Strength To Forgive
Luke 23:26-34
“Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”” vs. 34
The Mission
In 1986 a movie came up for best picture called The Mission. It starred Jeremy Irons as a Spanish Jesuit who goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region. Robert DeNiro plays a slave hunter. When Spain sells the colony to Portugal, they are forced to defend all they have built against the Portugese aggressors. It’s based on a true story and is really a very intriguing movie. The main story line is the plight of the — Indians but the second story line is one that really touched me as well. It’s DeNiro’s character. At first you hate him because they show scenes of him trapping and stealing Indians to sell on the trade market. A crisis comes where he finds the love of his life in the arms of another woman, his brother. He confronts him, a fight ensues, and he ends up killing him. He becomes distraught and suicidal but through a series of events converts to Christianity. He commits to becoming a Jesuit priest. His character struggles with his sin and the pentence he feels he must pay. He cannot forgive himself for what he has done. The monastery father takes him on a journey that leads him to the people he was stealing to sell as slaves. They forgive him and he really falls in love with the Indians and their village. It’s only through their forgiveness that he finds a way to forgive himself and allow God to forgive him as well.
Ever had something that you thought you might not ever be forgiven for? Or, maybe there is someone you are struggling to forgive. Let’s look at a point in Jesus life where he is willing to forgive those around him who are responsible for his death. It’s found in Luke 23:25-34. If you are able, please stand.
Read Passage – Luke 23:26-34
26 As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ 31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” 32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
The Struggle of Forgiving
My guess is that all of us struggle at some point in our lives with the issue of forgiveness. We are hurt or wronged by someone and forgiveness doesn’t seem like something we can do. Many times we can forgive others but we struggle to forgive ourselves for some of the things we have done.
Ill. I was reminded of this in the last week. I had a friend in college who I was really close to. He and I had a disagreement on something and I never considered it something that we couldn’t get over. He did. I found him on FB last week and sent an invitation for him to be a friend. No response. I had hoped we could clear the air but he just isn’t ready for that. I’m sure we all have a situation or story similar to that. Those can be very painful.
Today we will focus on forgiving others and Jesus model of what that looks like.
Fulfillment of Isaiah
The passage of Scripture we are looking at is some of the last moments of Jesus life. He has been arrested, tortured, and sentenced to die. He has had a long agonizing walk up a hill having to carry his own cross and at one point has to have someone help him. He is then nailed to a cross and hung to die in front of a crowd of people. Hope for many of the people watching seems a distant dream. But in that moment, Jesus forgives. He forgives those who are doing this to him; not only does he forgive them but he prays for them! This is a fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy found in Isaiah 53:12:
“For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:12
Here we have a prophecy written 745 years before the event. He prays for those who are doing these terrible things to him. How? How can you in a moment of such despair and struggle find it in yourself to forgive? I think its too cliché to say that Jesus could do that because he was the Son of God. It’s more than that. It’s deeper.
Jesus Formula For Forgiveness
It’s in this moment, what the world may have considered his darkest moment but what we understand to be an incredible selfless act of compassion and gift of love, that Jesus models for us the formula for forgiveness.
- Understand The Situation
Let’s start by looking at the last words of verse 34:
“…for they do not know what they are doing.” Vs. 34c
Jesus points us to the real crux of the situation; these people don’t understand their actions and the magnitude of what they have done. What Jesus is pointing out here is that these people are lost. They don’t understand; they don’t understand their actions and they don’t understand exactly who Jesus is. If we take a quick look back just a few days, these are some of the same people who were praising him as he was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and shouting “Hosanna!” Now they yelled crucify Him and are standing in front of him watching him die. Jesus isn’t confused. Jesus knows exactly what is happening; they don’t. Jesus understood the situation and had empathy for the lost. Many times we tend to deem people “bad” when they are against us or have wronged us. They might not be bad at all, just lost and without understanding.
Ex. Paul – A sincere believer but a persecutor of Christians. Bad? No, he just didn’t understand who Jesus was. He comes to understand Jesus as the Christ and then is the Christians advocate.
We must be careful to understand where people are at and respond accordingly. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:19:
“Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” Eph. 4:19
Listen to how Paul puts it, ”having lost all sensitivity.” Who would know that better than Paul himself? Let me put it to you in a term you might resonate with. Ever come across someone who is lost? Sure we all have. When that happens, we usually empathize with them and want to help then find their way.
- Turn To God
The second step in the formula of forgiveness is what you do next and Jesus model is to go right to God. Notice how verse 24 starts:
“Father…” vs. 34a
Jesus turns to God in his time of need. I would even go so far as to say that this is his first thought. If you want to make God your first thought in those difficult situations it is important to train our minds to think that way. It is a conscious decision to make God your first thought and the place you turn. You have to make it a practice. You practice it when things are good and when things are neutral and when things don’t go well. The more you practice it, the more it happens. You are training your mind to purposefully choose to acknowledge God in all situations and to acknowledge Him first. David says in Psalm 34:4:
“I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4
The assurance we have is that when we acknowledge God and put Him first, he never lets us down. I love the promise that comes in this verse: deliverance. He will deliver.
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.” Martin Luther King Jr.
- Rely On God’s Grace
And the final step in the formula is to rely on the grace of God. The first part of the verse continues…
“Father, forgive them…” vs. 34b
This is great news. It is the realization that you don’t have to take it on yourself. Jesus sets the model of turning it over to God and relying on His grace. I know this can be a struggle, to feel that you have to do it. Jesus hands them over to God with the trust and assurance that God has all the power and mercy to forgive. I know the struggle of feeling that we have to do it ourselves. I know the frustration of feeling inadequate to overcome the anxiety and bitterness that can reside in our hearts. But the great news is that it is not dependent on us/me. I know I have too much baggage, too many things that are just too hard for me, too many feelings that I struggle with and not enough mercy. But listen o how Daniel describes God in Daniel 9:9:
“The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him…” Dan. 9: 9
Here is what is great about God; we can totally do the wrong thing, and he has the capacity to forgive. If you wrong me, I might carry that around. When we rely on God’s grace, forgiveness can happen.
Ill. I was recently in a store that had a bunch of fun signs with interesting sayings. This was one: “To err is human, to forgive is out of the question.”
That would be the human way of thinking. Luckily, we don’t have to rely on our own humanity but we have the power of God and that comes to us when we open up to him and rely on his grace.
The Power Of Forgiveness
And the result of forgiveness is freedom.
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Eph. 4:32
“Forgiveness is a funny thing; it warms the heart and cools the sting.” William A. Ward (English Baptist Missionary 1769-1823
- Forgiveness is good for your heart — literally. One study from the Journal of Behavioral Medicine found forgiveness to be associated with lower heart rate and blood pressure as well as stress relief.
- A later study found forgiveness to be positively associated with five measures of health: physical symptoms, medications used, sleep quality, fatigue, and somatic complaints.
- A study, published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, found that forgiveness not only restores positive thoughts, feelings and behaviors toward the offending party (in other words, forgiveness restores the relationship to its previous positive state), but the benefits of forgiveness spill over to positive behaviors toward others outside of the relationship. Forgiveness is associated with more volunteerism, donating to charity, and other altruistic behaviors. (And the converse is true of non-forgiveness.)
So, to sum it up, forgiveness is good for your body, your relationships, and your place in the world. That’s reason enough to convince virtually anyone to do the work of letting go of anger and working on forgiveness.
Communion (Lead in to Communion)
