First Words

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing”. Luke 23:34a

‘Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing’.  We know that He was in excruciating pain but Jesus still had to say what was most important even in death. Forgiveness was important to Him, a twofold forgiveness. Firstly He had chosen to forgive His crucifiers, inspite of the ridicule, abuses, pain and punishment. Secondly, He went to God on their behalf asking for forgiveness for them. He based the qualification for forgiveness on the fact that they were ignorant of what they were actually doing. In actual sense, these people were far from ignorant. In fact, Pilate had told them three times ‘I do not find this man guilty’; so they actually knew what they were doing. Jesus, in essence, was saying they have no clue to the amount of pain they are causing Me. Many times when people offend you, even though they apologize, you know that they do not know how much hurt they have caused you. Your spouse will hurt you, your friends will hurt you, people will hurt you and say sorry while still clueless of the hurt you are nursing. You feel like the hurt would be less if they understood how much pain they have caused you. This is what usually gives birth to vengeance. The reason for vengeance is that you want the other person to taste what you are going through. God says ‘vengeance is Mine, I will revenge’. Jesus was personally forgiving His crucifiers, every single one involved, inspite of the pain. He was personally forgiving the disciples who went everywhere with Him but deserted Him in the last hour. He was personally forgiving the crowd who just 24hours ago were crying Hosanna and now was shouting crucify Him. And He was forgiving you and I for shutting Him out of our lives, for refusing to pray, for refusing to worship, for refusing to even thank Him, and for refusing to live for Him – Father, forgive them. Jesus forgave at the point of His greatest pain.

Prayer: Father, forgive me for every time I have refused to be who you have called me to be. I ask also that you forgive those who have hurt me and rid them of the consequences, in Jesus Name.