FATHER, FORGIVE THEM by A. Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 14, 1879

“FATHER, FORGIVE THEM.”

By A. Smith

As Jesus hung upon the cross, he prayed that his murderers might be forgiven. The Son of God never uttered a petition in behalf of man that the Father could not in justice grant as desired.

The prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” stands as a monument of the forgiving tenderness of Christ in the midst of the aggravating taunts and excruciating agony of the crucifixion.

Did this touching petition secure for those who clamored for his blood the remittance of the guilt of murder? No; for they knew that he was a just and innocent person, and both Peter and Stephen afterward charged them with this crime, from which they might be freed only through repentance. Was it for the Roman soldiers that he prayed? Not exclusively; they were only doing what they were compelled to do in the execution of the sentence of the law. If they caused the Saviour, as a man, needless suffering, they incurred a guilt that was not covered by this prayer.

The ignorance of Christ’s murderers consisted in their not understanding his exalted character; and his almost inimitable prayer was doubtless that they might not be held accountable for his murder as the divine Son of God, from which guilt, knowingly incurred, divine justice could never have absolved them, while at the same time they were held accountable for the murder of an innocent man giving evidence that he was a prophet of God. Had not Christ prayed that this sin of ignorance might not be laid to their charge, we know not but that God would have made a fearful example of the murderers of his Son. The utterance of this petition from Calvary confirms the supposition that there might have been danger to them.

It cannot, in reason, be supposed that either Christ or his people, who are required to copy his forgiving spirit, by such a prayer should be understood to desire a surrender of the principles of God’s holy law to the impulses of pity contrary to the provisions of the gospel; though by the plan of redemption considerable margin is evidently left for the exercise of human clemency in case of personal wrongs. When Stephen was arraigned before the Sanhedrim, he charged that body with being guilty of enormous sins; yet when they were stoning him to death, he prayed that the sin might not be laid to their charge.

This prayer of Stephen’s covered almost the same ground in principle as that of Christ, for he was engaged in the work of the gospel to which he had been called, when apprehended by the Sanhedrim, and was identified as a disciple of Christ in thus boldly denouncing their murderous sins, till in rage they violently put him to death. See Matt. 25:45.

The Jews were so blinded by Satan that they knew not that Jesus was the Messiah, nor that the gospel which they opposed in the person of Stephen was the only way of salvation for themselves. Justice would seemingly demand that the door of mercy be forever closed against the perpetrators of such a foul crime; but in answer to prayer their sin might be so far forgiven them that, through repentance, they could become followers of Jesus.

When Christians, as such, are misjudged and persecuted by slanderous reports or personal violence, believing that if facts were well understood opposition would disappear, how appropriate to utter the prayer that from the cross penetrated Heaven and returned as dew upon the moral sterility of the heart,—“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” A. SMITH.