Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
It never really struck me before, until tonight, the depth of what lay beneath Jesus word's from the cross really meant.
I picture the baying crowds, riled up on blood lust and some self righteous sense of betrayal. The very crowds that had welcomed him a week ago with palm leaves. The very best explanation for their motive can really only be this; He had failed to move against Rome and the Roman's occupying Jerusalem. That surely was their expectation when they welcomed him as Messiah, Son of David. It seems a little unfair they had given him not even a whole week to act before they turned on him, but I expect after his arrest (and the cajoling of the chief priests and Pharisees) seeing him so easily captured and humiliated, helped them a little in their vicious pivot.
But when Jesus, from the cross (Luke 23:34) calls out the now famous words, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do", it seems, on the surface, that this is a little misrepresentative at least.
I had not thought about it too much, so forgive me if I am stating the obvious, but they clearly do know what they are doing. They are deliberately approving of, participating in and/or encouraging the murder of an innocent man. They know this. There is no ignorance here that would allow them leniency in God's court, they have blood on their hands and hate in their hearts. Thou shall do no murder. What is the mitigating circumstance that allows them any mercy? Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it. But they are not ignorant. They partake in this foulest of acts informed and whole-heartedly.
Does this ignorance of Jesus' true messianic status really provide a get out for the executors and the baying mob behind them? They are guilty. Come judgement day they will have to answer for their actions. The only voice that can save them is the one of our advocate. The one who died at their behest, who ironically was doing so to provide the only chance of forgiveness they could have for their actions, not just that day, but all of their days.
Is Jesus blanket pardoning the whole crowd for their ignorant actions?
I don't believe so.
If you notice, it is not Christ himself forgiving them, but rather pleading on their behalf that The Father forgive them.
Of course we know Jesus refers to their ignorance of his true identity. But here is the rub. For all their ignorance, they could not be forgiven for this act, as if this were not the very blasphemy that they accused him of, the rejection of God's Son, a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. They knew, but how could they really know? Really, really know?
And without the Son's advocacy, which he so admirably bestows on his aggressors, how could the Father not unleash heaven and wipe humanity from the face of the earth for such a treasonous and brutal act. The son of God, the Darling of heaven, Crucified, humiliated, rejected, beaten and maligned when his very presence among them was an act of mercy. His only mission: to save them.
The Father could have avenged his son in such a way that the great flood would have felt like an under-reaction, and he would be completely justified and righteous for doing so. I think we ought to tremble at this thought.
I believe without Jesus' prayer, this could have been the outcome. They had messed with forces they did not understand, and had no clue how close they stood, that day, to the precipice of the abyss. This was a cosmological event, and without the mercy of Christ, I believe such an act could not have been left unpunished. Only the Son could have persuaded the Father of this.
They know not what they do.
A child with a grenade who likes the shiny pin.
Oppenheimer at the results of his invention. Now I am become death.
If they only knew how close they came.
