Thought of the Day March 14, 2019 Father, forgive them
Jesus is hanging from the cross. Jesus
has undergone in the last nine hours great sufferings: his agony in the Garden, where he was assailed
with his greatest temptation, to turn away from the will of the Father; the
betrayal of Judas with a kiss; the desertion of his closest friends and
companions, the apostles; the three-fold denial of Peter out of fear; the
trumped up charges and accusations of blasphemy by the religious leaders who
have been plotting to take his life for months; the cave-in to pressure by
Pilate, condemning him to death on the cross; the sadistic scourging by the
soldiers; the mockery of Jesus by the soldiers in crowning him with a crown of
thorns; the long journey carrying the cross; the stripping of his clothes, the
nailing of his hands and feet to the cross; hearing the ridicule and mockery of
the religious leaders as he hangs from the cross with difficulty breathing.
Listen
to Matthew’s version of the scene.
"Those passing by reviled him, shaking their
heads and saying, 'You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three
days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, [and] come down from the
cross!' Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and
elders mocked him and said, 'He saved others; he cannot save himself. So he is the king of Israel! Let him
come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusted in God;
let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God. The
revolutionaries who were crucified with him also kept abusing him in the same
way.'”
The
majority of bandits and criminals, defiant and furious, would yell curses and
insults while hanging from a cross, but Jesus, filled with an amazing calmness
and an inexplicable love, interceded with the Father for the forgiveness of his
torturers. Jesus does not act out of anger or revenge.
Instead, at the height of his physical sufferings, he prays to the Father,
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He was including all those who in the past
nine hours did him harm. But in all reality he included all those whose sins he
had taken upon himself and for which he was denying on the cross. That includes
you and me. Reflect on this.
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