Some Knew What They Were Doing
No, Jesus was not offering a simple excuse. He was not praying: “Excuse them, God. They didn’t really know.” If we are going to be honest, the Roman soldiers knew exactly what they were doing. Crucifixion was their job. They didn’t pay any attention to Jesus. To them, he was just another criminal. They may have thought he was a Jewish prophet, who had led a group of people in an insurrection against the Roman government. They drove the nails in his hands and feet and crucified him to put an end to his work. The Roman leaders knew what they were doing.
Pilate washed his hands of this Jesus problem. He didn’t want to make a decision. He wanted to be on the sidelines. The high priests knew what they were doing. They wanted to get rid of Jesus because they thought he was a heretic. He was causing them constant trouble by challenging their teachings and traditions. Their answer was to stop him. These words do not imply that those who crucified him bear no responsibility for their actions.
Unaware of Who Jesus Was
What then do these words mean? “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Jesus was saying that these persons who were crucifying him did not know the enormity of this event. They really did not know what they were doing. Do you think any person would crucify the Son of God if he or she really knew who he was? Of course not! They did not really know who was hanging there. They didn’t sense that this was truly God’s Son.
Seldom Aware of the Responsibility of Our Actions
We have that same problem with our sins, too, don’t we? Who would ever take the first drink, if he or she knew that this drink might lead him or her to become an alcoholic? Who would ever stick a drug needle in their arm or take some dope, if they thought they would become addicted? Who would ever engage in an illicit sex act, if he or she thought they would go down a path of promiscuity? But much of our life is charted by those kinds of decisions.
When we begin to pull on the thread in the garment of life, before we know it, the whole garment has begun to unravel. We fail to realize that all sin is an affront to God. All of our sin ultimately is a sin against God. King David said about his sin, “Lord, I have sinned against thee and against thee only have I sinned” (II Samuel 12:13). Whatever our sin is, it is a sin against God. Our sins affect us personally, as well as others, but most of all they affect God. Your sins and mine were part of the sin that Jesus had to bear on his cross.
Receiving Forgiveness
The Costly Nature of Forgiveness
Then fourthly, how do you and I receive the grace about which Jesus speaks in God’s forgiveness? It begins, I think, in an awareness of the costly nature of forgiveness. Forgiveness is an easy matter for many, until they have someone to forgive; then they begin to see how difficult it is.
Do you remember several years ago when the Pope was wounded by a man who tried to assassinate him? The Pope forgave the man who attempted to assassinate him. It was interesting to read some of the letters to the editor in Time Magazine. One of them wrote: “It is the Pope’s business to forgive.” That is the way many feel about God. It is just his business to forgive.
C. S. Lewis wrote a number of years ago about the terrible duty of forgiveness.
Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war. And then to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue. It is that they think it hateful and contemptible. ‘That sort of talk makes them sick,’ they say. And half of you want to ask me, ‘I wonder how you’d feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?’[5]
Forgiveness is so easy until we have to forgive someone. Then it becomes very difficult. When someone has hurt you, or they have sinned against you, or you against another, it then often becomes very difficult to forgive.
When I was a pastor in a university community a number of years ago, I received a telephone call informing me about a college student who was in the hospital. Our church was only about two blocks away from the university, and many students attended our church. I was asked if I would go to the hospital and see her. She had attempted suicide. As I talked with this young woman, I discovered that she had attempted suicide because she was pregnant. She was only a sophomore in college, still single, of course, and didn’t know what to do. She had been so frightened, and didn’t think she could tell anyone about her situation. We talked for a long time, and I asked her if she wanted me to call her parents. “Yes,” she finally said. It was the only thing she knew to do. “They will never understand,” she said. “They will never forgive me.”
I got on the telephone and called a pastor friend of mine in the city where her parents lived. I knew they were members of his church. I asked him how they would react. “I don’t know,” he said. “I just played golf today with her father. Her father has a violent temper.” I asked him to have her parents come to see me first and let me talk with them. They did. I explained to them the situation and told them that this was a time not to reject their daughter, but a time for them to reach out with compassion, love, and support. Their daughter needed their love, understanding, and forgiveness. I couldn’t make them do that, but I hoped they would. After talking with the parents, I went with them to the hospital. We met with the young woman and talked. It was a difficult and emotional time. But the student’s parents accepted her, and expressed their love to her. Later they left the hospital, went home and tried to rebuild their lives. But it wasn’t easy for the young woman or her parents. Forgiveness was very costly. Forgiveness is never easy for any of us.
An Acknowledgment of Sin
Forgiveness begins with an acknowledgment of our sin. “All have sinned” (Romans 3:25), the Scriptures declare. Our confession is an acknowledgment that our sins have helped put Jesus Christ on the cross. We, too, share in the sins of humanity. The sins of humanity cost God the incarnation and the suffering death of his Son. The Word became flesh and identified with humanity. God’s sacrifice to bring us forgiveness is beyond belief. It is indeed matchless grace. God’s costly sacrifice should remind us of the horror of sin. There cannot be forgiveness without the recognition that sin is an awful act in God’s sight.
I like the prayer of Eric Milner White, which he adapted from one of the prayers of John Donne.
Forgive me, O Lord
O Lord forgive me my sins,
the sins of my youth,
the sins of the present;
the sins I laid upon myself in an ill pleasure,
the sins I cast upon others in an ill example;
the sins which are manifest to all the world,
the sins which I have laboured
to hide from mine acquaintance,
from my own conscience,
and even from my memory;
my crying sins and my whispering sins,
my ignorant sins and my willful;
sins against my superiors, equals, servants,
against my lovers and benefactors,
sins against myself, mine own body, my own soul;
sins against thee,
O Almighty Father,
O merciful Son,
O blessed Spirit of God.[6]
Accept God’s Acceptance of Us
To receive forgiveness, we begin with an acknowledgment that we are sinners. But we have to do more than acknowledge our sins. We have to accept God’s forgiveness. We have to accept our acceptance