Father, Forgive Them

Good Friday – 2026                                                                                              LSB #’s 430, 451
Text – Luke 23:4a
 
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 
 
FATHER, FORGIVE THEM…
 
 
In the world,  forgiveness is rare.  You have to earn forgiveness.   If you don’t, instead of getting your debt cancelled  the world will cancel you.  When prisoners serving jail time receive pardons,  we hear from elected officials  about the justified reasons for the release.  Often, the person given a pardon has shown that he earned it  through good behavior  or enough suffering. 
Do you want forgiveness?  You have to earn it. 
Or take a look at those investigative crime shows on TV.  A suspected killer is finally charged with murder, & family members of the victim tell the killer: “I hope you burn in hell!”  The nicer ones might say, “God may forgive you.  But I  never will!”   Forgiveness is hard to come by  in a dog-eat-dog world. 
We might think that as Christians we’re better at this forgiveness thing.  Except we too prefer  that people work toward being forgiven.  Have you been at a restaurant when your food service is off the mark?  The waitress says, “I’m sorry,” while you remind her,  with your lips or more often with your eyes & thoughts,  how bad the service has been. 
Later on, she says again, “I am really sorry about that!”  By then you say, “It’s alright,” but you haven’t really forgiven her.  You want her to do something right, or better – bring out a complimentary drink or dessert.   Then,  you may look favorably upon her again & give a nice tip.   Corrupted by sin,  Christians are no better at forgiving than the world. 
It’s Good Friday,  the day we are tempted to give the Romans & the Jews a skeptical attitude for killing Jesus.  We may go to passion plays & wonder how people can be so unforgiving to God’s Son.  Would we forgive those people?   That’s God’s problem.  It’s easier to forgive good people, those who earn  it.   Are we better than the Romans & Jews of that day?  Had we lived in Jesus’ time,  would we have been just as unforgiving as we are now?  Would we have yelled, “Crucify, crucify Him!”?     Pilate would have delivered Jesus  also  to our will. 
And if you don’t think  you would have done this to the Lord, then, go out & forgive that neighbor  you do not get along with,  the family member or coworker you have a grudge against, that person who hurt you.  We know too well  that real forgiveness  is difficult. 
But enough about us, about our struggles & our sins.  Good Friday is not “good”  because of you or me.  It does not require our goodness   to be good for us.   Good Friday is good for us because God is good  to us.  Good Friday is all  about the goodness & mercy of a gracious Father who has not counted our sins, our failures, our unforgiving hearts,  against us. 
Good Friday is good  because Jesus is good to us.  Good Friday is all about a God who became our suffering Servant,  the One anointed with the Holy Spirit to take upon Himself our sins,  the sins of an unworthy people,  the sins of His enemies.  Forgiveness might be rare for us, but it is not rare for God.   Forgiveness  is what Yahweh does all the time,  over & over again! 
God does not have to give explanations about why He forgives or whom He pardons.  God is not an elected official who needs to justify His choice  to forgive the unworthy  based on their good behavior or their having suffered enough.  God just forgives & remembers our sins no more.   Plain & simple: God says the word of absolution  & it is done for you! 
And why does God forgive?  Why does our Creator look favorably upon us  even when we mess up  like that waitress who just can’t get your order right?  The answer lies in the words of Jesus,  as He hung on the cross: “Father,  forgive them,  for they know not  what they do.” 
That is why God looks favorably upon sinners  who in their blind anger turn against His Son.  It is solely  because Jesus prays to His Father.  It is because God the Father hears the prayer of His beloved Son who intercedes for sinners like you & me: “Father, forgive them.”  At that moment,  two great themes  dear to St. Luke  come together: prayer & the cross.  Luke the evangelist likes to present Jesus as the Son who prays.  He likes to speak of Jesus as the Son of Man who fulfills His destiny  by going to Jerusalem to die.  
Prayer & the cross are inseparably united in Jesus’ life.  At the Jordan River, Jesus had been baptized & was praying, when suddenly the heavens were opened & the Holy Spirit descended upon Him.  At that point we hear the voice from heaven saying “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.”  
Those words, “with you I am well pleased,” are none other than the words Yahweh speaks to His suffering Servant in the book of Isaiah.  The Son prays to the Father & the Father responds by anointing His Son to be our suffering Servant, to die at Jerusalem for us.  Prayer & cross together  are God’s design. 
Likewise, the Transfiguration is set in the context of Jesus’ praying to His Father.  He goes to the mountain for no other reason than “to pray” & it is “as He was praying” that He was transfigured before Peter, James & John.  There too, the Father’s voice echoes from heaven as heard at the Jordan: “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to Him!”  
What the disciples are supposed to listen to  is precisely what the Son said to them before they went to the mountain.  But they did not want  to hear it.  They did not want to hear that “the Son of man must suffer many things & be rejected by the elders, chief priests & scribes, to be killed, & on the third day be raised.”  (Luke 9:22) 
The Son of Man who prays to His Father, seeking to do His will, putting His mission & life in the Father’s hands,  must come down from the mountain & go to Jerusalem.  Prayer & the cross are inextricably linked  in the life of Jesus.   All of which leads to the crucifixion.  Jesus reaches Jerusalem, His destiny.  There, the world believes  it has cancelled Jesus.  Yet, as death approaches – hanging on the cross – Jesus has another prayer He wants His Father to hear.  What love  that Jesus does not think of Himself in that great moment of suffering, but thinks only of the needy,  thinks only of sinners like you & me: “Father, forgive them.” 
For the world, we have to earn our forgiveness or we will be cancelled.  Jesus cancels Himself  to earn our forgiveness.  Our heavenly Father sent His only begotten Son  to be cancelled  for your sins & for mine.   In that, Jesus demonstrates what it means when He said, “And behold, some are last who will be first, & some are first  who will be last.”  (Luke 13:30 ESV) 
It is Good Friday.  It is time  we look to Jesus on the cross, to His passion, to see in His sacrifice, & prayer on our behalf,  how big the heart of God is.  On the cross,  we see how good Jesus is  to sinners.  See what Jesus has done for you.  See His blood shed  for you!   Hear His prayer given for you!  “Father, forgive them.”  
And so it is.  For Jesus’ sake, God the Father says to you this evening: “I forgive you all your sins.”  You are no longer enemies  but friends of Jesus, & children of God.  That  is what enables you & me  to forgive our neighbor as Christ has forgiven us.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Stricken, smitten & afflicted,  see Him dying on the tree!  ’Tis the Christ, by man rejected;  yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!    ’Tis the long-expected prophet, David’s Son,  yet David’s Lord;    proofs I see sufficient of it: ’Tis the true & faithful Word.            Here we have a firm foundation,  here the refuge of the lost:  Christ, the Rock of our salvation,  is the name of which we boast;  Lamb of God,  for sinners wounded,  sacrifice to cancel guilt!   None shall ever be confounded  who on Him their hope  have built.  Amen.  LSB 451:1, 4.