This Holy Week we will be considering the 7 things Jesus said at the Cross, as recorded in scripture. We will seek to understand what this shows us about Jesus and how we can walk in His way as redeemed and loved children of God.
*We will be pulling out these 7 sayings, one per day. If you want to read the full crucifixion accounts you can find them here: Matthew 27:32-56, Mark 15:21-41, Luke 23:26-49, and John 19:17-37
Day 1
Read from Luke 23:
As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Consider these ideas and questions. Make observations of your own. Journal your response.
- When Jesus said , ““Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” He is essentially fulfilling His own ethical standard that He laid out in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:43-48) and the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:29,35). These teachings were completely “upside down,” exhorting things like loving your enemies, turning the other cheek, praying for your persecutors. Jesus is living out what He preached. The picture of perfect integrity.
- In the midst of physical and emotional agony Jesus turns His focus outward, to God and to the people. He is intercessor here, beseeching His Father to forgive. We see Him interceding for those who falsely accused Him and crucified Him unjustly. He is also interceding for us in that moment, as the Cross was the once and for all payment for sin.
- Reflect
- What rises up in you when you consider that you are forgiven?
- If you have not accepted Jesus as your forgiver, what is stopping you? If you want to learn more about accepting Jesus as forgiver, leader and Lord, you can read more HERE.
- Who do YOU need to forgive? What grudge are you harboring? Is there hurt festering in you?
- Sometimes the person we need to extend forgiveness to is the person in the mirror. Is that you?
- Forgiven people forgive people. Radical forgiveness is not something we can simply muster up. We must first experience the love and forgiveness of Jesus. Then we can walk in that love and forgiveness, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to be channels of forgiveness in our relationships.
Respond:
Read the passage again. Find quiet and slow your mind and your breathing. Ask God to meet with you exactly where you are and just be with Him. If you need to work through forgiveness of any kind, do that WITH Him.