Tonight we embark on a journey, a journey with Jesus, as He takes us by the hand and leads us to His cross during these next six weeks of Lent. This year, as we travel to Calvary, our meditation during our midweek services will focus on the words that Jesus speaks from His cross. So, tonight we will listen to His words of forgiveness: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Next Wednesday we will hear His words of promise, spoken to the repentant thief: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” The following week we will focus on His words of faithfulness, as Jesus cries to His Father, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” Then we will focus on His words of compassion, spoken to Mary and John: To Mary, “Woman, behold, your son!” and to John, “Behold, your mother!” After that we will meditate on His words of suffering: “I thirst.” We will then hear His dying words: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And finally, His words of fulfillment: “It is finished!” On Maundy Thursday we will focus on His remembering words: “Take, eat; this is my body. Take, drink; this is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.” And then on Easter Sunday we will hear the vindicated word: “He is Risen!” And having taken us through these next six weeks to His crucifixion and His resurrection, our Lord with His words will have given us a better understanding as to what He was doing for us on the cross, instructing us all along the way that it was for us and our salvation that He went there.
So tonight, we begin with His words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” These words tell us that Jesus intercedes for sinners, for those who crucified Him. Now, you and I weren’t there when the Jews handed Him over to the Romans to crucify Him. We weren’t among the crowds who yelled, “Crucify, crucify!” And yet, it was our sins that put Him on that cross. We are just as guilty of crucifying Him as if we had done it ourselves. We blasphemed Him, we mocked Him, we whipped, beat, and spat upon Him. We placed the crown of thorns upon His head. We drove the nails into His hands and feet, and we thrust the spear into His side. And the Scriptures make this clear when they tell us that we were all at one time enemies of God. By nature we hated God and wanted Him dead, and that’s just what we and all mankind did to God when we crucified Him.
But consider here these words of love spoken by Him to the Father on our behalf: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus would be justified in praying, “Father, pulverize them and send them to the eternal fires of hell. Never forget what they’ve done to me!” But even though we deserve such words of wrath, out of His great love for us, Jesus prayed for our forgiveness and suffered the wrath we deserve instead. He went to the cross not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And with His words of forgiveness connected to His suffering and death, we are given to see the reason He was on the cross: so that He might take away our sin and guilt, in order that we might hear the Father’s words of forgiveness spoken to us.
Now, some might not think they need any forgiveness, or at least not very much forgiveness. If they have any sins at all, they were done in ignorance. And if you don’t know you’re sinning, how can you be held accountable for them? But with His words spoken here, Jesus shows us that even the sins we are unaware of, the sins of ignorance, are sins nonetheless and need God’s forgiveness. The good news is that God forgives even these sins. The fact is, there are no sins that God doesn’t forgive for Christ’s sake. Christ’s blood has atoned for all sins; and so His words of forgiveness are spoken over all your sins, the little ones as well as the really big ones. In reality, before God, all sins are really big sins. We are all really big sinners before God, according to His Word. But in Jesus, big sinners have a really big Savior. If you’re not a really big sinner, then you don’t need Jesus, because He went to the cross only for really big sinners. He wasn’t there to teach us how to love one another or how to give our lives for each other, nor was He there primarily to show us how angry God is over sin. He was there giving His life for you as the sacrifice for your sins - all of them, in order that you might hear His words of forgiveness.
And His words of forgiveness are God’s words of forgiveness. Because of Jesus, we have been reconciled to the Father; we now have direct access to God. Jesus is the Way to the Father. St. Paul writes that “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all...” Having risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God the Father Almighty, Jesus still intercedes for you with His blood, praying His Father to forgive you your sins. And the Father does what the Son requests: He forgives you your sins. Forgiven as you are now, you can approach His throne of grace with confidence and receive the mercy and grace to help you in your time of need. You are no longer enemies of God, but His children, having received a new birth given to you through Baptism, where God clothed you with Christ and His righteousness. Now you continue to live under His forgiving words, as He daily draws you to Christ’s cross to hear again and again the words He speaks to you from there.
The cross of Jesus means God’s forgiveness to you. You need it, and I need it. We need it often; we need to hear it often. We need to hear it often, because we sin often. It’s not that God withholds some forgiveness from you, only giving you a little bit at a time, only forgiving you when you ask Him to forgive you. But God gives you more forgiveness than you have sin. He forgives you all your sins today, and tomorrow He will give you even more forgiveness. He fills your cup to the brim, and then He continues to pour more in. He gives you 100%, and then He adds more.
The words Jesus spoke on the cross He continues to speak for you today, so that you might know that the Father always forgives you your sins. The message of the cross of Christ is the message of forgiveness; it is the sign of your absolution. When your conscience bothers you on account of your sin, when you are unsure as to whether your guilt has been taken away, when you are afraid that God is angry with you and wants to pour out His wrath on you, then listen again to the words of His Son on the cross, as He pleads for you before the Father: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Though we are ignorant, willful sinners, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. For His sake you are forgiven. Go in peace! Amen.