Categories: god, forty-blogs-of-lent
Tags: Forgiveness
Date: 23 March 2013 12:34:55
When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left. [Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."] Luke 23: 33-34"Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing." They thought they were getting rid of a trouble maker. And they were. What they didn't know was that they were making their own forgiveness possible. I used to think that the tragedy in the Judas story was that he killed himself before he could hear Jesus say, "Father, forgive." Now I'm not so sure, the effects of the cross reaching out through time to reach even him. They did not know what they were doing. And today is no different: Too often we still do not know what we are doing. When we put our own needs before the needs of others, When we put our national interests before those of people in poorer parts of the world. When we are motivated by pride or hate instead of love. Father forgive us. We don't know what we are doing.