Father, Forgive Them!
Sermon Text Luke 23:32-34a
Good Friday, Tenebrae Service
Friday, April 6, 2012
Zion Lutheran Church Beecher, IL
In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior.
[Amen.]
Our sermon for this holy night is based on the following from St. Lukes
Gospel, chapter 23: Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be
put to death with him. 33And 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. 34And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. (Lk. 23:32-34, ESV)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
Those are familiar and awesome words arent they? Father, forgive them,
for they know not what the do.
During the next few minutes, were going to consider three aspects of
these rather simple, yet oh-so-profound words of Jesus. These three
aspects are in the form of three questions, and following Jesus lead,
each question is also quite simple. The questions are:
Forgive who, for what?
Forgive how?
Forgive why?
The first question: Forgive who
for what? Who did Jesus have in mind
when He said these words? Of course, we Christians know at least some of
those who were present that early morning when Jesus said this. The
Scriptures inform us that some Roman soldiers were there along with
others who were Jesus family and friends.
Most certainly, Jesus did pray to the Father on behalf of the Roman
soldiers. Theyd just begun His crucifixion. How could Jesus not have
them in mind
for they had just brought incredible pain to Him in the
process. Yet, some might say: Well, perhaps Jesus wasnt praying for
those soldiers. Look what they did to Him!
Yet, what did St. Paul say about himself and Jesus attitude toward him?
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. (1
Tim. 1:15, ESV)
If St. Paul could say this
and of course Paul knew what these soldiers
had done to Jesus
then we HAVE TO believe that Jesus included the
soldiers in His prayer!
But is that all for whom Jesus prayed? Might there be a possibility that
Jesus had others in mind when He prayed to His Father that He wouldnt
hold their sins against them? Remember what the Bible teaches about the
Person of Jesus. Our catechumens learn of the two natures of Jesus His
divine and human natures.
As true God, Jesus isnt bound to the present the way that we are. We
only know our present situation
and our recollection of the past is
often severely limited due to the frailties of our memories. As true
God, Jesus could see perfectly what was going on around Him. He could
also clearly see into the past
seeing who has done what beginning
with Adam and Eve.
With 20/20 vision, Jesus could see into the past, and see who had failed
the keep the Law of God perfectly
as God demands.
And with that same 20/20 vision, Jesus could also see into the future.
He could easily see today, April 6th, 2012
and observe everything
everything that we gathered here tonight have done
and will do
in all
of our tomorrows.
There are, arent there? There are things in each of our lives that
would make us ashamed if everyone else knew whats in our past. Truly,
St. Paul couldnt have been more correct when he said: For there is no
distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
(Rom. 3:22b-23, ESV)
So, to answer this first question, Jesus was praying for those soldiers
and He was also praying for us. With those ten simple, but
all-so-profound and powerful words Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do
Jesus was asking His Father to forgive each of us for
all that we have done our sins of thought
word
and action.
The second question that well consider is: Forgive how?
How was it that Jesus was made to die? The following describes what,
exactly, crucifixion is:
The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted Man is quickly thrown
backwards with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for
the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square
wrought iron nail through the wrist deep into the wood. Quickly, he
moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull
the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement.
The cross is then lifted into place. The left foot is pressed backward
against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is
driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed.
The victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on
the nails in the wrists, excruciating fiery pain shoots along the fingers
and up the arms to explode in the brain the nails in the wrists are
putting pressure on the median nerves.
As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places
the full weight on the nail through His feet. Again He feels the searing
agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of His
feet. As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through His muscles, knotting
them with deep relentless, throbbing pain.
With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward to breathe.
Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise
Himself in order to get even one small breath.
Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream,
and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, He is able to push
Himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen. Hours of
limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint wrenching cramps, intermittent
partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from His lacerated
back as He moves up and down against rough timber are all suffered by the
crucified One.
Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain deep in the chest as the
pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It
is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical
level the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish
blood into the tissues. The tortured lungs are gasping franticly in
order to gulp in only small amounts of air.
The crucified One can feel the chill of death creeping through His
tissues. Finally, almost mercifully
His body dies.
Dear friends, this was Jesus, the eternal Son of God, to Whom this
wretched death happened. What was read, is an almost too-sterile medical
analysis of what His body endured in the dying process.
Its horrible. Its mindnumbing to think of someone that you know going
through all that. But our Lord Jesus endured this
and more!
You see, we havent yet described all the agony that Jesus suffered oh
no! While Jesus hung on that cross, He was also completely abandoned by
His Father. Jesus suffered the equivalent of being in hell
He suffered
hell
while He was hanging on that cross!
Yeah, bodily speaking, He was mocked
tortured
and murdered, But
worse than that, while He was there, all of the Fathers wrath for all
the sin
of all people
of all time
was rendered upon Jesus! Jesus
was abandoned by His Father
receiving unto Himself
the abandonment
that our sins rightly deserve! To think of it
and to know that each of
us has our own very large part of it
makes our stomachs queasy and our
legs weak.
God the Father said that He must punish sin; but He never said that a
Substitute couldnt be used. So Jesus willingly suffered
and died
horribly
in our place.
Thats how
to answer our second question
thats how
forgiveness was
brought about.
Weve answered two questions by now. They were: Forgive who for what?
And, Forgive how?
The third and final question that still looms before us is: Forgive
why? Why would Jesus do this? What on earth would provide enough
motivation to anyone to go through what we just described?
Earlier, we described these three questions as being rather simple. But
now, after hearing what Jesus forgave
and how He did it
the question
of why He did all this no longer seems so simple, does it? The
magnitude
the enormity of it all
is well beyond our human ability to
fully grasp. Yet, there has to be an answer
and there is!
I quote one single verse of Scripture for you to answer this last, but
most difficult question of all: For God so loved the world, that He
gave His only begotten Son
(Jn. 3:16, KJV)
There you have it a few simple, but oh-so-profound and powerful words
that answer this enormous question of Why? Our God the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit loves us
loves us
loves the whole world
so much
that He determined to save us from our wretched, sinful lives that were
headed straight for hell!
His love caused Him to send His one and only Son to do what we were
unable to do and still live! Sure, each of us could have gone to hell;
but once there, wed be there forever.
But through Jesus
through faith in Him Whose death were considering
here and now
God reckons (or appropriates to us) the forgiveness of all
our sins earned by Jesus. This applies to us
and anyone else who also
so believes!
This, dear Christians, is why this day is rightly called Good Friday!
For on this day, Jesus completed our salvation. He bought us back from
eternal damnation, so that we may be His own and live under Him and His
kingdom forever
and His love was behind it all!
In response to this Good News of Good Friday
four simple, one-syllable
words meekly, but ever so gladly, flow from our lips: Thanks be to
God! [Amen.]
`
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