Luke 23:34
Sermon preached on April 30, 2006 by Laurence W. Veinott. ©
Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. Other sermons can be
found at http://www.newlifeop.org/.
It's remarkable when someone dies for a friend. One of the
most moving stories I've read in this regard has to do with
two Newfoundlanders, Henry O'Neill and John Casey. They met
after Henry was shipwrecked and made his way south to the
village where John lived. Henry mentioned that he was from
Waterford County, Ireland. When he mentioned it John was
intrigued because that's where his wife, Mary, was from.
They became best friends and soon Henry, who was younger,
married John's daughter. It was the early 1850's and dog
teams were a necessity, but dogs were hard to obtain. Henry
secured some puppies and raised them and soon he had a
strong dog team. In March 1853 flow ice from north came and
packed against the shore. It's the kind of ice that harp
seals follow and rest on. On March 9, John and Henry and
others went out into the ice to hunt seals. It was a
beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. Everyone had a
good day sealing. Late in the afternoon dark clouds
appeared in the sky when the group of men were about two
miles offshore. A sudden gust of wind alerted the sealers
of the danger. The cry went out, "Everyone to share as
quickly as possible." The only problem was that Henry's dog
team was much further out on the ice. He told John to head
for shore while he went to get the dogs. John told him to
forget the dogs, that they might make it to shore
themselves. But Henry insisted so John told him to hurry.
Henry headed for the dogs while John headed for shore. All
the men except Henry and John reached the shore. John could
have made it, but instead of walking to shore, he stood on
the ice, near the shore, waiting for Henry. The other men
begged Henry to come ashore, but he said, (The Price Paid
for Charley, by Earl. B. Pilgrim, p. 122-123)
"'I can't!' he emphasized. 'I can't leave Henry.' The men on the cliffs saw Henry as he reached his dogs, and started toward Shoal Point. The ice started moving off from shore. 'Jump to shore, John!' they cried in unison. A look of agony crossed John's face as he stared alternately toward the ice-field, the ocean and the swirling snowdrifts that were stirred by the northwest gales.'I can't!' he said, looking at the shoreline. 'I can't! I can't leave Henry to die alone. He's the best friend I've ever known!' 'Jump! Jump to shore! It's your last chance!' The ice moved slowly—three, four, five, six, then seven feet. A rope was thrown, and it landed near John's feet. He turned, and ran toward the area where Henry had gone for the dogs. Those on the cliffs saw the two men meet. They redirected the dog-team, and turned toward Northeast Crouse Head. As they did, the force of the blizzard struck, and a wall of snow shut them from view. It was the last time Henry O'Neill and John Casey were seen."
He knew his friend was going to die. He didn't want him to die alone so he went to him to share his fate. That's remarkable love. It's amazing love when someone dies for a friend. I think we all hope that if we found ourselves in such a situation that we would be willing to die for a good friend.
But what about dying for an enemy? That's love of an entirely different order. Can you imagine someone giving their life for someone who has hurt, slandered, and abused them? Can you imagine someone giving their life for someone who has been extremely cruel to them? That's love that is far above what we would naturally put in to practice. But that's the kind of love we see in Jesus Christ. In Romans 5:6-8,
"You
see, at just the right time,
when we were still powerless,
Christ died for the ungodly.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man,
though for a good man
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."
Jesus
died for His enemies. As Romans 5:10 says,
"when we
were God's enemies,
we were reconciled to him
through the death of his Son,"
The
passage before us shows that love in action. It is one of
the most remarkable sayings in all of history. When they
were crucifying Him, Jesus said,
"Father,
forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing."
This
shows us
the
great and astounding love that Jesus has for sinners.
Jesus
prayed this prayer when the soldiers were inflicting on him
the most horrible death. Crucifixion was a cruel and
terrible form of punishment. It was designed as a gruesome,
painful and humiliating form of death. Edersheim writes,
(The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Vol. 2, p. 589)
"the punishment was invented to make death as painful and as lingering as the power of human endurance."
One theory holds that most of those who were crucified died of suffocation. As a person was on a cross it would become harder and harder for them to breathe and the only way for them to get a breath would be to push themselves up, causing excruciating pain. The cycle would repeat over and over and they struggled to keep breathing. It seems that those who were crucified experienced almost unrelenting physical torment.
I've also read that it was so horrible that it was quite common for those who were being crucified to curse those who were inflicting it on them. But Jesus was different. We see Him undergoing the ordeal He spoke about in Luke 12:50. He said,
"But I
have a baptism to undergo,
and how distressed I am
until it is completed!"
How He
dreaded what was happening to Him. You'll recall that in
the Garden of Gethsemane He said that His soul was
overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death and His sweat
became like drops of blood. What a horrible agonizing
ordeal it was for him.
Now we must not think that Jesus' suffering was just
physical. A large share of His sufferings consisted of His
enduring the wrath of God for our sins and being abandoned
by the Father. Yet we must not minimize His physical
sufferings and think that somehow it was easy for Him.
Quite the contrary, He suffered the utmost physical agony.
Yet in the midst of it He prayed for those who were
inflicting it on Him. How remarkable His love!
We're unsure exactly when He uttered these words—was
it when the soldiers drove the nails through his hands and
feet, or when they hoisted the cross up to its place, or
shortly afterwards? We don't know. But the fact is that
when they were inflicting the most horrible suffering on
Him, Jesus asked the Father that He would forgive them.
Now to
help us understand the depth of Jesus' love here, consider
who He prayed for.
Some see
Jesus praying only for the soldiers, for those who executed
him, while others tell us that it wasn't the soldiers at
all, but the for the Jewish populace who acted in
ignorance. Norval Geldenhuys writes,
"That Jesus did not pray for the Roman soldiers but for the guilty Jewish people follows from the fact that such a prayer for the soldiers was unnecessary, for they only carried out orders and had no share in His condemnation."
But I'm not at all sure he's correct. The soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross were not guiltless. Earlier some of them had mocked Jesus, put a scarlet robe on Him, blindfolded Him and hit Him and asked Him to prophesy and tell which of them had hit Him. They put a horrible crown of thorns on His head. They put a staff in His hand and mocked Him, bowing before Him and saying,
"Hail,
king of the Jews!"
They
spit on Him, took the staff from Him and hit Him on the
head again and again. (Matthew 26:267f, Luke 22:63f) We're
not positive that it was the same soldiers who later
crucified Jesus, but Matthew 27:31 gives that impression.
It reads,
"After
they had mocked him,
they took off the robe
and put his own clothes on him.
Then they led him away to crucify him."
But even
if it was different soldiers, just because they were
following orders did not leave them guiltless for nailing
Jesus to the cross. Verses 36 and 37 tell us that while He
was on the cross,
"The
soldiers also came up and mocked him.
They offered him wine vinegar and said,
'If you are the king of the Jews,
save yourself.'"
The
crucifixion of Jesus was a most wicked thing to do. In
addressing the men of Israel in his Pentecost sermon, Peter
said, (Acts 2:23)
"This
man was handed over to you
by God's set purpose and foreknowledge;
and you, with the help of
wicked men,
put him to death by nailing him to the cross."
It seems
likely that the wicked men Peter referred to were not Jews,
(for Peter was addressing them) but the Romans. (See F.F.
Bruce, John Stott) Pilate and the Roman soldiers were
guilty of sin in Jesus' death. It's true that the Jews had
the greater sin, as Jesus said to Pilate in
John 19:11,
"You
would have no power over me
if it were not given to you from above.
Therefore the one who handed me over to you
is guilty of
a greater sin."
Even
though others had greater sin, Pilate and the Roman
soldiers were guilty of a most horrendous crime. For the
Roman soldiers to nail the Author of Life (Acts 3:15) to
the cross was inexcusable. The fact that they were
following orders did not make it any less so.
So it is quite probable that Jesus prayed for the soldiers
who were crucifying Him.
Verse
47 lends
support to this. It tells us that just after Jesus died,
(Luke 23:47)
"The
centurion,
seeing what had happened,
praised God and said,
'Surely this was a righteous man.'"
Matthew
and Mark's account have him saying, (Matthew 27:54, Mark
15:39)
"Surely
he was the Son of God!"
Jesus
prayed for the soldiers, that the Father would forgive
them. He prayed for those who were being most cruel to Him
and inflicting the utmost physical pain upon Him. Jesus
loves sinners.
But I believe we also should see a reference in Jesus'
prayer to some of the Jewish populace. They were
responsible for Jesus' being crucified. You'll remember
that when Jesus was before Pilate, Pilate didn't find any
fault in Him and he offered to release Jesus because of the
feast. But the crowd wanted Barabbas instead. Then Pilate
asked, (Matthew 27:22f)
"'What
shall I do, then,
with Jesus who is called Christ?'
Pilate asked.
They all answered,
'Crucify him!'
'Why? What crime has he committed?'
asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder,
'Crucify him!'"
Did
Jesus pray for some of them while He was on the cross?
John
Calvin writes,
"It is likely that Christ did not pray for all without distinction, but only for the wretched populace who were carried along by thoughtless zeal, not deliberate wickedness."
Others are of the same opinion. Geldenhuys compares Jesus' actions to that of the gardener who asked the owner of the vineyard to give the fig tree one last chance. (Luke 13:6f) He writes,
"After the people of Jerusalem had tempted heaven by casting out Jesus in this manner and causing Him to be crucified, the Father, who is also the God of history, gave them for another forty long years the opportunity, through the mighty signs of Pentecost and the ministry of the apostles and other believers, to repent in time and to be saved."
But God didn't just give them time to repent—He actually saved thousands of them. On the Day of Pentecost, 3000 believed and became Christians. In Acts 4:4 we read that the number of believers quickly grew to five thousand. Acts 6:7 tells us that,
"the
word of God spread.
The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly,
and a large number of priests
became obedient to the faith."
If you
look at the preaching before such crowds, you'll find that
it had a common theme—that those who responsible for
Jesus death were called to repent and believe. We see it in
Peter's Pentecost sermon. (Acts
2:23) Peter
said about Jesus,
"This
man was handed over to you
by God's set purpose and foreknowledge;
and you, with
the help of wicked men,
put him to death by nailing him to the cross."
We see
it in Peter's preaching after he healed the beggar in
Solomon's Colonnade, which we read in
Acts 3:14f. He
said to the people of Israel,
"You
disowned the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
You killed the author of life,"
Then
Peter said, (Acts 3:17-19)
"Now,
brothers,
I know that you acted in ignorance,
as did your leaders.
But this is how God fulfilled
what he had foretold through all the prophets,
saying that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, then,
and turn to God,
so that your sins may be wiped out,
that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,"
The
apostles preached to the people of Israel and thousands
responded with belief in Jesus. Thus it seems quite
probable that Jesus' prayer, "Father, forgive them,"
included many of the Jews where were responsible for
handing Jesus over to the Romans. Jesus loves sinners.
We also
see Jesus great love for sinners in the
content of His
prayer for the soldiers and some of the Jewish populace.
He asked
the Father to forgive them. This is significant. Some think
that the ones that Jesus was dealing with were reprobate
and that because of that Jesus cannot have asked that they
be forgiven. So we interpret Jesus words like this: (see
discussion in Hendriksen, who rejects this view)
"Father, hold by your wrath; do not immediately pour out the full measure of your fury."
But that hardly does justice to the evidence that we've already seen—the centurion believing and many thousands of the people of Israel becoming Christians.
But even more than that,
such an understanding of Jesus prayer misses Jesus' great role as mediator that we see so clearly illustrated here.
We don't see Jesus Himself saying to the soldiers and others,
"I forgive you."
He could have said that because He clearly did forgive them. But instead He asked the Father to forgive them. This fact shows us in clear view Jesus' role as mediator. Jesus came to bring men to God, to make peace between men and God, to reconcile sinners to a holy God.As we read in 1 Timothy 2:5-6,
"For
there is one God and one mediator
between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself as a ransom for all men"
Remember
what Paul wrote in
1 Timothy 1:15,
"Here is
a trustworthy saying
that deserves full acceptance:
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—
of whom I am the worst."
Jesus
didn't merely come to prevent God from immediately pouring
out His wrath on sinners—He came to save sinners. He
was full of love for them. The ones who crucified Jesus
were no different from the criminal on the cross who was
forgiven by Jesus. He too, mocked Jesus. But later he said
to Him, (Luke 23:42)
"Jesus,
remember me
when you come into your kingdom."
Jesus
replied,
"I tell
you the truth,
today you will be with me in paradise."
We read
about this as well in
Ephesians 2:14f. Paul
is writing about how Jesus made people not only between the
Jew and the Gentile, but how He brought both of them to
God. Paul wrote,
"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,
and in this one body to reconcile
both of them to God through the cross,
by which he put to death their hostility.
He came and preached peace
to you who were far away
and peace to those who were near.
For through him we both have access
to the Father by one Spirit."
Jesus
came to make peace between sinners and God. Here in our
text we see the
two aspects of mediator presented to us in great
clarity.
Indeed, this is the only place in Scripture where we see
them in such proximity.
On the one hand we see Jesus being stricken for us.
We see
Jesus exercising His office of priest by allowing Himself
to be sacrificed in our place. The Old Testament priesthood
pointed to Jesus' work. Under the Old Testament system the
priests of Israel were required to offer sacrifices not
only for the people they represented, but for themselves as
well, since they were sinful. Once a year, on the Day of
Atonement, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies.
Before he did that he had to offer a bullock as a burnt
offering for his own sin. Only after that was he able to
proceed which the ceremonies of the scapegoat and the
offering whose blood was sprinkled upon the mercy seat in
the Holy of Holies. But the ancient people knew that the
blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin and that
One was coming who would be able to do that. Jesus did that
on the cross. He had no sin of His own. So He died in our
place thus securing for us eternal redemption. That's what
He's doing on the cross. He did not shrink from it. When
Peter took out his sword and tried to prevent Jesus'
arrest, Jesus said,
"Put
your sword away!
Shall I not drink the cup
the Father has given me?"
On the
cross Jesus was paying the price for our sin. On the cross
He was securing His place and our Mediator, bringing us to
God, making peace between God and sinners.
The second aspect of Jesus mediatorial office we see here
is His intercession for sinners. The
people responsible for Jesus crucifixion, the soldiers and
the Jewish populace—were sinners who were headed for
doom—they were committing such a sin that it was the
worst thing they could do. As John put it in his gospel,
(John
3:19)
"This is
the verdict:
Light has come into the world,
but men loved darkness instead of light
because their deeds were evil."
They
killed the Author of Life—the One who created all
things. As we read in
Colossians 1:16f,
"For by
him all things were created:
things in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;
all things were created by him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together."
They
were crucifying the King of Glory. How dark their deed.
Indeed, Scripture tells us that when Jesus was on the cross
the sky became dark and the sun stopped shining. (Luke
23:44) The sky itself showed what a sin was being
committed. If those people got what they deserved, the
earth would have opened it's mouth and swallowed them up or
fire from heaven would have come down and consumed
them—so that they would be immediately carried to the
fires of eternal hell. That's where they are headed.
But what does Jesus do? He prays that the Father would
forgive their sin.
Jesus
was asking for full and free forgiveness for these people.
Although
the range of meaning of the word 'forgive' has a wide
meaning,
the same grammatical construction is used
here is as is in
Luke
11:4, in the
prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray.
"And
forgive us our sins…"
Jesus is
not telling His people to ask merely for a delay in the
punishment of their sins. He is telling them to ask for
complete forgiveness. We see the same construction
in
Luke 17:3 as well.
There Jesus told His disciples about a brother who has
sinned against them. He said,
"If he
repents, forgive him…"
He is
not telling us to merely to delay punishment on our
brothers if they repent—but He's telling us to
forgive them completely. Thus here on the cross Jesus is
saying, in effect, (Hendriksen)
"Blot out their transgression completely. In thy sovereign grace cause them to repent truly, so that they can be and will be pardoned fully."
Now what does all this mean for us?
First for Christians,
you need to forgive others like Jesus forgave those who crucified Him.
You Christians are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. In 1 Peter 2:22f the apostle Peter wrote,
"To this
you were called,
because Christ suffered for you,
leaving you an example,
that you should follow in his steps.
'He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.'
When they hurled their insults at him,
he did not retaliate;
when he suffered,
he made no threats.
Instead, he entrusted himself
to him who judges justly."
Peter
repeated this teaching in
1 Peter 3:9. He
wrote,
"Do not
repay evil with evil
or insult with insult,
but with blessing,
because to this you were called
so that you may inherit a blessing."
Stephen, when
he was being stoned to death, followed Jesus' example. He
fell on his knees and cried out, (Acts 7:60)
"Lord,
do not hold this sin
against them."
Stephen
was following in Jesus' footsteps. He was showing us the
true meaning of Jesus' prayer. That's the way we are to
treat our enemies.
Secondly, for Christians, you should understand that
Jesus
was showing love for them and prayed for their forgiveness
even before they were sorry or showed any signs of
repentance.
He
prayed for the Father to forgive the soldiers. I've already
mentioned that verses
36 and 37 tell us
that after Jesus prayed this prayer, the soldiers continued
to mock Him.
"The
soldiers also came up and mocked him.
They offered him wine vinegar and said,
'If you are the king of the Jews,
save yourself.'"
They
were not repentant when Jesus asked the Father to forgive
them.
It was the same for the Jewish populace. Jesus forgave them
and prayed for their forgiveness even before they were
repentant.
That's what we are to do as well. It is good if people
repent and come to us for forgiveness. If they do we are to
forgive them. (Luke 17:3) But the lesson Jesus teaches us
here is that we are to forgive and ask for God's blessing
on them even before that happens.
Thirdly for Christians,
note how
Jesus gives us a great principle that should help us
forgive and pray for our enemies.
Jesus
said,
"Father,
forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing."
To help
us forgive and pray for forgiveness for our enemies, Jesus
not only gives us His example, but even more than that,
Jesus gives us a truth to help us. If you ever find
yourself hurting at the hand of persecutors—remember
that they really do not know what they are doing.
John
Calvin writes,
"We must note, if ever the whole world arises against us and all strive to overwhelm us, that this is the best means of overcoming temptation, to think of the blindness of those who attack God in us."
If you're ever tempted to be angry and bitter against those who despitefully use you—remember that they are blinded by Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4) and have fallen into the devil's trap. (2 Timothy 2:26) We shouldn't hate them—rather pray for their salvation.
Lastly, for anyone here who's not a Christian.
Do you see how much Jesus loves sinners?
What love can compare to this? How you should flee to Jesus. Only He can save you. Without Jesus you're lost. You need Him as a mediator. You need Him to save you.
This text shows you that no matter what you've done there is hope for you. Jesus loves sinners—even those that crucified Him. You can't be too bad for God. He loves sinners. Jesus is a friend of sinners. Flee to Him. Find life in Him.