Communion #20

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

Luke 23:34

There are two astounding factors to this statement that Jesus made whilst hanging on the cross. Firstly, He asks God to forgive those who had perpetrated this heinous act. For most of us, when we experience pain particularly that of an unjust nature, the last thing we ask God to do is forgive our perpetrators. Jesus demonstrated the principle of loving our enemies perfectly when this was His cry. 

But secondly, when he said “they do not know what they are doing” there is so much loaded into this statement. Maybe it's the fact that they didn’t know that He was the Messiah, though there were ample opportunities to have made this distinction. Or maybe it's the fact that they didn’t understand what crucifying Jesus would do and the guilt that may rest on their shoulders. But again it could even be the fact that by this crucifixion, though Jesus left the control of His life in the hands of a murderous mob, He demonstrated His ultimate sovereignty by this act being the very plan for global redemption. Just as Joseph remarked all those years ago “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20

Either way, Jesus was correct as of course as we would expect him to be. We often don’t know what God is doing, and the truth is we don’t always have a perspective of how what we do fits into the bigger picture of His plan for this world. That’s why we also must simply surrender to the will of God, as Jesus did.