April 6
“And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do,’” Luke 23:33-34.
During the Lenten season, our teaching and preaching, our meditations, and our prayers concentrate heavily around what took place during that first Holy Week from the Monday after Palm Sunday through Saturday, the day before Easter. One can choose simple texts and develop a message. For example, in the text above, we are told: “There they crucified Him!” There – where? They – who? Crucified – did what? Him – Whom? One can easily develop the story in each of these words and make soul-touching applications.
Sermons have also been written and preached during the Lenten season which deal with the seven sets of words or sentences recorded in Holy Scripture that Jesus spoke while hanging on the cross at Calvary. Beginning with today, we too will meditate on these words or sentences.
As soon as Jesus was crucified, He began praying for others. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do!” These first Words from the cross remind us how Jesus taught all of His followers to pray. “I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,” Matthew 5:44. The love of the Savior reaches out to all sinners, even His enemies, even those who persecuted Him and who cried out repeatedly, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Yes, when we behold the love of Jesus for sinners, then we too will pray for those who hurt and hate us, “Father, forgive them!” When we ponder upon the glorious Gospel truth that Jesus suffered and died to wash our sins away, then we too will have a forgiving heart toward others.
As true disciples and followers of the Lord Jesus, we will have a ready and willing heart to forgive those who sin against us. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was being stoned to death by people who hated him because he told them that they were resisting the call of the Holy Spirit to repentance and faith and they were refusing to believe in Jesus as their Savior. As he was being stoned, he prayed, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin,” Acts 7:60.
When Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them,” He was praying for you and me also. With all our sins, we were at Calvary, and Jesus was paying the price to redeem us. With His innocent suffering and death, He washed our sins away. In spirit, kneel at the foot of Calvary’s cross and, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God,” 1 John 3:1.
Yes, how often is Jesus still praying for you and me? “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do!” We pray:
“Jesus, in Thy dying woes,
Even while Thy life-blood flows,
Craving pardon for Thy foes:
Hear us, holy Jesus.
Savior, for our pardon sue,
When our sins Thy pangs renew,
For we know not what we do:
Hear us, holy Jesus.
Oh, may we, who mercy need,
Be like Thee in heart and deed,
When with wrong our spirits bleed:
Hear us, holy Jesus.” Amen.