Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing (Luke 23:34).He came to bring them back to God, yet they beat him, humiliated him, and nailed him to a cross naked to let him die slowly.
But when he died, and as he died, he said forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.
But did they? How could he say that? They knew what they were doing. They were killing him because he disagreed with them. He had a different viewpoint than they and was more popular in it than they were so they killed him. They were trying to shut him up.
They wanted nothing more than to stop all dissenting points of view. And that was what he was: an annoying different point of view.
They had done this since their people began. In the Old Testament, prophet after prophet came and told them what God had to say. They didn’t want to listen so they tried their best to stop them.
It never worked, of course, but they tried. And when Jesus came, it was the same. They did not want to hear him, so they tried to stop him. But Jesus realized that they really didn’t understand it all. They thought they were doing business as usual. They thought it was normal to do this. Jesus knew it wasn’t.
He knew they didn’t realize his message and that when they did, they would be sorry they had turned it down. He knew that in a few days, a huge bunch of these people right here today would accept that message and then would feel sorrow for killing him. He knew that.
But they didn’t now. Not yet. And they didn’t realize that a God of love does not operate in an atmosphere of hatred. In this new order, killing is not acceptable. Obedience, like love, has to be from the heart or it is no good.
It was painful to him, beyond imagining. But he knew they just didn’t understand.
When people hurt the preacher in a church because he disagrees with them, when they cause him to be fired, when they try to make his family homeless, it is the same thing. They just don’t understand.
When people split a church because of doctrinal differences and put others out of their assemblies, it is the same thing. They just don’t understand.
When people work behind the scenes in an underhanded way to try to split a church, when they write letters, when they spread gossip or rumors, when they try to drive a wedge, it is the same thing. They just don’t understand.
They think they are doing it the normal way. But they aren’t. Sometimes, of course, they will never understand. Sometimes they will never come to a level of understanding and see what the will of God truly is. But even so, like Jesus said, they still just don’t understand.
Jesus went to his death forgiving those who had hurt him. How can we do any less?
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