Spurgeon: "Father forgive"

“And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, because they don't know what they are doing” (Luca 23:34).

When he uttered this sentence, the Lord Jesus was experiencing the first sufferings resulting from the crucifixion; the executors had just nailed His hands and feet to the cross. He must have already been extremely tried and weakened from the previous night of agony in Gethsemane without considering the lashes that had been inflicted on Him during the day and the painful mockery of Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod and the Praetorian Guards. Nevertheless neither the pains of the recent past, nor have the sufferings of the present prevented our Savior from continuing to intercede. The Lamb of God was silent before men, but not before the Father. Mute like a sheep in front of the shearer, He did not utter a single word in His defense before man, but he continued to cry out to the Father in His heart and no pain or weakness could have stopped His pleading (cf.. Isaiah 53:7).

Beloved in grace, what a glorious example our Lord sets before us! Let's pray, until our heart beats and no kind of suffering takes us away from the throne of grace but rather brings us closer to it.

Ceasing to pray means renouncing the divine consolations that our case requires e, Consequently, risk falling into despair. Under the tensions of the spirit and the oppression of the heart, help us, o Lord, to continue to turn to You, and let our steps never be led far from Your presence in despair. Our blessed Redeemer was persevering in prayer even when the nails severed His nerves and the hammer made His body vibrate in anguish.. Such perseverance in prayer can only be explained by the “custom” that Jesus had demonstrated in the past for prayer; this habit prevented him from stopping, despite the humanly desperate situation he was experiencing during the crucifixion. A similar capacity for intercession could only derive from those long nights spent on that cold mountain, since those days spent in solitude, from those continuous exclamations that he used to raise to heaven. All these aspects had rooted in him a habit so strong that not even the most atrocious torments could annihilate.. In reality it was more than just a habit; the Lord Jesus was immersed in a spirit of prayer, He lived in it and it in Him: that spirit had become an element of His nature. He was like a precious spice which, being burned, never ceases to emanate its perfume and under the blows of the pestle it releases all its most precious qualities and the finest fragrances.. He knew how to release all the essence linked to his most intimate and hidden nature. Jesus prayed, just as a bundle of myrrh gives off perfume, as a little bird sings, not being able to do otherwise. Prayer enveloped Him like a garment and His heart was enraptured. May this be our example: we never stop praying, under any circumstances, even in the most severe trials and the most depressing difficulties.

Notice the fact that our Lord turned to the Father. His teaching already given regarding the prayer to be raised to the Father is not without meaning (cf.. Matteo 6:9), since in our way of praying intimacy with God must prevail. Under the weight of suffering, our first instinct makes us think of God as a severe judge in the presence of a criminal, not to a loving father who disciplines his son. The cry of Jesus, however, does not betray any hesitation: He is still the Son and he turns to God calling him “Father”, as he had done in the previous dark and painful nights. It's here, Once again, the first of His seven, extreme expressions begins with the same word: “Father”. May the Holy Spirit make us exclaim “Abba, Father” continue to operate in our life! None of us can be seduced by the enemy he suggests: “If you are a child of God…”, but Satan himself may find us triumphant as Jesus was in the wilderness. May the Spirit remove any perplexity from us. When we are deservedly punished:

• “For what is the son that the Father does not correct?” (Jews 12:7)
• we remain in patient submission to our Heavenly Father, avoiding falling into slaves of the rebellion that leads us to doubt our adoption.

Furthermore, notice that Jesus does not pray for himself. He says indeed: “Forgive them”. His request is for others and although one can see a distant reference to His sufferings, it is so remote as to appear negligible. Beyond that, consider that He doesn't say: “I forgive you”. This expression is almost taken for granted: Jesus seems not to be affected by the evil he is undergoing from His executioners. Jesus completes His annulment at this time to the point of losing awareness of the damage He is receiving. Dear brothers, if there was only one case in the life of the Son of God in which He would have to neglect anyone else to pray only for himself, it was undoubtedly this, that is, the moment when He began to experience the pangs of death. We wouldn't be surprised if any man in His place, hanging from a cross, had raised the first and also the last prayer only for himself, asking for the strength to overcome such difficult moments…but not Him. Watch Him, brothers, as he opens his mouth for the first time after being crucified, interceding for others! Admire what a great heart is revealed here! What a compassionate soul Christ had as he suffered on the cross! What wonderful and divine love! Lead, in the midst of agony, he would have known how to raise the first of his pleas in favor of others, instead of Himself? May this selfless spirit also be ours, Dear brothers. We love our neighbor as ourselves, following the example of selflessness and self-denial that the Lord has left us.

There is still, in this jewel of sublime love, another precious stone. The Sun of Justice has risen on Calvary in all its splendor.

Rated, indeed, that His plea was not raised generically “for others”, but for His cruelest enemies. His enemies I said? Good, a further consideration must be made: Christ's prayer was not addressed to enemies who had done him harm years ago, but to those who, being there present, They were killing him. The Savior was not praying “in cold blood”, after which time may have made the outrages more bearable, but while the first drops of blood were coming out of His freshly pierced hands, it's still, while the hammer was colored with the blood that splashed abundantly from His now open wounds. In those moments His mouth spoke the blessed words: “Father, forgive them”. Certainly these words would have included even His most distant enemies, the Scribes, and the Pharisees, Pilate, Erode, the Jews, and Gentiles, the entire human race, because in a sense we were all involved in that murder. However the closest people, those who heard the living voice of Jesus and on whom this plea was poured in the guise of a precious aroma were precisely His executors.

How sublime is this prayer if it is seen in this respect! It is a unique case, a peak that rises above all the others shining with an incomparable light. No one else had prayed like this before. It is also true that Abraham, Moses and the Old Testament prophets prayed for the wicked, but not for the wicked so guilty as to nail their hands and their feet. It is also true that many Christians have raised the same prayer and like Stephen have pleaded: “Do not hold this sin against them” (proceedings 7:60), but we all know who they learned to do it from. Who ever learned Christ from? He is not the incomparable?

It was His divine nature and compassion rooted within Him that dictated that memorable plea that is an example to us., despite not having in turn a model to be inspired by. I wish to worship the Lord from my heart for this prayer: if I didn't know anything else about you other than these three words, I would be forced to worship Him anyway: they would convince me and fill my heart with reverent affection.

I have illustrated the first of the seven expressions that the Lord pronounced from the cross; now, through the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we will try to draw further lessons that are useful for each of us. These words:

1. They illustrate the current work of intercession of Jesus Christ.
2. They highlight the usefulness of this prayer in the spiritual activity of the church.
3. They are an encouragement to the lost

 

1. THE CURRENT WORK OF INTERCESSION OF JESUS ​​CHRIST

If Christ prayed long ago for His enemies, nothing prevents Him from doing it even now: what he did on the cross is still continuing today from the top of the throne on which he is seated. Although Jesus is in the highest places and in a royal position, your main business has not changed: He continues to make petitions before the eternal throne in favor of the guilty man, shouting: “Father, forgive them”. His way of intercession is not unlike that used on Calvary, so that the cry of Golgotha ​​helps us to form an idea of ​​the character of His intercession.

The latter is linked, first of all to the greatness of His grace. Those for whom Jesus prayed were certainly not deserving men. They had not done anything that could arouse an expression of benevolence in the Lord, nor had they endeavored to serve Him, thus deserving a particular blessing. Unlike, they were enormously unworthy, having conspired against Him. They, to make matters worse, They had crucified Him and maliciously still stood there watching the way His innocent life died out. therefore, the intercession of the Lord was raised in favor of people who, far from being worthy of it, they were totally undeserving of even a propitious thought from the Savior's heart.

They obviously didn't ask Jesus to pray; they probably didn't even dream of exclaiming:

“Intercede for us, o Dying King! Offer supplications on our behalf, o Son of God!” I dare to think that these same words, as soon as you hear, have even been ignored and treated with disdainful indifference o, perhaps, have been taken as an occasion for derision. It may probably seem too severe towards humanity to suppose that it is possible to make this wonderful expression a cause for laughter, but most of the acts perpetrated against the crucified Christ were no less brutal.

therefore, our Savior elevated His intercession in favor of people who did not deserve so much, Unlike, they were worthy of a curse; people who in addition to not having asked to pray for them, when they heard those wonderful words they were totally indifferent to the love of Jesus. Friends, even now, in the sky, our great High Priest is praying for guilty men. No man on earth deserves His intercession. He is not praying with the assumption that the object of His intercession is worthy. He is there, as Righteous who intercedes for the unjust. God's Word doesn't say: “If anyone is right”, but: “If anyone has sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, that is, Jesus Christ, the right” (1Giovanni 2:1). Remember, Furthermore, that our great Mediator intercedes for those who have never asked to pray for them. These individuals, still dead in their sins, they are the object of His merciful intercession and while mocking His Gospel, the loving heart of the Lord raises petitions for the Father to be gracious to them. For this reason, you can rest assured that by turning to God you will have the certainty that He will accept you for the supplications that Christ has already raised for you. If you have begged the Lord to be your Defender, keep calm: why should Jesus refuse you? If He is praying for those who reject His pleas, all the more reason he will pray for you that he esteems them more precious than gold! Know that if no good dwelled in you and within you you could see nothing but evil and wickedness, none of these things could raise a barrier between you and Jesus' intercessory ministry. He will also pray for you. coming, leave your cause in His hands; He will find justifications for you that you yourself would not be able to find and Christ will bring your life to the Father, as He did for His executioners, saying: “Forgive them”.

A second characteristic of Jesus' intercession is connected to His character aware of the circumstances. Rated, indeed, that He says: “They don't know what they are doing”. Our Savior thoroughly examined His enemies, to find something in them that could justify them, but he was unable to bring any other reason to excuse them than ignorance. Admire how carefully He evaluates the circumstances and characteristics associated with those who offend Him! Christ is not a distracted lawyer. He knows your current state and the exact condition of your heart regarding the temptation you are going through. More than this, He prevents the temptation that is about to assail you and takes future events into consideration, observing them with His omniscient eye. “Simone, Simone, – Jesus said to Peter – here, Satan has asked you to sift how wheat is sifted; but I prayed for you, so that your faith does not fail…” (Luca 22:31, 32). Oh, what tenderness our High Priest possesses! He knows us much more than we can imagine. He receives every secret pain and grasps every hidden lament. You won't have to worry about your way of praying: He will put the right words in your mouth, although you yourself, sometimes, don't know what you need Him, who knows what is in the mind of the Father, it will scrutinize your innermost thoughts and find justifications that you yourself ignore. Even if your soul were besieged by the thickest darkness, the Lord Jesus is ready to present to the Father the justifications appropriate to your case and to submit His petitions in your favor before the Throne of Grace. His intercession, as you can see, she is careful and well thought out.

Furthermore, it is serious and heartfelt. The prayer that Jesus raised in behalf of His executors must have pierced heaven, being full of fervor. You can rest assured that our Lord is very serious and thoughtful when he intercedes for us. Jesus cared so much about the salvation of His enemies, to find for them a reason for justification that a superficial or less alert heart would not have been able to identify. Jesus knew the true condition of His enemies: “They don't know what they are doing”. But then this could not be an excuse. The ignorance of the people surrounding the dying Jesus was really stubborn. They should have recognized in Jesus the signs of the Lord of glory. The books of the Law of Moses were perhaps unclear? The prophet Isaiah was perhaps not understandable enough when he described the agony of the Messiah with impressive care? Despite all this, the Savior, with the ease that accompanies a caring heart, turns a condemnation ground into a justification. Oh, how effective are His supplications and with how much love they are elevated! Let us always remember: Jesus' prayers have not become less participatory or less intense now that He is in heaven. No, brothers: the heart of Christ is still busy, with the same care, to deal with the Father on our behalf. He is not an inattentive intercessor, but “for the sake of Zion he does not keep silent and for the sake of Jerusalem he does not give up until his righteousness appears like the dawn, and his salvation like a burning face” (cf.. Isaiah 62:1).

It is interesting to note, fourthly, that your prayer makes us understand the nature of the current intercession and in particular of its constancy, perseverance and continuity. As I pointed out earlier, if our Savior had to choose a time to stop praying, this should have been the one where His executioners were nailing Him to the cross. Instead, we must recognize that no kind of sin has managed to bind the tongue of our Friend and precious intercessor. What a great comfort in all of this! You have sinned, you saddened the Spirit of God, but you have not been able to curb the intercession of Jesus in your favor. Perhaps you have been fruitless and like the barren tree the master's ax is ready to knock you down, but your lack of fruit will not dissuade the Redeemer from His intercessor duty and will not move Him from His place. At this moment He is interposing between you and the Father crying out: “Leave it again this year” (Luca 13:8).

Sinner, you have long provoked your God by going from bad to worse, you have rejected His grace for a long time, but neither your abusive conduct, nor injustice, nor will infidelity dissuade Christ from taking your cause to heart. As long as there is even one sinner on earth, the great intercessor will pray for him. These are just considerations, but they will help you, at least I hope, to realize the effectiveness of the work of our great High Priest. Meditate on this again, because this tender prayer of Jesus is the model of the heavenly ones. He in His infinite wisdom, he asks for the best things for us, what we really need. In the case we are considering, one thing was really necessary. Jesus did not say: “Father, enlighten them because they don't know what they are doing”: they didn't need to understand what they were doing, because that would cause them an inner torture by opening a hellish abyss beneath them; but He said: “Forgive”. The drops of blood that flowed from His wounds joined this prayer and God heard it. The first grace that sinners need is precisely forgiveness. Christ, in His wisdom, pray first for the most advantageous things; He intercedes with wisdom and attention. Let me take care you say, for He knows what to ask of the Father's hand. will’ to the throne of grace and spread your requests and desires in the way you think is most appropriate, but then take care to add: “Lord Jesus, do not answer prayers that do not accord with Your divine discernment, and if in something I have not managed to express what I want, correct my plea, for your thoughts are infinitely wiser than mine”. It is good to have a friend at court who rectifies our requests before presenting them to the great King. I believe that no prayer reaches the imperfect Father: after the intervention of Jesus nothing has to be added and nothing has to be taken away. This is possible not because the prayers of His people are perfect, but because they are made perfect by the great Mediator, who causes them to become flawless through His infinite wisdom, so that such prayers, in harmony with God's own mind, can be fulfilled.

This memorable prayer is a model of the heavenly ones because it has proved effective. Many of those for whom Jesus prayed from the cross were forgiven. You will remember how He commanded His disciples to preach the Gospel “starting from Jerusalem” (proceedings 1:8) and in those days, when Peter got up with the eleven after the descent of the Holy Spirit and accused those present that “by the hand of the wicked” they had killed Jesus by nailing Him to the wood, three thousand of those who had been personally accused of complicity in the crime became believers in Christ and were baptized in His name (cf.. proceedings 2:4 1). That glorious episode was the first answer to Jesus' prayer. In addition, several priests were present at the crucifixion, and in fact we find it written: “A large number of priests also obeyed the faith” (proceedings 6:7) and this is another answer to prayer.

Although all of humanity, symbolically, had his own responsibility for the death of Jesus, the Gospel was, in any case, preached first to the Jews and later also to the Gentiles. Christ's intercession had the same effect that a stone thrown into the center of a pond creates: first a small circle, then a wider circumference and finally an innumerable series of small waves that spread over the entire surface of the water mirror. Indeed, His supplication had a first effect among the Jews and the priests, later among the Romans and currently it has reached the whole of humanity, so that millions of men became believers; and all thanks to His one intercession: “Father, forgive them”. Jesus never prayed in vain: he was victorious even when His hands were pierced and His feet nailed; how much more can he be now that he wears the royal crown, he holds the scepter and is proclaimed King of kings and Lord of lords!

If the tears and pleas of suffering were so powerful, what to say now that the Son of God is in the presence of the Father explaining the blood covenant stipulated with him? Believe in Christ with all your heart! Come on as well, and ask Christ to pray for you. You who cannot pray, coming, ask Jesus to intercede on your behalf! You with a broken heart and tired limbs, you who are now hopeless, come to Him who can merge your prayers with His to make them rise to the Father like a very refined fragrance. Rest assured that He will accept you and your prayers in His beloved Son.

2. THE USEFULNESS OF THIS PRAYER IN THE SPIRITUAL WORK OF THE CHURCH

The model of the Church is Christ. He did not come into the world to be served, but to serve; not to be honored, but to honor others. His Church must understand that it is not found on earth for well-being and honors, nor to seek temporary power: its mission is to live selflessly and if necessary, even to die selflessly for the liberation of lost souls and for the salvation of everyone in need. Dear brothers, Jesus' prayer from the cross was disinterested. In it He didn't mention Himself. This is how the prayer life of the Church must be: nothing more than an active and constant intercession towards sinners. The Church has no reason to exist if she lives for herself or for her ministers. You can imagine meetings organized solely to employ ministers? Conceive the idea that the Church exists simply to give retribution to its servants? Love yourself in the Lord, these places of worship were not built to let the brilliant characters speak from their pulpits every Sunday, nor to gain the approval of their admirers. No, the purpose of the Church is quite different. These places of worship have been built for you to sit comfortably to listen to someone who gives you a pleasant Sunday. A church that has interests other than doing good to derelict souls and reaching the most infamous parts of the city is such that it has no reason to exist. A church that does not strive to eradicate paganism, to fight evil, to destroy the error, to defeat falsehood; a church that does not take the side of the poor, it does not denounce injustice and does not raise the truth, it has no reason to be called such. How the glory of Christ was to strip off His glory, in the same way, the glory of the Church consists in abandoning her dignity and esteeming a greater reward, to look for the dispossessed, rummaging in the mire for the jewels for which Christ shed His blood! This is the glory of the Church: redeem souls from perdition and lead them to God, to hope, to heaven. May the Lord's Church always feel this reality alive within itself! May it also have its shepherds and its elders, may they be supported and everything be done for the love of Christ, in order and decoration; but the ultimate goal of the Church is only the conversion of the lost, the teaching of the ignorant, the help of the poor, maintaining righteousness, the defeat of evil and the expansion of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord's prayer had a goal of great spirituality. Rated, indeed, that for these people only a need of their soul is presented: “Father, forgive them”. The Church would do well to think that her fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the forces of wickedness (cf.. Ephesians 6:12), and that what she must dispense is not human justice, but the divine one through which hearts are won over to Christ and their life is submitted to His truth. For my part I believe that the more the Church will try to achieve, in prayer, the forgiveness of sinners, the more he will conduct himself in a holy way. More will try, through his life of prayer, to teach wrongdoers what sin is, what consequences it will encounter and what effect the blood of Christ will have on it, the more it will act in the good.

Advance as one man, founding the root of your existence solely in the forgiveness of sinners. Also take part in trying to eradicate the evils that afflict humanity, but more than anything else, be personally committed to the consciences of men, knowing that they will have to appear before the eternal God. Nothing will distract you from this task. Proclaim to sinners that sin will make them damned, that only Christ can save them and make this the reason for your existence, repeating in every time: “Father, sorry, sorry! Let them know how to get forgiveness. Let them be truly forgiven and let me never stop praying for them (unless you are sure that You have forgiven, also “the worst of the culprits”!).

Our Savior's prayer teaches the Church that as long as her spirit is selfless and her goal is spiritual, the scope of his mission will be unlimited. Christ prayed for the wicked, for the most ferocious criminals, for that mass of profane who surrounded His cross! He prayed for the ignorant. Jesus did not say: “Forgive them, because they don't know what they are doing”? The Lord prayed for His persecutors, the people who were most enemies to Him. Church of God: your mission is not for the elite, for those who with respect and admiration listen to your words and appreciate every syllable of your teachings; your calling is not for those who treat you with kindness and affection, I mean not just for them, although certainly for them as well as for the others; your greatest calling, o Church, it's for prostitutes, thieves, blasphemers and drunkards, for the most depraved and dissolute people. If nobody cares about them, the Church is called to do so and if there is someone who must take precedence in her prayers, it is precisely those who are often left on their own.

We must carefully consider the ignorant. It is not fitting for the preacher to speak in such a way that he is understood only by educated people; he must also think of those to whom the most common phrases of theology are as incomprehensible as an unknown language. We must preach in order to get the attention of everyone and in particular of those who are unable to understand a language that is too sophisticated, to prevent the latter, tired of not understanding anything, leave without having heard the Good News.

The Gospel is also addressed to those who oppose the truth; doing so will aim at the hearts of the enemies themselves. No one needs Christ more than the one who opposes His Gospel. “Father, forgive them; before forgiving everyone else, Please, forgive them”. therefore, the Church too must be caring like Christ, and consequently, he must find every minimum foundation of hope that can be used in favor of sinners.

It must be, Furthermore, a prayer full of confidence e, no doubt, never has the church got to be as confident as in this era. I say this because if ignorance can be a justification before God, then look at the whole world: millions of people have never received the announcement of divine redemption.

Forgive them, or big Dio, because they don't know what they are doing. If ignorance can be an opportunity to hope for God's forgiveness, then there is enough hope for the whole world. How many around us would consider the simpler truths of the Gospel a great novelty? Dear in the Lord, it is sad to think that this world lies under a cloak of ignorance, but our sadness has changed to hope when we realize that our prayer for the lost is supported by that of our Lord, who cried out before us: “Forgive them because they don't know what they are doing”.

The Church's task is to seek with scrupulous attention the most ignorant and the most profligate of sinners. It should never tire of doing good. If the Lord were to come back tomorrow, there would be no reason to waste time on futile discussions or unedifying reading, or in meeting for the simple pleasure of seeing each other, forgetting the myriads of lost souls. If it is true that the world is going from bad to worse, this does not change my conduct as a Christian and does not change my duty to serve. May the Lord return soon: if I'm working for Him, when it appears I will be found prepared. The work of the Church is for lost souls. If it will stop and contemplate, as many would like “prophets” of our time, whether he will cease to fulfill his mandate to indulge in endless speculation, it will be confused when the Lord returns from heaven, but if he will continue to work for him for the salvation of the lost, then she will be happy to meet her Spouse.

This chapter is too short for such a vast subject as the one I set out for myself, but I hope my words are powerful as thunder and that they produce in you a sense of responsibility as blinding as lightning. I wanted to admonish every believer on the individual responsibility that membership in the Church of Christ implies. Dear brothers, you don't have to live for yourself; you can save some money, raise your children, build houses, earn your daily bread, but never forget what your primary Christlike task is, how everyone who has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus must behave. Start living for others, make everyone understand that the purpose of your existence is not centered on yourself, but on others, so that Christ can be pleased with you by seeing His own image reflected in your life.

3. ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE LOST

Read these sentences carefully. I will try to make them concise but effective. Some of you are not saved. Now, some of you have been in ignorance, In such a way that when they sinned they didn't even know what they were doing. Perhaps you realized that you were unworthy people, but you did not know the eternal consequences of your sin. You have never prayed, you have never read the Bible, you have no converted parents. You are now beginning to be anxious about your eternal destiny. I warn you that your ignorance in itself does not justify you, otherwise Jesus would not have asked the Father for forgiveness for His enemies, but still it doesn't take away all hope. God has passed over the times of ignorance, but now He commands you to repent. Bring, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance. The God who, in ignorance, you forgot, it is He who is willing to forgive you. The message of the Gospel is very simple: believe in the Lord Jesus who died for sinners and you will be saved. Oh, may God help you realize this truth right now and you will be completely different people, you will be born again, you will be new creatures in Christ.

But, Alas, Dear friends, there are some for whom not even Christ Himself can raise the supplication He raised for His executioners, because these people know very well what they are doing, and every sermon they hear, every word that comes from God only adds more responsibility and removes any excuse from them. You know what the world is and who Christ is, and you know you can't serve both. You know well that there are the pleasures of evil and those of heaven, and that you can't have both. May the Holy Spirit illuminate you again with the same light He gave you one day, so that you can return to true wisdom! Make up your mind now, Once again, for God, for Christ, for the sky. May the Lord convince you now, for His name's sake.