November 24, 2023

Luke 23: 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (NIV)

He offered forgiveness to people oblivious to the damage they were causing.*

Many times we have to forgive people who don’t know what they are doing. In my personal experience, the most damage was done by those who meant well – or, at worst, had no evil intentions. But the depths of Jesus’ ability to forgive takes my breath away. How could he say, “They don’t know what they’re doing?” They meant to execute him and they did. They watched him die. Could they, later, come crawling back and beg his forgiveness on the grounds that they didn’t know what they were doing?

Most people have committed a great number of inadvertent sins before they come to know Jesus. I’m comfortable with granting them the “they didn’t know what they were doing” exclusion. But the deeper we get into our faith, the less we can hope to be excused on those grounds. Every time we sin, we know it’s a sin. We may not literally be pounding the nails into the flesh of our Savior but we are just as in need of his forgiveness as those who did. That’s the beauty of Jesus’ forgiveness: it covers all our sins.

Another breath-taking aspect of Jesus’ forgiveness is its immediacy. I am not one to hold a grudge, but even at that, I usually need a little time to get over an offense before I can fully forgive. Jesus forgave in the midst of the offense. He didn’t have to wait for his hurt feelings to heal. He certainly didn’t wait for the offenders to apologize and ask for his forgiveness. He just looked at them, saw their need for forgiveness, and gave it to them.

And now, his forgiveness extends to us. He hung on the cross - became sin - so that he could offer instant forgiveness to all who believe. Even if ignorance is no excuse.

The further advanced any one is in the knowledge of God, the less is he excused.*