A Sermon For A Suicide Victim

A Sermon For A Suicide Victim

Scripture: Luke 23:34

At a time such as this, let go again to Golgotha. Just as we are today in horrendous pain, so was Jesus as He hung on that cross. And yet, while hanging by His nail-torn flesh, He spoke the most powerful words of love ever uttered to humankind. Let us hear those words again today so we may know that, even in this time of pain and doubt, He loves us completely, and thoroughly for now and evermore.

The Bible records the seven last statements that Jesus uttered while He was on the cross. These statements are important to us, not only because Jesus spoke them, but also because of the place where He said them. While Jesus was on the cross, He was doing his greatest work; He was uttering his greatest words. Luke 23:34 records one of his last statements: “Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’”

Sometimes it is difficult for us to forgive people. Someone hurts us, someone says something against us; and, in our hearts, we cannot forgive that person. Listen to Jesus’ prayer: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Jesus prayed these words of forgiveness on behalf of the people gathering at the foot of the cross; people who wanted to watch Him die; people who only the day before had shouted, “Crucify Him!” Jesus spoke these words of forgiveness on behalf of the Roman soldiers who only minutes before had nailed him to the cross. He said it for the members of the Sanhedrin who had rushed to find him guilty of a capital crime. He said it for his frightened disciples who had run and were hiding. He said those words for each of you gathered here today. Notice the wonder of his words.

Some of you say, “I cannot talk to God! I cannot pray! I do not believe anymore—after what has happened to me.” Look at what happened to Jesus. He had preached love. He had healed the sick. He had fed the poor. He had done nothing bad to anyone. His only crime was to upset the social order. For this, His nation sinned against Him. His disciples failed him and fled. Peter denied Him. His heavenly Father was willing to see him suffer. He was up all night, dragged from one kangaroo court to another, found guilty of crimes He did not commit, beaten almost beyond recognition, multiple stab wounds in the head from the thorns in His crown, made to drag His cross, pierced with spikes driven through His hands and feet, then raised on the cross, suspended by His nail-torn flesh between two thieves to suffer death.

Despite this, Jesus looked up into the heavens and began his prayer with, “Father.” He lived in fellowship with his Father and knew that even under these horrible circumstances, God loved him. The Book of Matthew records that a Pharisees asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” and Jesus answered, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” Jesus, under these most difficult circumstances of his life, remained true to His Father, even while he was nailed to the cross, He never doubted God’s love,

Some of you are hurting now. You are thinking, “If God loves me, how can he let me suffer so?” No matter how bad things seem, God loves us, and He always will; do not doubt that. Do not lose faith. He is working out His purpose for each of us. Christ’s agony on that cross was for the greatest purpose. God raised him to eternal glory.

It is not easy to suffer. Pain hurts. It seems so unfair. A broken heart hurts far worse than a broken arm. If we want to be Christian, Jesus, here on the cross, shows us where we must start. We must begin by following God’s will, no matter if our circumstances seem as dark as those that Jesus faced on the cross that day two thousand years ago. When we can say, “Father,” then look up to heaven and know that God will make all right.

Next, in Christ's appeal, we find “forgive them.” “Father, forgive them.” The Greek New Testament indicates that our Lord repeated this prayer several times. He said it as they laid Him on the cross as it lay on the ground. He said it as they drove the spikes through His flesh. He said it as they raised His cross, its base sliding into a hole in the ground, jerking erect with a sudden and painful thud. Finally, He said it as He hung there, dangled in the air by His mangled meat. “Father, forgive them.”