One month ago today, three words were spoken that resonated across the world. “I forgive him.”
State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona was hosting the memorial service for Charlie Kirk. The venue has been used to host many large-scale events including the annual Fiesta Bowl, Super Bowl LVII in 2023, and the NCAA Men’s Final Four in 2024. The maximum seating capacity is 73,000. On Sunday, September 21st, 200,000 people arrived at the memorial service. The Desert Diamond Arena next door was also used for about 20,000 of the overflow crowd.
Special guests included President Trump, Vice President Vance, several high-ranking government officials and cabinet members, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson along with several Congressmen and Senators, and many others.
A five-hour service began that sometimes looked like an evangelistic church service and at other times like a right-wing conservative political rally. Occasionally, these two purposes merged.
Rob McCoy, Charlie’s pastor, declared that Charlie wanted the guest of honor to be pointed out. This “guest” was none other than Jesus Christ, who McCoy hailed as the “the King of glory,” “the Prince of Peace,” “the Savior of the world,” “the living God … of all mercy and grace,” and “the total embodiment of love, the total embodiment of truth.”1
McCoy told about when Charlie had accepted Jesus as His Savior. He told the audience about Christ and salvation that was available through faith, not of works. A Gospel invitation was given and many stood in the arena indicating that they had trusted Christ. Only God knows how many of those professions of faith were genuine, but my guess is that there was at least one that was real, and that makes it all worthwhile.
Erika Kirk, wife of Charlie Kirk, stood and spoke for nearly 30-minutes with grace, passion, and poise that only God could give after just a couple of days ago watching her husband murdered on a college campus and then having to go to the morgue to confirm the identity of his body.
Mrs. Kirk had many words of praise for her husband but she spent a lot of the time reflecting on the fact that his work was born out of his faith and love for the Lord. Then, referring to 22-year old Tyler Robinson, the man who killed her husband, Mrs. Kirk said with deep emotion and tears streaming, “That man…that young man. [pause] I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love, and always love — love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”
With tears in the eyes of many, the crowd rose to its feet with thunderous applause.
Today, let’s rise to our feet in honor of Jesus, the one who forgave us all our sins and redeemed our soul from the condemnation we rightly deserved. He is the One who prayed from Calvary’s cross, “…Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do…” (Luke 23:34) If we have trusted Jesus as our Savior, Ephesians 1:3, 7 gives these words of praise and gratitude to our Forgiver, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ… (7) In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”
And with such an example of what Jesus did for us and the spirit with which Erika Kirk spoke of forgiveness towards her husband’s assassin, may we carefully consider who it is we need to forgive and then, reach out to them with the love of Christ. TODAY!
“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32)
1https://thefederalist.com/2025/09/22/100-million-witness-the-power-of-the-gospel-forgiveness-at-charlie-kirk-memorial/
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