Rev Francisco Bilog“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
The seven words of Jesus from the cross are considered as the last words of a dying person. Like us take the last words of a dying person as the truth and nothing but the truth. It carries a message from the heart and full with love. It is from this perspective that we consider these last words of our Lord from the cross. He has an eternal message for us, a message that speaks to our context and our present experiences. They cover the basic needs of mankind. The Words from the Cross reveal God’s answer to our basic needs.
Listen, do you hear the words of Jesus saying: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they do.”
By the time Jesus uttered these words He must have been exhausted. For several hours of pain and suffering, Jesus passed most of the time on the cross in silence. Then suddenly Jesus broke his silence with a prayer, proclaiming once again the great compassion of God to all, saying: “Father…”
- FATHER…
Think about that for a moment. He could have ranted out of his mind.
He could have called 10,000 angels.
He could have cursed the soldiers to death.
He could have rebuked the crowds.
He could have called his disciples out to defend him.
All these things Jesus could have done…but yet He did not, instead he says with clarity, in the right mind, in clear dialect…Father!
Yes, he was on the right mind to call on the “Father.”
May Jesus always be our example and may no circumstances, however severe or depressing keep us from praying to the “father.” As Jesus prayed, He remained true to his loving relationship with his Father. Even in the extreme trial of the cross, He submitted himself to the will of His Father.
Jesus taught us to pray saying, “Our Father…”, so here he was an example of his own teaching.
Surprisingly, as many would have expected His prayer to the Father was not for himself. He prayed “Father, forgive them…”
2. Forgive…
Jesus understood the magnitude of God’s judgment against those wanting to kill him. Considering how heavy the weight of judgment they are heaping against themselves, Jesus prays that God will forgive them.
Jesus is our perfect example of unselfishness, who focuses not on his worst moment nor on his troubles but instead he prays for others.
Can we follow His example and forget ourselves long enough to reach out to others in their times of trouble, when they say stupid things, hurt feelings, lie, plot and cheat us, can we just Forgive???
Now we might be in agreement to be able to do that with those friends and people around us, but Jesus prayed not only for others but for his enemies. Even as they were executing their murderous plot against him, He prayed for their forgiveness.
He did not wait until time has passed and healed his wounds, so he could have forgive them easier, but prayed for them while his blood was fresh in their hands. Jesus forgave them while they were killing him!
Forgiveness is at the heart of the Gospel: at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, Christ calls for repentance, to herald the Kingdom of God. His whole ministry is to seek to reconcile God and his creation once more, and the route to that reconciliation is forgiveness: The woman accused of adultery was told “go, and sin no more” (John 8:11), the paralysed man lowered through the roof was told that “his sins were forgiven” (Mark 2:5), and the woman who anointed Our Lord’s feet was given the same dispensation (Luke 7:48): “your sins are forgiven”: simple words, such power, such authority.
We pray that we too may be forgiven, for our manifold sins. Forgiveness is part of God’s grace and is freely given, if we but have the courage to ask for it.
Forgiveness is terribly easy to ask from others, and yet so very hard to give from ourselves. As Our Lord was nailed to the instrument of his passion, he spoke asking the Father’s forgiveness, whilst he freely forgave them himself, for as St. John repeatedly notes: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me”
We pray that we may also forgive: “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”. It is not only those who bear hammer and nails against us whom we need to forgive; but those whose offenses are in comparison, quite small. “How many times should I forgive my brother, Lord? Seven times?” “Not seven, but seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22).
3. “Forgive them” said Jesus.
Who, I wonder, was Jesus referring to? There were many groups of people around the Cross. Closest to him would have been the execution party, soldiers of the Roman garrison, coarsened by discipline and cruelty. They had the unspeakable task of nailing a human being to a cross, but perhaps they were the least guilty of all parties who were responsible for putting to death an innocent man – after all, they were under the strict instructions of the Roman Governor, and to fail to co-operate in the execution would have meant instant death for themselves. Yet they were involved – they crucified the Lord of glory.
As Jesus prayed his utterly unselfish prayer “Father, forgive them” his eyes would have taken in other groups: they were the teachers who hated him, the priests who bought him with silver, the traitor who sold him to them, the crowd who had cried “crucify him” at the farce of his trial, and in the distance was Pilate in his palace trying to salve his conscience by blaming somebody else for what was happening.
But I like to think that Jesus was encompassing a wider body of people than those I have mentioned: there was the band of disciples who had been his constant companions for nearly three years. Had they lifted a finger to prevent this act of barbarism?
They were there, at a discreet distance, perhaps standing next to the secret disciples of Jesus, those kindly men Nicodemus and Joseph who were to minister to the dead body of Jesus. But as Jesus endured the torture of crucifixion, they failed to make even a token protest against the terrible atrocity being committed.
What does this tell us? All these groups either actively or passively helped to crucify Jesus – they were all guilty, but in a very real sense they are only representatives of a wider number of those responsible for crucifying Jesus, because the message of the Bible is that it was the sin of the world which crucified Jesus.
The gospel writers simply wrote “They crucified Jesus”. Who crucified him? I’ll tell you who crucified him. I did – and you did, and they did, those groups around the cross.
As on the Cross He prayed for the most undeserving people of all. They were utterly undeserving of a single good word on their behalf from the lips of our Lord Jesus.
If He interceded for them, what will keep Him from interceding for you?
Nothing…because Jesus Loves YOU, Jesus died for you, and he prayed for the forgiveness of your sins. You are forgiven!