Fanatical ForgivenessIt was a small real story about how a criminal started a new loving life after being forgiven by his litigant for his heinous crime of murder. A frail black
woman and a white police officer named
van der Broek faced each other across a South African courtroom. Mr. van der Broek had been found guilt of murdering the woman’s son and her husband. He had come to her home a number of
years earlier, shot her son, and burned his
body while he and some other officers reveled in the act. Several years later, Mr. van der Broek returned and took her
husband as well. For two years, she heard nothing about his whereabouts. Then the man came back and led the woman to a place beside a river, where she saw her bound and beaten. Lying on a pile of wood. The last word she heard him say were, “Father, forgive them,” as the officers poured gasoline over his body and set him aflame.
Later, Mr. van der Broek was caught and accused of guilt of murdering the woman’s son and husband by the
judge in the court. On the day of his final verdict, it was the time when the judge was to give his final verdict of sentence. The judge asked the elderly woman, “what should be done to this man who brutally destroyed your family?”The woman said, “I want three things. First, I want to be taken to the place where my husband’s body was burned alive so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains an honourable burial. Secondly, I want Mr van der Broek to become my son because my husband and son were my only family. I would like Mr. van der Broek to come two times in a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour on him whatever love I still have remaining within me. Thirdly, she said, “I would like Mr. van der Broek to know that I offer him my inner forgiveness because jesus Christ died to forgive me.” Then she walked across the courtroom and embraced Mr. van der Broek. The police officer fainted in the courtroom, overwhelmed by the widow’s response. Then, quietly, friends, family, and neighbours- all victims of similar oppression and injustice-began to sing “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.”
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