Father Forgive Them
Father Forgive Them
Luke 23:34
Last Words – Shakespeare – the tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep harmony. (deep harmony, the blending of voices that causes you to sit up on the edge of your seat)
When someone is breathing their last – all non-important items are stripped away, what is important in that persons life will rise to the surface.
The scripture gives us the opportunity to see what is important to the God man Jesus Christ – in his dying hours on the Cross Jesus makes 7 statements – all of which give us tremendous insight into the person of Jesus Christ, They help us appreciate him in his passion even more, and they challenge us be imitators of our savior.
It is my privilege to take the next several communion Sundays and look at all 7 of these last statements that Jesus made while he was suffering and dieing for you and for me on the Cross
(show slide)
Here are his words….
1) Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.
(show the map) – What were they doing?
(betrayed with a kiss, speak of the injustices, & the mockery.)
And now they have taken him to Golgotha.
(picture)
The nails are driven in, a gasp of pain,
As the cross is being raised up, you see the lips of Jesus moving – he is about to say something.
A string of curses for his executioners?
A cry of “I am innocent” “I’ve done nothing wrong” to the onlookers
Perhaps a hateful “Damn you” to the Pharisees
A Cry for mercy perhaps
All of these cries are what you would expect from a man nailed to cross.
What comes forth from the lips of Jesus?
He is praying
For himself – No
In the hour of his death he his concerned about other people.
As I went to John Gilbertson’s funeral this past week, it seemed to me, that that was his concern as well.
Is it yours? Is it mine? In our times of greatest struggle who do we most often think about? Ourselves. – look at me, look at my pain, feel sorry for me, help me.
For Jesus
His hands can no longer perform acts of love
His feet can no longer go on errands of mercy
But one ministry is still open to him – he can pray for others.
And so he does
What is important for Jesus as he finishes his life in such a brutal fashion?
concern for others
communication with God
Isn’t this such an outstanding lesson for us. – as imitators of Christ, these attitudes must be found in us in our hour of struggle.
Father Forgive
Why doesn’t Jesus just forgive them?
He has forgiven sins all through the gospels (Matt 9:6 is just one example of several)
He can’t right now, he is on the cross -- he has now become sin for us – he stands guilty in Father God’s eyes. How beyond comprehension is this.
He is numbered as a transgressor (Is 53:12) – the perfect one condemned as imperfect, the holy one, condemned by God as unholy. The sinless one condemned as sinful.
Such horror for Jesus, such agony, the physical pain, was small compared to this crushing weight of sin bearing down on him. – in the middle of all of this Jesus asks God to forgive. Wait! Right now in the midst of the greatest miscarriage of justice of all time?
When the Creator was being hounded out of the world that he created – that’s when.
When human evil had reached it’s highest level
YES it is exactly then that Jesus pleads and begs with God to withhold his righteous revenge.
Wow. – this is mind blowing love.
If ever there was a time for righteous wrath to explode out of heaven with horrific fury it was then
Jesus needed only to utter the word and it would have happened.
But no, a plea to forgive his persecutors
What does this teach us about Jesus?
This for all it’s blood and gore is a beautiful portrait of the unselfish love of our great Savior.
What does this teach us about ourselves – we need to be forgiving.
What does it mean to forgive anyway?
“give” (give up, let go)
Giving up my right to get even.
He is asking God to do that – God, please give up your right to take it out on these who are doing this to me.
Our sense of Justice wants to put the smack down on those hypocrites who condemned Jesus and the thugs who beat him up.
Forgiveness is hard for us –
Almost every action adventure it seems has this theme running through it – “my name is Antigo Mintoya, you killed my father prepare to die”
a ten year old boy from Texas, captures our attitude so well.
He was pushed in the mud by a classroom bully – he was told that it was unnecessary to get even, because God punishes evildoers, the boy said “okay, I’ll give God till Saturday noon, and if he doesn’t get even for me by then, I’m going to the bully’s house with my baseball bat!
Forgiveness goes against our nature, doesn’t it?
Its natural to get even with the offender by ignoring them, or gossiping about them, or trying to hurt them in some way. –Our sense of Justice is so strong, that we applaud when the bad-guy gets what’s coming to him.
Forgiveness almost seems wrong. – vengeance is right, it’s just.
So how does God do it? And how can I do it – when someone violates me?
I think the answer comes when we look at the cost of forgiveness
Jesus says “Father Forgive” but that is not all he is saying, he is saying
“Father forgive them (and condemn me)”
You see every sin that has ever been committed on this earth is an attack against a holy God, -- and so it must be paid for. – God’s sense of Justice is 100x more sensitive and precise then ours.
Nothing in the eyes of God gets “swept under the rug” – God’s Justice won’t allow it.
So God will not forgive, he will not answer his sons prayer, unless someone pays – and the price is high (Heb 9:22)
The cost is blood
Jesus is stepping forward and saying I will pay so that forgiveness can be possible.
So how does God forgive?
When you turn from your sin, and believe in Jesus -- Jesus asks God to forgive you, based on His sacrifice, God then opens his arms and says come on in, your forgiven.
But – if you refuse to believe – you slap away this gift.
then God cannot and will not forgive you. He cannot give up his right to revenge – the holiness of God demands the sinner to pay.
It is only through sacrifice that God forgives.
that’s divine forgiveness – and that is why we rush to Jesus and worship him. – these elements remind us of the cost of forgiveness.
That’s how God forgives, but how do you and I forgive? If you sin against me – someone needs to bleed to pay for it!!
Well that’s not how it works I am afraid.
Human forgiveness seems to me, to be a bit different than divine forgiveness, If we don’t forgive others, Jesus says, then God will not forgive us. So even when someone wants no part of the forgiveness that you extend to them – they slap it away -- in your heart you must still forgive, you must “give up” your right to get even. God doesn’t – he will have his revenge, but you must. -- You must let it go. Trusting that the righteous judge of the universe will one day sort it all out.
Someone rejects your attempts at finding forgiveness and reconciliation – forgive them – give up your right to get even. – you can only do that by trusting God.
Them
Who is the them? -- The Romans -- The Jews
All mankind – the scope of this prayer goes beyond just the immediate offenders – all of our sins including yours and mine brought Christ to the cross.
we are all implicated in the death of Christ.
They don’t know what they are doing
They knew what they were doing in the sense that they understood that they were killing a man, who they deemed a fraud. – the meaning of ”know” here is a failure to grasp the significance of something.
Because of their unbelief they failed to grasp the enormity of what they were doing. – their unbelief caused them to be ignorant of the fact that they were putting to death so much more than a man, they were putting to death the God man.
How could they not know?
They saw the miracles of Jesus – Lazarus was up and around feeling fine. (Bethany is a stones throw from Jerusalem – they all knew)
They knew the Scriptures about the coming of the Messiah.
–How did they not know?
I think God had blinded their eyes in unbelief – because Christ must die.
Now Father please forgive them – open up their eyes to the truth about me – cause them to run to me and accept the forgiveness my death will now offer.
Is that request answered?
Centurion 23:47 “this man is innocent”
Acts 2:41
Acts 6:7
You bet it is.
But surely not all of the people that day were forgiven.
If I ask you Craig to forgive Gary – Craig can say o.k. I will forgive you, and you can receive all the benefits of forgiveness our relationship is restored, but Gary says – forget you and your forgiveness, I want no part of you and he spits in Craig’s eye – well, the best you can say is that forgiveness was extended, but it was not received. – and this was true of the Christ haters who refused to repent – God will have his revenge on them, but it was their own choice.
What can we learn about our Christ?
Amazing love in the face of such evil – when you look at the bread and wine tonight see the Love on your savior see the cost of forgiveness and rejoice.
What can we learn about ourselves as imitators of Christ?
Concern for others even when they are evil
Communication with God in all situations
Forgiveness for all people who sin against us.
PLBC Evening Service 10/7/07