“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” – Luke 23:27-34
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” These are the powerful words of Christ spoken from the cross we are going to focus on for the next few minutes. What powerful words they are! To start with I want you to put yourself in the place of soldiers in charge of crucifying Jesus. You don’t know who this man is; you have no idea what He is actually capable of; you do not know what He has done to deserve death. All you know is that He is guilty of some crime and you have been given the task of crucifying Him. You have heard rumors that he is called the Christ, and that He calls Himself the Son of God. But you don’t believe those rumors, instead you have used those rumors against Him as placed a crown of thorns on Him and mocked Him by pretending to worship Him; then beat Him, slapped Him, spit on Him. You have heard the rumors that He healed people, taught with the authority of God, and preformed all kinds of miracles; and yet you as the soldier who scourged Him, the soldier who led Him to the place called the Skull, the soldier who laid Him on the cross and pounded the nails through His hands and feet, you have not seen Him do any kind of miracle, you have not heard Him teach with authority, you haven’t even heard Him defend Himself. Why would you believe these rumors that He has power and authority when He has not used any such thing to save Himself?
You have heard Him be called a teacher, a rabbi, a king, but you only see Him as a worthless criminal dying. Then all of a sudden you hear Him speak. As He is hanging on the cross, beaten, bloody, and weak, He speaks for the first time. Now inevitably you standing there witnessing all this will perk up and pay attention to what He says. And then you hear this, you who have beaten Him, whipped Him, spit on Him, mocked Him, slapped Him, and nailed Him to a cross, hear these words, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Those words should be more painful for you to hear than the sound of the hammer driving the nails through human flesh into wood. The man you have demoralized with physical torture and verbal abuse of mockery who did not speak up to protect Himself, speaks words of forgiveness for you. The one who is killing Him, He prays for you.
Now I want you to switch and put yourself in the place of the followers who did know Him and were there watching all of this. The ones who followed Him around Galilee and Judea all the way to Jerusalem and now to the cross. Now these words should not have been that big a surprise. They have heard Him preach and teach words of forgiveness over and over again. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” He taught this to all those who followed Him, so why should it be surprising that now as He is being cursed and abused and hated, that He would pray for them, speaking kind words on their behalf. Jesus is not a hypocrite like the Pharisees who demand others to live in a way that they themselves do not live, no this truly is the Christ, the Son of God who teaches with authority, and then lives His own teachings. He actually does what He teaches us to do, even to the point of forgiving the very ones who are crucifying Him.
For the soldier, these words should have been stunning but also convicting. For the followers of Christ, they should have still been stunning, but more confirming than convicting. Confirming that He meant what He said and that His teachings are actually practical and doable. But how about for you sitting here in the pews on this very day, how do these words ring in your ears? Are they convicting, confirming, or comforting?
The answer for me is yes, all three. They are convicting because I know my sins are the reason Jesus had to be crucified. My sins are the reason He had to die. Because I am a sinner who fails each and every day to live as God demands, Christ allowed Himself to be crucified for me. And the same is true for your sin too. All of our sin and the sin of all mankind is what caused Him to be hung from a tree and die such a painful death. We are just as guilty as the soldier who actually held the hammer and pounded the nails in, so these words are convicting. These words are confirming because as a follower of Christ we do know His teaching on forgiveness, we know that He has taught us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, we know these words from Luke and from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and we have His living example showing us what this teaching exactly looks like. The one who teaches us to forgive others, shows us what that forgiveness looks like. He teaches us to live this life of forgiveness, forgiving others as He has forgiven us. They confirm His teachings.
But they are comforting too. They are comforting because I know that if Christ is able to forgive the soldiers who are crucifying Him, He is able to forgive me, the one whose sins are guilty of putting Him on the cross, just as He forgives you for your sin that put Him on the cross. They are comforting because our Lord whom our sin killed forgives us too. He forgives you of all your sins each and every day just as he forgave those who were nailing Him to the cross.
Christ our Lord, is the Lord of forgiveness. The very reason He allowed Himself to be crucified and held Himself up on that cross to die was for the forgiveness of all mankind. The nails did not hold Him to the cross, His love for us did. He loved us enough to die for us, to give us His forgiveness so that we have salvation and eternal life in His name. He forgives you of all your sin, because He loves you. That is why these words are so comforting for us to hear, because He speaks these same words of forgiveness to you. You hear them in the words of absolution and you hear them in the words as you receive His Body and Blood at the communion rail. “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.” The same forgiveness our Lord speaks from the cross. He is the Lord of Forgiveness who speaks these words of forgiveness for you. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” Jesus is saying, “Father forgive them, for my name’s sake!”
In the name of Christ our Lord, who does love us and does forgives us, Amen.
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