Skip to main content

300. The First Word

Luke 23:34
Key Verse: Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
Luke 23:34

Many people often refer to this statement made by Jesus as an example of just how far His forgiveness would go. We often use this statement as an example of how forgiving we should be, even to our enemies.

While it is true that Jesus demonstrates a forgiving Spirit here, in fact, He was simply speaking, once again, the truth. The soldiers truly had no clue what they were doing. They didn't know that they were crucifying their savior. To them, they were simply doing their job. This man had been sentenced to die by Governor Pilate himself. What they were doing was legal and, in fact, carrying out the law. To their way of thinking, they were keeping the peace. They had no clue of the true evil in which they were participating.

Jesus understood this. Jesus knew that these men were not the real enemy. He loved these men and He was dying for them, even though they did not know it. Jesus knew who was behind the scenes, pulling the strings and causing the situation. He knew that the real enemy was satan. These men, the soldiers, Pilate, were just pawns that would be easily discarded by Satan, once the deed was done.

I wonder if Jesus thought back to the garden, where it all began. Adam and Eve had merely been pawns as well. They were tools that satan could use to destroy what God had created.
Now, satan was using these guards to carry out what he thought was the grand finale, death itself, to destroy God once and for all. In truth, this was the grand finale, but not the one he thought that it was.

One of satan's temptations to Jesus when they met in the wilderness was satan's offer to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would just bow down to him. (Luke 4:5-7) Could that have been a temptation because Jesus could have avoided this moment of pain and gained the world anyway? Fortunately for us, Jesus knew satan as the liar and deceiver that he is. He was deceiving the Romans now and he had managed to blind the Jewish people with their devotion to religion. Jesus knew that this day must come and that He must complete what He came to do. He loved the pawns, the people that made it happen. That's how amazing His love is even for us.

Hymn: "JesusKeep Me Near the Cross"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October 27 Save the Glaze for the Bunny

Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips of an evil heart. A malicious man disguises himself with his lips. But in his heart, he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart. His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it. If a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him. ~Proverbs 26:23-28 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

July 16 Thick Skinned Love

Whoever covers over an offence promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. ~Proverbs 17:9 If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. ~Matthew 18:15  The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ~1 Peter 4:7-8  Being offended seems to be the battle cry of the day. Instead of freedom of speech, everyone has the right not to be offended. If one is offended, then one has the right to exact vengeance on the offender because, of course, the offender KNEW that he or she was being offensive and just didn’t care. Is that how you see much of society behaving today?  There seems to be all of this offending and finger pointing that just keeps growing and growing. Nothing is being resolved, just more blame that grows louder a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Surprise!

Luke 24:14-35 Listen link is a video: https://www.facebook.com/gregory.dubois.547/posts/10157923265761195 For today’s message we are going to backtrack on the Scriptures a bit. Last week I talked about what happened in the evening of Easter day. Today’s story happened in the midday or afternoon of that day. But I wanted to save it for our Communion Sunday because Jesus breaks the bread for them at the end of this story and that is what we will be doing today at the end of the message when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. We’re talking about two of Jesus’ disciples who left Jerusalem to walk to Emmaus, perhaps the home of one or both of them. But Jesus walked with them and once they realized Jesus was alive, these two disciples hurried back to the rest of the disciples to alert them to the wonderful news. They arrived Just before Jesus showed up in the upper room. But before I go back and get into the story of the journey to Emmaus, I think it’s fun to notice that the ...
Post a Comment
Read more