The hug that went viral: 4 ways Brandt Jean demonstrated Christlike forgiveness

Who would think that a hug would go viral? This one did. And for good reason.

On October 1 Amber Guyger was convicted of killing Botham Jean as he sat in his apartment watching a football game. At the time of the shooting, Guyger was an off-duty Dallas police office, and she claimed that she did not know she was in the wrong apartment when she walked into Botham’s home and shot him. Convicted of murder, October 2 she was sentenced to ten years in prison.

At her sentencing, Jean’s brother, Brandt Jean, used his victim-impact statement to tell the court that despite what Guyger took from his family, if she is truly sorry for what she did, then he forgave her and wanted the best for her. He told Guyger that his main desire wasn’t for her to go to jail but for her to “give your life to Christ.” Then, in a moment that mesmerized a watching world, he asked, “I don’t know if this is possible, but can I give her a hug, please?” The judge consented, and the two met in the middle of the room, in front of the judge’s bench, and as the two shared a tight embrace, the courtroom was mostly quiet. Except for the sounds of sobbing.

To understand what Brandt did needs the context of his faith. Brandt Jean is an evangelical Christian, and in a world sorely in need of evidence of the forgiveness of Christ, he offered it—with radical clarity. If we miss that, we diminish his act of forgiveness and fail to see an uncomfortable, yet unforgettable, example of the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

How so? I see four ways that Brandt Jean’s act of forgiveness was Christlike:

1. He initiated it. He spoke with honesty and seized the chance to offer forgiveness. But it was not just words. He took action. Because someone has to go first. Perhaps the most difficult thing for anyone to do is to initiate forgiveness. But that’s what Jesus did, and that’s what God calls Christians to do (Romans 5:8).
2. He did not deny her guilt. Biblical forgiveness also acknowledges justice and even expects repentance. If there were no potential for punishment, God’s forgiveness would be meaningless. Even Christians have forgotten that forgiveness is an admission of guilt. You cannot forgive someone of something they did not do. That’s why forgiveness is an expression of love, and that’s why forgiveness liberates us (Luke 6:37, Rom. 3:23).
3. He crossed barriers to do it. Race neither prevented his forgiveness, nor motivated it, but it gave the opportunity. Jesus never sees race when He applies forgiveness. The Christian is never more Christlike than when they forgive someone that the world says does not deserve forgiveness (John 4:1-26; Luke 23:34).
4. He was selfless. He had nothing to gain and even earned detractors and criticism. He had every reason to sit tight and not say a word. But he didn’t. He acted. And he was willing to sacrifice a bit of self-interest to provide forgiveness (John 3:16). Because that is what Christians do when their first concern is to be obedient to Christ.

So there’s the list. But then….don’t miss this.

Before he acted, before he stepped out of the witness stand and embraced the accused, Brandt Jean turned to the judge and asked, “Can I give her a hug?”

And I think then also he mimicked Christ. I think that he illustrated, in a question that was simple and profound, spontaneous but perfect, the partnership between the Father and the Son, and that compassion that motivated the cross in the first place. Love that doesn’t leave us alone in our guilt. Love that comes to us where we are. Love that agrees to both judgement and forgiveness (Phil. 2:5-11). God’s love toward the guilty, the sinner, the undeserving.

Perhaps the only truly sad part of this story is that we were surprised by the hug. We shouldn’t be. For a Christian, a follower of Christ, what Brandt did was not radical and it was not shocking. It was standard operating procedure.

Or at least, it should be.