‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’

Here is a question in response to a recent article that I thought would be better to answer in a separate article rather than for me to just reply via the comment thread:

“Could you help me understand, in this context, Jesus’ words at the Cross, ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’?  Would you see this as forgiveness purchased by Christ and yet to be claimed by the then unrepentant perpetrators?  Is God’s capacity and mandate to forgive here different to a person’s because He is divine?”

These, of course, are very astute questions.

The first question we need to tackle, before we tackle the issue of forgiveness of unrepentant perpetrators, is the textual variant of Luke 23:34a — notice the note that goes with this in some Bible translations (for instance, CSB and ESV), viz, “Other mss [biblical manuscripts] omit Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.’”  Some Bible translations omit this verse altogether, but most include it.  This is a link to more about the discussion on textual criticism and textual variation: https://callingchristians.com/2014/06/11/the-problem-of-luke-2334/  Simply put, not all the early manuscripts have this verse, and honest translations will always have a note as to whether Jesus actually said this or not.  But let’s assume that he did utter this prayer, the first of ‘seven words’ uttered in the Passion narrative.

We must agree that in principle, what Jesus has said is a reliable and indeed a helpful method as we wrestle with the difficult theology and practice of forgiveness.  I have certainly found it helpful, personally.  As we hear Jesus say these words, we imagine the grace with which he says them, and we imagine him calling us to this higher standard of forgiveness.

We may imagine that the human Jesus was under great duress when he uttered these words, and yet the divine Jesus uttered these words also as a guide to us.  I believe that in cases where people do not understand what they are doing — that they are acting on insufficient or the wrong information (and in Jesus’ personal situation, many thought he was guilty of blasphemy, punishable by death [Lev. 24:16]) — they are not being purposefully sinful.  They may yet come around.  As is the case in the crucifixion, many people had no idea WHO they were crucifying.  Could any of them have predicted the curtain in the temple would be torn in two, indicating that Jesus’ crucifixion had opened the way to the Father?  Could any of them have predicted the resurrection?  I could go on, but I won’t.

If a person doesn’t understand what they are doing, can they be held to account?  This is an important question.  Perhaps we can only pray that they would be enlightened as to their sin at some point.

In cases of abuse, and in cases where we’re talking Christians doing the abusing, it shouldn’t be a case that they don’t know what they are doing.  Christians are called to love one another as the express command and deep wish of their Saviour and Lord.  Christians are also called as the express command and deep wish of their Saviour and Lord to love their neighbour.  If they ignore a plea by either their brother or sister or a neighbour, is this acting in a way that doesn’t understand?  If their brother or sister or their neighbour says, “Stop, you are hurting me,” and this person does not stop, is that a case that they do not understand?  Surely, they understand what they’re doing.

I definitely think that the theology behind Jesus’ prayer in Luke 23:34a is helpful in terms of how we may use it in the many cases where we are hurt, and the other person does not understand.

But in the case of abuse, we are not only talking about the initial abuse, we are talking about a lack of repentance, given that the perpetrator knows the person they abused is unhappy.  They do understand that something’s not right.  And Christians are beholden to go and be reconciled (Matthew 5:23-24).

In the initial article, I suggested that we are to rise to a level of the divine in terms of forgiveness, i.e. God forgives the repentant, and so are we to do the same.  As God is merciful to the repentant, so are we to be merciful to the repentant.

I am not entirely sure after all this if I actually addressed the questions (Would you see this as forgiveness purchased by Christ and yet to be claimed by the then unrepentant perpetrators?  Is God’s capacity and mandate to forgive here different to a person’s because He is divine?) adequately.  I have tried to keep the discussion to the original point.  My apologies for that.

Photo by Kent Pilcher on Unsplash