“Father, Forgive Them”

This devotional is the first in a seven-part series leading up to Easter through the season of Lent. Each week’s devotional will focus on one of Jesus’ seven sayings from the cross. 

“And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ And they cast lots to divide his garments.” Luke 23:34

Forgiveness is at the heart of who Jesus is. 

When we come to this first saying from the cross, Jesus is hanging there, dying. He is exposed, He has been beaten, nailed to a tree, and is slowly breathing out His last breaths before He dies. 

As Jesus dies between two thieves and looks down at the men who put Him there, His heart toward them is not full of hate, malice, or revenge. These Roman soldiers and rulers mock Christ, and while His life is leaving His body, they play games, casting lots over His clothes (fulfilling Biblical prophecy—Psalm 22:18). Surely such horrible people committing this unthinkable deed deserve God’s full wrath. Jesus, in that moment, would have been entirely justified to call down an army from Heaven and wipe them all out. But He doesn’t do this; instead, Jesus does the opposite—He does the unthinkable—and forgives His murderers. 

We wonder how and why Jesus did this. How could He forgive them while they are in the very act of killing Him? Additionally, why would Jesus do this? Why would He forgive these men for their horrendous crime?

Jesus forgives because He loves. 

Jesus knew that these people did not know the full scope of what they were doing. He knew they did not understand that Jesus is the Messiah, the one sent from God. Jesus looks past their sin and, knowing that He loves these men despite their sin, chooses to forgive them. The one who taught us to love our enemies (Luke 6:27-28, 35-36) lived out this teaching, giving us an example of forgiveness to follow. 

This is good news for us because, unlike the men who carried out the act of crucifying Jesus, we do know what we do when we sin. When we sin as Christians, we know that it displeases God, yet we still continue to disobey Him. “We too, play games at the foot of the cross.”¹ Jesus, however, has the same response of forgiveness toward us. 

Although we were not at this scene over 2,000 years ago and we were not among the Roman soldiers who physically crucified Jesus, all of us bear this same responsibility for His death. It was our sins that put Him on the cross. He died because we are sinners. As 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 

Yet despite our sin, despite the fact that we are responsible for the death of the Son of God, despite the reality that we were the very enemies of God, Jesus forgives us. His heart toward us is the same as it was toward these men in Luke 23 when He was being crucified. He died for their sins just as much as He died for ours. 

Will you accept Christ’s forgiveness? Furthermore, if you have been forgiven, will you likewise forgive others (Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13)? May we walk in the forgiveness Jesus has given because of the cross.

1. “Far from Christ – Max Lucado,” Max Lucado, May 24, 2017, https://maxlucado.com/listen/far-from-christ/. ↩︎