The Power to Change the Past
Matthew 18:21-35
Sermon
by David E. Leininger

You are no doubt familiar with the name Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi hunter. Wiesenthal was a prisoner in a concentration camp in Poland. One day he was assigned to clean out rubbish from a barn the Germans had improvised into a hospital for wounded soldiers. Toward evening a nurse took Wiesenthal by the hand and led him to a young SS trooper, his face bandaged with filthy rags, eyes tucked behind the gauze. He was perhaps 21 years old. He grabbed Wiesenthal's hand and held on for dear life. He said that he had to talk to a Jew; he could not die before he had confessed the sins he had committed against helpless Jews, and he had to be forgiven by a Jew before he died. So he told Wiesenthal the horrible tale of how his battalion had gunned down Jews, parents and children who were trying…

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