Words from the Cross (Part V)

Articles

Lance Byers
07/06/24 - Words from the Cross

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

A prayer from Jesus to the Father of mercy for those who are crucifying Jesus. Forgiveness is the example we should all follow, despite what has been done to us. Jesus taught these lessons in Mark 11:25 and Matthew 18:34-35 that we should be reconciled to our brother before coming to God. Matthew 5:23-24 even says to leave the gift upon the altar, and to postpone the prescribed worship to God if the reconciliation is not with our fellow man. It is important to note that the reconciliation is not from the brother, but in ourselves, since we are the authors of our own salvation, hence Jesus asking for forgiveness, and assumed to be forgiving, the ones crucifying Him in the moment.

Preachers can produce entire sermons using those first three words, but what about the last part of the prayer; that they did not know? What is it that they did not know?

They knew they were crucifying Jesus, and the Jewish leadership should have known who He was based on the signs and wonders (note: John 11:47-50), but they were so blinded by tradition and their hold on power, that they could not understand who Jesus was. Other rulers, such as Pilate, did not have the knowledge of God yet to understand, and only saw Jesus as a rabblerouser.

I Corinthians 2:6-8 – Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

It was not until after the fact that they realized what they had really done and were either cut to the heart in Acts 2:38 or were hardened in heart as we see in Acts 4:5-22.

Their ignorance is our gain, though. Jesus had to be crucified to fulfil the divine plan formulated in the mind of God from before the first reveling in Genesis 3:15. Romans 1:4 tells us that,

“…[He] was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord…,”

and, by His death, conducted by man, goaded by Satan, He could show his power and reveal who He was, and the authority He has as told in Revelation 1:17-18:

“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

Jesus went to the cross willingly (I John 3:16) and died for us, using the ignorance, both chosen and blind, to allow the plan of God to come to full bloom, creating salvation for each of us. Jesus asks the Father to forgive them for His own sake, and for the sake of those who were participants in the greatest plan ever executed, for their own sakes.

Lance Byers

7-5-2024