The most senseless, and unwarranted murder in all of history, was that of the spotless Son of God. Pride, greed, and envy thoroughly calculated his execution, who had never done anything but extend perfect, unconditional love to all around Him.
And yet, in the midst of His own murder, with tears carving rivers down His bloodstained cheeks, He cried, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
How could this statement from Jesus have possibly been true? How could He say that the Pharisees didn’t know what they were doing, and have such compassion upon them? These men had studied the Scriptures their entire lives. They were bright minds in high positions of influence. They were not ignorant of Jesus’ identity. They recognized His authority, and were convicted and ashamed by His perfection of character. This was exactly why they wanted Him gone. How could Jesus say that they didn’t know what they were doing?
What about the crowd that followed their influence in demanding His crucifixion? Were they mentally incapable of discerning right from wrong? What about the Roman soldiers? How did these not know what they were doing?
What Jesus was testifying of in this moment of heart-wrenching anguish for His wayward children, is that mankind, as a whole, does not know the depth of wickedness within his own heart. We are incredibly self-deceived. Thus Jesus Himself, as our divine Defense Attorney, pleads our insanity, and thus the free gift of forgiveness is extended to ALL. His desire is to have EVERY charge against us dropped, blotted out, never to be spoken of again—even the charge of His own murder, of which we are all guilty.
The ball is left in our court to accept or deny His decree—to let our eyes be opened, or close them even tighter to the true condition of our hearts.
But it is only when we stand in agreement with Jesus, acknowledging our insanity and need of an entirely new heart, that we can receive this full and free forgiveness from Him, and thus also extend it to others. We cannot give what we have not received.
Until we have done this, we will always seek retributive justice for the wrongs done to us or those we love, because we are deceived in thinking that we are any better than the one on trial. When we recognize that but for the grace of God, a different set of influences in our upbringing could’ve brought us to their exact same position, then all hatred and bitterness loses its power over us, and is replaced by only grace and love.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurably sick; who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9
“And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Luke 16:15
“But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” John 2:24-25
Only God and His Son know our true condition. And the amazing thing is that they have never condemned us for it. They only want to heal us. But we have to be willing to admit to and trade in our incurably sick heart in order to get a new one.
Only once we recognize that we have not known what we’ve been doing, can we understand that others, likewise, do not know what they are doing. The words Jesus spoke on the cross were not only for the Pharisees, or the mob, or the soldiers, but for all of us. We have all been infected by the curse of sin. We have all been guilty of the blood of Christ. But the gift of forgiveness and healing is freely available, should we simply accept His diagnosis.
The only thing standing in the way is thinking that we’re all right, as if we have some goodness within ourselves to justify our release, while others do not.
“There is none righteous, no, not one; (…) There is none who does good, no, not one. (…) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:10, 12, 23
“So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” Mark 10:18
If we really want to prove that our own “good works” can save us, God will sorrowfully grant us the opportunity to test that theory.
“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: … and they were judged every man according to their works.” Revelation 20:12-13
But God does not want us to be judged by our works, because He knows the outcome, and He will be most grieved of all when we are finally faced with our true heart condition, and are crushed by the reality. He is pleading with us to plead insanity now so that He can drop the charges, and give us the new heart we need.
This was how Stephen could likewise exclaim, during his own murder, “Lay not this sin to their charge!”
He knew that forgiveness was available to them, because he had received it himself. The question remains, have we?
