But then I thought, no. So Judas the betrayer rests easy at the banquet table, reconciled to the Lord who already is reconciled to him. This tableau of Jesus' executioners enjoying a banquet with him in heaven makes me a bit uneasy. It doesn't seem right. Never mind that Jesus told God to forgive them.
Forgiveness seems irresponsible when it is applied so generously.
Another concern is that a terrible crime, once forgiven, seems in danger of having been condoned. I wanted us to think about the challenge of forgiveness this morning because Jesus, in John's gospel, tells his disciples that he's giving them the power to forgive or retain the sins of any. If the Christian Church declares that you are going to hell for what you are doing, then that's where you will go. If the Christian church declares that you are going to heaven despite what you've done, then you're going to heaven. When the Church made claims to being a universal church, when there was, for all purposes, just one great church in the world headed up by St. Peter's successor the Pope, there were some who so feared the church's power to send to hell, and so courted the church's power to pronounce forgiveness, that the Church had real power.