Luke 23:34
Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing."
Most of you our beloved friends, knows this saying of the Lord Jesus very well. But are we aware of the circumstances under which it was said?
He was hanging on the cross with wounds in His hands and feet, suffering excruciating pain and thirst. Round the place of execution stood the soldiers who had just driven the nails through His hands and feet. Perhaps they had done so with the in sensibility normal to their profession amid the mockery of their callous comrades. The Bible mentions the biting contempt of the leaders of the nation.
Sympathetic spectators may have thought :"Surely they can't be so callous and take His life! " But that was their intention. Maybe some believed that such a helpless person needed support. Others might have prevented it, believing that only ĺow criminals deserved no sympathy. Only a short while before Pilate had asked,"What evil has He done?" (Luke 23:22). After 2000 years no one has given an answer to his question. Their was no valid reason for the condemnation and execution of an innocent Man.
This was the situation in which the Lord prayed for his enemies. That is the remarkable thing that we wish to stress. We would not have acted likewise. But even in His suffering, Jesus thought of the forgiveness His enemies needed, and which we all need. That is love, undeniably overpowering love. And now that He is risen and alive, He still loves us and commands us to learn from Him to forgive.