December 5, 2001

Reading: Luke 23:32-43

 

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (34)

 

Much has been written about the seven sayings of Jesus while He hung on the cross, but I would like to consider the first three. These statements are uniquely interesting because they exemplify His life and ministry in that He always thought of others first.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (34). Bruised, bleeding, and with nails so recently pounded through His flesh and bone, His prayer was for those who had accomplished this atrocity.

“’Woman, behold your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’” (John 19:26,27). Now His thoughts turned toward two of those whom He loved the most, Mary, His mother, and John, who self described himself as “the disciple whom He loved”.

And then, to the repentant thief who hung on a cross beside Him, Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’” (43). Whether it was to those who crucified Him, those He loved or who repented in their last moments of life, Jesus put their interest before His own.

Did Jesus not stop after a busy day when He heard the cry of a blind man from among the milling crowd? Whether it was a demon-possessed boy, a dying girl, a blind or deaf man or 5,000 hungry people, Jesus was never too busy or too concerned about His own comfort to help others. This same spirit of “others first” never departed from Him even while on the cross.

It was this same spirit that brought Him to earth, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). It was in the eternal counsel of God that the plan of salvation was determined (Eph: 1:11). “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Gal 1:4-5); “the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

When Jesus ascended into heaven He left the church to continue that which He began. The church, you and I, have been given the responsibility to put others before our own interest. “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). This is nothing new. God told the Israelites, “Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isa 1:17). Their sin against God was that they failed to do just that: “They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them” (23).

Solomon wrote: “Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard” (Prov 21:13), but, “The king who judges the poor with truth, his throne will be established forever” (Prov 29:14).

St Francis of Assisi, when riding his horse, saw a leper by the side of the road. He dismounted, walked over and embraced the leper and kissed him. Not only did Francis Bernardone exemplify the attitude of Christ but that act changed the lives of both himself and the leper.

“’He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this knowing Me?’ says the LORD” (Jer 22:16).