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

Suggested Reading: Luke 23:1-34

By the time Jesus uttered these words He must have been exhausted by the events that led up to this point where His executioners have just driven the nails through His hands and feet.

He had experienced the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the beatings and cruel insults and mocking by the soldiers and guards, the unfair trial in front of Caiaphas, the hearing with Pilate and Herod. “Yet neither the weakness of the past, nor the pain of the present, could prevent Him from continuing in prayer.”

As the Lamb of God He was silent before His accusers, but He was not silent before His God. No pain or weakness could silence His prayers. This is an excellent example for us to follow. As the cruel iron nails tore through His nervous system, our Lord persevered in prayer. Although we may at times have nothing to say in our own defence before people, may we never become silent before our God as long as we have breath in our bodies. Suffering and pain have the tendency to drive us away from God. May His grace rather drive us closer to Him in our times of trouble.

When we are in the habit of being in conversation with God, it will be easier to pray even when all the circumstances renders it nearly impossible to do so. Jesus had the habit of withdrawing to lonely places to pray and He did not refrain from breaking out in prayer even in the company of His followers and He had become so accustomed to being in constant communication with His Father that not even the severest of torments could silence His prayers.

He had the Spirit of Supplication living inside Him and therefore He lived a life of prayer and prayer was as part of Him as breathing was. “He was like that precious spice, which, being bruised, doth not cease to give forth its perfume, but rather yields it all the more abundantly because of the blows of the pestle, its fragrance being no outward and superficial quality, but an inward virtue essential to its nature, which the pounding in the mortar did but fetch from it, causing it to reveal its secret soul of sweetness.” May He always be our example and may no circumstances, however severe or depressing, keep us from praying.

Furthermore, as Jesus prayed, He remained true to His filial relationship with His Father. In the extreme trial of the Cross, He submitted Himself to the will of His Father, for His prayer begins with, “Father…” He taught us to pray saying, “Our Father” and here He was an example of His own teaching. The reason why we should pray like this is because the effectiveness of our prayers depend greatly on our confidence in our relationship with God as our Father. “Under great losses and crosses, one is apt to think that God is not dealing with us as a father with a child, but rather as a severe judge with a condemned criminal, but the cry of Christ, when He is brought  to an extremity which we shall never reach, betrays no faltering in the spirit of sonship.” Even in Gethsemane, when His soul was filled with anguish, He started His prayer with “My Father…” when He asked that God would remove the bitter trial lying ahead of Him, if it were possible. May we never doubt our relationship with God as our Father or doubt His love for us.

Most remarkable of all, was that the Lord’s prayer in His darkest moments were not for Himself alone. The first of His seven utterances from the Cross is a prayer on behalf of others and not just others –He prayed for those who were responsible for His pain.

This is an altogether unselfish prayer. He understood the magnitude of God’s judgment against them. Considering the weight of the judgment they are heaping up against themselves, He prays that God will forgive them. Jesus is our perfect example in unselfishness, who focused in His worst moments not on His own troubles, but instead prayed for others. May we follow His example and forget ourselves long enough to reach out to others in their times of trouble.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy that He prayed not only for others, but for His enemies. Even as they were executing their murderous plot against Him, He prayed for their forgiveness. He didn’t wait until time has passed and healed His wounds and He could forgive them easier, but prayed for them while His blood was fresh on their hands. Although this prayer extends far beyond His executioners, it is remarkable that He prays for them in this way.

Although Christian martyrs, like Stephen later prayed in this way, it is because they received this same Spirit of Christ. But Christ Himself followed no previous example. He is the Divine Original. It flowed forth from His divine nature. He is the great Intercessor at the right hand of the Father still. He is praying for us, wrote Paul to the Romans. But He is also the same yesterday, today and forever. As He prayed for His enemies then, He is praying for them still.

Although He is now at the right hand of the Father and no longer hanging on the Cross, His occupation as Intercessor remains the same. He is still pleading with God on behalf of guilty humanity. His prayers are gracious. None of those for whom He prayed deserved His prayers. They could claim no reward for their goodness. On the Cross He prayed for the most undeserving people of all. They were utterly undeserving of a single good word on their behalf from the lips of our Lord Jesus. If He will intercede for them, what will keep Him from interceding for us as the children of God?

Moreover, He prayed for them even though they never asked to be prayed for. They didn’t even know they needed this intercession. Perhaps they even mocked Him for praying for them. But there is no one on earth who is deserving of His prayers on our behalf. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Thankfully, He doesn’t pray for people because they deserve it. If that were the case we would all be disqualified. If any person sins, we have an Advocate before the Father. “Our great Intercessor pleads for such as never asked Him to plead for them. His elect, while yet dead in trespasses and sins, are the objects of His compassionate intercessions, and while they even scoff at His Gospel, His heart of love is entreating the favour of heaven on their behalf.” May this encourage us to trust Him to bring our case before our God. He will never turn anyone away who comes to Him.

When Jesus prayed for the forgiveness of His enemies, He didn’t examine them as some lab specimens, looking for a good reason that may validate His intercession on their behalf. Instead, He brought before the Father their ignorance: “They do not know what they are doing.” He took care to know the personal weaknesses of those He was praying for.

As a High Priest, He was not unable to sympathize with their weaknesses. At this very moment, He knows our precise condition. He knows the exact state of our hearts and the tests we have to face in this life. He knows the trials and temptations that still lie ahead for us and just as He warned Peter of his future moment of weakness in which He will deny the Son of Man; and just as He assured Peter that He has already prayed for him, so He does for us today. Even our future trials and failures lie open before Him and He has already interceded for us in this regard.

He is not only a great High Priest, He is also a tender High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Peter was full of confidence that he will never forsake his Lord and that he will even be prepared to even die with Him. But Jesus knew Peter’s character better than he knew himself. For this reason, He prayed for Peter. He prayed that Peter’s faith will not fail him as he comes face to face with his weakness. He does exactly the same for us. God shows no favouritism.

If sometimes, we cannot find the words to express the agony in our hearts, we need not be too concerned, as He sees even those unspoken groaning in our hearts. He knows what we need even before we say it.  “He can find some reason for mercy in you which you cannot detect in yourself, and when it is so dark and cloudy with your soul that you cannot discern a foot hold for a plea that you may urge with heaven, the Lord Jesus has the pleas ready framed, and petitions ready drawn up, and He can present them acceptably before the Mercy Seat.”

Even the sin of His enemies couldn’t stop Him from praying for them. “Sin cannot tie the tongue of our Interceding Friend…He lives, and while He lives He pleads; and while there is a sinner upon the earth to be saved, there shall be an Intercessor in heaven to plead for him.”

This prayer of Jesus also reflects His great wisdom. He knew what His enemies needed most. Although He appeals to their ignorance, He doesn’t pray for their enlightenment as mere enlightenment might only have heightened a tortured conscience. He knew that they needed forgiveness from God before they needed anything else. “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him.” (Psalm 32:1-2a).  And this is what Christ prays for in His wisdom.

It is wonderful to have an Advocate who can perfectly lay our pleas before the Great King. God does not look for perfect prayer. He looks at the heart. Because of Jesus, all our prayers appear before God in perfect and acceptable ways. Our Mediator makes our imperfect pleas perfect before the Father.

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