COGWA Members App
Feast App
ROKU AppTo Care for the Fate of Such a Man: A Story of Forgiveness
Written by Karen Meeker
Several years ago, the media was filled with reports of the murder of Jessie Davis and her unborn child, and the eventual conviction of their murderer, Bobby Cutts Jr. Initially I was caught up in the daily drama surrounding this case. It was only later that I realized that what I had witnessed would have implications for me as I prepared to commemorate Christ’s sacrifice that year. I find it still does, even today.
It was during one of those pauses between projects when I flipped on the television to do a little channel surfing. I was just in time to see a scrolling ticker announcing “Late Breaking News,” and the scene switching to a courtroom. A jury had found the defendant guilty of murdering his girlfriend in a high-profile case, one that had obsessed the media for several weeks. Now he awaited his fate.
The presiding judge meticulously explained the rules for the procedure at hand—the victim impact statements. Friends and relatives had one last chance to tell the murderer, face-to-face, how his heinous deeds had damaged their lives and the life of his own little 2-year-old son. The judge’s sentence would follow.
Victims’ impact
I watched, transfixed, as first a friend and then a sister addressed the killer who had robbed them so violently of not only their loved one, Jessie Davis, but also her unborn child. They could find no solace for their outrage and pain as he stood there before them.
Jessie’s father followed, addressing the judge with a voice steeled with anger. Refusing to even acknowledge the perpetrator’s presence, he demanded that no mercy be shown.
Finally, her mother, Patricia Porter, walked slowly to the podium. She stood there quietly for a few moments; and then, turning to the now-convicted murderer, Bobby Cutts Jr., she poured out her sorrow. She told him about the mornings when she was too grief-stricken to even get out of bed and how she had to cover her daughter Jessie’s picture because looking at it caused so much anguish.
An incredible statement
Then she made an incredible statement: “I serve an amazing God, Bobby. A God that forgives and heals and restores people. And all I know today is that I do forgive you, and I know it is only through Him that I am able to do that.”
As she pleaded with him to take responsibility for his awful deed and to change, her words pierced a stony part in my own heart, softening it in the process.
In that hushed courtroom, she concluded with an unexpected request of the judge:
“I may not have a family to go home to after this, but I pray that you make a way for him to get out of there [prison] and begin a new life, and to be able to hold his son.”
What an incredible, indelible example!
Probing my own heart
The apostle Paul told us to examine ourselves before taking the symbols of Christ’s sacrifice at the New Testament Passover service (1 Corinthians 11:23-28). With Passover only weeks away, it is my time for reflection and probing my own heart. I find myself pondering this scene once again, still touched by the words of Patricia Porter who found the strength to forgive and to care for the fate of such a man.
But more profoundly, I’m again convicted by the magnitude of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And that in spite of His extreme agony and imminent death, He uttered one last selfless request that would open the door for my own repentance, salvation and exoneration from a sure penalty of death: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Karen Meeker and her husband, George, attend the St. Louis, Missouri, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.
For more about forgiveness and preparing for the New Testament Passover, see:
