Why did Jesus say "Father, forgive them" on the cross?

The first words we hear Him utter are, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’ (23:34). The perpetrators crucifying Him were in the process of committing the greatest crime ever. They had had abundant testimony of who the Lord Jesus was but knowingly rejected Him. They were fully responsible for what they did. But the Lord Jesus, in infinite grace, utters the words ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’. In their hatred they were blind and did not see the full extent of their guilt and the full implication of their actions. The Lord uses this to treat them as ignorant and, therefore, as manslayers instead of murderers. In other words, through this prayer He was opening the city of refuge to them (Numbers 35). This was the only basis on which they could be brought to fellowship with God.

Then the prayer of Jesus as they crucified Him was wholly unexpected and unusual. He desired the Father, in effect, that the sin of the people might be counted not as murder, for which there was no forgiveness, but as manslaughter, so that there might yet be available a city of refuge, even for His murderers. An answer to that prayer was seen some fifty days later, when Peter in Jerusalem preached salvation through the risen Christ, and 3,000 souls fled for refuge. The prayer was unusual because it was the fruit of such Divine compassions as had never come to light before.

They were ignorant of what they were doing, therefore He prayed for them; yet their ignorance was no valid plea for acquittal in God's sight, so that the Lord's intercession was needful. God does show mercy to those who sin grievously in ignorance of that which is pleasing in His sight; witness Paul, who thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. "I obtained mercy," he writes, "because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." God could be gracious, but He could not gloss over his iniquity; so with them who crucified His Son. And the Lord, by His prayer, showed what their guilt was, whilst He offered up Himself as the true sacrifice, and petitioned the Father for their forgiveness.

But how full of matchless grace and beauty were His words, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Well did He know that blind unbelief had left the people in ignorance of the awful significance of their act. In contrast to their hatred, the pure love of His heart had deep, genuine desire for their forgiveness. Later Stephen, when stoned to death, prayed similarly, but could not say that the Jews did not know what they did, but simply said, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts 7:60). For Stephen had faced the Jews with the fact that this same Jesus whom they had crucified was now raised by the power of God, the proof of God's approval of Him, but the Jews callously rejected Him though risen from the dead.

"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

The first word I will read is in 23rd Luke, verse 34. This prayer did not break from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ when He began His ministry amongst men and when they first of all wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth and then, moved with anger when He applied the truth, led Him to the brow of the hill upon which the city was built to cast Him down headlong. It was not then that He prayed this prayer, but after He had ministered among them for three and a half years; after He had told out His most wonderful love to them in unsurpassable words; when He had blessed their children and fed them when they were hungry, and healed the sick and cleansed the leper, opened the eyes of the blind and raised the dead. When He had gone about amongst them doing good "for God was with Him"; and when, in answer to all that heavenly grace that had been poured out without reserve amongst them, they cried, "Away with Him! Crucify Him!" When they had spat on His scarred face and seamed His back with the scourge and crowned His head with thorns and nailed Him to a gibbet and, not satisfied with that, had sat down to watch His sufferings, to gloat over His anguish and to mock Him, it was then, when the tide of man's hatred rolled upon Him, wave upon wave, that His voice was heard above the storm praying, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." He might have prayed another prayer. When one of His disciples drew a sword in the Garden of Gethsemane to protect his Master, as he thought, the Lord said, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" He did not pray that prayer, if He had it would have meant damnation, it would have meant the blackness of darkness for ever for them and for us. He did not pray that prayer, He waited until they had done their worst and then He prayed, "Father forgive them; for they know not what they do." It was the answer of invincible love to implacable hate, it was the answer of absolute goodness to incorrigible badness, and it was a prayer that was not only made but heard and answered, and the gospel as it goes forth in this world today is the answer to that prayer. In this He expressed His will. I would speak of some of these words at least as the last will and testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in this prayer He expresses His will to God — His will for mankind at large. For not only was the Jew there at that Cross, but the Gentile was there as well. Mankind was represented there. The thoughts of many hearts were revealed there and the heart of man in its enmity, against God, in its determination to be rid of God was fully declared, and when it had declared itself so absolutely, so conclusively the voice of Jesus answered in divine, heart moving love, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." When the Lord prayed that prayer He not only looked upon that seething mass of godless men that surged about Him, He looked down through the ages upon mankind to the very uttermost bounds of the earth and He prayed for mercy, for the salvation of men, and the gospel is going forth today as the result of that prayer. And if we have believed it and if we know God as our Father and Jesus as our Saviour and the Spirit of God as our abiding Comforter we owe it to that prayer that Jesus prayed when men had done their worst to Him.

"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

This prayer did not break from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ when He began His ministry amongst men and when they first of all wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth, and then, moved with anger when He applied the truth, led Him to the brow of the hill upon which the city was built, to cast Him down headlong. It was not then that He prayed this prayer, but after He had ministered among them for three and a half years; after He had told out His most wonderful love to them in unsurpassable words; after He had blessed their children and fed them when they were hungry, and healed the sick and cleansed the leper, opened the eyes of the blind and raised the dead; after He had gone about amongst them doing good "for God was with Him"; and when, in answer to all that heavenly grace that had been poured out without reserve amongst them, they cried, "Away with Him! Crucify Him!" When they had spat on His sacred face and seamed His back with the scourge and crowned His head with thorns and nailed Him to a gibbet and, not satisfied with that, had sat down to watch His sufferings, to gloat over His anguish and to mock Him, it was then, when the tide of man's hatred rolled upon Him, wave upon wave, that He spoke; then His voice was heard above the storm praying, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

He might have prayed another prayer. When one of His disciples drew a sword in Gethsemane to protect his Master, as he thought, the Lord said, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?" He did not pray that prayer; if He had it would have meant damnation, it would have meant the blackness of darkness for ever for them and for us. He did not pray that prayer; He waited until they had done their worst and then He prayed, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." It was the answer of invincible love to implacable hate. It was the answer of absolute goodness to incorrigible badness, and it was a prayer that was not only made but heard and answered, for in this He expressed His will. I would speak of some of these words at least as the last will and testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in this prayer He expresses His will to God — His will for mankind at large. For not only was the Jew there at that Cross, but the Gentile was there as well. Mankind was represented there. The thoughts of many hearts were revealed there and the heart of man in its enmity against God, in its determination to be rid of God was fully declared; and when it had declared itself so absolutely, so conclusively, the voice of Jesus answered in divine, heart-moving love, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Had Israel's national sin, in crucifying their Messiah, been reckoned as murder by God there would have been absolutely no hope. All must have fallen before the avenger of blood. The prayer of Jesus on the cross was however, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." That was just as if He had said, "Father, account this sin of theirs to be manslaughter and not murder." God heard that prayer, so there was hope even for those who encompassed His death. Consequently on the Day of Pentecost Peter preached forgiveness for those who would turn in faith to the risen and exalted Jesus. That day the heavenly city of refuge was opened and there fled to it three thousand souls.

Verse 17 shows that God was prepared to treat their dreadful crime as a sin of ignorance — as manslaughter, for which a city of refuge is provided, and not as murder. This was a direct answer to the prayer on the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." By their sinful act God had accomplished His purpose as to the suffering of Christ, and hence there was still an offer of mercy for them as a nation. That offer Peter made, as recorded in verses 19-26 of our chapter. Everything hinged upon their repentance and conversion.

In Numbers 35 we have a striking picture of the holiness and grace of God in His dealings with the slayer. He instructed His people here, and in Deut. 19, to set aside certain Levitical cities on either side of Jordan, "that every one that kills any person unawares may flee thither." The holiness of God is seen in that He would not shield the guilty (for when the case was gone into before competent judges and witnesses, the guilty was to be given up); and the grace of God shines brightly in preserving the unintentional slayer within the refuge that the revenger of blood might not lay hands upon him. Here we have set forth in a typical way the gracious dealings of Jehovah with Israel — the beloved yet blinded nation, which is responsible before Him for the shedding of the blood of Christ. He graciously regards Israel as a "slayer," rather than a "murderer," to be restored in due time to the good land, the land of their possession. The Lord, when crucified, made intercession for the transgressors, and put the deed upon the ground of ignorance: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). And Peter, when bringing home to them their great sin in Acts 3, echoes his Master's word: "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Son Jesus; Whom ye delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted to you; and killed the Prince of life." But he proceeded further to say, "And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your fathers." Saul of Tarsus is in many respects a type of his nation, in this particularly; "Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Tim. 1:13). Some have been charged directly by God with the murder of Jesus — witness Stephen's defence before the Sanhedrim (Acts 7:53) and have been handed over to judgment accordingly. But the nation as a whole, or at least the remnant, is treated by God as a manslayer to be restored.

Peter added: "And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers." Marvellous grace this! To our poor minds it would seem as if the awful sin was committed with open eyes! Peter took the same line as his Master when He said: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Under the law Jehovah drew a distinction between a man-slayer and a murderer. For the latter there was to be no mercy; for the former there was safety in the cities of refuge (Num. 35). God is graciously pleased to regard Israel — the slayer of Jesus — as a man-slayer. Accordingly there is still mercy for that blood-stained nation.