We made a mistake, my daughter and I. Actually, I’ll take the lion’s share of the blame and the responsibility. My daughter thought it was her fault and felt absolutely horrible, despite my telling her, “Sweetie, it was my fault, not yours.”
“But, but…” she began, going on to tell me what awful thing she felt she’d done.
“I made the choice. I could’ve chosen differently. That’s on me. I absolve you of any wrongdoing.”
“What does ‘absolve’ mean?” she asked me.
She should’ve known what my response would be. “Dictionary.” She didn’t want to look it up, so I switched tacts. “What do you think it means?”
“I don’t know. To take a burden from someone?”
That stopped me in my tracks. No, absolving doesn’t mean to take a burden from someone, but . . . Absolving means to set free or acquit someone. Following the etymology of the word further, it means to loosen or untie. Jesus absolves us of our sins. Through the cross, Jesus set us free – acquitted us – from our sins. Jesus took the burden of sin from us, so to a degree, my daughter understood the word perfectly.
While it doesn’t work etymologically, this idea of absolution taking away the burden of our sins speaks to me. We sin, and the guilt of that weighs us down. Sometimes, though, we put “sin” on ourselves that isn’t our burden to bear. We feel like we’ve sinned when we’ve just been human, when we have felt sad, anxious, or worried. These aren’t sins, though.
So now I absolve you. If you feel like you have sinned because you are feeling depressed, fearful, or anxious in these trying times, I’m here to tell you that God doesn’t agree with your assessment. Sure, you have some sins going on, but your emotions aren’t part of them. How about giving that particular burden to Jesus and accepting the grace to be human?
“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NIV).
