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

Today we begin a series of posts on the seven ‘last words’ of Christ. The last words of dying people are treasured and it is not unusual that different members of a family, or different friends, hold on to different things said by a dying person in the last days of their life. So we find seven words recorded in the Gospels. Matthew and Mark give us just one, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’, the opening line of Psalm 22. John gives us three – ‘I thirst’, ‘Behold your son’, and ‘It is finished’. And Luke gives us a further three, ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’, ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’, and ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’.

A traditional devotion of Holy Week is to meditate and preach on these seven last words and composers over the century have set them to music. The most recent such setting is that by James MacMillan, renowned Scottish Catholic composer and Lay Dominican.

Luke’s three words show us Jesus practising what he had preached. The message of reconciliation, forgiveness, and trust in God’s mercy which so characterises the ministry of Jesus in Luke’s gospel finds its most powerful expression in his attitude towards his executioners, towards the thief dying alongside him, and towards his Heavenly Father.

The first of these words is ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23:34). How can we expect to be forgiven if we do not forgive, he had asked the disciples more than once. ‘They know not what they do’ is a reason he gives for this forgiveness. This can be heard on two levels: they are blinded by the agitation of the mob, the confusion of the situation, and the passion that has taken hold of their hearts. Some of those involved might have said they were ‘just doing their job’. On a deeper level it refers to the divine plan which, unknown to them, is working itself out through their actions: they do not know it but their actions are contributing to the work of the world’s salvation. We read later in the Acts of the Apostles that Jesus was ‘delivered up by the definite plan and foreknowledge of God’ (2:23). On one level he is put to death by the hands of lawless men. On another level it is a divine plan that is unfolding.

When we find difficulty in forgiving others we should remember the forgiveness of Jesus. We have all received it, and hope to receive it in the future. We have much for which to ask forgiveness, from Him and from each other. There is much to be remembered about those who have done us harm or have become our enemies, children of God like ourselves no matter how difficult it may be for us to love them. Jesus dying on the cross gives us his most powerful teaching about the love of enemies, in asking the Father to forgive the very people who were carrying out his execution.