Lk. 23.34 “From the Cross” pt. 1
1. Seven times Jesus speaks from the cross. And each time He says something meaningful and significant. Of course, Jesus isn’t the kind of person to just be caught talking, saying anything that comes to mind. Whenever Jesus speaks, it is significant, but especially here. For those who were there that day, who watched Jesus hanging on the cross, they believed these were the last words that anyone would hear from Him. Jesus was hanging on a cross. People didn’t survive that. The cross meant death. After death was a burial. So for those who watched Him die, especially the religious leaders, this was the end of Him. There was no resurrection. Not in the way that Jesus would do it but I’m getting ahead of myself. So for those who watched Jesus hang on the cross, they believed they were hearing Him speak for the last time. For the next seven weeks, we will be listening to Christ’s final words from the cross. We will be considering what He said to those who were around Him as He hung on the cross, and I believe, as God speaks to us, we will find some meaning in these words for us during this Lenten Season.
2. [Play CD] Now, first, let’s do a quick review, although not necessarily in order, of the events immediately preceding these words. First, Jesus was sold out by one of His own disciples with a kiss. For 30 pieces of silver, Judas was willing to turn Jesus over to the religious leaders, those hypocrites who had consistently been trying to trick Jesus and had been trying to get Him to admit He wasn’t who everyone thought He was. The disciples, those He had spent the most time with for the past three years all took off. Only one appears to have been anywhere near the cross when Christ died and we don’t even know how long He was there. Every single one of the men Christ had poured Himself into eventually took off. One of His followers He spent the most time with, poured Himself into, time after time, denied even knowing Him, three times and used such language that the Bible says, “He swore, I do not know Him.” He had been put up on fake trials, found guilty, whipped across the back, He stumbled under the weight of the cross, He had thorns on His head causing blood to flow into His face, mixed with sweat. The religious leaders who thought they were all right glared at Him and cheered as the crowd had been easily manipulated in asking for the release of a dangerous criminal and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He had spent several hours, perhaps the equivalent of several days, asking His Father if this were the only way. Especially as He knelt in the garden with His disciples who were too tired to wait with Him, He prayed and asked His Heavenly Father, to remove the burden and to figure out a different way to remove the sin of the world, “please Father, let this cup pass from me.” Yet, the Lord was clear. Christ’s death was His will. The crucifixion, the pain and sacrifice Christ endured was the will of God.
3. Literally everyone had turned their backs on Jesus. If there was any time that Jesus must have felt completely and totally deserted, it was as He hung on that cross. Now, how would you feel? How do you feel when you feel totally deserted? When you feel like all your friends have really become your enemies? How do you feel when you believe you are on your own and even God isn’t listening to you but His will is to have you suffer? What sort of things come out of your mouth. What kinds of things do you say?
4. Knowing myself well enough, I know that one of the things I would definitely not say is, “Father, forgive them.” I couldn’t say it. I would be too full of anger and bitterness and resentment. If I had the power, I would probably zap a few people. I would want to jump off the cross and run as far away as possible. I would make a terrible Savior. And so would you.
5. Hanging on the cross, completely deserted, feeling completely alone, Jesus cries out, “Father, forgive them.” And if that’s not enough, He adds, “They know not what they do.” And I have to tell you, that I have been really struggling with that phrase. They don’t know what they are doing? Seriously. It seems to me that these who put Jesus on the cross knew exactly what they were doing. They used the system to their advantage, they manipulated people. They used money to bribe one of His own followers. I’m sure they knew what they were doing.
6. And yet, there is something familiar about these who hung Jesus on the cross. Almost as though when I look at them, I see myself. For I am certain that Jesus would have made me uncomfortable. Jesus would have challenged my views and made me question my understanding of God, especially when I thought I had God all figured out. So at the same time that I think perhaps Jesus should have prayed something like, “Father, let me come home and forget the cross, it just won’t work.” I find myself really glad that Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” Because when He prayed that prayer, it was for me and it was for you.
7. And the whole act of hanging on the cross was a way of demonstrating God’s forgiveness to us. The very first words Christ said on the cross were the very reason He was there to begin with. To ask the Father to forgive us. But here is the good news for many today. Christ’s cry, “Father, forgive them” has not only been spoken from the cross. But every minute of every hour of every day, Christ calls out on our behalf. Christ asks His Father to forgive the one who places His trust in Christ. Jesus asks God to forgive the one who is willing to admit their sinfulness. Christ agrees with the Father to forgive the one who has really messed up their lives with drugs or alcohol or sexual immorality, divorce, abortion, or any other lifestyle that contradicts the will of God when they come to Him and throw themselves on His mercy.
8. You see, if anybody could really be blamed for messing up, it would be Judas who gave Jesus away for practically nothing. Or Peter who denied knowing Christ at all. Or the soldiers who dragged Jesus from court to court, Pilate and Herod. Or the soldiers who flogged Him. Or those who spit at Him, or those who placed the thorns on His head, or those who taunted Him and yelled obscenities at Him. Or those who hammered the nails into His hands and His feet. Or those who manipulated the crowds to demand the crucifixion of Jesus. If anyone could be considered to have really messed up big time, it would be these.
9. And yet, even for these, Jesus cried out, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” If Christ can forgive those who were most to blame for putting Him through a terrible and painful death like that, isn’t it possible that He can forgive you? Isn’t it possible that if we want to compare sins and faults that you’ve not put Christ to death on a cross and if you haven’t done that, you maybe haven’t messed up as badly as you might think and that in spite of whatever it is you have done, Christ can indeed forgive you? And more than that wants to forgive you? Is it possible that Christ’s prayer, “Father, forgive him. Father, forgive her.” Is being said for you right now? Why not come and experience either for the first time, or perhaps you need to feel His forgiveness again. As we sing our closing song, I want to encourage you, if you want Christ to seek His Father on your behalf, don’t wait. Come to the altar as we sing this closing song and open yourself up to what He wants to do in you and through you. Let’s sing. Hymn #243.
