Wednesday, March 5, is referred to by some as Ash Wednesday. It begins a forty-day period known as Lent.
Lent is a time of preparation for the celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ. This is not meant to be a statement of our church’s position on Lent. It is meant to be an encouragement for each of us to take some time each week between now and Easter to try to get to know the Lord better. With that in mind, I would like to offer a reflection each week for the seven weeks leading up to Easter. Hopefully, the Lord will use them to encourage your heart during this season.
These reflections will be based on the seven statements Jesus made from the cross. They are not meant to be expositions of the words but simply reflections to give you something to meditate on during the week. It is my hope and prayer that the Lord will use them to deepen your love for and devotion to Him and that you will have a better understanding of how much He loves you and what He did to make you His own.
Sincerely,
Billy Barnes
And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. - Luke 23:33
There are a total of seven statements recorded in Scripture that Jesus made from the time He was nailed to the cross until He took His last breath. These are His last recorded words before He died. Luke is the only Gospel writer of the four who includes this statement, and it appears to be the first of the seven that Jesus speaks. It is a prayer of extravagant mercy and compassion. Jesus, the Son of God, has been tried and declared by Pilate to be innocent. Yet He is still being crucified. Crucifixion is perhaps the cruelest form of execution humanity has ever known. He is enduring suffering that we can’t even begin to imagine, both in His body and His soul. In this agony, He asks His Father to forgive the people who are responsible for it. This is so shocking for us because we are looking at it from the perspective of a fallen human being. There is a line in a poem by Alexander Pope that reads, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” Forgiveness is one of the most difficult things any of us can ever do. Even when someone hurts us, asks for forgiveness, and is genuinely sorry, it is difficult to forgive. For Jesus, it would have been unnatural not to forgive. By asking forgiveness for His persecutors, we get a glimpse into the heart of God and the freedom we can experience in the Gospel.
In Matthew’s account of the crucifixion, he notes that there were a variety of people watching this event. Jesus asked the Father to forgive all of them regardless of their religion, race, nationality, politics, or anything else that might offend our senses. Psalm 145:8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. The word mercy in verse nine is often used to describe the way a loving and caring parent feels about their child. It describes a deep, tender, compassionate love. As hard as it is to believe, this is how Jesus felt about each one of them. Matthew tells us that many watching this crucifixion were mocking Him, reviling Him, and railing at Him. The word translated as “railing” is the Greek word from which we get our word blasphemy. They are blaspheming Him, and He is praying for God to show them mercy. Let that sink in. A few days earlier, as He was riding into Jerusalem, we are told that He burst into tears. He knew they were going to crucify Him, and He still wept over them. Now, they are actually in the middle of this unjust execution, and He asks His Father to forgive them. It is an extravagant display of mercy. It is the prayer of the God who takes no pleasure in the death of anyone (Ezekiel 18:32) and who does not want anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) It is a prayer to His Heavenly Father, whose heart is broken over them as well. Jesus is not trying to overcome the Father’s animosity or indifference. He is appealing to the Father to do what He loves to do: show mercy. This is a radical, effusive, breathtaking, Divine display of tender mercy that flowed from the heart of God, who is good to all and whose mercy is over all that He has made. If we take time to reflect on it, it will melt our hearts because we have all been recipients of His mercy. It would be a stretch to believe that everyone who was there that day and heard this prayer will be in Heaven. It is not a stretch to believe that this prayer of Jesus for His torturers is what gave one of the criminals hanging next to Him the courage to ask Him to forgive and save him. God uses these small acts of mercy to advance His Kingdom in ways that we will never know this side of eternity.
Those of us who have experienced the mercy and grace of Jesus and have been adopted into His family should be becoming more merciful. Jesus is only doing what He tells each of us to do. Luke 6:27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. We are not simply called to do merciful things. The Gospel gives us the power to become merciful people. Showing kindness and mercy to everyone, especially those who mistreat us, is one of the characteristics of the children of God, it is part of our new identity. We all know how destructive unforgiveness is. It has been said that unforgiveness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. It is destructive to us mentally, physically, emotionally and psychologically. The Gospel sets us free from the need to judge and empowers us to be loving and merciful people. We are becoming loving, merciful, and forgiving people because we have experienced love, mercy, and forgiveness from Jesus. We love because He first loved us.