Father, forgive THEM

These are famous words which Jesus spoke as He hung on the cross, but have you ever wondered who the 'them' were? Let's look at some Scriptures of events leading up to His crucifixion. 

RELIGIOUS LEADERS OF THE DAY

Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

Matthew 26:3-5

When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death. And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.

Matthew 27:1,2

The people above were the religious leaders of the day. Those who supposedly knew the Old Testament Scriptures inside out, which told them that the Messiah would come and be a sacrifice (Number 21:9;John 3:14; Psalm 22; Isaiah 53) yet they wanted to kill Jesus - this Man who had showed them up, by pointing out their hypocrisy and their sinful hearts, calling them 'white washed sepulchres (Matthew 23:27). More than likely they were at the cross watching the spectacle. 

PETER, ONE OF THE DISCIPLES 

Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”

Matthew 26:34

Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came to him, saying, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee.” But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you are saying.” And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, “This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.” But again he denied with an oath, “I do not know the Man!” And a little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter, “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.” Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly.

Matthew 26:69-75

Peter, the disciple who was fiercely loyal, who declared Jesus as being THE Christ (Matthew 16:16), who said he would never deny Christ (Matthew 26:35), did deny Christ 3 times, but Jesus forgave him and after His resurrection, Peter was called to spread the message of the gospel - he was fearless in doing that, to the point where tradition has it that he too was crucified. 

THOSE WHO HELD JESUS - RELIGIOUS LEADERS, ROMANS

Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, “Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You?” And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him.

Luke 22:63-65

So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. Then they said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck Him with their hands.

John 19:1-3

Then the soldiers led Him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison.  And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and began to salute Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him. And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.

Mark 15:16-20

These people went all out to hurt and humiliate Jesus. They slapped Him, mocked Him spat on Him, beat Him

FALSE WITNESSES BROUGHT TO TESTIFY AGAINST JESUS

Now the chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none. For many bore false witness against Him, but their testimonies did not agree.

Then some rose up and bore false witness against Him, saying, “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.’ ” But not even then did their testimony agree.

Mark 14:55-59

THE CROWD - ORDINARY PEOPLE

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd, so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. Pilate answered and said to them again, “What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?”
So they cried out again, “Crucify Him!”
Then Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has He done?”
But they cried out all the more, “Crucify Him!”
So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified.

Mark 15:11-15

The ordinary people who had gathered had been stirred up by the religious leaders - I have read in the past, that they may have been paid to be against Christ. We don't know who the people were, but more than likely they had probably heard Jesus preach, seen His miracles, been those who cheered when Christ entered Jerusalem on a donkey, lay palm leaves on the ground and shouted Hosanna!

All of the people above, from the religious leaders, the Roman governors, soldiers and even the disciples played their part in the arrest. The so called witnesses were liars who had probably been paid by the religious leaders. YET Jesus could look down as He hung in agony (apparently crucifixion was a slow and very painful death) and pray to His Father for forgiveness. Not forgiveness for 'nice' people, but for people who were Jesus's enemies, turncoats, traitors. NOBODY is too much of a sinner to come to the cross and ask for Jesus to turn their lives around, to give them a new heart, to have His light shine into their souls and make them ALIVE in Him! 

Until I became a Christian, I know in my heart that I would have been with the crowd shouting "Crucify Him!" because Jesus and His message is an offense to those who are perishing, we don't like to be told we are sinners BUT only Jesus can change us (Yes, we remain sinners, but sin no longer has dominion in our hearts) because He lived the perfect life we could not and died the death we deserve!

Before I became a Christian - I was one of 'them'! 

There is forgiveness at the Cross

When we see pictures of the cross, obviously it's empty (well, most of the time it is, and should be because Jesus has risen and has ascended to the right hand of His Father)

 

We see a sanitised picture. Even the paintings of old, can't really convey what went on, that day. We can't really imagine what it was like, we can't feel the physical pain and torment, we definitely can't know what spiritual torment Christ went through!

 

This isn't sanitised, this is what I think of when I think of my Saviour dying for me!

 

He was friendless - all of His disciples fled. Peter tagged along, but only out of curiosity. Three times He denied the One he had once declared as being the Christ:

 

Matthew 16:13-16 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

 

Matthew 26:69-75  Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came to him, saying, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee.” But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you are saying.” And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, “This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.” But again he denied with an oath, “I do not know the Man!” And a little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter, “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.” Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!” Immediately a rooster crowed.  And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly.

Jesus was given a trial, where the 'witnesses' lied about Him or twisted the truth. He was bounced back and forth to Pilate and the Sanhedrin. He was proclaimed 'guilty' of trumped up charges. He remained silent because, although He hadn't sinned, He would soon be bearing the guilt and sins of His people!

He was whipped, scourged - the whips used were more than likely fastened with hooks so that every lashing would rip out chunks of flesh, He had His beard torn out - this wasn't a slight pulling, it would have been ripped from his face, He was naked, He had a crown of thorns rammed onto His head, He was mocked, His kingship was mocked, the blood and pain would have been weakening and that was before He hung on the cross. They made Him walk, with all His injuries, originally with the cross He would be hung upon. The heat would have been draining alone, without having all those wounds. No doubt blood from those wounds would have dripped on the floor where He walked. Before being crucified, the people called for a real criminal to be released - Christ was alone and friendless, but soon an even worse aloneness would be felt!

As He got to Golgotha (the place of the Skull) - it looks like a skull and with the executions going on there, it was aptly named! Huge, thick iron nails would have torn into His flesh, tearing the nerves and tendons - the pain would have been indescribable! He was hoisted up, all His body weight on His arms, pulling His shoulders out of their sockets, dislocating them. The heat of the sun (before the sky went dark) would have been horrendous, heat stroke, sweat, congealing blood, festering wounds, muscle cramps, ALL of the body's nerves shooting messages of pain, to His brain, His lungs filling with fluid, water building up around His heart, dehydration - the Water of Life, being dehydrated. Still people mocked Him, Pilate had a mocking sign hung above His head. Hunger - the Bread of Life is hungry. Perhaps sickness set in, bodily functions kicking in (we don't like to think about this). Soldiers gambling for His clothes. He hung there naked and uncovered, in shame and humility. He thought of His mother (how she must have suffered, but not in the same way as Christ, her Son did). YET in all this horror, He could still look down and say

Luke 23:34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

FORGIVE THEM? FORGIVE those who did all that to You, Lord? Yes, for the way of the Christian is by the example of the Saviour, we forgive as He once forgave us!

This is my view on this: I believe Jesus was looking into the future too and asking His Father to forgive ALL of His people - the ones He chose before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4a).

His death was so horrific - our sins deserved that punishment or even worse punishment (could there be anything worse? Yes - hell. An eternity without love, joy, peace, blessing etc). He took it ALL, every last one of the sins of His people were laid to His account!

ANYBODY can come to Him, including those we deem unworthy (because we were unworthy - that's why He suffered so much)! Even those we find distasteful in life - murderers, thieves, paedos, slanderers, liars, adulterers, fornicators, terrorists, abusers, mockers etc - ANYBODY who turns to Christ and asks for forgiveness and repents of their sins - repentance is a turning away from the past life and seeking to live for Christ. It's more than a glib sorry!

At the Cross

I'm going through Job, at the moment, in my quiet times - it's a book about suffering and renewal etc. I was thinking about the Cross. This stems from conversations I used to have with Muslims as they don't understand how God could turn His back on God, as He did with Christ at the cross. 

As I pondered on Job's suffering, I thought about the suffering we can never ever understand. 

Jesus is the Son of God - the One who is beloved of His Father (Matthew 3:17; 17:5)
Jesus is God - the image of His Father - (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:1-3)

All throughout eternity Jesus and His Father have had close communion - we don't understand the Trinity, or not the depths of it, but we do know each person of the Trinity is an individual, but also there is a oneness. Each are in agreement with the other. I'm not here to discuss the Trinity, but wanted to make the point that Jesus always had communion with the Father and Holy Spirit even during His ministry, Jesus still had communion with the Father through prayer -
  
UNTIL the hours between 12:00-15:00. 

The Human Condition:

Humanity is naturally against God - we can say we believe in Him, but do we obey Him? Do we keep ALL of His commandments? Believing and obeying are different things. Even the devil and his demons believe in God, but they are condemned because they don't obey Him. 
In our disobedience we turn our backs/reject/forsake God and the only way back to Him is for that rejection to be taken by someone - well we are too weak and frail to take it on ourselves, we are also fallible, unreliable, mortal, so we can't do it.

Jesus came to earth. He is: 

God: the Father needs to be propitiated. We can never hit God's standards at all. However hard we try, we fail. In and of ourselves we would get disheartened because it's a hopeless thing: sinners trying to reach the perfect 100% standard God expects! Only Jesus could reach that standard, as God! 

Man: only mankind can redeem itself. Mankind sins, so only mankind can make amends, but we can't because we are sinners, weak, fallible, unreliable, double-minded etc. Jesus HAD to become a man so that salvation was complete through humanity as well as God being propitiated! For Him just to remain God would have meant God was placated to some degree, but that would still have left mankind without the sacrifice needed for full redemption! 

Back to the cross:

Up until 12:00 Jesus still was in communion with His Father. He asked for the Lord to forgive [I wonder if He was looking into the future as well as His present, and asking God to forgive those who were going to be His own] (Luke 23:34)

From 12:00-15:00 - darkness covered the land - Jesus' Father had left Him, turned His back on His Son, as Jesus became the sin bearer! God forsook His Son at Calvary. The weight of our sins pressed down on Christ but even more so I would think the Father's rejection of His Son weighed more heavily upon Him! He cried out in despair at the thought of His beloved Father being silent - no angels were sent to His aid, no relief from the awful torment He had from the separation - just silence. Deathly quiet from the One whom He had been in communion with since eternity. BUT in that forsaking, rejection - Jesus was winning a FULL and COMPLETE salvation for His people - if God the Father had just offered His hand of comfort, offered words of encouragement - our salvation would have been null and void, because Jesus was our 100% complete Substitute at Calvary! God turns His back on every sinner who is unrepentant and refuses to accept His Son - who bore the weight of humanity's sins upon His body. THIS is why Jesus is the ONLY way to God. 

Did Mohammed bear the sins of billions of people - of course not, did Buddha bear the sins of billions of people - no, did the gurus bear the sins of billions of people - definitely not, no other 'person' or false god is the way to the true God, Peter, speaking about Jesus in Acts 4:12 says: ..."Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to get to God and is the way of LIFE ETERNAL! 

John 14:6 Jesus said to him [Thomas], “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

What Jesus did for His people

• He was abandoned - so that God would never abandon His people
• He was friendless - so that He could become a greater friend to His people
• He was stripped naked - so that His people could be clothed in the Robe of Righteousness and Garment of Salvation
• He had a crown of thorns on His head - so that His people could be a crown of glory and royal diadem in the hand of His Father
• He had holes in His hands and feet - so that His people could be made whole
• He was surrounded by darkness - so that His people could be penetrated by the light of his glory
• His life was drained from His body - so that His people could have new life in Him and never die, spiritually
• He was thirsty - so that we would never have to thirst [spiritually] again
• He took our sins upon Himself - so that we could be forgiven
• He rose again (hallelujah) - so that one day His people will rise with Him and go to glory

AMAZING LOVE, AMAZING GRACE, AMAZING SACRIFICE!