Observing Jesus’ Passion Week gives us a wonderful chance to close out the Lenten season with a time of careful self examination. While we have spent the past several weeks in prayer, fasting, worshipping, committing ourselves to good works and trying to draw close to God and have him draw closer to us (James 4:8), we may have discovered some areas in our lives that weren’t in complete alignment with God’s plan for us. Discovering those truths can be difficult, but they present us with the wonderful opportunity to submit those aspects of our lives to the power of the Holy Spirit in order to walk in the faith that we proclaim.
While every day of Passion Week isn’t discussed in great detail in the Bible, we can take some time during each day to carefully reflect as we get closer to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The seven days of Passion Week coincide with the fact that the Bible records seven declarations of Jesus from the cross. For the next seven days, let’s take a look at what Jesus said from the cross and how those declarations relate to Passion Week and our lives today.
“Father, forgive them”
Luke 22:33-34 (TPT)
While they were nailing Jesus to the cross, he prayed over and over, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing. The soldiers, after they crucified him, gambled over his clothing.
There is a lot to unpack in those two verses from Luke’s Gospel. First of all, look at when Jesus was asking God to forgive the people who were crucifying them: “while they were nailing Jesus to the cross, he prayed.” The hours leading up to this moment would have been incredibly painful for Christ, physically, mentally and emotionally. By the time we get to this point of the story, He had already been abandoned by every disciple other than John. He had already heard the same crowds who praised Him on Sunday demand the leaders of the day to crucify Him just a few days later.
He had been kept awake for well over 24 hours and shuffled between government leaders as they tried to find someone who would sentence Him to death. His face had been pummeled, His back had been torn with whips, His beard plucked from His face and a crown of thorns shoved into His scalp. Yet none of that could compare to the pain associated with having nails driven through His hands and feet. None of that mental anguish would’ve compared to the fact that He was fully cognizant of the fact that He was just hours away from death. But in that moment, riddled with the worst pain that He had felt up to that point, He prayed “over and over” for them to be forgiven because they did not know what they were doing.
Jesus spent most of his three-plus year ministry talking about forgiveness. You could say that He was passionate about teaching it, preaching it and showing it in his everyday life. One of the most popular teachings on forgiveness that Jesus ever discussed is found just a few chapters before He displayed the highest level of forgiveness in the verses we just read.
Jesus Teaches on Forgiveness
Luke 17:1-4 (TPT)
One day Jesus taught his disciples this: “Betrayals are inevitable, but great devastation will come to the one guilty of betraying others. It would be better for him to have a heavy boulder tied around his neck and be hurled into the deepest sea than to face the punishment of betraying one of my dear ones! So be alert to your brother’s condition, and if you see him going in the wrong direction, cry out and correct him. If there is true repentance on his part, forgive him. No matter many times in one day your brother sins against you and says, ‘I’m sorry; I am changing; forgive me,’ you need to forgive him each and every time.
Jesus opened up a lesson on forgiveness by guaranteeing that we will all experience betrayal. What that looks like may vary from one person to the next, but the fact remains that betrayal is real and the pain it causes can be devastating. There is nothing that leaves a scar on our hearts quite like being betrayed by someone who we once counted among our closest friends and confidants. But Jesus promised us that those times would come. However, He also explained exactly how we were to handle those betrayals. “No matter how many times in one day your brother sins against you and says, ‘I’m sorry’ I am changing; forgive me,’ you need to forgive him each and every time (Luke 17:4). That’s a tall task!
While we don’t know whether or not the conversation that Jesus had with Peter took place after this teaching, Matthew’s Gospel goes over a conversation that Peter had with Jesus about forgiveness:
Matthew 18:21-22 (TPT)
Later Peter approached Jesus and said, “How many times do I have to forgive me fellow believer who keeps offending me? Seven times? Jesus answered, “Not seven times, Peter, but seventy times seven times!”
Much like us, Peter believed that there was only so much betrayal that he could take. Once someone betrayed Peter a certain number of times, Peter assumed that He was going to have a lifelong enemy. Jesus told him that things couldn’t work that way. Instead, Peter was commanded to extend unlimited forgiveness. Is that even possible, though? Can you really forgive someone who continually hurts you deeply?
On the surface, the answer to that question is a resounding “no.” But Jesus destroyed that misconception on the cross at Calvary. As the Roman soldiers who would have been put in charge of overseeing the crucifixion continued to nail Him to the cross, He prayed “over and over” for their forgiveness.
What Does that Forgiveness Look Like?
Today, the betrayal and the pain that you experience may not involve nails and a cross. It may not involve physical pain at all. However, that does nothing to minimize the pain that the betrayal you’ve experienced causes you. It’s important to understand that forgiveness doesn’t mean that you continue to put yourself in a situation to be hurt. In fact, Jesus told the disciples that it would be better for the person who betrays on of His children to have a boulder tied around their neck and be cast into the sea (Luke 17:2). He doesn’t expect us to continue to subject ourselves to pain, but we also can’t walk around with hatred and bitterness in our heart.
Forgiveness like the kind that Jesus offered to the people who were physically tormenting Him at Calvary isn’t easy. It means that we have to look beyond a person’s actions and acknowledge that they have a spiritual problem. The guards who were nailing Him to the cross and crowds that were cheering for His crucifixion “did not know what they were doing” (Luke 23:34). They were spiritually blind to the truth that was right in front of them. The people who continually betray and hurt us have a spiritual blindness too.
However, we cannot let unforgiveness, hatred and bitterness to cloud our vision. We are called to have our eyes focused on Christ, His sacrifice and His promise of forgiveness for us. However, for us to receive that forgiveness, we have to extend that forgiveness:
Mark 11:26 (TPT)
“But if you will not release forgiveness, don’t expect your Father in heaven to release you from your misdeeds.”
You and I have forgiveness inside of us. While it may come as a surprise to you, we have the same kind of forgiveness in us that Jesus had for the men who nailed Him to the cross. We are just called to “release” it from inside of us to those around us. Until we do that, we cannot walk in the forgiveness that God offers to us.
A Closing Prayer
God, help me to forgive the same way that Your Son forgave those who hurt Him. You know the pain that I have felt from the betrayals I’ve endured. While those betrayals still hurt, I don’t want to continue to walk around harboring feelings of unforgiveness and anger. Help me to release the forgiveness that You put inside me so I can receive the forgiveness that You have for me. In Christ’s name, Amen!