He remembers, however, how essential forgiveness is to all of creation. And he remembers who, above all and in all and through all, does forgive. Spinal column anchored fast, his limbs secure against the wood, he marshals the last bit of incarnated flesh that he can move. In breath traveling vocal cord and lung, he prays in the imperative mood, flings the force of forgiveness across heaven and earth. They do not know what they do.
Forgiveness is a force, an energy.
As energy forgiveness has power, is power. In New Testament language, the Greek word dynamic carries all these shades of meaning, and our scriptural authors all know this the Apostle, Luke, John, the writer of Ephesians, to name only a few. The force of God's power to forgive echoes in their words, In their stories and letters, the worst of human ways are told, confessed, bespoken. As discipleship role models, we get Peter and Judas, one who is forgivable in the church's resurrection-life and one who is not. Even in Mark's spare account, the energy and force of God's forgiveness whistles in the empty tomb's wind.