Father, forgive them because they dont know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34
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The last words a man or woman utters before dying come straight from the heart. Jesus, too, during the last six hours of his life, suspended between heaven and earth, enduring great suffering, made seven statements that revealed the richness of his inner being.
Crucifixion was a form of torture that literally knocked the wind out of a person. The weight of the body suspended by the arms caused immediate pain in the chest, paralyzing the pectoral muscles and making breathing extremely difficult. The person being crucified could inhale but had great difficulty in exhaling. To exhale he had to push off with his feet and straighten his legs to release the pressure on his arms and chest. But the pain this caused his feet was so excruciating, because of the nails, that any such effort immediately ceased. Death usually occurred within two or three days. But when the Romans wanted to shorten his agony, they broke his legs. Then, unable to straighten up with the help of his legs, the man would quickly suffocate. The soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves crucified with Jesus to hasten his death, but Jesus’ legs were not broken because he was already dead (John 19:31-33). Thus a prophecy of Scripture was fulfilled that said that none of his bones would be broken (John 19:36). It is in this context, as he fought for his every breath, that Jesus spoke his last words.
While his hands and feet were being nailed to the cross, or a little later, when he was being put on the cross, Jesus cried out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
Those who stood watching the crucifixion were in grave spiritual danger, but all of them did not realize it. The Roman soldiers saw it as just another day of work. It was a nasty job, but someone had to do it. The soldiers are part of an execution detachment, bored with the crucifixion. Perhaps this team has already performed several crucifixions this week. The first time they saw a crucifixion they may have been moved by its brutality, but now they are calloused, emotionless.
First, the soldiers begin the cruel process of nailing the criminal to a cross, then hoisting him up, the cross swinging forward, then back until it is secured with wedges at the bottom to keep it upright in the hole. . And when that task is done, they sit around the base waiting for the criminal to die, sometimes for days. To pass the time they play games, deciding by lottery who will claim the victim’s last possessions. That’s the scene.
Some in the crowd saw it as a ghastly but interesting sight. Some were saddened, thinking that a good man was being cruelly and unjustly treated, but they made no connection between his sin and his death. They saw it as a political vendetta that the Jewish religious leaders had against Jesus, a prophet who had gone overboard in confronting his shortcomings. The Jewish leaders were mostly relieved, glad to get rid of this troublesome prophet. But why did they want to get rid of Jesus?
We read in Luke 20 that the scribes and chief priests sought to have Jesus arrested. In John 5, we are told that they wanted to kill him, and in chapters 8 and 10, they tried to stone him.
When we read these accounts in Scripture, we are moved to ask: Why do these people talk the way they did and feel the way they did with such hostility toward Jesus? It is difficult to give a complete answer as to why they were motivated in this way, but here are three reasons why the religious authorities hated Jesus so much.
The first is this: they were jealous of Him. Wherever Jesus went, he drew large crowds, crowds, crowds squeezing in to listen to his every word, watching his every move. He was deeply popular with the people, while the rulers of the Jews placed heavy burdens on their people, and approached the masses, the people of the land, in something like a spirit of disdain and contempt. They wouldn’t think of dining with a tax collector, but Jesus freely associated with people the Pharisees considered “rabble.”
The people loved Jesus and welcomed him with joy, but what they felt for the Pharisees was judgment. The only thing the Pharisees looked at was the sin of the people, so they had a certain contempt for the common people. They saw Jesus associating with the common people and they saw them encouraging him, loving him. They couldn’t bear it because they were envious and suspicious of his popularity.
The second reason they hated him was because he exposed them. Before Jesus came, it was particularly the Pharisees, as well as the Sadducees and the scribes, who set the moral standard for the community. They sat in the highest places in the synagogue. They were the most honored and celebrated for their virtue, but their virtue, as Jesus repeatedly taught, was a pretext. it was external. He said: “You are like dead men’s tombs, whitewashed tombs that are painted without stain on the surface but inside are full of dead men’s bones. You clean the outside of the plate, but the other side, the inside, is dirty. You go to great lengths to hide that impurity, that grime, and that filth from public view. You pretend to be fair. – Mate. 23:27
The third reason I think they hated him is because they were afraid, not so much of what he would do to them in his wrath, but of the consequences of receiving him into their midst. Why were they afraid? Look at the history of Israel. In almost every generation since Abraham, the Israelites lived under the domination and oppression of a foreign nation. You have heard of the Pax Romana; Almost always, the town was a conquered town, a town that lived under the oppression and the tyranny of its enemies. In the case of the Jews of the first century, the oppressor was Rome.
Throughout Jewish history, there have always been those who were committed to the revolution, who wanted to throw off the yoke of the foreigners who held them down. captive. You will see revolt after revolt in the history of Israel, and revolt after revolt being put down by the power of the enemy. There were people, at least two, probably more, among the disciples of Jesus who were called Zealots.
Those who were in positions of power and authority; the Pharisees and Sadducees feared losing their power and authority. They feared the consequences of a revolt against Rome. That’s on almost every page of the Gospels. They feared the Romans. They feared that Jesus would somehow lead an insurrection, cause another uprising, and consequently cause a bloodbath, so they sought to eliminate him before he caused them trouble.
So those around him had varying degrees of spirituality. danger, but they did not realize it. In this scene comes a cry from Jesus on the cross that reveals both the great need of sinners and the greater grace of God: “Father, forgive them; Because they do not know what they are doing.” It was the first of seven final prayers recorded for us in all the gospels that Jesus spoke from the cross. Lucas only records three of them; we will see the other two in future messages.
There were many people around him he crossed that day
(1) Roman soldiers;
(2) the common people;
(3) chief priests and elders
(4) the women who followed Jesus from Galilee and probably
(5) John the apostle.
Note that this sentence was not:
(1) a prayer of forgiveness apart from repentance, since such a thing is foreign to the Scriptures.
In other words, Jesus was not granting God’s forgiveness to those who crucified him no matter how they continued to live. God never forgives sin apart from the sinner’s genuine repentance and faith. Jesus’ prayer for God to forgive was a prayer for his persecutors to repent and believe.
(2) a prayer to cancel God’s temporal judgment on Israel.
In the verses above, Jesus told the women of Jerusalem to weep for themselves and their children, because God would bring such terrible judgment on the nation that they wish they had never had children. He is not denying that here.
(4) a prayer granting forgiveness to all who are spiritually ignorant.
Jesus looked down from the cross at a scene that must have been distressing to him. Roman soldiers bet on his clothing (John 19:23–24); One of the criminals on the crosses next to Him reviled Him (Luke 23:40-42); religious leaders mocked Him (Matthew 27:41–43); and the crowd blasphemed him (Matthew 27:39). Surrounded by this unworthy fate, Jesus did not pray “Father, they do not know what they are doing, but Father, forgive them.”
First of all, what does the Bible say about ignorance of God’s will? Is ignorance of God’s law a defense?
The Bible says – Absolutely not.
Under the Old Covenant, ignorance of God’s commandments was sinful and required sacrifices when committed (Leviticus 4:2-5:18; Numbers 15:22-25).
The writer of Hebrews also affirms this fact…
Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 Therefore he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 5:1-3 NIV)
We must also be aware of the fact that although the Gentiles were not bound by the Law of Moses, they were still guilty before God when they sinned against His revelation. TRUE. Such was the case with Abimelech regarding Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 20:8-10). We must keep in mind that the Gentile nations also incurred the wrath of God. Nations like the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, etc. they were punished by God, for their irrelevance to Him. God punished the Canaanites for their idolatry and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their immorality. There was no defense of innocence through ignorance accepted by God. I believe this is Paul’s inspired message in (Romans chapters 1-3). All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23)…
And under the New Testament? The New Testament also addresses ignorance of God’s will, and it is clear that ignorance is not the same as innocence. In fact, the New Testament informs us that ignorance is inexcusable. The Hebrew writer affirms citing Jeremiah, an Old Testament prophet, that ignorance of God would no longer be evident under the New Covenant established by Jesus Christ. (Jer. 31:31 – Cf. Hebrews 8:10-12; 10:16-17)
Although ignorance does not…