Believing such a gospel can change us. Believing such a gospel could give us the courage to be more truthful about our fears and our failures because it insists that the kingdom of God actually blossoms and rises and searches among the fearful and the failed. Believing this about ourselves might then make room in our hearts for the failures of our neighbors. And if we were really to let this nonsense transform us to the extent it did Jesus himself, we might even wonder whether the archest of our enemies — our crucifiers, even — is where God’s kingdom is most likely to bloom into being next. Forgiveness is just how we manage to be present when it does.