Father forgive them for they don’t know what

At this time, Jesus is hanging on a cross and the first thing he says is: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23.34

Now, let us first talk a bit about how Jesus got on the cross. He had been rejected as Redeemer by the Jews, and had been tried and sentenced to die by crucifixion by the Roman court. After this, he had been severely beaten as they used to do to people who had been sentenced to die by crucifixion. Not everybody survived such beating. Usually, many of those who were beaten died right there, and did not even get to be crucified because the instruments used for beating were deadly horrible. It was horrible torture.

Jesus too had been beaten, but he was still alive. You can just imagine the blood on him. Then they took him to a place to make fun of him. They repeatedly spat on him and beat him for the second time. From there, they took Jesus out to crucify Him.

He was forced to carry his own cross to the place of the crucifixion, and they forced him to follow the longest route possible to Calvary. There was a shorter route, but they forced him to take the longest route. They did all this to humiliate him, to disgrace him, and to make him suffer the more.

Eventually they got to the hill of Calvary, where they crucified him between two criminals, sending the message to all Israel that the Son of God is a criminal.

And this is where Jesus prayed for those who hated him as well as for the whole human race that:

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Yes, Jesus was right. In the heat of the anger and hatred of all the Jewish people who had surrounded him, they had no idea about what they were doing. They thought they had finally got the occasion to torture and disgrace Jesus. They thought they had finally silenced Jesus their enemy once and for all.

Yes, it’s true that the cross was an instrument of severe punishment and death for enemies of society, but the Jews had no idea that in the case of Jesus, his death was the only way for their salvation. Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb that their own Passover Festival pointed to, and they did not know. This was the Lamb that God had given them and the entire human race to free them from the power of Satan, sin, and death.

There is no other way for the salvation of the human race. We cannot be saved by observing religious laws; …by obeying moral laws, …by our religious affiliations or our national or tribal identities. Everyone has sinned…from the unborn child to the oldest person on earth. And because of this, the punishment for every human being is death. And the only way for a sinner, be it an unborn child or the oldest person on earth to be saved, is through what was happening to Jesus on the cross. Jesus ought to die on a cross.

All of our numerous sins and guilt before God as sinners were transferred onto Jesus on the cross, so that He might bear our punishment for us. Just as the Jewish High Priest would lay his hands upon a lamb to transfer his personal sin as well the sin of the Jewish people onto it before it was sacrificed to atone for sin, even so, Jesus Christ was made to receive our sin, so that we would receive a pardon. God the Father forgives the sins of the world in His Son Jesus Christ for we don’t know what we are doing.

And so, because of “the Cross of Christ,” our lives can now have hope. Because of “the Cross of Christ,” we can experience forgiveness. Because of “the Cross of Christ,” our lives can find real meaning. We can be made whole again because of “the Cross of Christ,”.

• In” The Cross” there is healing.
• In “The Cross” there is deliverance.
• There is power In “The Cross”.

Brothers and sisters, I want to remind you today, that what Jesus did on the cross, he did it for everybody, not only Christians. He did it for the unborn child as well as the oldest person on this planet. There is nothing else under this universe that can take away our sins and our condemnation apart from the blood of Jesus…. so Jesus pronounced forgiveness on the Cross saying Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.

Jesus is the only one who has fought for you on this matter of life and death. Jesus prayed on the Cross to the Father to forgive them for they don;t know what they did to Him. No one else is fighting for you or has fought for you in this matter.

• Others have prescribed long and difficult rules that are impossible to obey.
• They prescribed the rules but they themselves were not able to obey them.
• They made the rules, asked you to obey them, while they themselves couldn’t obey.
• All have died and gone, giving you no assistance whatsoever to obey those rules. But Jesus is different.
• He has already broken the power of sin for you, and he is always around with you, through his Holy Spirit, to help you in this journey of life to overcome sin and death.

Today, and by this message, you are not like the soldiers and Jewish people who crucified Jesus. You know that Jesus exchanged his life with you so that you will have eternal life. Therefore, do not put your trust in anyone or anything else for salvation, but trust in his sacrifice alone for your redemption.

May His name be praised now and forever

Amen!

Courtesy Rev. Dr. Ebenzer Boafo