The gospel accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion record seven things that he said whilst hanging on the cross. The first is found in Luke 23:34 where we read that Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’
So here we have Jesus, asking that God would forgive those who crucified him. And this is not sometime later, having somehow come to terms with what they had done to him, Rather he asks that they be forgiven just moments after they have driven the 9 inch, square edged iron nails into his hands and feet and whilst he is struggling to take his each and every agonising breath.
Which. you have to admit, is pretty remarkable of a man who, irrespective of what you might think of him, cannot be considered by anyone to be a hypocrite. For here Jesus is seen practicing what he preached when, in Matthew 5:44, he urged his followers to ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’.
But what comfort there is in these words too. Because Jesus is praying for the forgiveness of those guilty of the greatest sin that was ever committed. And if those who rejected Jesus as the Messiah, conspired to have him found guilty of crimes he did not commit, and then saw to it that he suffered the most barbaric of deaths, can be forgiven, then there is hope that God’s grace is sufficient even for us, and that our sins can be forgiven too.
In what sense though did those crucifying Jesus not know what they were doing – for surely, they weren’t unaware of the cruelty that they were guilty of inflicting?
One answer to that question is that they weren’t aware that he was who he had previously said he was. That he’d claimed to be God was something they knew full well, for that, in essence, was why they wanted him to be put to death, but that his claims of divinity were true was something they had manifestly failed to grasp. Even so, as Jesus suffered and subsequently died, there was at least one for whom the penny finally dropped – for as Jesus eventually breathed his last, a centurion who had witnessed his final hours announced what was, in reality, plain for all to see – that ‘truly this man was the Son of God!’
But there was something else that Jesus’ executioners didn’t know they were doing that Good Friday. They were unaware that by crucifying Jesus they were inflicting on him the punishment that they themselves deserved – including for the sin that, in that very moment, they were guilty of committing. For it was only by Jesus’ death, that their guilt could be atoned for. Remarkably then, in asking God to forgive them their sins, Jesus was including the evil act by which that forgiveness was ultimately made possible.
Because what man means for evil, God can mean for good. [Genesis 50:20] This is, without doubt, a paradox, one that is, perhaps, more mysterious than any other – but it is, nonetheless, one that is completely true. A few weeks later the apostle Peter, preaching to a huge crowd, spoke of how Jesus’ death at the hands of lawless men was, at the same time, the result of him being delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. [Acts 2:23]
And then, having been urged by Peter ‘to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ’ three thousand people did just that – and in so doing they received the forgiveness that Jesus had asked for when he said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’
Which is nothing but what we should expect, because ‘the prayer of a righteous man has great power as it is working’ [James 5:16].
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To read ‘What becomes of the broken hearted – sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Palm Sunday’, click here
Some musings 