with his newfound public relations nightmare. Young said one meeting with Rocker convinced him that Rocker did not believe what he said. Frankly, I think he realized what many of us see as the problem, a problem that couldn’t be described any better than what I recently read in Atlanta Journal Constitution: “Rocker is clearly suffering from good, old-fashioned, hayseed ignorance. And ignorance, like freedom of speech, is another of our longstanding traditions.”
Andrew Young is more than a polished diplomat who understands what can happen when a star-struck kid puts his foot in his mouth. He’s a protégé of Dr. King and he’s modeling for us how Dr. King would handle John Rocker if he were still around. Perhaps those who really want to honor Dr. King’s memory should watch while one of his favorite students shows us how forgiveness works.
Interestingly, Young hasn’t had a lot of things in life go his way lately. He’s battling for his life against prostate cancer, and he’s quick to admit that his faith in God has sustained him through some pretty difficult days. Hopefully Mr. Young realizes that’s God’s not through with him yet. Frankly, I think God’s using him to help John Rocker and the rest of us work through a pretty stupid mistake.
So you see God has placed John Rocker on center stage. He won’t soon forget the lesson he’s going to learn and I hope we don’t forget the lesson that God is teaching us through Andrew Young.
Jesus told Peter that forgiveness has no end to it. It reminds me of something the Apostle Paul once said, something that I think Andrew Young is trying to tell us: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me…And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Follow the way of love. (1 Corinthians 13: 11,13 and 14)
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