Forgiving the Unforgivable
Luke 23:32-37 * Seven Last Words from the Cross - Part 1
Today we begin a new seven-week series entitled, “Seven Last Words from the Cross.” If you read the crucifixion account in each of the four gospels, you find exactly seven statements or questions Jesus made in those hours and minutes leading up to his death. The last words on someone’s deathbed might be significant, right? Jesus’ words always matter, of course. And in these last hours, they reflect the very priorities of God. Note that his first statement is about forgiveness. It’s at the top of your outline. Let’s read it together:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Do you think God values forgiveness? I would think so.
In my nearly thirty years in vocational ministry, I have heard every conceivable way that people can hurt people. I’ve met with a husband who beat his wife. I met with a wife who was repeatedly raped by her husband. One husband told me how his wife systematically stole his life savings. He later discovered she had done this to a previous husband as well. I’ve talked with a grandfather who molested his grandkids. I met one father who lost his son to a drug overdose, and wanted to go out and kill the dealers. A Veteran told me how his wife keeps returning to heroin, and manipulating him for the money to do so. I have met folks who have been cheated out of their retirement by the company CEOs they served for over twenty years. One person lost his military career after he protected someone facing discrimination. People tell me how they did unconscionable evil acts under the guise of war, well beyond the authorized mission. And then we hear of a person shooting up a school, killing 17, and then going to Walmart and McDonald’s afterwards, as if nothing of consequence took place?
Sometimes we may wonder, is there some stuff that is just plain unforgivable? Maybe you’ve had that thought, “What they did to me is just too great to let go of!” How do you forgive the unforgivable? Let’s look at Jesus’ actual words for some clues. First, we’ll start with...
1. “Father”
Jesus was only able to request forgiveness because he was in a close intimate relationship with his Heavenly Father. It is by no accident that Jesus used this term. In his day, most people approached God as all powerful, majestic, all-knowing, in charge, and all of those things are true. But Jesus took it a step further. He approached God as his loving, caring, trustworthy ... Father. When he taught his disciples to pray, he started with, “Our Father...”
In Aramaic, the language of the Jews at the time, the word for “Father” meant, “Daddy” or “Papa.” It was an affectionate word, a word of trust. When Jesus was dying, he first expressed prayer to his Father. He asked his Father to forgive.
When you and I are faced with that person we are so angry with, we first need to take the situation to our Father. I’ve asked Father God to remove people from the planet, to bring them home to heaven, or wherever their final destination is to be. But thankfully, God softened those prayers over time! Maybe you had a less than ideal father on earth, but God is not like that. God is the perfect parent, always loving and affirming, even in his discipline. Your Heavenly Father will help you do what you cannot do alone. God your Father will help you to forgive the unforgivable. Come to him first. Ask for his help.
Secondly, notice what Jesus asks of his Father. He says, “Father...
2. “Forgive them”
Imagine what needed to be forgiven. The night before, Jesus was betrayed by one of his own, arrested, and then tried illegally six times under cover of darkness. In the morning, the Roman soldiers whipped him to an inch of his life with pieces of pottery and bone that cut into the flesh. They forced a crown of thorns down on his scalp, and made him carry a heavy cross beam out the city gates to a place called Golgotha or Calvary, the “Place of the Skull.” After his human strength gave out, the soldiers drafted an innocent bystander, Simon, to assist.
At Calvary, the soldiers him nailed hand and foot to a cross. A person being crucified died slowly from asphyxiation. It could take hours or even days, unless the Romans broke your leg bones first, so that you could no longer support yourself to take a breath. The Romans had perfected the ultimate torture machine, and they killed thousands of people with it.
You would think that Jesus, facing all this pain and agony, would cry out in despair. You would think he would be angry. But no, his first words were a prayer of forgiveness. When Jesus could have been totally self-centered, he chose to be totally other-centered, and to ask his Father to forgive THEM. Who was “them?”
Most obvious would be the Roman soldiers who put him through the scourging, the mockery, the torture, the cross. Even as he was praying for them, they gambled callously for his clothing. Perhaps he meant them.
Or was he talking about the Jewish religious leaders, the ones who paid Judas thirty pieces of silver to betray his rabbi in a private setting, who had arranged this whole deal and somehow convinced the Romans to go through with it? Perhaps it was them Jesus had in mind.
It could have been Pilate or Herold, those weak Roman political leaders who found themselves manipulated to save their own political skins.
Maybe it was the crowd that had turned so fickle after welcoming Jesus as the Messiah only five days before. Maybe Jesus was asking the Father to forgive them.
Or maybe it was us. If we believe that the cross was to purchase the forgiveness of all of our sins, then Jesus was asking God that day to forgive US as well.
There is plenty of blame to go around, and every one of these groups of people deserved it. All were complicit to some degree in Jesus’ death. Forgiveness by definition is for something inexcusable. So how can it ever be granted? That brings us to the next words from Jesus’ lips. “Father, forgive them...”
3. “For they do not know what they are doing.”
Did not the Roman soldiers know what they were doing? Did not the religious leaders who plotted for months to bring this day about? Even the crowd, the angry mob, did they not carry some responsibility for their actions? And what about us today? Are we ignorant of the extent of our sin?
No one is off the hook. Everyone is responsible for their sin. Yet, Jesus asks for forgiveness based on some level of ignorance: “For they do not know what they are doing.” Even though each group we mentioned was complicit in Jesus’ death, they were also ignorant of the full extent of its actions. The Apostle Paul would later write, “None of the rulers of this age understood [God’s wisdom], for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8). The Roman soldiers thought they were just executing one more common criminal. The Jewish religious leaders thought they had an imposter here. He couldn’t be the real Messiah because he wasn’t kicking out the Romans and restoring Israel to greatness, let alone saving himself. The mob was easily confused, following one way one day and another way the next. Ray Pritchard sums up all of these groups when he says, “They need forgiveness more than they know.”
And what about us? Are we not somewhat ignorant of the full extent of our sin? We trivialize our sin. We say it’s just a mistake or a failure. We just messed up. And we don’t like to think that it was OUR sin that put Jesus on the cross, just as much as it was the sin of those religious authorities and Roman soldiers. The sad fact, though, is that if we would have been in the mob that day, WE would have been among those shouting, “Crucify him!” We’re no better than anyone else, when it really comes down to it. You say, “I would never do that!” Yes, you would. Yes, we would.
And once we get that, we are ready to forgive. Do you know why you are not able to forgive that person who hurt you so badly? Because you think you’re better than them. Your pride is getting in the way. But the truth is, you’re not any better than them! Every last one of us is a sinner. We have all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). People hurt us and we hurt others. We hurt each other and we hurt God. And we all need forgiveness. We need forgiveness more than we know.
Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” He’s talking about us there. And as we receive that forgiveness, we come to understand that those who hurt us are not fully aware of the hurt they caused us. They don’t know what it is like to experience that hurt firsthand. They are not in our heads. In some way, they do not understand what they are doing. They need our forgiveness more than they know.
We don’t excuse what they did as right. No, it was wrong. But with the Father’s help, we can choose to forgive, just as the Father has chosen to forgive us. We can understand that, fundamentally, we are no better than them. We are all sinners in need of grace. Let us pray:??Father, you know we cannot do this alone. Our pride is too great. The sense of wounding is too severe. So, when we face that inevitable challenge to forgive, help us turn to you, the great forgiver and restorer of our soul. Help us to know that you alone understand the extent of our sinful condition. Help us to know humbly that we are all in such great need of your grace, every last one of us. And help us to be able to forgive and move forward with our lives, fueled by your loving forgiveness for us. We ask this in the name of the one who sought our forgiveness when we were unforgivable, amen.
