“Father, forgive them”
Luke 23:33-38
The last words of a person’s life are a mysterious thing. Some last words reveal a lot about the personality of the person. They can speak volumes about their heart and who they are.
P. T. Barnum, d. 1891 “How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?”
Writer Oscar Wilde’s last words were: “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.”
Actor Humphrey Bogart said, “I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.”
John Bacon said on his deathbed, "What I was as an artist seemed to be of some importance while I lived, but what I really am as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing of importance to me now."
And John Wesley proclaimed on his deathbed, “The best of all is, God is with us. Farewell! Farewell!”
But there is one man in history whose last words not only tell us a great deal about him, but also about how we should live our lives. We have seven phrases spoken by Jesus and recorded for us on that day. Of the seven, three of them were prayers. It is one thing to have last words spoken from a person’s deathbed but quite another to have them spoken from the cross.
What was Jesus experiencing on the cross? David Smith writes about crucifixion. They would take the upright beam and place it in a hole in the ground and fix it steadfast. And then they would take the victim and lay his hands on the cross beam, driving spikes into his quivering flesh and with a rope would hook it onto the cross beam and then tow it up. When the cross beam was in place, they would nail it to the upright. And then placing the victim’s feet together, they would nail his feet into the upright and there he would die. He writes, “Only a depraved human mind could ever have imagined such a mode of death. It is the most painful death a man could die for he died by suffocating as his body hung. His weight would pull him down. There his feet would rest against the nails. He would rise up to catch his breath. He could only rise so long because the pain of the nails would make his body drop. Up and down, up and down he would rise trying to catch breaths and then back down submitting to his pain of the crucifixion. Keep in mind, Jesus had already been whipped with 195 lashes. There he is, his back already broken as he rises up and down, up and down as the beam tore at his flesh” as he slowly suffocated to death.”
Perhaps more than at any other time in his life and ministry, it is on the cross that we see Jesus’ humanity and his heart most clearly. So what do we learn about Jesus? First, prayer was at the heart of Jesus’ life. Jesus began his ministry by praying and he ended his life and ministry in prayer. Jesus prayed at his baptism. He prayed in the morning to start the day. He prayed for guidance in choosing the disciples. He prayed when talking with the Jewish leaders. He prayed before his miracles and healings and he prayed after. He prayed before teaching and he prayed before raising Lazarus from the dead. He prayed at the Last Supper. He prayed in Gethseman before he went to the cross. He prayed on the cross, even with the mob at the foot of the cross taunting him. This was common for criminals being crucified but they would curse vainly back. They would call their accusers every imaginable word they could think of because the pain was so severe. The natural tendency of a man would be to unleash his fury back at those who had done such a thing to him.
In this setting, instead of a vengeful spirit, Jesus looks at those who were crucifying him and prays, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And even in the midst of his suffering, he prayed for his accusers and for those crucifying him. When Jesus’ hands could no longer reach out and touch their withered flesh because they were tethered to the cross, Jesus prayed. When his feet could no longer run to those in need, he prayed. When he could no longer gather the disciples to instruct and teach them because they had fled, he prayed. When Jesus was most limited on the cross, he did the only thing he could do and that was pray. And who does he pray for? The mob. The ones ranting and cursing him. In an atmosphere of pain, hatred and murder, Jesus prays to the Father. And the first thing he prays is for God to forgive these people who have no idea what they are doing.
The second thing we learn is that no person is beyond hope. Jesus’ prayer teaches us that there is no one who is beyond the grace and forgiveness of the Father. Jesus is praying for the mob who is crucifying him. He’s praying for those who are spitting in his face, gambling for his robs, and jeering at him as he dies. He hangs there on the cross, an innocent man. If ever there were people who were seemingly beyond grace, would it not be this crowd? They have physically with their mouths chosen Barabbas, with their own hands nailed the spikes into his flesh, with their mouth jeered and blasphemed the Son of God. If there was anyone whom God would look down on and cast judgment, would it not be this crowd? And yet, Jesus, the Son of God, one with the Father says, “Father, forgive them.”
Fast forward a moment to the day of Pentecost when Peter filled with the Holy Spirit stands before the crowds of Jerusalem and says, “You have done this. You have crucified the Messiah, God’s only son!” The Bible says their hearts were pierced and they began to ask the question, “How can we saved?” Acts 3 tells us that 3000 were saved that day! So many people have said it was Peter’s sermon which prompted such a response. But I believe it was God the Father looking down on this crowd and remembering Jesus’ prayer for them and then opening the door of grace to all who would receive it. This we know: God’s spirit and grace moved in a powerful way and 1000’s came to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. No person is beyond hope!
You may be sitting in the pews this morning and saying to yourself, “But Tim, you don’t know me. You don’t know what I have done. You don’t know how I have fallen short or betrayed God.” And that’s true. I don’t. But I do know this: no matter how far you have strayed and no matter what you have done, you are not outside the grace of God. When Jesus hung on the cross, looking down of the mob and prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” he wasn’t praying just for the mob but for every person here this morning.
Third, don’t stop praying. At the very moment when the crowd was at its worst and they were furthest from God, no one would have blamed Jesus if he hadn’t prayed for them. But Jesus’ prayer and the crowd’s response on Pentecost teaches us that we should never stop praying. The word ‘forgive’ in this passage is in the imperfect tense. We tend to think it is in the present tense and that Jesus prayed this prayer once and then moved on. The imperfect tense in Greek means that the prayer is not said once but continuously, through the scourging and the crucifixion as he approached death. When Jesus was falsely accused by Pilate, he was praying, “Father, forgive them…” When they beat him, taunted him and stripped him, he was praying, “Father, forgive them…” When they drug him into the courtyard and whipped him with a cat of nine tails ripping the flesh from his back, he was praying, “Father, forgive them…” When they put the cross on his back and made him carry it walking on cobblestone streets in bare feet to his death, he was praying, “Father, forgive them…” When they nailed him to the cross and hung him high, he was praying, “Father, forgive them…” When they were taunting and jeering at him, he was praying, “Father, forgive them…” And for 20 centuries, echoing across the centuries, we hear the words of Jesus as he continues to pray, “Father, forgive them…” Jesus teaches us that we should never stop praying.
But what do you do when you have prayed and prayed and still there is no response? Never give up. Don’t stop praying for that loved one, that friend, that coworker. No matter how far they may drift from God or how long they may be unresponsive, no one is beyond reach. Pastor and Leadership speaker John Maxwell tells the story of his brother who was called to active duty during the Pueblo crisis in Korea. He says he could remember standing in his father’s office when my father found out the news and went to his brother, hugged him and said, “Larry, I’m going to pray for you at 9 AM every day. No matter what I am doing or where I am, I am going to get on my knees and take you to Him. I’m going to believe for your physical and spiritual well-being.” Many times, John saw his father talking business about significant issues and at 9 AM he would excuse himself from the Board Room or wherever he was and go pray for his son who was many miles away from him but more importantly, many miles away from God. For 17 years, he prayed every day. Then one Sunday morning, John’s brother Larry went to church and said to the Pastor before worship, “I want you to give an invitation today because I’m going to get saved.” That afternoon, he called his father and said, “Dad, your 17 years of praying have paid off.” Don’t ever stop praying because you never know when a person will respond to God’s grace and forgiveness.
Fourth, don’t forget the mission. In the midst of pain, suffering, suffocating, jeers and taunts, Jesus never forgets why he was sent here: to forgive others and call them back to God. “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was the lost.” Luke 19:10 He never forgets why he came to this world. At the climatic end of his life as he was laying down his life, he did not forgot his ministry or his calling. He understands who he is and what his mission is. When we are in our darkest hour, when the world seems to be turning against us, when it seems we are being placed on the cross and we are given more than any person could endure, we can easily forget who we are and what we are to be about. Isn’t it true that under the pressures of life, we have a tendency to get distracted by the immediate crisis we’re facing and forget the bigger picture? Yet amidst all that Jesus faced, he never forgets his purpose and his mission and in so doing, teaches us that we are never to forget our mission and purpose either.
Rick Warren tells the story of his dad who was a pastor for over 50 years serving mostly small rural churches. He was not simply a preacher but was a man with a mission. He loved taking teams of volunteers overseas to build churches. In his lifetime, he built over 150 churches around the world. In the final week of his dad’s life, the disease kept him awake in a semi-conscious state nearly 24 hours a day. As he dreamed, he’d talk out loud about what he was dreaming. Sitting by his bedside, Rick Warren learned a lot about his dad just listening to his dreams. He relived one building project after another. One night near the end while Rick and his wife and niece were by his side, his dad suddenly became very active and tried to get out of the bed. Of course he was too weak and Rick’s wife insisted he lay back down. But he persisted in trying to get out of the bed so Rick’s wife asked, “Jimmy what are you trying to do?” He replied, “Got to save one more for Jesus”, Got to save one more for Jesus, Got to save one more for Jesus. He repeated that phrase over and over again for the next hour, over a 100 times. “Got to save one more for Jesus.” As Rick sat beside his dad’s bed tears roll down his cheeks, he bowed his head and thanked God for His dad’s faith. At that moment his dad reached out and placed his frail hand on his head and said, as if commissioning him. “Save one more for Jesus. Save one more for Jesus.” Never forget your mission. Amen and Amen
