I just heard an amazing story on one of my favorite podcasts, "Here and Now" by Frederica Mathewes-Green on Ancient Faith Radio.
Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian Lutheran minister, was imprisoned for his faith, along with many other religious leaders. While there, he witnessed an Orthodox priest named Iscu, who was tortured to the point of death. Then the Communists had a quarrel and turned against the man who had tortured Iscu. This man ended up also being tortured to the point of death and was placed in the same cell as Iscu.
So it happened that the murderer and the murdered were in the same cell together, both near death. There, Pastor Wurmbrand witnessed an amazing thing. As the torturer cried out in agony, both of body and soul (for he could not believe that God could forgive him), the badly beaten priest called two other prisoners to bring him to the bed of the tortured man, and here he caressed and comforted him.
"I will never forget this gesture," Pastor Wurmbrand said. "I watched a murdered man caressing his murderer! That is love--he found a caress for him." He went on to tell his murderer: "If I who am a sinner can love you so much, imagine Christ, who is Love Incarnate, how much he loves you! You only need to turn to Him and repent."
And so the murdered man heard the confession of his murderer, and that night both men died. It was a Christmas Eve Pastor Wurmbrand said he would never forget. "It was a Christmas Eve during which Jesus was born in the heart of a Communist murderer."
You can read the entire story here. (The story I referred to is at the end)
You can listen to the podcast here.
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