Jesus Prays, “Father, Forgive Them”
Luke 23:34
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Tonight, we consider our Lord’s words from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Tonight, we hear Jesus pray. He is praying. He is not making a declaration. He is not forgiving. He is not asking His Father to forgive everyone’s sins whether or not they repent or have faith. He is not absolving those at the cross nor anyone else in history apart from repentance and faith. If He did, He would be violating the very Scriptures of which He Himself is the living embodiment. If He did, He would be abandoning the very clear and consistent pattern of forgiveness that is taught throughout Holy Scripture. Everything our Lord says and does is always in complete harmony and unity with the entirety of God’s Holy Word. Once we have that straight, we can move on.
Consider well what kind of Savior we have who would say these words. It is not as if Jesus did not have sufficient reason or justification to speak words of anger and judgment and retribution. He easily could have if He wanted to, and we would say, “Yup, those rotten low-lifes and Jesus-haters certainly had it coming!”
And it is not as if Jesus was not actually experiencing any sort of real pain, or that He was above it all, and therefore it was easy for Him to be merciful. As a true man Jesus was fully experiencing in His whole body the full agony and wrath of one of the most horrific, drawn-out, and degrading forms of torture and death known to mankind. It is hard to imagine anything worse, other than the eternal burning and complete separation from God that unbelievers face in hell for their denial of Christ’s work for them.
And the way that Jesus had gotten there was most certainly and entirely unjust. There is no doubt that Jesus had been deviously arrested by the religious leaders; it was clearly a deeply corrupt set-up. The proceedings that ultimately put Jesus on the cross were the very definition of what is called a “kangaroo court.” According to the Merriam-Webster definition, a kangaroo court ignores recognized standards of law or justice. It is a mockery of a legitimate court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted. It is painfully and abundantly clear that Jesus’ trial was every bit of a mockery and miscarriage of human justice.
A terribly illegal trial was held in the middle of the night where all sorts of false testimony was sought out to condemn Jesus; not even the US congress could think of something so screwy. This kangaroo court finally found the Son of God Himself guilty of blasphemy. These evil men, these religious and community leaders convicted Jesus of lying about God, of lying about Himself and His Father. He had, of course, done nothing wrong, and yet He was mistreated and beaten by both Jews and Roman soldiers alike. The Roman governor was put in a position where it was politically expedient for him to have Jesus executed, even though he knew that He was innocent. We can’t have political leaders admitting their errors or telling the truth, now, can we? And as a result of these disgusting proceedings, Jesus was mocked, whipped with 39 lashes, horribly abused, and crucified.
Now put yourself in Jesus’ position. What would be the first words out of your mouth if you were the victim of such a terrible miscarriage of justice? How loudly would you be screaming out your innocence? How much hate might you be spewing toward those who could not care less about their own evil ways? Would you be praying for God to have mercy on those who inflicted your pain and suffering? Would you be so quick to consider your attackers and maligners as those for whom God might have compassion? What would your prayers sound like? Would you quote Stephen and say, “Lord, do not place this sin on them” (Acts 7:60)?
There’s probably very little doubt that, having experienced all of that gross and hateful unfairness, you would be seeking revenge in every way imaginable. There’s very little doubt that compassion might just be the farthest thing from your mind. Who cares if those who are doing this to you don’t fully understand what they are doing; they are still doing it, and they should be punished! They should get what they deserve! Where’s the justice of it all? We know all too well the desire that boils up within us to lash out at those who have wronged us, to want them to get what is coming to them, to curse instead of to bless.
But then we see and hear Jesus pray, “Father, forgive them.” And we are stopped in our sinful and vengeful tracks. Sure, because of our sinful nature we always contribute at least something to our own troubles, don’t we? But Jesus? He had no sin. He never made any mistakes. His “crime” was to tell the truth about sinful mankind. All He did was live the perfect life on behalf of everyone. And this is the ultimate picture of God’s love for us in that Jesus died willingly for all sinners, even for His enemies, His persecutors. We didn’t ask Him to do that. And we might even say that perhaps He shouldn’t have done that. But He did. And we are glad He did, for if He hadn’t, then we would have no hope of ever being put right with God again.
And shortly after Jesus offered this brief prayer, He died for the sins of the world. He paid the atonement price for all people everywhere and for all time. He paid for the heinous sins of those who hated Him, those who persecuted Him, and those who crucified Him. In His suffering and death Jesus purchased forgiveness for all so that He could continue to offer it to all through faith alone.
We must confess that it was not only the Jewish leaders or the Roman soldiers who crucified Christ, but, in a sense, every one of us as well. For it is most certainly true that our sins too were nailed with Him to that horrid cross. Every single word of anger, every single retaliation, every single feeling or act of jealousy on our part, every single act of disobedience, every single time we have twisted God’s Word to fit our preferences, and every single sin we have yet to commit – all of this is what forced His sentencing. Every sin of ours that has become casual and comfortable helped to press that crown of thorns deep into His head. Every failure of ours to do what is right and every giving in to sin is what drove those spikes through His hands and feet.
Yes, along with the sins of everyone who has ever lived since Adam and Eve and all who ever will live until Christ returns on the Last Day, our own sins are there too. Yes, He died for all. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). And as we confess each Lord’s Day, we have indeed sinned and deserve only temporal and eternal punishment.
And yet, what did God do? “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21). Christ became our sin on that cross. Christ embodied all of our sin. And then, when we hear Him cry, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”, we know the answer – that He had become our sin, all of it, which is exactly why God the Father had to crush His Son, yes, even damn His Son, who had all of the word’s sins upon Him. Jesus is the only one who could ever bear the world’s sin, and this was the only way – the ONLY way – that sin could ever be dealt with perfectly and completely.
But more than the soldiers, more even than you, it was God the Father who crucified Jesus His Son. It was His will and His plan that Jesus be treated so unjustly so that you might be treated mercifully, so that you who are His enemies by nature might become His friends – no, better than that, His family, adopted and grafted in by His grace and mercy. The gross injustice, the disgusting unfairness of how Jesus was treated was all part of the Father’s perfect plan of salvation. And since that is true, we ought not be disgusted but thankful that it all played out this way. God used all of that human evil and hate against Jesus for our eternal good.
“Cross of Jesus, cross of sorrow, where the blood of Christ was shed, perfect man on thee did suffer, perfect God on thee has bled. Here the King of all the ages, throned in light ere worlds could be, robed in mortal flesh is dying, crucified by sin for me.”
On the cross the full redemption price for all sin was paid. Full and complete atonement for all sin was accomplished so that it could be offered to everyone. Through that amazing Gospel message, the Holy Spirit works and gives faith when and where He pleases, and then that faith grasps and receives the benefits of Christ’s work, for it is always by faith alone that forgiveness comes to us. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8-9).
And then in those very things which our Lord has instituted and given us – His Gospel, His Absolution, His Baptism, and His Supper – the benefits of His work flow freely to all who by faith believe, through water, word, bread, and wine. In those things we find the delivery of the forgiveness Christ prayed for.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
