Letting Go of the Trap: Forgiveness, Freedom, and America’s Founding
Dr. Perry Greene connects Jesus’ teaching on offenses and forgiveness with America’s move toward independence. This message explains how resentment can become a trap, why forgiveness requires release, and how the founders sought peace before they finally declared independence.
Dr. Perry Greene opens with a familiar illustration about monkeys being trapped by a banana in a jar. The monkey can place an open hand through the mouth of the jar, but once it grabs the banana and makes a fist, it cannot pull its hand back out. The trap works because the animal will not release what it wants.
The image is simple, but Dr. Greene uses it to point to a deeper spiritual problem. People are often trapped by the very things they refuse to let go. The issue is not merely that temptation exists. It is that temptation usually appeals to something already attractive to the person being tempted.
He connects that illustration to Luke 17:1, where Jesus says that temptations to sin, stumbling blocks, or offenses are sure to come, but warns the person through whom they come. Dr. Greene explains that the word behind this idea carries the meaning of a trap stick. It was the trigger in a trap, often a wooden piece where bait was placed. When the animal took the bait, the trap was sprung.
That definition gives the teaching a sharper edge. A stumbling block is not only something unpleasant that happens. It can be the baited trigger that catches a person at the point of desire, weakness, anger, pride, or hurt. Dr. Greene emphasizes that people are tempted by what appeals to them. The monkey wants the banana. The person wants to keep the anger, defend the pride, control the outcome, or hold on to the habit.
In that sense, the trap is not always obvious from the outside. Some traps feel justified. Some even feel good for a time. Dr. Greene names pride, sinful habits, bitterness, control, and even good things held too tightly. His point is not that every desire is wrong. Rather, a desire becomes dangerous when a person refuses to release it even after it begins to imprison the heart.
He gives a practical example from online behavior. When people are opposed or criticized online, they often become angry, wounded, or resentful. They may retaliate and call it defending themselves. The emotional reward feels immediate. The person feels right, justified, or protected. But Dr. Greene warns that this kind of response can leave a person trapped by an unforgiving spirit.
The damage is often one-sided. The person who caused the offense may not know how deeply the words or actions landed. The wrongdoer may not be thinking about it at all. Meanwhile, the offended person keeps replaying the event, stewing over it, and being consumed by resentment. Dr. Greene describes this as a form of being eaten up by negative feelings.
The way out of the trap is not denial. It is not pretending that wrong never happened. Dr. Greene points instead to Jesus’ teaching in Mark 11:25: “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” He explains that to forgive in this passage means to let go.
He also points to Luke 6:37, where the word forgive carries the meaning of release. Forgiveness, then, is not simply a vague religious feeling. In Dr. Greene’s explanation, it is an act of release. It is the open hand that lets go of the bait. It is refusing to remain locked in resentment, anger, and the fleshly desire to avenge oneself.
That movement from trap to release becomes the bridge into Dr. Greene’s historical reflection on America’s founding. He argues that America’s founders did not begin with a desire to break ties with England and form a new nation. They first sought peace. They wanted to remain loyal British citizens while addressing the grievances imposed by the king and Parliament.
Dr. Greene notes that Thomas Jefferson listed 27 grievances in the Declaration of Independence, and he also points to an omitted grievance involving Britain’s role in slavery. The message presents the colonial leaders as men who first tried to build bridges with the mother country. Their aim, as Dr. Greene explains it, was not immediate separation but a restoration of rights and peace.
He then walks listeners through the weight of what the colonies had already endured. In 1770, the Boston Massacre left five Americans dead and six wounded. In 1775, at Lexington Green, eight of the 80 Minutemen died and 10 were wounded. These events matter in Dr. Greene’s message because they show that the colonies had already absorbed serious injury before independence was declared.
Even then, Dr. Greene explains, the colonies did not immediately declare independence. He highlights the 1775 Olive Branch Petition as a final formal appeal to avoid full-scale war with Great Britain. Drafted primarily by John Dickinson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress, the petition declared loyalty to the crown, blamed the conflict on unjust policies and ministers rather than the king personally, and asked King George III to intervene to restore peace and rights.
Dr. Greene describes the petition as a last attempt at reconciliation while tensions were already becoming armed conflict. It was adopted by Congress on July 5, 1775, and sent to the king on July 8. King George III refused to receive it. Instead, Dr. Greene says, the king issued the Proclamation of Rebellion in August 1775, declaring that the colonies were in open revolt.
For Dr. Greene, the Olive Branch Petition reveals something important about the founders’ posture. Even after Lexington and Concord, many colonists still hoped for peace. They were not seeking war for its own sake. They were not trying to nurse hostility forever. They were looking for a way to reconcile while preserving their rights.
The rejection of that appeal helped push the colonies toward independence the next year. Dr. Greene frames the Declaration not as the first act of aggression, but as a necessary response after repeated appeals failed. He says the founders and framers had not fired the first shots. They desired peace and were willing to forgive, but the king refused to work with them.
This is where the message makes an important distinction. Forgiveness does not always mean remaining under oppression. Letting go of resentment does not require surrendering to injustice. Dr. Greene presents the founders as people who sought peace where peace was possible, but who eventually chose independence rather than continued subjection.
He reinforces this point through Patrick Henry’s famous “give me liberty or give me death” speech. Dr. Greene notes that Henry spoke less than a month before the shots at Lexington and Concord. While many were still crying for peace with Great Britain, Henry saw that the conflict had already reached a breaking point.
In that speech, Henry alluded to Jeremiah 6:14 and Jeremiah 8:11 when he said, “Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace, but there is no peace.” Dr. Greene uses the allusion to show that pretending peace exists does not create peace. There are times when the desire for peace must be honest enough to recognize reality.
The message then returns to release. When the war was over and the peace treaty was signed, Dr. Greene says Americans were willing to restore peace with England. They let go and released their hostilities toward the king and the nation. They did not build the new nation around perpetual bitterness.
That closing thought ties the spiritual and historical themes together. The Christian life requires the release of resentment, anger, and the desire for vengeance. A free people also cannot remain healthy if they stay trapped in old hostilities after the conflict has ended. According to Dr. Greene, Americans were freed from the trap and turned their attention toward building a new nation.
The message does not minimize offense, injury, or injustice. It does not suggest that reconciliation is always accepted by the other side. The founders’ appeal was rejected. The wrongdoer online may never notice the hurt caused. The person who wounds may never repent. Still, Dr. Greene’s point is that a believer cannot afford to stay trapped by the bait of resentment.
Forgiveness opens the hand. Release breaks the hold. Letting go does not erase history, but it keeps history from becoming a prison. In Dr. Greene’s teaching, faith trains people to recognize the trap, release what keeps them bound, and pursue freedom with a clean heart and sober judgment.
TL;DR
Dr. Greene uses the monkey-and-banana illustration to show how desire can become a trap when a person refuses to let go.
Luke 17:1 frames offenses and stumbling blocks as certain to come, but Dr. Greene explains that the wording points to the trigger of a trap.
Pride, sinful habits, bitterness, control, and even good things held too tightly can become spiritual traps.
Online retaliation can feel justified, but Dr. Greene warns that resentment often harms the offended person more than the wrongdoer.
Mark 11:25 and Luke 6:37 connect forgiveness with letting go and release.
Dr. Greene presents the founders as people who sought peace with Great Britain before declaring independence.
The Olive Branch Petition is presented as a final attempt at reconciliation before King George III refused it and declared the colonies in rebellion.
Patrick Henry’s warning that men may cry “Peace, peace” helps show that true peace cannot be built on denial.
After the war, Dr. Greene says Americans released hostility toward England and focused on building the new nation.
Discussion and Reflection
Discussion Questions
Why does Dr. Greene compare temptation and offense to a baited trap rather than only to a bad feeling or difficult situation?
What makes resentment feel justified, especially when someone believes they have been wronged?
How does Dr. Greene’s explanation of forgiveness as “letting go” or “release” clarify what forgiveness requires?
What does the Olive Branch Petition show, in Dr. Greene’s message, about the founders’ desire for peace before independence?
How can a person pursue peace honestly without pretending that real conflict or injustice does not exist?
Apply It This Week
Identify one resentment, offense, or argument that keeps replaying in the mind, and name what is being held too tightly.
Before responding online, pause long enough to ask whether the response is principled or only retaliatory.
Read Mark 11:25 and Luke 6:37 slowly, paying attention to the words forgive, let go, and release.
Look for one practical step toward peace that does not require denial, bitterness, or revenge.
Prayer Prompt
Father, reveal any place where resentment, pride, or control has become a trap. Teach the heart to forgive, release what cannot be carried in obedience, and pursue peace with courage, truth, and humility.