“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”[1]
This is the first of the famous seven last words of Christ. Words he said as he was dying on the cross.
The death and resurrection of Jesus demonstrates that God’s grace is the solution to evil. This is not controversial. It is the central pillar of Christian belief in the New Testament and in all authentic Christian teaching since. But it is rather incredible when you think about it. In my more insecure moments, I wonder if I can really believe it. Is it really possible that the answer to the whole messy history of good versus evil comes down to one simple binary choice—grace over revenge, love instead of hate, forgiveness rather than destruction? Can it really be so?
When I’m in doubt about the power of grace, I remember the sickening clank of hammer on nails tearing through flesh and bone; and limbs being stretched, scraped, and pinned to a cruel, unforgiving cross. And I hear the mob gathering—violent, religious, and taunting, “Hey Jesus—you got blood on your face, a big disgrace! We will, we will, rock you! You’re going down!
And then I remember nothing but the awful sound of the hammer, and my hurting heart crying out for revenge, for retribution. But no cursing and no anger came from Jesus. Instead of calling for the wrath of heaven and hell to light them all on fire, Jesus said earnestly, “Father forgive them. They have no way of knowing what they are doing.”
I can see it now. Grace over revenge; love conquers hate; forgiveness not destruction.
But here’s something even more incredible. If God’s grace can actually rescue humanity from itself—from its ignorance, violence, and impulse to hate—the choice to give grace must be made by God. It will not be made by us. I’m not suggesting that humans do not have choices. I’m saying that from the foundation of the world, God’s choice to give grace has always been what gave us any kind of choice at all.
Think about it. How much choice did you have in being born, having the personality you do, being taught the religion you had as a kid, how loving or abusive your home environment was, and the specific country and language that will always be native to you? The list of non-choices in our lives goes on and on. Free will, for humans, has never been absolute. In fact, it is quite limited.
The point is, we don’t know what we’re doing! And choosing grace and loving our enemies is just not in our nature.
But grace, and love, and forgiveness—
those are the divine gifts—
the fruit of the tree,
the seed cast onto fertile ground,
the mustard seed, so small, so weak,
and practically invisible…
Not by might, not by power,
but by my Spirit, says the Lord.
So, the curtain falls,
hope is lost,
the Lamb is slain.
But grace did not fail,
because Jesus never fails.
And grace will grow!
Watered by the blood,
planted in the tomb,
and bursting forth from the ground with eternal life—
the gift of grace will grow, and grow, and grow,
and become our everything.
It is the gift of Emmanuel, God with us.
Our Father—He forgave us,
and loved us,
and adopted us
even when we didn’t know what we were doing.
Even when we were killing him,
he forgave,
he loved,
He gathered us into his family of grace.
[1]Luke 23:34
