Father, Forgive Them

“Father, Forgive Them”: our Lord’s First Word from the Cross

Sinai is one of the most barren and inhospitable places upon the earth. Its desert-like wildness is fitting for the appearance of the Living God to Moses—its barrenness bespeaks its separation, its removal from the corruption wrought by man. The awe of the mountain seems to evoke the power and the grandeur of God. If the Psalmist lifted his eyes to the hills, for from them came his help, then at Sinai it was easy to believe that one was in the presence of the Living God. So our father, Moses was commanded at Sinai to take off the sandals from his feet, because there he was in the presence of God; the place where he was standing was holy ground.

But Golgotha is another story. A place not of separation from man and his evil deeds, but of execution, of blood, of curses, of noisome babble, of mockery and of hatred. A Christian cannot approach Golgotha without a sense of horror and loathing. We understand thereby that we are reflecting, albeit in pale shades, the agony of our Lord in Gethsemane.

For at Golgotha all the sins of the Covenant people of all ages are present—heaped up, pressed down, gathered together, running over—they are all here—and the place reeks of wretchedness and vileness. I am there, and I wish I were not. Golgotha is anything but holy ground.

But in another sense on that fateful Passover, Golgotha was the holiest place upon the earth. A work was taking place that involved transactions between the Lord God Almighty and His beloved Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. Transactions in which we have the most vital interest. They are on our behalf, yet we play no part in them. We are mere spectators. We have no right to be here. We are on holy ground—the very Holy of Holies. In that sense we approach Golgotha with the deepest awe and reverence and fear.

While on the Cross, Jesus utters seven words (or sayings). They are sayings spoken amidst great suffering—every one terse and urgent. Some are addressed to men, others to God—but all are for our benefit. We hear the command out of heaven: “This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him!” and we understand that our Lord is commanding us to lay aside our horror and revulsion of Golgotha and to hear, understand and believe each of these words.

The first of these words is found in Luke 23:34—“Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” For many long generations the Church has gloried in this prayer. It shows the magnificence of our Saviour. It demonstrates, yet again, how He kept the Law all His days and was without sin. It shows His mercy and kindness to all. It is the most pointed and perfect example of turning the other cheek. He provides for His people a model of how to speak and act at the place of suffering or martyrdom. It is not without significance that the first martyr of the new Covenant, Stephen, takes these words upon his lips as he dies (“Lord do not hold this sin against them!” Acts 7:60) proving that the Spirit of the Lord Jesus had indeed fallen upon the Church in great power.

All of these things are true—vitally so—yet we must first of all see this utterance in the context of Calvary before we extrapolate it out into general principles of Christian behaviour or praxis. What does this saying tell us about the “business”, the transactions that were taking place between the Messiah and His Heavenly Father?

For whom is Christ praying? Clearly, He is praying for His executioners, those who had hammered in the nails and lifted up the Cross and who were carrying out the sentence of crucifixion. But, more than that. These men were mere agents, soldiers, under orders and command. They were carrying out the commands and sentence of the Sanhedrin (the old Covenant high court) and of Herod and Pilate (the Gentile overlords). As Peter was later to put it: “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Thy holy Servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel.” (Acts 4:27) So, on the Cross our Lord uttered a prayer for forgiveness firstly for Pilate, Ananias, Herod and all their co-conspirators.

How can this be? Does it make sense? How can we understand this word? The striking thing is that judgement was not removed from Israel for this most terrible of deeds. The Judge of the heavens and the earth did indeed hold this monstrous sin to Israel’s account.

Had not John the Baptist warned at the very beginning of the days of Messiah that the axe was already laid at the root? (Luke 3:9) Had not Jesus just a few days previous to Golgotha emphatically stated that the house of Israel was to be left desolate and that the house of God’s presence was to be utterly destroyed. Further, just a few moments before uttering this first word on the Cross, our Lord had turned upon the weeping women and sternly warned them: “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, “Fall on us” and to the hills, “Cover us” for if they do these things in the green tree, what will happen in the dry.” (Luke 23:28—31)

No remission of sin there! No expiation upon Israel in those words! No forgiveness offered in that terrible warning.

Nor did His apostles, who spoke in the power of His Spirit, draw back from laying the charge and indictment for His death upon Israel. Peter later thundered in the temple precincts to the Sanhedrin, “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life.” (Acts 3: 14,15)

Reflect also upon Stephen who was called of God to proclaim the writ of indictment and pronounce condemnation to the Sanhedrin for their actions: “You men who are stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.” (Acts 7: 51—52) Clearly, Stephen was laying the actions of Golgotha to their account.

Had the Apostles not heard Jesus’ prayer for forgiveness for the act of crucifixion on the Cross? Inconceivable!

Finally, we know that God’s terrible judgment did fall upon Israel in AD 70, some forty years later—indeed it was the last days for Israel of old.

Was, then, Jesus prayer, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing,” not heard by His heavenly Father? Inconceivable! Was His prayer not according to His Father’s will? Impossible!

The solution lies in the Greek word used in the original. The word used can mean, to delay judgement, not to put it into effect immediately, or to hold off until a future time, to overlook for the present. It can also mean “to allow” or “to permit.” Paul uses this same word to describe God’s forbearance in “passing over” the sins previously committed (in old Covenant times) until the times of Messiah, when they were laid to His account (Romans 3:21—26)

We now have enough background to return to our meditation upon Jesus first word from the Cross. Our Lord prays, “Father, hold off judgement upon these men, for they do not know what they are doing.” In praying this prayer, Jesus enters into the very heart of His Messianic work.

Firstly, we should understand that had He not prayed this prayer the world would have ended right there. Can we conceive of an act more heinous, more monstrous, more evil than the murder of the Righteous One, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth? If the sins of Gentile Sodom and Gomorrah had risen in odious stench to the nostrils of God, commanding immediate judgment, what did this act require? If the child sacrifice to Molech brought the swift judgement of God upon Israel, what did this vile act require? The righteous anger of God would have poured forth upon all to the utter destruction of mankind, had not our blessed and beloved and ever faithful Saviour not prayed in panting gasps, “Father, hold back. Wait.”

It had ever been so since the Garden of Eden. When Adam sinned after God had said, “In the day thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt die,” He immediately sought man out and added, “Not yet,” for the seed of the woman was to come forth, in time, to crush the serpent. In that time of delayed judgment, there was hope—that God would yet be merciful and hear our cries and would save and deliver us, His people, from their sins.

But judgement delayed, makes judgement more certain and terrible—for stubbornness and hard heartedness, and contumely is added to the sheet for those who do not heed and repent.

Our Saviour prays to God, “Not yet, Father” for He has work to do. He must fulfil His sacrifice and make atonement. But there is another reason why He prays for a suspension in judgement: those who are doing these things are ignorant—they don’t understand the implications of all that is taking place. “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

After He has triumphed over Hell, after He has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, after He has entered into the very presence of God to have His atonement for our sins accepted, after He has received the Kingdom and sat down at the right hand of God on high, after He has poured forth His Spirit and His Apostles have preached and proclaimed the truth, then Israel will know what they have done.

He prays for more time so that grace and mercy might be extended. He prays for time so that you and I might be added to His people and be saved.

And so it was for Israel. On the day of Pentecost, after Calvary, our Covenant fathers had gathered from all over the world to Jerusalem (many of whom would not have been in Jerusalem at Passover, fifty days earlier), and Peter proclaimed to them what had happened, and the significance of it. “You nailed this Man Whom God had attested to be Messiah—the One whose coming you have looked for all your days—you nailed this Man to a Cross and put Him to death. But God raised Him up—proving that you have acted as the enemies of God in this thing.” And when they understood what they had done, they were pierced to the heart, and cried out, “Brethren, what shall we do.”

The Saviour’s prayer was being answered and the harvest was being reaped.

Again, Peter takes this up, some time later in the Temple: “you disowned the Holy and Righteous One.” You “put to death the Prince of Life, the One whom God raised from the dead.” But Peter had listened to our Lord’s first utterance from the Cross—and he shows that he understood: “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you.” (Acts 3: 17—20)

The first word from the Cross sees the Messiah interceding for His people. May we say reverently that this is the time of absolute truth for our Saviour, for Messiah. In His terrible extremity, it is only what is in the depths of His being, the essence of His Person, that will hold Him now. He shows us that the great love of His life and heart is His people and their salvation. He pleads for a holding back of judgement that He might gather His beloved sheep.

He has other sheep, not of the house of Israel, not of “this fold. I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock with one Shepherd.” (John 10: 16) He prays with us in mind also, the Gentiles, that time might be granted that we too might be allowed to hear the words of Life and live.

How He loves us! How He loves the mission given Him by His Father. How He eagerly adopts it as His own and bears it with an implacable joyful, iron will. Lest we be in doubt, He exclaims “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life (for the sheep) that I may take it again.

No-one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my Father. . . . No-one shall snatch (the sheep) out of My hand.” (John 10: 14—29)

This mission is His, even to the point that on the Cross His first word is to plead for the Father to hold back from immediate judgement upon the most terrible sin in all creation and time, that He might gather His beloved sheep.

Now we are His, you and I. God has answered our faithful Saviour’s prayer. My sin took Him to Calvary. His prayer extended the day of salvation that I, too, might be numbered amongst the saints. And now we turn our hearts and minds to His great love as we live as His people in this wretched world of sin: Lord, even as Thou didst hear the prayer of Thine Only Begotten Son and delayed judgement, so we now join our prayer with His, and plead, ‘Lord overlook their sin and delay Thy judgement, that we might proclaim the marvellous excellencies of Him through the world. Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.’