I recently watched 'Beautiful Kate', a well made Australian Film. I enjoyed some great acting by formidable actors, and an intriguing storyline.
Among the opening credits was a line 'The past is always present', and the film then showed how this is true as a fractured family try to deal with the past. No matter how they've tried to deal with the past previously, the past is still very much present for them. Despite their previous attempts to run away from or deny the past, it's only properly dealt with through confession and forgiveness.
As I work with and among people, this tag line keeps echoing around in my head. I see how for so many, the past is still very much present. As I'm listening to them and their pains and heartaches, their bitterness and their anger, I'm learning to seek what might have happened to them in their past. The reason is pastoral. I often find that some event in a person's past produced a reaction for safety or survival emotionally. This same reaction will be used over and over again every time they feel the same emotions of fear, loss, anger, or helplessness. Once a past event is identified, I've find one of the most powerful and helpful tools to break the chains of the past is confession and forgiveness.
As we soon celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter, I'm reminded of the most powerful event in human history, where Christ prayed for his heavenly Father to forgive us our sins, and then died to free us from the chains of our past crimes to give us a future filled with hope and peace. Yet this one-off event still has power for today. The past event of Jesus' life, death and resurrection is still very much present in the church today.
No matter how powerful the events in a person's life can be (which are still present for them), we need to keep going back to an even more powerful event (which is still present in the church). We run to the Cross of Christ, confess our sins (even out loud - it's amazing how much verbalising our sins can free us from our crippling bondage), and see the blood of Jesus wash our sins away. Through the power of forgiveness, we can make a new start and no longer have to have the past affect us so much.
Yes, the past is always present. The past events of our lives can still be present and affect us in so many ways, but the past victory of Jesus over sin, death and the devil is more powerful, and very much present.
God's blessings to you this Easter.
