Father Forgive them: A meditation on Luke 23

When Jesus is making His way, scourged and bleeding under the weight of His Cross, to the place of His execution at the hands of sinful men, there are many voices that St. Luke records.  Earlier, there are the amused and then bored voices of Herod and his court; the voices of the crowds calling for His crucifixion; the mocking insults and derision of the soldiers and religious leaders.  But in the midst of this evil cacophony clamoring for His Blood, Our Lord speaks words that reverberate through history:   “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

To be sure, the Pharisees knew what they were doing; they were killing off a rival and a trouble maker, one who might be a threat to their own power and religious leverage over the people.  The Romans knew what they were doing; Pilate was executing an innocent man for the sake of the mob and his own peace, while his soldiers were brutally reveling in the administration of their duty.  The crowds knew what they were doing; they called out for Jesus to die, and for the murderer Barabas to be released in His stead.  Even the women and the disciples who mourned and lamented His path to Calvary knew what they were doing; they wept for the loss of their teacher, the one they had hoped would be the Messiah to save them.  In a sense, all these knew what they were doing, from the traitor Judas to the denier Peter, and everyone in between.  They were indulging their own evil, their own pride, their own fear and their own cowardice.

But what they did not know, was who they really were, and who Jesus really is.  They did not know, that even in the midst of their seemingly pious lives, that they were living out their own Original Sin which separated them from God and from eternal life.  They did not know, that each of their sinful actions betrayed a deeper spiritual problem that afflicts all mankind—a disease that courses through the veins of every living soul, bringing about death and hell.  They did not know, that they were living out the mess of their own spiritual darkness, dead in their trespasses and sins, unable to seek or please God.  They did not understand, that they did what they did, because of who they were.  They were not sinners because they crucified the Lord of Life, but rather, they crucified the Lord of Life because they themselves were sinful, wretched, and damned sinners to the core.  In the presence of the Holy God, they rose up in murderous rebellion, as Lucifer their master taught them.

Of course, what they also didn’t know, was that the God who gave them breath to cry out, “Crucify Him!” was also the God they whipped and scourged through the hands of the Roman torturers.  They did not know, that the One who breathed the universe into existence, was the one they mocked and ridiculed with their vicious taunting.  They did not know, that they nailed the Lord of Glory to a tree, the One who spoke to their Fathers and promised them redemption.  They did not know, that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of David, Solomon, and the Prophets, would hang dead on a Roman cross by their hands.  They did not know what horrors the sin of man would perpetrate upon the very Son of God, the Beloved, the Only Begotten.  They did not know how deep their curse ran, or their enslavement to the evil one, that would bring them to rise up and kill the One who descended from on high to save them.

They did not know who they were, or who He is.  But in their evil arrogance, the Love of God pierced the darkness of human sin, and teaches us in every age to know not only ourselves, but our Savior.  Now we know the depth of our evil, our pride, and our sin.  Now we know that we deserve nothing of God but judgment, condemnation, eternal suffering and despair.  Now we know who we are.  We are wicked and wretched sinners, who in our own depravity, deserve nothing but death and hell.

But with the knowledge of our lost and hopeless condition, another knowledge comes to us, too.  In this moment of darkest human despair, the Light of Christ reaches out to us from His Cross, and we learn of the love of God for lost and broken mankind.  Here in the suffering and dying Jesus, we learn just how far God will go to save His people.  The Blood we called for in our sin, He always intended to pour out for the life of the world.  The Body we tortured and nail to the tree, He always intended to offer up for the sins of the world.  The Blood and Water that we took from His side by the thrust of a spear, He always intended to give for the rebirth of the world.  What we now know, is the love of God in Jesus Christ, that seeks and saves the lost.

At this end of all things, in these moments that call us to remembrance of great and wondrous truths, we learn from Jesus what we could not know without Him.  We learn that we are lost, and cannot save ourselves.  And yet we learn, that God seeks and saves us lost sinners, through His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, calling us by the power of His Holy Spirit to repent, believe, and live in Him forever.

So, too, the persecuted Church prays for the world, as Christ prayed for us upon His Holy Cross:  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  But how shall they know, if no one tells them?  How shall they hear, without a preacher of the Divine Law and Gospel?  And how shall they preach, if they are not sent?  For the grace which saves us by faith comes by the Word of Christ, and as it calls to us, so it calls out from the Cross to the entire world:  “Hear Him.  Repent.  Believe.  Live.”  Amen.