This sermon was delivered Gordon McCulloch to the congregation at Holy Trinity in Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 29th November 2019; Holy Trinity is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
Jeremiah 23:1-6 Psalm 46 Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43
“Please join me in a short prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen. (Ps. 19:14)
Introduction, a description of a typical portratit of a king.
In the today’s liturgical calendar, we celebrate “Christ the King” and we here this morning have no problems with that title whatsoever, however I asked the kids at our school, what do you think is a true representation, or portrait of a king and I received, (after many grunts and groans) a stereotypical answer, that a king should be seen on a horse, preferably a white one riding in the lush countryside. He should be wearing neatly fitting chainmail and his hair and beard would be all neatly manicured. … He would have a large, two handed sword on one hand and a large shield with a fancy royal crest on the other. He would have a golden crown upon his head, and … should he say something, he would probably use the word “freedom” somewhere as his caption.
Yet that couldn’t be any further removed from the portrait of Jesus we read about this morning. … For a start, there was no horse, and the countryside was almost desert. He was not wearing chainmail, in fact the bible tells that nailed to a cross, he was beaten, bruised and was stripped naked. … He had no sword, but he had a crown, but a crown of thorns from which blood would flow … and instead of a shield with a royal crest, he had a sign which said, “king of the Jews”. Yet when he spoke, surprisingly, the same word freedom came into it, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing”, which as I hope you will soon hear … truly means freedom.
What is and why do we need forgiveness?
What I am saying is that forgiveness gives us freedom, and a freedom in a far higher sense than any political freedom, let me explain as this subject of forgiveness has been on my mind a lot lately, and it is one of those topics that as soon as you think you have understood it, you realise there is more to this subject than you realise.
I suppose it all starts away back in Genesis 2 verse 16 where God said to Adam in the Garden of Eden, and we all know this, that “every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: … but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” … and you know what happened … Eve tempts Adam and they end up getting thrown out the Garden of Eden.
But let’s back up a bit here to the phrase, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” … because that is the phrase I want to concentrate on, because this is the very phrase Satan picked up upon to Eve, when he said, “ye shall not surely die: … for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil”, (gods there with a small “g”).
And do you know, most people when they hear this verse they focus on, “you shall be like gods”, which sounds great, but they fail to see the phrase following which says, “knowing good and evil” … which is a much more powerful phrase with the word “knowing” being a very much undervalued term … and in this context it mean an involuntary, automatic way of knowing something. … It’s true meaning in the original Hebrew is used to extend it to our sub conscious mind … meaning that our subconscious makes decisions for us … and sometimes against us, and it reacts in a far more dramatic way in order that we may be at peace within ourselves. …
Our subconscious mind is that part of us that knows and recognises, and reacts immediately and automatically, to any act that is committed to us, or committed by us to someone else. … I will give you an example … if we witness any act or action, our brain automatically thinks, was that good or was that a bad thing to happen. We cannot help it, because we are as “gods, (small g), knowing good and evil”, we cannot help it.
And this whole process is well known to us, we call it our conscience, and we all know how our conscious can eat away at us for one reason or another, particularly when we deem there is been an injustice, whether that injustice has been committed against us, or we have committed an injustice against someone else.
And when our conscience is upset, it wants to, no it demands things be put right in order to give us that freedom of peace within … and to do this our conscience wants, or is looking for a certain amount of revenge, (or something), in order to set the records straight.
So, our brain kicks in automatically and starts looking for, and planning for revenge with a certain amount of anger driving it. … Now come on, we have all done this to an extent, it is human nature, it is normal, and they have even made great movies about this and my favourite story of revenge is the “Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexander Dumas; I am sure you know it.
Think about it, how many movies have you watched, and where the main theme is that of someone getting some kind of revenge for some kind for an injustice of sort.
And where does this need for revenge take us because in both cases there is the anger in our hearts, and an unhealthy determination to attack someone, somehow and give them a piece of our mind in a way that says “do not mess with me” … … or in the case of us doing something wrong, we want the opportunity to say to the world, “I did not mean that to happen”.
And deep down, that cannot be good for both for ourselves and the other person(s), we are in turmoil with ourselves, and until things are settled; our internal peace within us has gone, and our thinking goes to pot. … Our internal reasoning has changed, and we make decision out with our normal character … decisions sometimes that are detrimental to ourselves. … Come on, we are all familiar with the phrase, “do not cut of your nose to spite your face”, and I am sorry to say, many of us have done so at some point in our lives, sorry to say.
But as I have said earlier, that is the normal human process, that is the way the world works, and we ask ourselves, is there an alternative, but an alternative that works. … Well there is and we see Jesus doing that this morning as he hung from that cross in agony … Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing”.
Forgiving the people.
Now lets us see this put into practice at Calvary that day, and to do so, I want to look at the scene from the viewpoint of Jesus as he hung on the cross, which is slightly different from the viewpoint of the disciples that we read in the bible … Jesus would see everyone who was present that day.
He would see from his personal viewpoint
He would see the large crowd made up of its many different factions.
Two thieves beside him.
He would see the: two thieves beside him being crucified, one of them genuinely sorry for his offences, and the other proud, because he did it “his way”.
Roman soldiers
He would see the Roman soldiers there, soldiers unconcerned about his suffering, or his agony on the cross, or the truth about who Jesus was. … They were hardened to this, they were only carrying out orders making sure he was crucified, and while he was dying, he would see them playing dice and gambling for his clothes.
Pilate and his officials.
He would see Pilate and his officials, ambitious politician who was willing to deliver an innocent man into the hands of a malicious mob, in order to save their own office.
Herod, the puppet king
He would see Herod, the puppet king who thought Jesus was some kind of magician, and who secretly wanted to recruit Jesus for himself, and us his power for his own purposes.
The Jewish leaders and the Scribes and Pharisees
He would also see the Jewish leaders and the Scribes and Pharisees, so proud and arrogant, so prejudiced, so self-righteous, gloating in the success of his crucifixion, because Jesus did not fit into their idea of what the coming messiah should be like.
The howling mob, the paid instigators.
There was also be the howling mob, the instigators in the crowd, the mob who came to curse and taunt and torment him and who were paid to do so, paid to demand his execution.
The onlookers, the rubber neckers.
And there must also been and element within the crowd whom we would class as the onlookers, the rubber neckers, present only to see what was going on so they could report back, and say “I was there”.
Disciples and his followers
But there were also people in the crowd who were followers of Jesus, followers who were totally powerless to act or do something. These included Jesus own disciples, friends and family, who were invisible in the crowd for fear of their lives.
Genuine people
And further back in the crowd there must have been the genuine people, those who knew that this was a travesty, and that Jesus was a good man, and who was being punished unjustly.
Us the future
And finally, you could add us to that crowd, as our hearts looking at this past event, horrified by the injustice done to our lord and king.
What would Jesus say to such a crowd
So, on the cross, despite his pain, despite his anguish, despite the horrible people in front of him, despite the sincere and honest people in the crowd, what would Jesus say to them all … all at the one and the same time? … Jesus said from the heart, “Father forgive them, as they know not what they are doing” … and I hope I am giving you an insight as to why he said that.
1 To himself
First to himself, Jesus knew what he was doing, he knew he needed to die to save the people, to save the world from their sins … because he knew this was the only way it could be done, but just in case there was a bit of resentment building up in his heart, a wee bit of feeling unappreciated at those who falsely convicted him, he forgave them, that way he was free from any thoughts of revenge that may have crept in to his heart, and that way he remained free to love them, and die for them in this horrible way. After all Jesus was human, he was like you and I.
2 To those who harmed him
Secondly, Jesus also forgave those who wanted harm to come to him. For him (as I have said), it was never about revenge, it was never about getting even, as he knew these people would get their comeuppance, some day without his help, and this is important. …
If we are hell bent on looking for revenge of some kind, or some kind of retribution, we will never find it with hatred in our hearts. We can only achieve peace by being able to forgive those who have harmed us, (or wish to do us wrong), by letting go of the pain that they are causing us.
… And we can only do that by forgiveness, whether they ask for it or not. It is not about let them off with what they have done for us, or forgetting about it, it is about protecting ourselves from the harm we do to ourselves by harbouring anger, hatred and wilful revenge. …
And one other point on this issue, when we are hell bent on this type of crusade, we do so on our own … without God, or should I say, we do not give God the opportunity to resolve the situation. …
What I am saying here is that God will never interfere with our own wills, we have to invite him in, and we can only do that if we drop the crusade … that we forgive, and hand it all over to him. … … I am not saying for one second this is easy, because it is not a soft option as many people like to portray, (you know, saying things like,” apologising is a sign of weakness”), no, and very much no.
The ability to forgive requires strength, strength of character to rise above a situation, in fact, I see people who cannot forgive as weak and ineffectual. … True forgiveness is for the strong, and it makes us even stronger when we say “I am sorry, please forgive me”. …
And do you know, even if the other person does not forgive us, we are forgiven automatically, anyway … why, because our hearts are sincere, our hearts have changes, and with that everything changes. As soon as we say we are sorry, we are instantly forgiven. Look at our prayers of purity we say ever Sunday, every time we say that prayer we are forgiven instantly … if we truly mean it.
Anyway, returning to those horrible people in the crowd … I am sure some of them someday would realise that they did wrong, and how comforting it would have been for them to hear these words of Jesus, “Father forgive them, as they know not what they are doing” … albeit long after the event.
3 To those who loved him
And thirdly, Jesus said “Father forgive them,” to those who him, and it must have been a comfort for them to hear him say that because he must have said that with love in his heart, meaning he knew what he was doing and that he was strong, and well on top of this horrible situation. …
There is a small book about the greatest miracle ever performed by Jesus, I read it years ago and I forgot who wrote it, but what it was saying, was that the greatest miracle that we could ever perform was the in the ability to say sorry, because when we do so, we let go of the internal stresses within ourselves, we rise above the situation before it escalates … and more importantly, we invite God in to do our bidding. … I have known about this for years, and boy when it works, it truly works.
Communion.
Finally, (I hope you are still with me), every Sunday we come forward for communion, and when we do, we say, “Father forgive us”, and if we truly mean it, then he does … and he does so for many reasons, one being is that if he does not forgive us … if he does not forgive us of any sin … and I mean any sin … then, we are of no use to him or ourselves. There is something magical that happens when we say and we mean sorry from the heart.
I see it every day. For some reason, I get all the difficult pupils in the school sent to me against my wishes, and it bothers me, because sometimes, I get angry at their antics and foolishness, and I know there is not much I can do about it … but when I am angry and dressing down a pupil … something magically happen if, (and it happens more than you think), when that child says, “sorry, my bad, I messed up”. …
I am not joking, you can hear the remorse in their heart, and when they do, it is impossible, I mean totally impossible to remain angry. … I have tried, but something changes within both of us, God moves, and the whole situation totally transforms itself. … It is so powerful, lives and destinies are changed, all by that simple admission of failure.
Finally, what is the very first act of a Christian? … It is the ability to recognise and say, I have messed my life up, “forgive me father for I have sinned” … after that, God moves in and God takes over. … That is what happened at the cross that day, and because of this our lives are saved in him, we belong to him, and we are totally changed … all because we recognise the Kingship of Jesus, and apologize for not living up to his standards. …
There is so much power, and so much changes when we put our trust in Jesus … and say to him with reverence in our hearts, “Lord forgive me, I have done wrong” … if only we knew.
Amen
