As we enter into the final stretch of lent, we continue to prepare ourselves for Easter.
Over the next week, ending on Good Friday, your pastoral staff will be putting out a short meditation on one of the seven last words of Jesus before he passed.
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34a; NLT)
An Uncommon Prayer
It’s very common for someone facing death to pray, but the content of Jesus’ prayer is what is so odd. For those suffering and being executed, two responses were typical.
Criminals would often say “May my death atone for all my sins” in a desperate hope that somehow their punishment was enough to salvage theirs souls. Jesus being innocent had no need for this prayer.
The righteous sufferer, on the other hand, may shout something like the Maccabean martyrs,
“Keep on, and see how his mighty power will torture you and your descendants!…But do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God!…You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God” (2 Mac 7:17, 19, 34-35; RSV).
Understandably, they desired vindication and divine vengeance for their unjust suffering.
It’s Jesus’ prayer, not theirs, that defies expectations.
Forgiveness we understand
At one point my best friend and his fiance were making a decision that hurt Liz very deeply. His fiance called Liz weeping apologizing for what she knew to be a selfish decision, but also letting her know of her intention to follow through.
She could say “sorry” all day long, but if she didn’t ever change course, every apology was just an empty self-justification. Every “sorry” a reminder of how little we were valued.
Over the next several months we struggled to forgive. I longed for the day when it would be over, because I realized that it’s so much easier to forgive once it’s a done deed rather than a continued twisting of the knife.
We understand after-the-fact forgiveness. Those things that have hurt us but are done with. Things that we can pretend that they wouldn’t do again if they had a do-over. Those momentary mistakes we all make.
We can put the past behind us, but not the present.
In the face of ongoing evil, where the person is making the decision to betray, afflict, and destroy, forgiveness is incomprehensible…yet this is what Jesus in fact does.
How Much More
In the midst of his most excruciating suffering, he cries out not for self-atonement nor vengeance but that his tormentors would not suffer what they deserve.
How much more can we be sure of his forgiveness when we come in repentance? If he can offer forgiveness in suffering, how much more in glory? Christ being eager to forgive hanging on the cross will certainly welcome the sinner bowing before his throne.
Christ being eager to forgive hanging on the cross will certainly welcome the sinner bowing before his throne.
Christ’s Mind in Us
As we look forward to Easter, we see the promise of the Gospel is not just forgiveness of past sins but that we would have Christ’s mind (Phil 2:5).
We see this mind realized in the first martyr, Stephen, whose last words were, “‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’” (Acts 7:60). Christ is not merely an example upon which we’ll fall short, he provides power to live as he did.
In him is not only forgiveness, but the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit that makes us like him.
Reflection questions:
Are there sins of mine that I fear Christ may not forgive?
Are there people I need to forgive? Any who are currently harming me?
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