Oppressed, Oppressor, and a Wandering Jew

I was on a Skype call with my friend and colleague Nicky who lives with her family in southern France. We were discussing Miroslav Volf's book, Exclusion and Embrace and how profound it has been in both of our lives.
       Once again I was caught up and stunned by the reality that Jesus game for both the oppressed and the oppressor. I am not making a statement about a person's relationship in eternity with God, but only that God's grace extends to the oppressor as well as the oppressed.
This is what Volf says:

“Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans even as I exclude myself from the community of sinners. But no one can be in the presence of the God of the crucified Messiah for long without overcoming this double exclusion — without transposing the enemy from the sphere of the monstrous… into the sphere of shared humanity and herself from the sphere of proud innocence into the sphere of common sinfulness. When one knows [as the cross demonstrates] that the torturer will not eternally 

triumph over the victim, one is free to rediscover that person’s humanity and imitate God’s love for him. And when one knows [as the cross demonstrates] that God’s love is greater than all sin, one is free to see oneself in the light of God’s justice and so rediscover one’s own sinfulness.” 

       This is at the heart of the Isaac-Ishmael Initiative. Until I give up my "right" for vengeance I cannot participate in the "other's" humanity. I give dignity to relationship and reflect the values of Kingdom of God when I see both the oppressor and the oppressed through the lens of Jesus the crucified and risen Messiah.