Holy Week: Seven Days in the Sayings (Day 1 of 7) Give it to the Father
Guest Contributor: This is a post from my brother and good friend Nicholas Christian!
Luke 23:34: Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them;
for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his
clothing.
Give it to the Father
The text before us
is an account by the physician and evangelist Luke. In this account, we are
exposed to the reality that an innocent Black Man is falsely accused and
convicted, at the hands of a flawed system not designed for someone like Him. In
earlier verses of the 23rd chapter of Luke’s gospel, particularly verses
13-25; we find an individual who is guilty of that which he is accused. However,
because of the fear of what the innocent Black Man would do for their social
comfort, this guilty man is awarded the luxury of freedom by getting away with murder
in the order that this innocent black Man might be sentenced worse than He
deserved.
The Black Man that
I am referring to in Luke’s text is Jesus. And despite His innocence and impeccable
moral compass; the ways in which He saved, healed, and delivered others, His
indiscriminate and indefatigable proclamation of the good news of God the
Father; this Black Man was deemed guilty by a system designed for Him to fail. Despite
all that had wrongly and unjustly transpired, and at the apex of His
experienced pain till this point; this Black Man opened His mouth and the first
words He uttered on His Death Tree to Glory were the words “Father forgive
them, for they know not what they do”.
Notice, Jesus did
not say “I, forgive them”. Jesus says in
this text: “Father! Forgive them”. And what we see in this text is in line with
Christ’s teaching on the fundamentals of interpersonal forgiveness located earlier
in the book of Luke. Christ in Luke 17:3 would suggest that in order for the one
who rebukes the sin of another to carry out the action of forgiveness; there remains
a necessity of repentance from the sinner, of the sin which they have committed.
This established
pericope in the Bible suggests that Christ’s abusers do not know the meaning or
magnitude of that which they do; let alone have knowledge of the necessity to
repent as of result of it. Instead of forgiving these abusers of their sins
Himself (Luke 5:23, 7:48), Jesus follows the instructions of Luke 6:28 and
utters the words “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. What
Christ teaches us in this text is there will be times when circumstances
fostered by the actions of our abusers will bring us to a cross rife with agony
and ignorance. And in those times, regardless of the abusers capacity to repent
and our own lack of capacity to forgive, the bible suggests because of love; we
must give the state of our forgiveness to the Father in prayer, and allow the
Father to do the rest.
I believe this is
a necessary message for many of us today, because the truth is, we all have
been where Jesus is in this text. That in our humanity, sometimes, there is a
level of ignorance and bigotry just too high that happens in our own White
House; I’m sorry I meant in our own lives. And based on the attitude and
intentionality of our abusers, our reality or our emotional authenticity is
that sometimes we are just not ready to forgive. Maybe I should speak for
myself, but there are some things that happened in my own life, throughout our
history as a people and throughout the history of this nation and as a result,
my reality and the veracity of my emotions suggest I am just not ready to
forgive. I will certainly bless those that curse me all day long, and pray for
my abuser(s) like Jesus and say, “Father forgive them, for they know not what
they do”. But that is as far as I can go right now because my reality is; there
are some things that I am not ready to forgive.
The Slavery that
our ancestors had to endure - Father you forgive them, because that’s just one
thing that I’m not ready to forgive. The Lynching of our ancestors; when they
were hung on trees like Jesus and left hanging by their necks in the streets
for all to see - Father you forgive them because that’s just one thing that I’m
not ready to forgive. Jim and Jane Crow laws; where our people were denied the
biblically founded rights of equality and justice - Father you forgive them,
because that’s just one thing that I’m not ready to forgive. The hanging of Nat
Turner, the beating of Emmett Till, the bombing of the Birmingham Church, drugs
in our neighborhoods, the murder of Dr. King, the AIDs Epidemic, Mass
Incarceration and last but certainly not least, the man that sits in the White
House, who ran his campaign on racism and bigotry- yet, was elected by 8 out of
every 10 of White Evangelicals who stood in the name of the Church.
I’m sorry, but in
the words of Jesus Christ “Father, forgive them”! Because my own truth is,
there are just some things that I’m just not ready to forgive.
But the good news
that shows up in the text is that even when we are not ready to forgive, that when
we have arrived at a cross rife with pain and ignorance; That even when we do
not know that we, ourselves, need forgiveness; that, when the tables have
turned and we have found ourselves ignorantly in the position of the abuser,
the good news is, there is a Son who is able and willing to intercede on our
behalf. And even further, there is a Father who despite the ignorance and magnitude
of our mistakes, will look beyond our faults and see all of our needs. But our bible
says, not only will He see our needs, but He is a God who will supply all our
needs, according to His riches and glory. All we have to do is give it all to
the Father, and all will know, we are all children of the living God. Royalty
to King! Future residents of the Kingdom! Because:
It
is no secret what God can do;
What
He's done for others
He'll
do for you;
With
arms wide open
He'll
pardon you;
It
is no secret what God can do
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