Father Forgive Them

Big idea

Jesus preemptively forgave and sought the redemption of the people who were treating him with brutality.

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Introduction

Christian Tradition suggests that the centurion who led the crucifixion of Jesus was Longinus, who later became a Christian because of the witness of Jesus’ martyrdom. Much of what is written about this man is completely fictional and tainted with philosophies and doctrines of the church in the middle ages, but what if we were to look at the story of Christ through the experience of a roman soldier?

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Jesus’ interactions with soldiers didn’t start out positively. Soldiers were dispatched by king Herod to kill Jesus when he was a baby. Instead, they killed every child under 2 years old in the town of Bethlehem.

Later in life, Jesus could have looked at those events during his childhood and held a big grudge towards Roman soldiers. How could any person murder babies? Should’t that bring out righteous indignation?

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Israel was at the end of a 490 year probationary period that God had given them after their release from Babylonian captivity in 457 BC. They had beaten and tormented the prophetic managers that God had sent to them, and now God had sent His only son to bring them to repentance. Yet, they remained unrepentant.

Just a few days before HIs crucifixion Jesus stood on the mountain near Jerusalem and cried, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matt 23:37, Luke 13:34)

They had become so caught up in their political agenda to overthrow the Romans that they had become a nuisance to God and to their government. One Roman leader after another had to deal with the obstinate and truly repugnant character of the leaders of Israel. One zealous uprising after another had to be quelled by Roman soldiers by hoisting the leaders of the rebellion up on wooden poles to show their dying bodies to all who would go in and out of Jerusalem, They tried every method possible to put an end to the Jews’ will to fight, and bring them to a point of surrender. But they would not surrender.

The Jewish zealots were not good citizens who were forced to pursue harsh measures to accomplish what was right. These weren’t the men who threw the tea off the ships in protest of taxation without representation during the American Revolution. A better comparison would be the group that attempted to blow up the British parliament in the Guy Fox Gunpowder Treason Plot of 1605. Or the religious zealots who crashed passenger airline planes into the twin towers in the United States on September 11, 2001. These were scoundrels and thieves and murderers who excused their behavior by appealing to religious purpose.

They were terrorists.

If you were leading the Roman government, how would you treat this servile nation? Wouldn’t you put them under significant scrutiny? Wouldn’t you fill their streets with soldiers? That’s what the US government did with Afghanistan and Iraq September 11.

Let’s think about the soldiers experience with violence for a bit. A Roman Soldier was tasked with fighting for the honor of their nation. They were a volunteer; probably for the money, and the career advancement possibilities, and the prestige, but especially to defend the honor and interests of the mighty Roman Empire.

The United States has found itself in significant and difficult wars through the years. In Vietnam soldiers were caught off guard by children who would get close to them and then throw grenades. In defending the idea of democracy in the face of what they felt was an existential threat from Communism, these soldiers had to look at a child and see an enemy of the state.

In Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan US soldiers might be attacked by adolescents with automatic weapons or rocket launches. They could be traveling through seemingly un-militarized territory and suddenly have an IED explode under one of their vehicles, triggered by a woman making dinner in a nearby house. Terror like that changes how soldiers relate to their surroundings. Every person becomes a suspect. Every encounter is questioned. Sometimes good people get caught in the crossfire because people that looked a lot like them were presenting a threat. In the good and noble defense of our nation, honorable soldiers have been forced to do horrible things.

Now imagine something similar for the soldiers who entered Bethlehem with the orders to kill the babies under 2 years old. It was a horrible and gruesome task, and the Jews certainly held a grudge against them. But step back from the emotion of the moment and you’ll recognize a soldier who was doing the best he could with the orders that were given him. A soldier who loved his country and was defending it against a people who sought its destruction.

Jesus saw a bigger picture than most Jews. First of all, he knew that the political nation of Israel wasn’t the apple of His eye, that distinction rested with the people of Israel themselves, not their government. His goal Messiah wasn’t a national revitalization plan, but a heart renewal that would usher in the spiritual kingdom of God and prepare the way for the whole world to receive the Christian message. He saw things differently than most Jews. He saw a bigger picture.

Most Jews hated their occupiers, and most soldiers were probably a little tense living in hostile Israel. Jesus hints at the tense relationship between the Jews and the occupying Roman soldiers when he said,

Matthew 5:41 NLT

41 If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles.

This kind of thinking was completely foreign for the Jews.

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I imagine the culture in the Roman barracks in Jerusalem to be somewhat like the culture in the US military on deployment to one of these difficult countries.

Roman soldiers were called volunteers or recruits. The entire Roman army was made up of 60 legions with a rough total of 330,000 professional soldiers. Signing up to serve in the army was a commitment of 20-25 years. A legion would was headed by an senate appointee. In the case of Jerusalem, that appointee was the former centurion of the highest rank named Pontius Pilot. A legion would be sent wherever the government had need of them. If they had skills or experience before joining the legion, a soldier would be put to work using those skills between battles. Cobblers would make shoes for the soldiers. Carpenters would build for the army. If you didn’t have a prior skill then you would build and repair Roman Roads.

Roman soldiers were from pagan roots. They carried their talismans with them and worshipped Roman gods like Jupiter and Apollo, Cupid and Mars. Yet they weren’t flat characters without nuance or story. These were men who were connected to their homes and their stories. They likely had some trinket from a loved-one back home—a necklace or a carving of some kind. They had future plans and current interests.

The New Testament story of one Roman officer, a centurion, demonstrates the nuance to the lives of Roman soldiers. A centurion was the leader of a century of soldiers—a group of 80 soldiers and 20 non-combatant servants. Centurions held various ranks and we don’t know what level of experience this centurion had, but he was high enough up that he had his own house in Capernaum. Centurions could lead a century, or a group of centuries called a cohort, or be at the head of a legion leading a speicial double cohort. What we can conclude about the centurion in Matthew 8 is that he had a minimum of 16-20 years experience in the Roman legion, and that he managed a minimum of 100 men, and possibly as many as 800.

Here’s the story in brief:

A centurion in Capernaum had a paralyzed servant. Maybe he had an accident that paralyzed him, or maybe it was an infection like polio or botulism that would soon take his life. Either way, the centurion must have heard about the miracles of Jesus because he came to Jesus and told him about his servant. As soon as he had explained the situation, and before he could make any request, Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.” The centurion wasn’t expecting that.

Matthew 8:8–9 ESV

8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Jesus must have gotten a big grin on his face because Matthew records that,

Matthew 8:10 ESV

10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.

This centurion’s faith shows us that there were likely a wide variety of soldiers in Jerusalem. Some were probably vicious and cruel, but many were normal people with complex and interesting lives who were just doing their duty to defend their country.

Roman soldiers had a good reason to be in Jerusalem, and they were doing the best they could with the circumstances they had been dealt. If they had to fight a war with zealous terrorists, or weed out the worst of them and hang them on a cross to discourage others who might be tempted to rebel, they were willing to do what it took. Whether crucifixion was right or not, I’m sure they believed the crucifixion of terrorists was an important part of their foreign policy with Jerusalem.

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Our focus today is the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and the moment when Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” With this background on Roman Soldiers in jerusalem, let’s look at the story of Jesus’ crucifixion from the soldier’s perspective.

Soldiers entered the scene a little later in the story of Jesus’ trial. The guards who arrested Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane weren’t Roman soldiers, they were the temple guards controlled by the Sanhedrin. Temple authorities also brought Jesus to the Romans. This was not a Roman arrest. Jesus had done nothing wrong in the sight of Rome. No Roman authority was interested in Him. But in Matthew 27:26, after Jesus had seen both Pilate and Herod, Pilate washed his hands of the decision about Jesus’ life, released Barabbas—a true zealot and terrorist—and then turned Jesus over to Roman soldiers to be flogged and crucified. This is the first interaction Jesus has with Roman soldiers that weekend, and it wasn’t pleasant.

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Now, imagine if you were a soldier in Pilate’s legion. You have very little interaction with local politics or religion. You wouldn’t have seen much of what Jesus was doing, and if you had, it was local religious stuff so you’d likely dismiss it as rumor or hearsay or another zealot the people were getting attached to. You might even be on a new assignment in Jerusalem with no prior knowledge of the territory except the political challenges of these terrorists that you were charged with keeping under check. One way or the other, Pilate had a prisoner sent over to be whipped and crucified, and so that’s what you were going to do.

Your job would be to thoroughly flog the prisoner so that their body would be bloodied up and weakened so they would be less able to fight back during the crucifixion. Then you would have them carry their own cross beam through the city to demonstrate to everyone the punishment for terrorizing Rome. Finally, you would raise them up to die beside the road so that lots of people would see them as they traveled in and out of the city. You would wait with them while they died so no one would be able to take them off the cross.

You don’t know the politics of this particular guy, but you do know that your job is an important part of solving the problem with the Jews. So you whip Jesus until he’s weak with the loss of blood. Pilot’s guards have told you that He claimed to be a king, so you put an old purple robe on him and twist some briers together to make a crown of torture that you shove on his head. And then everyone laughs and taunts and shouts, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Matt 27:29). You’re not mocking God, at least not in your mind. No, you’re mocking the terrorist and his stubborn desire to overthrow Rome. But there’s something different about this man. He doesn’t respond when you’re beating him. He takes it with pitiful humility.

You put the cross beam on Jesus’ back and start to march him through Jerusalem, along with two others who are both murderers and thieves in Barabbas’ crew of zealots. But Jesus had been under much more of an emotional and physical burden then the other two prisoners, and so he collapses under the burden of the heavy beam. One of the other soldiers grabs a foreigner from the crowd and forces him carry Jesus’ cross beam.

Unlike your usual trudge up the hill to the place of crucifixion, this time hundreds of people are lining the street—some crying and some jeering. Maybe it’s because its the time of year for one of their feasts; that’s why so many people are in the streets, you reason. Before long, though, it becomes clear that they were there to see Jesus.

At the top of the hill you lay him down on the cross. Other soldiers from your unit are wrestling the other prisoners trying to nail them to the cross. They wrap ropes around their arms, to try and hold their hands in place so they can nail them to the beam. But Jesus doesn’t resist. He doesn’t fight back. He doesn’t scream obscenities at you. He doesn’t cry out against the Roman Empire. He doesn’t call for the God of Israel to strike you down. Instead, he says something that no one could have anticipated—something you’ll remember for the rest of your life:

Luke 23:34 NLT

34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

You have pity on Jesus and offer him some of wine mixed with a poison to help dull the pain he’ll be experiencing. But unlike the others, Jesus refuses the bitter mixture.

Jesus was different than the others you’ve crucified, but you’ve still got the job of watching over them so that no one can take them down before they die. It’s going to be a long day and a long night because a crucifixion can last from several hours to several days depending on how much blood was lost during the flogging. So, you settle in and entertain yourselves by gambling over the meager possessions each of the prisoners had on them before you flogged them. It’s a gruesome scene, but someone has to do the work so the empire will remain stable. Someone has to deal with the terrorists.

A couple hours into the crucifixion one of Pilate’s guards brings a sign to put on Jesus’ cross, and you climb up on a ladder and hammer it above Jesus’ head. It reads “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” As you nail the sign onto the cross Jesus lifts his head wearily and looks into your eyes with a quiet nobility. The more you see this man, and the more times you hear that he is a king, the more you start to wonder if there might be something different about this crucifixion than all the others you’ve been assigned to.

Jewish priests and religious leaders are present, mocking Jesus, “if you’re the king of the Jews, save yourself!” (Luke 23:37) Other onlookers shout out, “Yeah! He saved others, let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” (Luke 23:35).

A couple of the soldiers hear the jeering of the crowd and join in.

One of the other criminals joins the chorus of mockers, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!’ (Luke 23:39)

You hear all this and then you hear Jesus responding to the second criminal who denounced the jeers, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong… Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” and Jesus replied, “I assure you today, you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:40-43)

There is something strange and wonderful about this man who prays for forgiveness of his abusers, and promises paradise to criminals. He’s clearly not the usual criminal that is put to death on a cross.

The sky grows unusually dark and for several hours you wonder if its going to rain, but no rain ever falls. After a few hours there is an earthquake that shakes the whole city. To you it seems like the earthquake originated at the cross. Between the darkened sky and the ground shaking its as if all nature were crying out for this man. You and the other soldiers look at each other with bewilderment and you say, “this man truly was the Son of God!” (Matt 27:54)

You hear Jesus say, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” and then he stops breathing.

You leave Jesus’ body on the cross. The others are still alive, so you wait. Then, orders come up the hill that you are to break the legs of the criminals because the priests have asked Pilate for the crucifixion to end before the Sabbath starts. A prominent Jew called Joseph of Arimathea is there with some of Jesus’ followers to receive Jesus’ body and take it to a tomb. The other soldiers break the legs of the other two criminals, but before you are able to break Jesus’ legs, your Decanus, the leader of your group of eight soldiers, steps up and pierces His side with his spear—it’s obvious Jesus is already dead, so you don’t break his legs.

Joseph and his friends use your ladder to climb the cross and remove Jesus’ hands and feet from the rough wooden beams. You watch them lovingly, gently, place His body on a stretcher and wrap Him in burial cloths. They take Jesus’ body away and something prods at the back of your mind telling you that you should pay attention to what happens next. But you can’t dwell on that for long. There is work to do. The other criminals have just stopped breathing and you need to take them down from their crosses.

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Conclusion

In the great work on Christ’s life called, The Desire of Ages, Ellen White says this about Jesus’ heart as he was being roughly nailed to the cross:

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Desire of Ages Chapter 78—Calvary

The Saviour made no murmur of complaint. His face remained calm and serene, but great drops of sweat stood upon His brow. There was no pitying hand to wipe the death dew from His face, nor words of sympathy and unchanging fidelity to stay His human heart. While the soldiers were doing their fearful work, Jesus prayed for His enemies, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” His mind passed from His own suffering to the sin of His persecutors, and the terrible retribution that would be theirs. No curses were called down upon the soldiers who were handling Him so roughly. No vengeance was invoked upon the priests and rulers, who were gloating over the accomplishment of their purpose. Christ pitied them in their ignorance and guilt. He breathed only a plea for their forgiveness,—“for they know not what they do.”

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What does it take to make you murmur and complain? Do you complain when your food comes out cold at a restaurant? Do you complain when the music is too fast or too slow at church? Do you complain when you have to work an extra long day, or perform a task that is just not that fun? Do you complain when the customer service person on the other end of the phone call doesn’t solve your problem quickly? Kids, do you complain when your parents ask you do something you don’t want to do?

We are a grumbling and complaining crowd—nearly every one of us. And you know it’s true. Don’t try to excuse yourself.

Every time we complain we’re putting our problems on someone else.

The cook in that kitchen didn’t warm my food right.

or The server took too long getting the food to me.

That pianist plays the piano as slow as a snail.

My boss isn’t treating me with the respect I deserve for how long I’ve worked here. I should get more say in my work schedule.

My parents just don’t understand me. If they really loved me they would give me more freedom.

Every complaint is an accusation. Every murmur is a judgment on someone.

Jesus didn’t do that. He could have. It was not his fault that his back was torn by whips, his face beat in by fists, or his head bloodied with a crown of thorns. That was the soldier’s fault. He could have complained and accused and judged. He could have called down fire from Heaven like Elijah, or brought out bears to defend him like Elisha. He could have called 10,000 angels to come to his aid because God himself was being treated horribly by his creation. But he didn’t murmur and he didn’t complain.

Instead, Jesus took every iron blow to his wrist, every mean look, every taunt and jeer, every painful movement and he owned it as though he deserved it. Without judgment or accusation he prayed to God on behalf of the people who deserved His condemnation, “Father, forgive them.”

Paul says it this way,

Romans 5:8 CSB

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus took all the accusations and condemnation and guilt that was due to us—sinners—even for the soldiers that nailed him to the cross. Without retaliation or complaint, Jesus owned it as if our guilt were His own.

Let this reality sink in. That you are no different than the soldier who nailed Jesus to the cross, and yet He has compassion on you. You are the soldier that gave him gaul to drink, and yet he looks into your eyes with loving compassion. You are the cause of His great torture and pain and yet he offers you forgiveness and even paradise with a room in His own house.

Is there really anything in life that is too much for you to bear when you see Jesus’ tender love on the cross? Is there any situation that you can’t be a measure more patient, more gracious, more diplomatic in your conversation when you consider Jesus’ attitude of humility and grace? When you hear Jesus praying for the forgiveness of those who caused him such agony with their whips, do you honestly think you have the right to criticize and grumble and complain about your life?

Is there a grudge your hold that is more significant than the abuse Jesus endured and forgave? Is there someone who has done you worse wrong than Jesus experienced when he was abandoned by his closest friend and tortured to death?

I hope we leave this worship service today with a better understanding of the compassion of Jesus, and that we will think twice before we speak harshly to the customer service representative on the phone. I hope that seeing Jesus lifted up from the earth because of His great love for us, will cause us to bow down our heads in humility and patient surrender. I hope that we will be inspired to look into the eyes of those who have done us wrong and say, “I forgive you” and pray that God will forgive them too.