Luke 23:34 Commentary and Bible Study

It is an astonishing prayer. There is Christ Jesus being crucified on the cross of Calvary. He is dying in terrible agony – not only terrible agony of body, but even greater agony of soul. He is suffering an experience which is inconceivable so far as we are concerned. He is bearing the total weight of all the guilt and punishment, the punishment due to all the countless people who would ever be forgiven in the history of the world, compressed for him into the space of six hours. No greater suffering or agony is imaginable by us. And he is looking out at a great sea of faces, thousands of people gathered for the execution, for the spectacle. He sees faces contorted in hatred, people shouting and screaming, ‘Get rid of him, crucify him.’ The chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees, the ringleaders, throw all dignity to the wind and yell for his death. But what is his reaction? This is an amazing, astonishing, astounding prayer. ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.’ He calls upon the Father, because all sin is ultimately against the Father. But cannot Christ forgive himself? Isn't he God? Isn't he the second person of the Trinity? Yes, but he has come to earth to take our place, to be our representative, to take our viewpoint, to die instead of us if we trust in him, , to be a substitute for us, and so he positions himself voluntarily as a subordinate of the Father, and he sets the example and he prays to the Father, ‘Father, forgive them.’ He seems to say, ‘I am here on this cross, I am dying for them’, and on the ground that he is paying for them, even as he atones, he intercedes and he prays for them. It is a great prayer of intercession, and you can be sure that if God the Son prays to God the Father, that prayer will surely be answered, and it was. He is the only Mediator between man and God, and he stands between us, the God-man, and he intercedes for us. Obviously, in order to pray this prayer, he had already forgiven them himself, in spite of all that they had done to him.‘Forgive’: it is a wonderful word in the Bible. It comes from a Greek compound, ‘throw off’, ‘cast off’. The Saviour preached repentance and remission of sin, and the word remission comes from a similar root, ‘lift off’. What wonderful terms for forgiveness: to have all your guilt and all your sin thrown far away from you, lifted off you, so that God will never hold you responsible. He will view you as if you had never sinned. When he looks at you, he will see the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed, credited to your account. John Bunyan pictured it as a crushing heavy pack on the sinner's back, which is removed, thrown away. It is pictured in the Book of Leviticus. On the Day of Atonement two goats were brought to the tabernacle of the congregation, and one would be killed as a sacrifice for sin, standing for the sacrifice that Christ would have to make in future years, but the other goat was taken by the hand of a fit man and released far in the wilderness. But before this happened, Aaron the high priest had to lay his hands on its head, symbolizing the transfer of the sins of the people who were seeking forgiveness, and the guilt of the sin would be symbolically removed. And that's exactly the forgiveness word, to cast off. ‘For they know not what they do.’ It doesn't mean, forgive them because they are innocent or ignorant about sin. Oh no, they were very guilty. They told so many lies about Christ. They hated him because they didn't want to turn to God; they wanted their sin. They couldn't even love him on account of his compassionate miracles. Out of the thousands of people who had been helped, there seemed to be a only small band of women at the cross who lamented him, but most of them were against him. So they were sinful, all right. But the Lord Jesus Christ had just one argument to make to excuse them. They know not what they do. They were blind to the fact that they were crucifying their Messiah. Of course, it was the will of God. Christ knew they would do it. He came voluntarily because he was ready to suffer for us. But nevertheless, they couldn't see it. He was right before their eyes, the man of love, the man who was perfect, the man who could read their thoughts and heal thousands, the man whose teaching was astonishing, the one whose life was exactly in accordance with all the prophecies of the Old Testament, the only person in history ever to be prophesied. But they didn't connect it. They didn't see it. On one score, they were innocent. They just didn't have the slightest notion that they were killing their Messiah, their sole hope for eternal life. Here is one of the most astonishing contrasts you will ever see in any literature that you'll read. ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’, and then these words: ‘And they parted his raiment and cast lots.’ Here is Christ, the eternal second person to the Trinity, the Son of God who took human flesh to be our representative and sin bearer and to save us. What is he doing? He is securing eternal life for all who believe in him. He is accomplishing something that will last for all eternity. He is affecting the greatest transaction conceivable, the paying of the price of sin and the purchase of millions of people for eternal life. His thoughts are entirely unselfish. His words, his heart, his actions flow out to benefit others. Now look at the little cluster of Roman soldiers at the foot of the cross. How different. Are their minds on expansive spiritual things, wonderful things? No. They are thinking, ‘I want a share of that garment. I want what he's wearing here and what he's got on there.’ Their minds are so small, so shrivelled, and so pitifully earthly and carnal and materialistic. They don't care about his suffering, and they squabble over his clothing, and the only solution is to settle for a piece of it each. So actually no one had his outer garment, but only a piece of material. How small the human mind can be for all the brilliance we've been given! How petty, how narrow, how confined. What a contrast! This prayer was answered in the conversion of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost, and of others soon afterwards, many of whom were there in Jerusalem, calling for his death.