“Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.’” (Luke 23:34 CSB)
Devotional
There is a person most of us are carrying right now. Someone who hurt us, maybe badly. Someone we have replayed in our minds more times than we can count. The thing they said. The way they left. The betrayal we never saw coming. And if we are honest, forgiveness feels less like a spiritual discipline and more like being asked to pretend it did not happen.
Jesus says these words from the cross. Not after he had recovered. Not once things had calmed down and he had some distance from it. He says them while it is still happening. The nails are in. The crowd is mocking. The soldiers are dividing his clothes beneath him. And in the middle of all of it, he prays for the people doing it. Father, forgive them.
I do not think we are meant to read this and immediately feel capable of the same thing. I think we are meant to be stopped by it. Because what Jesus does here is not a spiritual achievement we are supposed to match by willpower. It is a window into who He is. This is the heart of God. He looks at people who are actively, knowingly, brutally wrong, and His first move is to intercede for them. Not to excuse what they are doing. Not to pretend it is fine. But to bring them before the Father anyway.
The phrase “they do not know what they are doing” is interesting. It does not mean the soldiers were ignorant that crucifixion was violent. It means they had no idea what they were participating in, no comprehension of who was hanging on that cross or what this moment would cost and accomplish. And there is something in that worth holding onto when we think about the people who have wounded us. Not everyone who has hurt us knew the full weight of what they were doing either. That does not make it right. But it does create a small crack of space where grace might begin to grow.
Forgiveness is not something most of us arrive at quickly. It is usually a long road, sometimes circling the same ground more than once. But it starts somewhere, and it often starts here: watching Jesus pray for the people who put him there, and realising that the same grace He was asking for them is the grace He has already extended to us.
Reflection
I know there is someone I have not fully forgiven. I have thought about it plenty, but thinking is not the same as releasing it. I do not want to force something that is not ready, but I want to be willing. I want to ask God to do in me what I cannot do in myself, and trust that He is able.
Prayer
Father, we confess that forgiveness is hard for us. Some of the things we are carrying feel too heavy to just let go. We are not always sure we want to. But we look at Jesus on the cross, praying for the people who put him there, and we ask You to grow that same grace in us. Meet us in the places where we are stuck. Do what only You can do. We bring You the people we have been holding, and we ask You to hold them instead.