33 – When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him, 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.” And they divided up His clothes by casting lots.
35 – The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at Him. They said, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
36 – The soldiers also came up and mocked Him. The offered Him wine vinegar 37 – and said, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.”
38 – There was a written notice above Him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
As many of you know, my dad completed his life several years ago—in the summer of 2002. He and mom were staying at one of the guest hotels on the campus of the OLD Walter Reed Hospital at the time so they could be close by for my brother, Jon’s surgery. The day after Jon’s procedure Dad was reading in the lobby and decided to go up to their room to rest—but as he got about halfway up the stairs he tripped and fell—hitting his head on one of the wrought iron hand rails. He suffered a serious brain bleed and died a few days later. I wasn’t there when he fell—and by the time I got to the hospital Dad was on a respirator. He never regained consciousness so there were no final words between father and son—no last minute expressions of love or guidance.
And whereas I greatly regret that—I feel blessed to have other “words” from my dad—in the form of his library. Mom encouraged me to take any book I wanted—which is a wonderful thing because Dad was a pastor for over 40 years and had compiled a GREAT library full of commentary sets that are expensive—and hundreds of other great books by authors like Criswell and Hughes, and Hobbs and Barclay and Phillips—-many books that are no longer in print.
Well, whenever I use dad’s books in sermon prep I often come upon a place where he has underlined something—and then written a word or a sentence in the margin. When I make a discovery like that I get excited because it’s like I’ve found a treasure. I pay special attention to the underlined portions and read each hand-written word carefully—for these are my dad’s words written with his own hand. It’s like he’s still talking to me—teaching me—giving me guidance—something he did all the time when he was living. I mean, I pay attention to the wisdom and insights I find in those written words. And I’m sure you understand because words from our departed loved ones are precious indeed, whether they are spoken on a deathbed—or discovered later in a letter or in the margin of a book.
I share this because today we are beginning a series of sermons in which we will study the most beneficial WORDS ever uttered—the final words Jesus uttered before His death. There are seven sets of these words and they enable us to see the heart of our Savior as well as the heart of the Gospel. I mean, these precious words help us better understand exactly WHY Jesus came into this world—why He did what He did—why He died as He died.
Now—in order for us to fully grasp the importance of Jesus’ final words, we must remember HOW He died—for these words are significant not just because of WHO said them—but also because of WHERE they were said. And, as you know, Jesus uttered HIS final words, not from a hospital room or while He was comfortably ending His days in some peaceful hospice—nor did Jesus say them as He lay in own bed in His childhood home. They weren’t written in the margin as He studied some Old Testament scroll. No, Jesus’ last words were spoken as He was hanging from A CROSS—CRUCIFIED by Roman soldiers at the insistence of the Jewish religious leaders.
And understand—while Jesus’ body was wracked with pain, His throat parched with thirst, He had no energy to waste on trivial matters. So each of His final words serve as a window to help us see the meaning of the cross more clearly. And—at the onset of this study—we should remind ourselves that crucifixion DIFFERS from the various forms of execution known today in two major ways.
FIRST of all, today’s executions are, for the most part, PRIVATE events.
They are not televised or viewed in any way by the general public. At the time of execution a few are allowed to watch but that’s all. In contrast, crucifixion was not only ALLOWED to be a public event, it was DESIGNED to be so. The Romans WANTED it to be memorable for those who witnessed it. They wanted a BIG crowd because they wanted their conquered subjects to have a vivid reminder that the penalty for breaking their laws was certain, brutal, and extreme.
And they must have felt the need to remind people of this quite often—for history records that the Romans executed as many as 30,000 people a year on the cross.
Now, the Romans didn’t have many original ideas. They tended to steal ideas from the cultures they conquered and crucifixion is a great example. It had been around for hundreds of years prior to the Romans using it. And, according to journalist Jim Bishop, the original inventors of this horrible form of execution designed it to be a way to inflict the maximum amount of pain on a victim before death. He writes, “They had tried death by spear, by boiling in oil, impalement, stoning, strangulation, drowning, burning—and all had been found to be too quick. They wanted a means of punishing criminals [publically] and slowly, so [they] devised the cross. It was almost ideal, because in its original form it was as SLOW as it was painful and the condemned at the same time were placed in CLEAR VIEW of the people. A secondary consideration was nudity. This added to the shame of the evildoer and, at the same time, made him [even more] helpless before the thousands of insects in the air. The ROMANS adopted the cross as a means of deterring crime, and they had faith in it. In time they reduced it to an exact science with a set of rules to be followed.”
This leads to the second difference between crucifixion and today’s executions. In our day and age executions are swift and even somewhat MERCIFUL:
There’s the flash of electricity through a body or the quiet swift death of a lethal injection. But, crucifixion, on the other hand, was designed to be an excruciatingly PAINFUL, humiliating, LINGERING death. Merrill F. Unger, the late biblical scholar, states that “instances are on record of persons surviving for NINE DAYS on the cross.” No wonder Kausner, a Jewish historian, says, “Crucifixion is the most terrible and cruel death man has ever devised.”
Now, in the midst of such punishment most people who hung on a Roman cross would rant and rave at the crowd and especially at their executioners. THEIR final words would be curses full of anger and vitriolic hatred. Cicero writes that the executioners would sometimes even cut off the tongues of the criminals so the soldiers would not have to listen to their vindictive verbiage. But not so with Jesus. 1st Peter 2:23 says, “When they hurled their insults at Jesus, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats.” So—Jesus’ final words from the cross were unique from those of others who suffered this fate. In fact, each of His words is packed with SELFLESS promises not only for you and me but even for those who brutalized and crucified and mocked Him that horrible day. I for one cherish these words Jesus spoke from the cross. They are a special treasure because in them I can hear and feel God’s love for me as an individual very clearly. I mean it seems as if the entire Gospel were somehow condensed into these precious final syllables.
Okay let’s begin this morning by looking at Jesus’ FIRST saying from the cross and I want to organize our study around a DIAGRAM of this first sentence He uttered. As we do, we’ll see that it is a PRAYER—a prayer that has four significant PARTS. It is addressed to Someone; it offers a REQUEST; it has a definite OBJECT; and it cites a REASON. So let’s begin. Look at verse 34 and tell me, Who was it addressed to? Right—GOD!
(1) Jesus said, “FATHER…forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Now—in reading the Gospels have you ever noticed how frequently this word, “FATHER,” was on Jesus’ lips? For example, do you remember what He said to Joseph and Mary when they lost Him and then found Him in the temple? He would only have been about 7 or 8. It is His first recorded saying: “Don’t you know that I must be about My FATHER’S business?”
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of His Father, 17 times. Just PRIOR to the cross He told disciples, “In My FATHER’S house are many mansions.” And, as we’ll see in a few weeks, His FINAL word from Calvary was, “FATHER in to Your hands I commend My spirit.”
Well I think it is important for us to note that even now, in spite of all that He had been through, in spite of all that He was GOING through—Jesus still looked up and said, “Father.” He still believed that God was His loving Father and would do His best for Him. All that had happened during the last brutal few hours had in no sense shaken Jesus’ faith that He was the beloved Son in Whom His Father was still well pleased. This provides a lesson for us because when life is hard and unfair—when disaster and heartache and fear dogs our path—we are so inclined to question the validity of God’s love and goodness. In times like this it is hard for us to believe that God really does love us enough to “work in ALL THINGS for our good.” (Romans 8:28) I mean it’s EASY to believe in a loving God when life is wonderful—but it’s NOT SO EASY in those times when life seems to fall in on us is it? Ask yourself. “How strong is my faith in a loving God when deadly disease comes or when my loved ones die suddenly or when terrorists broadcast beheadings or when painful tragedy comes my way?” Jesus’ first word from the cross should remind us that we must ALWAYS believe in God’s goodness—we must always trust in His loving purpose—and that no matter what happens we can and should always PRAY to our Heavenly Father, for as someone has said, “When life knocks us to our knees, we are in a perfect position to pray.”
But I want you to note something ELSE. Up until this point in His life, Jesus had never asked the Father to forgive anyone. Instead, Jesus Himself forgave sins. In Mark 2:5 for example He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” You should remember that whenever Jesus did this—whenever He forgave someone’s sins—it infuriated the Pharisees for they thought, “How could any man forgive sins. This is something only God can do.” Well they were right but Jesus WAS God—God in the flesh. He had the credentials of Deity and because He did, He had the right to forgive sins. But, on the cross, He did not exercise this divine prerogative. Instead He asked the FATHER to do what HE had previously done. Sacrificed as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world, He refused the role of Deity. He was still God, to be sure, but He so completely identified with us that He temporarily withdrew Himself from a position of authority and prayed that the unforgiven might be forgiven.
Look at it this way—of all humanity our Savior alone has the right in Himself to address God as “Father.” And He went to His death so that others—like you and me—might share this privilege. The Son of God endured a shameful cross so that we can become children of God.
(2) This leads to a second thing we should note about Jesus’ first saying from the cross. It involved a specific REQUEST. Jesus said, “…Father FORGIVE…”
I would remind you that THESE two words were a fulfillment of prophecy. Centuries earlier Isaiah had foretold Jesus’ sacrificial death on our behalf describing it perfectly when he said, “He poured out His life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12)
Now, the Greek verb here that we translate as “forgive” is a very rich word—it has several shades of meaning so we need to look closely if we are to understand every facet of Jesus’ prayer.
a. First off, the word “forgive” expressed the idea of letting go of a DEBT by not demanding its payment. Jesus was asking that our SIN DEBT be forgiven.
But you see, this could only be done by placing the obligation on another. So in His prayer for our forgiveness Jesus was asking that our sin be placed on Him. In short Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them by condemning Me.” As He hung there on the cross, Jesus did not ask that God IGNORE our sin. A righteous God could not do that. God could not simply say, “Let’s just forget about mankind’s sin and let bygones be bygones.” No—God’s searing holiness demanded an infinite penalty. Our sin had to be atoned for. There was a price to be paid—and only Jesus—the SINLESS Son of God—could pay it. God loved us so much that He sent us His Son to do exactly that. And that’s what Jesus was doing. He was saying, “Father, let Me pay the price for their sin.”
You see the Bible clearly teaches that each of us has accumulated a moral debt before our just and holy God and it’s been growing for years. Every time we are less than honest or fudge an expense account or tax return or treat our children too harshly or make a cutting remark we shouldn’t or speak the truth in love but don’t—every time we gossip or tell a racist joke or entertain sexually impure thoughts—each sinful act adds to a mountain of moral debt so high that we could never pay it. Well, as He hung on the cross Jesus said, “God, let Me pay it. Let Me pay the debt for Mark’s sin…and Sophia’s sin…and Stuart’s sin…and Antonio’s sin…and Ibeth’s sin…” And so on and so on—By hanging there on the cross Jesus paid the sin debt for every human who has ever lived or ever will live—even for those CRUEL PEOPLE who crucified Him. And that is truly amazing. I’m reminded of Paul’s words in Romans 5: “ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8)
According to Rick Atkinson in his book, The Guns at Last Light, as WW2 drew to a close, American took more reprisals against German soldiers. The fact is the violence of war had worn down the American soldiers—especially when stories of German atrocities spread. At the Battle of the Bulge, for example, SS troops slaughtered over a hundred American soldiers after they had surrendered. So, by the time the Allies reached Germany, they showed no mercy. These, after all, were the perpetrators. German soldiers flying white flags were gunned down. And when the Allies liberated concentration camps, their sense of outrage and hatred grew even more murderous. General Eisenhower himself once asked a nervous young GI after touring Buchenwald, “Still having trouble hating them?” At Dachau, American liberators stood aside while inmates literally tore apart their German guards, limb from limb. GIs gunned down many more after they surrendered.
In contrast, think about how God responded to us at the Cross of Christ. Those who plotted Jesus’ death, those who begged for it before Pilate, even the Roman soldiers who beat Jesus and then nailed him up—they did it with FEELING and graphic gusto. Jesus had done nothing to deserve that death by torture—and yet, instead of crying out for the punishment of Pilate and the Soldiers and the Jews, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness.
b. Another thing we must note here is that the form of this Greek verb also indicates that Jesus prayed this prayer of intercession more than once.
You see, this verb is in the IMPERFECT tense which indicates REPEATED action in the past. In fact your Bible may translate verse 34 in this way, “But Jesus WAS SAYING, ‘Father, forgive…’” which means that Jesus prayed this prayer over and over again. So according to Scripture, when they arrived at the place of the skull, Jesus looked about and prayed, “Father, forgive them…” As the centurion crushed Him to the ground and tied His arms to the cross beam, He prayed, “Father, forgive them….” When the blunt spikes tore through each quivering palm, He prayed, “Father forgive them….” When they nailed His feet to the beam, Jesus prayed, “Father, Forgive them…” When they lifted that timber high and dropped it in the hole with a jolt that tore His flesh, Jesus prayed, “Father, Forgive them…” When the crowd cursed and reviled Him, He prayed, “Father, forgive them…” When the soldiers parted His garments and gambled for the seamless robe, He prayed, “Father, forgive them…” In fact, no one knows HOW MANY times that prayer pierced Heaven’s blue but Jesus prayed this prayer over and over again continuing to intercede for the transgressors.
And you know the truth is He STILL PRAYS this prayer for you and me today. As Romans 8:35 says, “Christ Jesus, Who died and Who was raised to life is [even now] at the right hand of God…interceding for us.”
c. And then a third thing I want to point out in the Greek here is that the word “forgive” also means “permit.”
So Jesus was ALSO saying, “Father, PERMIT them; do not HINDER them from doing this to Me.” Now, why would such a prayer be needed? Well, do you remember what Jesus had said on the night BEFORE the cross? As Jesus was being taken He told Peter to put His sword away and then He said, “Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53) Picture it like this in your mind’s eye. With the crucifixion in progress, Jesus looks heavenward, and there He sees these legions of angels straining at the leash. They are waiting only for the word from the Father to sweep down, destroy the crucifiers and rescue the Beloved of Heaven. And Jesus says, “Father, hold them back! Do not hinder these men. Permit the crucifiers to continue. They are not taking My life from Me. I am laying it down Myself. For as You know, it is necessary if mankind is to be saved.”
Now keep all this information we’ve gleaned from our Greek study in your mind and remember, Jesus had been brutally scourged. He had not had any food or water since the night before when He shared the Passover Meal with His disciples. Add this to the incredible unrelenting pain of crucifixion—and note that in spite of all this constant indescribable pain—Jesus spoke SELFLESS words of genuine forgiveness from the cross. In this time of intense personal anguish, Jesus focused on others—on you and me. This realization may lead you to make the same conclusion as did the centurion in charge of Jesus’ crucifixion who said, “Truly this was the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:54) I mean, you may think—only God could do that—for, when humans like you and are in pain we intercede for OURSELVES not others so we think only Jesus could be that selfless—NOT ME! None of us could love others like Jesus did that day!
But the Bible disagrees for it records that at least one human did. Remember Stephen? That deacon died for his faith—stoned by the Jewish religious leaders—but Acts 7 records that, as he died, he echoed Jesus’ words and said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And Stephen is not alone in this. Inspired by this particular final word of our Lord, and empowered by His Spirit in them—other Christian martyrs down through the centuries have done the same thing—prayed for their murderers.
Well, this should convict you and me—you see no normal human can pray this prayer but a transformed child of God can. A Christian—a man or woman whose life has been changed by the power of God can and should pray such a prayer when they are persecuted. When you and I are attacked and accused and treated unfairly, we should emulate our Lord. We should obey His command and, “Love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.”(Matthew 5:44)
(3) And then thirdly, there was an OBJECT of His request. Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive THEM.”
Now, exactly WHO was Jesus referring to. I mean, Who is the “them” in His prayer? Well, in general terms the Greek here infers that our Lord was referring to His immediate world—to every Jew who had planned His death and initiated the trials that were such a sham—to Pilate and every other Gentile who had even the smallest part in His crucifixion. And amazingly enough, His prayer even included the Roman soldiers who had just tortured and crucified and mocked Him. Let me put it this way. He Who was the Victim of history’s greatest crime prayed for the criminals who had committed that crime. As someone once said, in Christ’s life He prayed for His friends, while in His death He interceded for His enemies.
But you know, as we have seen already in our study this morning, Jesus’ prayer of forgiveness included far more than the Jews and Romans who worked together to crucify Him. It was much broader than that. His prayer includes all of us—you and me—the entire world throughout the sweep of history—for all of us are sinners in need of God’s grace. I’m saying that Jesus—our eternal omniscient God in the flesh—was praying for us that day on the cross. Two thousand years ago, He was thinking of you and me. LET THAT SINK IN. I say this because John 17 says that a few hours earlier Jesus prayed not only His contemporaries but also for “…them which shall believe on Me through their word.” That’s us. He Who needed no forgiveness died for ALL those who are condemned without it. He became the UNFORGIVEN that we may become the FORGIVEN.
Now—we might wonder—was Jesus’ prayer answered? Did God forgive? Yes—He did! Jesus’ prayer was answered.
- It was answered when the Centurion at the foot of the cross put His faith in Jesus.
- It was answered with the thief crucified next to Him called out for salvation.
- It was answered on the Day of Pentecost when 3,000 were saved in one day—many of them the same who had railed for Jesus to be crucified.
- It was answered with Saul, the persecutor met Jesus on the Damascus road and was converted.
- It was answered when I put my faith in Jesus in 1962—and when any of you did the same.
- This prayer is answered even today when individuals turn to the Lord in repentance and invite Him to be their Savior.
- At that instant, God the Father applies the blood of Jesus and declares the person forgiven.
(4) And then finally note that Jesus said there was a REASON for His prayer. His last phrase was,“…for they know not what they do.”
In other words Jesus said, “Forgive them because they don’t realize the significance of their act.” Today we’d say, “They don’t have a clue.”
Now—don’t misunderstand me here. There was a great deal that Jesus’ crucifiers DID know.
- Judas knew that he had betrayed a wonderful leader and friend.
- CAIAPHAS knew that he had resorted to bribery and illegal tricks to bring Jesus into his trap.
- The CHIEF PRIESTS knew that they had brought false charges against Him. Pilate knew he was condemning an innocent Person to death.
- The SOLDIERS knew that Jesus did not deserve such an awful fate. The CROWD knew that to mock Him in His hour of agony was sadistic to the extreme.
I mean, there was not a person among those who participated in Jesus’ execution who could honestly plead, “Not Guilty.” They knew they had committed a great evil. But they WERE ignorant in the sense that there was so much they did NOT know. They were ignorant in that—though they knew they were doing wrong, they did not and could not realize just how WRONG. They did not know the ENORMITY of their sin. I mean it hadn’t dawned on them that the hands and feet they had nailed to the cross were the hands and the feet of the Son of God. They hadn’t the foggiest idea that the body they had nailed to those timbers was the spotless Lamb of God, Who was taking away the sins of the world. As the apostle Paul said, “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Cor. 2:8)
That day the Romans and Jews knew what they had done, but they did not know ALL they had done. And in the midst of all His unbelievable pain Jesus saw this. I mean it’s as if Jesus considered this bloodthirsty, death-hungry crowd not as MURDERERS, but as VICTIMS. It’s as if He saw in their faces not hatred but confusion. It’s as if He regarded them not as a militant mob but, as He put it, as “sheep without a shepherd.”
And you know, as Christians—as His disciples—Jesus calls us to this same perspective. We are to forgive. He commands us to look at the people who make our lives difficult—those people who hurt us with their hateful words and actions—in the same way. We are to forgive our enemies.
On April 18, 1942, Army Corporal Jacob DeShazer boarded a bomber plane with his pilot, Lieutenant William Farrow, and a co-pilot, navigator, and rear gunner. They were part of the Doolittle Raiders and their mission was to bomb Tokyo and its surrounding cities. When the mission was accomplished, they were to land on the shores of enemy territory and elude the opposing forces as they awaited further instructions. The bombing was a success, but with fuel running low, Lt. Farrow gave the order for all on board to jump. DeShazer landed in a graveyard and was taken prisoner by ten Japanese the next day. Though his life was spared, he was tortured ruthlessly before being placed into solitary confinement at a filthy prison camp. DeShazer remained in captivity for almost two years, struggling with starvation and illness. After one of his fellow prisoners died of dysentery, Japanese authorities increased the rations of food and allowed the prisoners to have reading material, including the Bible. But because there was only one Bible, DeShazer had to wait six months to get his turn with it. Finally, when his turn came, DeShazer read the Scriptures over and over again. Though raised in a Christian home, he had never accepted Christ. On the final day he was allowed to have the Bible, he read Romans 10:9 once more, confessed his belief in Christ, and begged for forgiveness. Immediately he realized this demanded changes in his life—both while in a prison camp and beyond (should he ever be released). In an article on DeShazer’s life for Today’s Christian, Elsie J. Larson shares what happened next:
“Bad habits and attitudes don’t just go away when a person accepts Christ. One day after the exercise period, DeShazer’s guard hurried him toward his cell, shoved him inside, slamming the door on DeShazer’s foot. Instead of opening the door, the guard kicked the prisoner’s foot with his hobnailed boots. DeShazer desperately pushed the door until he could free his foot. His mind blazed with rage. However, Jesus’ words came to him: ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them, which despitefully use you.’ Nursing his foot, DeShazer wished for a while that his mind would go blank; instead, all the Scripture God had helped him memorize flooded into his mind. Calming down, he decided, ‘God commanded me to love. What a wonderful world it would be if we would all try to love one another. I’ll try.’
The next morning was the test. DeShazer greeted the guard respectfully in Japanese. The guard gave him a puzzled look and said nothing. Every morning, the prisoner offered friendly greetings and received no response. Then one morning the guard walked straight to DeShazer’s cell, and spoke to him through the door. He was smiling. DeShazer asked about his family. From that time on, the guard treated him with respect and kindness, and once even brought him a boiled sweet potato. Another time, the guard slipped DeShazer figs and candy.
A year the war God called DeShazer to return to Japan as a missionary so in 1948, Jacob DeShazer returned to Japan with his wife, Florence, as a missionary. By that time, Army chaplains had distributed more than a million tracts containing DeShazer’s testimony titled, ‘I Was a Prisoner of the Japanese.’ Thousands of Japanese people wanted to see the man who could forgive his enemies. In his first few months in Japan, the former [bomber] had spoken in two hundred places. Soon he, with his wife Florence, helped Japanese Christians to establish churches. Although the church planting was going well, early in 1950, DeShazer longed for a revival for Japan. He fasted 40 days, praying for the salvation of the Japanese. A few days after he ended his fast, a man came to his home and introduced himself—Mitsuo Fuchida, flight commander of the 360 planes that attacked Pearl Harbor. After reading DeShazer’s testimony, Fuchida had purchased a New Testament, read it, and had accepted Christ. DeShazer welcomed him as a brother and counseled him to be baptized. Within a short time, Fuchida became an evangelist, preaching in Japan and all over the world. In 1959 a dream came true for DeShazer when he moved to Nagoya to establish a Christian church in the city he had bombed. Because of one shared Bible, the man who first came to [bomb] Japan returned on the wings of a dove to spread the ‘peace that passeth understanding’ in that country for the next thirty years.’”