The Sign Of Forgiveness
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Luke 23:34: Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… One of the strange, mysterious marks of the church of the twenty-first century is the fact that between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday morning there will be more people in churches than at any other time of the year. In order to understand this more clearly, it becomes necessary to examine these crowds more closely.
Basically, there are three groups in traditional churches during the season of Lent. First, there are those who will be there also in July and August – the steady, quiet saints who are the glory of the kingdom of God on earth. Second, there are those who are in church during Lent by custom or tradition. These folks have learned from childhood that this is a good time to be in church if only for the fact that they will catch a glimpse of their childhood faith. Third, there are those who are somehow haunted by the gallant figure of the lonely Sufferer on the cross. They have given in to a vague, uneasy feeling that He knew something which life and time have taken away from the world. They see in Him a relentless strength, a distant hope, and a continuing dream of goodness which our modern world has long forgotten.
There is one thing, however, that all these people have in common: they have come to see a man die. There is a strange fascination about this, for death is the one universal and inevitable experience. Unless the Lord Himself returns during our lifetime, 100% of us will most certainly die. Further, the human race has discovered that it can learn how to live by practice. If we are wise each experience, whether it is happy or tragic, will teach us something about the next experience. But for the supreme experience of death, life provides no rehearsals. We can’t practice dying. We can learn only by walking to the end with others and by listening to their dying words and carrying them in our hearts for the day when we, too, will join them in the life of the world to come.
We, too, have come to this church to see a man die. Even humanly speaking, Jesus is one of the great figures of life and history. Even the most hardened unbeliever will likely admit that Jesus changed the course of history. His dying words, therefore, must be tremendously important. He spoke from the cross seven times: three times to men, three times to God, and once to Himself. And in this case, the words of this dying Man are everything.
The first word from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” seems totally unexpected. In this word Jesus does not speak about Himself. Our Lord’s first words strike like lightning straight into the heart. The face under the crown of thorns turns heavenward, and the world hears a dying man point to the reason for death: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Surely this is no knee-jerk reaction to the events of the day; it was the fulfillment of all Biblical history. It was Friday midday. A crowd had poured out of Jerusalem to witness the spectacle. This was the climax of the drama of redemption, the very pinnacle of God’s plan of salvation. His infinite love for mankind was now reflected most clearly in the person, work, and words of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, dying there on the cross. This first word, this prayer, therefore, is not only for those who are standing there; it is also for all people who have lived and will live until our Lord’s glorious return. This intense prayer of our Lord, this request that His Father may give these murderers of His time grace and the knowledge that may bring them the Father’s pardon to His Father in heaven, is for us too: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
There are few statements in Holy Scripture which more clearly point to the dark and tragic fact of sin. There are some things we can do about sin. We can be sorry for it; we can regret it; we can weep over it. This is called contrition – true sorrow over our sin and what we have done. We can offer to make things right when our sin has hurt or offended someone else. But there’s one thing we cannot do: we cannot pay for sin. Someone else has to go the rest of the way. There must be a voice from the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
“For they know not what they do!” We have all heard and perhaps some of us have even asked the agonizing question: What is really wrong with the world and the human race? And here is the great answer: moral stupidity, which is the tragic fruit of the sinful nature. Nothing in the world is more terribly fatal than the stupidity of the sin-sick soul. After all, who was it that crucified Jesus? Men too blind to see who He was, men too dull to hear the truth, men too stupid to care about goodness and holiness and truth. How often has every faithful pastor heard the words, usually spoken in bitter tears: “If I had only known what would happen with that careless word or action or thought. If I had only known.”
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All this is no faraway story; this is no lost and broken dream. This is the past, present, and future sign of the forgiveness of the Cross. And we all need this more than we need anything else. We bring memories into this church of our own sins over the years, and those memories burn. There are things that we would very much like to forget.
But the great, holy, and blessed thing about the sign of forgiveness is that a preacher – a man sent by God to be God’s ears and mouth and hands, your pastor – can now stand up and under the Sign of the Cross give you this forgiveness. As the Absolution is spoken and heard with repentant and faith-filled hearts, there is a drying of our tears over our sins. There is relief from the tearing pain in our hearts. There is a return to heaven and hope. And it all comes from the fulfillment of our Lord’s prayer from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
By the grace and mercy of God there is also a second lesson we can learn from this prayer. Every single day when we pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” we are tying our life to the life of God in Christ.
How many times has any one of us said, “I can forgive, but I cannot forget.” Forgetting what we have done is, at best, difficult, not only because of our sinful nature but also because the devil will do his best to remind us of how sinful we are. But by the grace of God, we can do what God has done for us: we can also forget. He has forgotten our sins, for sins confessed and absolved no longer exist. Christ has buried them. And since those sins are buried, we then get to act as God acts, and we can, by His grace alone, forget the sins that God has removed and forgotten.
Even though our time on this earth is so short and our way together so brief, we must find time to forgive and forget the trespasses and sins of others. There is no sense in staggering toward eternity with a heavy burden of grudges and hurts and jealousy and hate and malice. “Forgive us – as we forgive.” This is one of the great signs of the Cross. This is God’s way of doing things. It is the way of incredible power. It reflects a love that will not let go. It shows us again a love which bears all things for us.
Finally, there is no way in which our human hearts can ignore this basic lesson of the Cross. It is true, of course, that sometimes we do not see the divine way, the way of forgiveness, love, gentleness, and humility. We sometimes believe that there are better ways of solving the deep and dark problems of the human heart.
It is, therefore, necessary also for us to turn again and again to the Sign of the Cross. This way is always up, for it leads us to heaven where there will at long last be no need of forgiveness – only the eternal enjoyment of its fruit. And when our dear Lord finally calls us Home, we shall see very clearly – perfectly, in fact – that the ultimate power lies not in hate and fear and force, but in forgiveness and love and grace.
This is the Sign of the Cross – the sign that was first given to us at our Baptism into Christ; the sign that is given every time Holy Absolution is pronounced and delivered; the sign that is given every time we receive our Lord’s body and blood in the Holy Supper; the sign given at the Benediction at the end of the Divine Service. It is the sign of forgiveness and the certain reminder that Christ has paid for all our sins and continues to deliver His forgiveness through the means of His Word preached and His sacraments rightly administered. For even though we never truly or rightly know what we are doing, in Christ alone God has indeed forgiven us.
Come now and receive Him in the most blessed gift of His body and blood.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
