Jesus’ Last Words: Father, forgive

At least one commentator described the scene as a circus. Crucifixion was used to make an example of people who challenged Rome’s grip, and Jerusalem was a hotbed for such men. Thus, it was not uncommon to see a would-be insurrectionist paraded from the stone pavement where final judgment was cast, through the streets, out the gate, and up the hill to Golgotha, where they were hoisted up for all to see. As people looked up at their naked, battered body, the message was clear: Rome’s grip is unshakeable. And the people passing by would mock and spit upon the man who was stupid enough to think otherwise.

This crucifixion, however, was extraordinary. It happened during Passover, and one of the three prisoners was particularly despised. While most prisoners carried their own cross to Golgotha, Jesus was exceptionally weak. He was arrested the night before and hauled from place to place for various trials in front of the respective authorities, and his back was hamburger, shredded by whips with embedded bits of metal and bone. Between sleep deprivation and blood loss, the guards were forced to recruit a man from the crowd to carry his cross. Now, as he stumbled up the hill called Calvary, there were waiting for him a crowd of hissing Pharisees, front and center, and a handful of women weeping softly to the side.

Luke, in his gospel, described the chaos of the scene. Luke, in his gospel, noted in Luke 23:26 the unusually large crowd following Jesus, including women who wept and wailed loudly. In verse 34, he mentioned the guards who were carrying on as they gambled for the ribbons that remained of Jesus’ clothing. In verse 36, he pointed out the people who stood watching like spectators at a great sporting event and the leaders, who were typically renowned for their stoicism, scoffing. Then, as if that was not enough, he added in verse 39 that even one of the other criminals crucified alongside Jesus began helling insults at him.

It is interesting that, for all of these details, Luke almost completely glossed over the main event. He did not describe, for example, how the guards shoved Jesus to the ground. He did not explain how they pinned him to the cross and almost pulled his arms out of socket because they were so used people who fought tooth and nail. He did not write how the hammer flashed as it was raised into the morning sun. He did not record for us the sound as the hammer fell. Clank! Clank! Clank!

Instead, in verse 33, he said simply, “When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him there.”

No, even as that sharp, painful sound reverberated across the hilltop, Luke focused in Luke 23:34 on the sound of Jesus voice as he said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.”

Immediately, we have a problem. This statement was not included in some of the most ancient and reliable copies that we have of Luke’s gospel. This has led many scholars to acknowledge that the statement probably was not part of Luke’s original work. Yet, even the staunchest critics of Scripture recognize that, if it was added, it was added very early by someone who knew Jesus so well that they may have been at Golgotha themselves. (Luke, for the record, was not personally present at the crucifixion.) Even The Interpreter’s Bible, which is generally eager to dismiss passages far less controversial than this, defends its inclusion, suggesting, “One is inclined to be considerable more puzzled by the hypothesis that Jesus did not utter it” and whoever added it must have been a scribe possessing “a deep and true understanding” of Jesus because the statement was so very typical of him. Moreover, the statement has been so thoroughly embraced by the church for so long that many scholars to not even comment on this textual concern.

A much bigger problem for us is what Jesus called upon the Father to do in this moment. If I am honest, I must admit that, in such a situation, I would scream in agony, plead, argue, or perhaps even fight back. If I had Jesus’ power – remember, he healed the sick, raised the dead, and commanded the storm – I expect I would call down fire from heaven. My prayer would be, “Father, cook these people!” Yet, as the clank of the hammer echoed still, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive.”

Forgive.

According to Google, to forgive means to “stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake.” The Greek term is comprised of the prefix apo, meaning away, and hiemi, meaning to send. The idea, then, is to send away an offense much as we would a log that fell across the road through the woods to Grandmother’s house. Indeed, David described God’s forgiveness in Psalm 103:12: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” That was what Jesus prayed for these men who nailed him to the cross.

Notice, however, a couple of things about this prayer for forgiveness. First, there is an implicit acknowledgment of wrong. There is no need to forgive the person who did nothing wrong. Yet, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive.”

So also, there is an implicit acknowledgment of responsibility. We must acknowledge that these men may have been ignorant of exactly who Jesus was. We will come to that in a moment. Yet, they were still, at some level, responsible for their actions. The scoffing religious leaders falsified testimony and manipulated the crowd. Pilate found no evidence Jesus had committed a capital crime yet washed his hands and let him go anyway. The centurion driving the spikes into Jesus’ hands and feet would later confess, “This man really was righteous!” (Luke 23:47). Still, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive.”

Truly, that blows my mind. These guys were pounding nails into Jesus’ hands and feet and hoisting him up on a cross! He was going to die, and not just any death! Crucifixion was custom tailored to exact the maximum amount of humiliation and anguish from its victims. And yet, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive.”

And he did it knowing full well that it would change nothing. They were not going to suddenly change their minds. He was not coming down from the cross. Even so, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive.”

Do I have the courage and fortitude to the same thing today? Do you? Because if we claim the title of Christian, we are declaring our intent to follow the example of Jesus. So if Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive,” on that day, he was really issuing to us a challenge for today.

We must forgive. When they are wrong. When they know it. When it is the worst thing they could possibly do. When it may not ever change. And yes, I know it is hard! Do we really think it was easy for Jesus to forgive as the clank still echoed in his ears? Without condition or qualification, we must forgive.

They don’t know.

And we must forgive because, as Jesus noted as they hoisted him up on that cross, “They do not know what they are doing.”

Now, I know. On some level, this was the most ridiculous statement ever. The religious authorities and Pilate knew what they were doing. The guards knew what they were doing. In fact, they had reduced crucifixion and death to a science. They knew exactly how many lashings a man could take before he died, and they delivered one less. They knew exactly what most people fear more than anything else, public humiliation, and they ripped off all his clothes and gambled for them at his feet, laughing and carrying on as they did. They knew exactly where to put the nails to inflict the most pain possible, and they drove spikes directly through nerve bundles so that every movement sent fire through his entire body. And they knew exactly how to make it all last. People crucified never died from their injuries or pain. Instead, they died when they became so exhausted they could no longer push themselves up to breathe. Typically, that meant a crucifixion lasted four or five days. They knew.

Yet, on another level, it was so very true. Indeed, the ESV Study Bible observed that the soldiers “did not fully understand the horrible evil that they were doing.” The IVP Commentary stated, “They have chosen a course that reflects a lack of understanding” because no one in their right mind would crucify the Son of God. Indeed, Matthew Henry offered the only possible explanation when he reasoned, “They were confused, tricked by the people over them, the people around them, and/or Satan himself into thinking they were actually serving God rather than crucifying His Son.”

So also, the person who hurt us did not fully understand. I mean, yes, they may have known exactly what they were doing in the moment, but for whatever reason, the eternal ramifications of their actions escaped them. Perhaps they even thought they were serving God rather than hurting his child. They don’t know.

Jesus prayed for God to forgive the men who put the nails in his hands, and we must forgive others of the nails they put in ours. Yes, I realize how difficult that is. Believe me, I realize how difficult that is. Yet, consider the words of The Interpreter’s Bible: “Never is it a question of smiling and letting bygones be bygones: making allowances for people, excusing them for this or that, overlooking their faults. Worthiness never enters into [forgiveness’] calculations. It gives itself to human need: that out of the chaos may come order, out of the evil, good; no matter how much one may get hurt in the process; its justice as much tangled up with love as a surgeon’s knife with health.”

Just as the surgeon sometimes must cut us open to make us physically well, we must endure the difficulty and pain of forgiveness to be spiritually well. That is the challenge and the promise of Jesus words, “Father, forgive.”