Today we celebrate the events that marked the beginning of Jesus’s life: The angelic announcement, the virgin conception, the difficult birth, the unexpected visits, the prophetic blessings. But even as we remember that Jesus came to live, we need to also remember that Jesus came to die. As we think about his birth we do well to think about his death.
Recently, one of my Patreon patrons asked if I would write about some of the last words Jesus spoke. While he was hanging on the cross, or perhaps even while they were driving the nails into his flesh, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Kent Hughes aptly sets the context: “The cosmic trauma had begun. There never had been such pain as physical and spiritual evil now came against Jesus in terrible conjunction. Body and soul recoiled. The initial shock of crucifixion had rendered him paralyzed and quivering. Physical disbelief screamed from severed nerves. And even greater spiritual horror closed in—he would soon become sin.” Here was a moment of grave injustice, the sickest, most twisted moment in all of human history as man put God to death. We would expect that in a moment of such injustice, in a moment of such extreme suffering, a person would cry out for vengeance. “Father, strike them down!” “Father, don’t hold them guiltless!” But Jesus cries out forgiveness. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Read more: http://www.challies.com/articles/for-they-know-not-what-they-do