One time I went to the Walla Walla State Penitentiary to spend
the day with the inmates. It was around Christmas. I spent about
six hours there. During the afternoon, I was in maximum security,
talking about and teaching evangelism.
This one fellow asked about reaching the really hard-core crimi-
nals. I thought he was really interested in such evangelism and talked
to him about it. Then I spent time in minimum security, protective
custody and other places. In the evening I was back in maximum
security, and thought I’d talk on this subject of bitterness. I figured
there were probably some bitter people there.
This same fellow who asked about evangelism in the afternoon
asked me another question, “How can you get rid of bitterness
towards somebody who beat up your three-year-old son unmerci-
fully?” So I told him how, and then I said, “You know, when you get
rid of your bitterness you can help this person so that he won’t beat
up other little kids.”
He said, “No, this guy cannot be helped.”
I said, “Sure, he can.”
“No, no.”
“Why not?”
“He is not with us any more.”
This inmate had murdered him. He had murdered him because
of what he had done to his three-year-old son—that’s why he was in
prison. But even though he had killed the man, he was still bitter. In
other words, expressing it did not get rid of it. Nor did the death get
rid of it.
When somebody else says he is sorry, it does not get rid of our bit-
terness. The only thing that gets rid of bitterness is confession before
God because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. This
is the only solution.
You may say that the person you are bitter toward died many years
ago. You did not kill the person like the man in prison. Otherwise
there is no difference; the other person is dead and you are still bit-
ter
