Forgiven for Our Ignorance
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34a).
One can only imagine what it would have been like to have been there and hear Jesus utter these words. In bitter anguish with nails going through His hands, Jesus isn’t angry … He forgives. What is most striking is that He is forgiving us for the things that we don’t even know we are doing. We are blinded to our own sin and blinded by what it actually does to us.
Jesus takes all of that sin on Himself, bears it willingly through pain and tears, and then utters a final cry to the Father as the price is paid for sin in His death — for you. In Jesus’ crucifixion, all your sin is forgiven. By Christ’s death, death has been defeated. We may not know what we are doing, and may be ignorant to what that means for Jesus, but by His grace, we are forgiven before the Father and we await the day we know is coming — the Day of Resurrection and the joy of life with Christ forever.
