"FATHER, FORGIVE THEM"

Luke 23:26-56

Key Verse: 23:34a

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

������������ Today, we are going to study about Jesus� death on the cross. Apostle Luke describes how Jesus died on the cross based on facts. As we know well, death is a very important event for all men and when we see the person�s death, we can see what kind of life that person had. In today�s passage we see that Jesus prayed for us on the cross. He also led a robber to the kingdom of God. By suffering on the cross, Jesus opened the door of the kingdom of God for us. May God bless our Bible study and help us to hear Jesus� prayer on the cross.�

I. Jesus prayed on the cross (26-49)

������������ Look at verse 26. Jesus had been tried whole night by religious leaders and then in the morning he was brought to Pilate to be tried and condemned. As he had to bear trial all night, Jesus must have been exhausted due to hunger and sleeplessness. And in the morning as he was sentenced to death, Jesus was flogged and led away to be crucified. At that time, pieces of leather were attached to the end of the whip, and when it was applied to the naked body of the prisoner, it caused great pain. Some parts of the body would be cut open and blood would spill everywhere. The Roman soldiers gave 120 rounds of whipping to Jesus. Then they made him take a cross that weighed about 70 kg as heavy as a full-grown man. Bearing the cross, Jesus fell on the ground again and again and his blood fell to the ground. Realizing that Jesus was too weak to bear the cross alone, the soldiers found a strong man among the crowd and forced him to take the cross instead. �Hey, you. Take this.� This man was Simon from Cyrene and he was on his way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

������������ Look at verse 27. As the execution proceeded, a large number of people followed Jesus. They were ordinary people and some women who loved Jesus and who had experienced Jesus� grace of forgiveness.� As the women saw their good and innocent Jesus being led away to be crucified, they felt sorry and cried for him. What did Jesus say to them? Jesus said to them, �Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.� Instead of being comforted by the women, Jesus told them that they should weep for themselves and for their children. It was because a terrible time of God�s judgment was coming to them as the result of the people�s rebellion and disobedience to God�s will. Jesus said to them, �Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, �Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never born and the wombs that never born and the breasts that never nursed!�� As we know well, a woman�s childbearing is God�s great blessing but on that day, the disaster would be so sever that having a child would no longer be considered as a blessing because of extreme suffering. Amid the suffering, people would cry out toward the mountains and hills, �Fall on us!� and to the hills, �Cover us!�� This prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled when Roman General Titus invaded Jerusalem in 70 A.D. At that time, the attack was so severe that people in Jerusalem had to eat their own children to survive. Here we learn that we must serve the Lord with humbleness and obedience.

������������ Look at verse 32 Two criminals were also led out to be crucified. The executioners deliberately crucified Jesus between two criminals in order to make Jesus as shameful as robbers. All men want to be honored and no one wants to be ashamed. But Jesus was hung high on the cross between two criminals. They placed Jesus between two criminals in order to make Jesus look as shameful as the two men. Look at verse 33. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him. The soldiers laid the cross flat on the ground and laid Jesus on it. Then they stretched out his arms on the cross and hammered the thick nails through his hands and feet.� �Khwang! Khwang! Khwng!� Then they lifted up the cross and set it upright in its socket.

������������ Then what did Jesus do on the cross? Usually, people moan and scream when they are in extreme pain. They even curse but Jesus was different. On the cross, Jesus prayed. Look at verse 34. �Jesus said, �Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.�� Even during his excruciating pain, Jesus prayed earnestly for us sinners. He prayed to God for the forgiveness of sins for those who crucified him saying, �Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.�� Here we learn two things about Jesus� prayer and his love on the cross.�

First, we learn that Jesus bore all our sins in his body on the cross. The crucifixion was the most terrible way of punishment that has ever been invented by man. If a person is executed by hanging or with a gun, his suffering would be very brief. But a person cannot die immediately if he is crucified. At that time it took 2 or 3 days before a person died while hung on the cross. During this period of time, he would faint more than 1,000 times. So at that time the great act of mercy for the person was to make him die quickly by breaking his legs with a hammer.� Now Jesus was hung on the cross helplessly. As Jesus� hands and feet were pierced by nails, his blood gushed out and his bone and whole body was shaking. Even Jesus� lips and mouth became dry. A Psalmist describes his suffering on the cross in Psalm 22:14,25. �I am poured out lie water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.� The suffering was so severe that Jesus cried out to God Father like a little child. He said, ��Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani!�� �My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?�

������������ Then why did the sinless Jesus suffer and die in this way? It was because of our sins. The fact that Jesus suffered so much on the cross shows only the wretchedness of our sins. Sin is invisible so people commit sin at random. Many people are not afraid of committing sin. A young man said, �Last night I committed sin but now I am all right.� But we must know that to commit sin is not a light matter because sin kills our souls. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Someone may try to forget what he has already done after committing sin. But we cannot forget sin. After committing, however trivial and small it may seem, we suffer a lot with a sense of guilt and condemnation like Cain in the Bible. In Genesis, Cain suffered much with a sense of guilt and condemnation after killing his brother Abel. He said to God, "My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." (Gen 4:13,14). In the book of 1 Samuel, King Saul also suffered a lot when he disobeyed God�s commandment. But Jesus shed his precious blood on the cross in order to make us free from the burden of our sins. Jesus is God�s Paschal Lamb.

Second, we learn that Jesus forgave all our sins on the cross. Jesus not only bore our sins and iniquities but also forgave our sins. Jesus prayed on the cross for us sinners. He said, �Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.� On the cross, Jesus prayed to God for the forgiveness of man�s sins. When Jesus said, �Forgive them�� , his prayer includes all men; the religious leaders, King Herod, Pilate, Roman soldiers, the crowds, the Roman soldiers and all of us. We commit sin knowingly and unknowingly and because our sins, we crucify Jesus on the cross again and again. But Jesus died on the cross as God�s Paschal Lamb. Apostle Pete says in 1 Peter 2:24,25, �He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.� Jesus was a merciful and compassionate Lord. Jesus understand us well. He knows that even if we try to do best not to commit sin, we commit sin because of our pride and spiritual ignorance. So he prayed on the cross saying, �Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. As we know, forgiveness is the hardest thing for any person to do. In history, there are many heroes and heroines who have achieved many great accomplishment but most of them failed to forgive others. But Jesus prayed for the forgiveness of sins even for those who were crucifying him. Jesus is our true Savior.

������������ Then what kind of spiritual blessings we have because of Jesus� forgiveness on the cross? We have received many blessings. Especially, we have received heavenly peace from God through Jesus. In Ephesians 2:14,15, Paul says, � For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,� Before, we were not peaceful at all. It was because we had many barriers. But Jesus abolished� all the barriers through his death on the cross and enabled us to love one another. When Jesus broke the barrier that separated us from God, he were able to come near to God without fear calling him, �Father.� May God help us to come to Jesus on Golgotha. Apostle Peter also encourages to come Jesus so that we can grow as a holy people of God. He says, �As you come to him, the living Stone�rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him� you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ� (1 Peter 2:L4,5)

������������ Look at verse 35. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, �He saves others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.� The soldiers also mocked him beneath the cross as they were dividing his clothes casting lots � ��� Look at verse 29. As he was hung on the cross, even one of the criminals hurled insults at him. He said to Jesus, �Aren�t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!� As this man saw Jesus hanging on the cross doing nothing, Jesus only looked� helpless to him. So he hurled insults at him. However, we must remember that Jesus did not come down from the cross because we wanted to save men from the power of sin and death. Look at verse 40. But there was another criminal. He was different from the unrepentant criminal. This man rebuked the man severely.� He said, �Don�t you fear God since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting ha our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.� (40,41). This man feared God and he repented his sin deeply. Then he asked Jesus to bring him to the kingdom of God. Look at verse 42. He said, �Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.�� What a great faith this man had! This man had lived almost his entire life committing sin. But now he was asking Jesus to take him to the kingdom of God. This man had faith that overcomes the world. Hebrews 11:1 is the definition of faith. It says,� �Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. �

������������ How did Jesus bless him when he came to Jesus by faith? Jesus blessed him by saying, �I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.�� On the cross Jesus accepted this man�s faith, and accepted him as a citizen of his kingdom. We thank and praise Jesus for his great mercy and grace for a lost soul.

II. Jesus� death and his burial (44-56)

������������ In this part we see Jesus� death and his burial. Verse 44 says. �It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.� The death of Jesus was so unfair that even nature mourned. Look at verse 46. Jesus called out with a loud voice, �Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.� Even on the cross, Jesus loved God and committed his soul to him. Jesus loved his God Father this much. As he was dying, the son stopped shinning and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. The fact that the curtain of the temple was torn in two tells us that now the way to come to holy God for us is widely open though Jesus� death. After his death, Jesus was buried in a new tomb by Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus burial is the confirmation of his death and it is the foundation of his resurrection.