"Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." It is possibly one of the most confusing statements that a Christian can face. Jesus asks that God will forgive the men who are killing him. Let me repeat that, THEY WERE KILLING HIM! We have a hard enough time forgiving someone for calling us a name in a moment of distress, how can you expect us to forgive someone who wants us dead?
This is something that I have struggled with for a very long time. I have been betrayed a lot by people that I cared about, and it was not easy letting that go. I do okay with people who accidently do something hurtful, but when people calculate ways to hurt me the most and then do it, I find that very sick and evil. It is a process, but I forgive them.
There are two verses that I think a lot about when I consider trying to love people who hate me. The first is the verse mentioned in the opening. As Jesus was on the cross, he understood that they did not know what they were doing. It is almost as if there is a sense of pity there, as if they cannot control themselves or a sense of the are too dumb to realize what they are doing. Jesus understood that for some reason, they were beyond understanding what they could do.
So how does that relate with us? When you stop seeing the monster of a person who terrorized your life and see them through God's eyes, you can see them as a weak human being who is hopelessly chasing their tail.
For example, I had a boss that was absolutely crazy. He had fun picking on us lower end guys and would publically humiliate us and then hide behind his rank. Most people were terrified of him. Once i was able to get my bearing at the job and figure out what was going on, I got to see who he really was. He was extraordinarily insecure and had to put others down, had a God-complex so he micromanaged, was a perfectionist who feared failure (as most perfectionists are), sexually harassed women because he was unhappy in his marriage, and was a workaholic because he feared the day that he would have to retire.
Thats when I began to pity him. I then began to ask God to bless him and heal him of his hurts. I am sure that they ran deep. I realized, that he does not know what he does. I began doing that in my life, looking at the kids that treated me bad in grade school, the bosses that were jerks, those close to me that knowingly hurt me, and the religious leaders that hurt me. I asked for forgiveness for being resentful, and asked God to heal their hearts and their pasts, because they don't seem very happy.
What you learn about these people are that the Goliaths in our lives are not always so big (The Second verse I think of). You notice, that once David took down Goliath, the taunting stopped. The most advanced army of the time dropped everything and ran. They don't look so tough, now do they? Thats how our Goliaths are. They are weak and scared inside, and they need more. So pray for them. Know that they deserve healing as much as you do, and hope that God can grant them a more pleasent future, because so many of them are tormented inside.
This week, my hope is that you can remember someone who has wronged you, and in your prayer time remember Jesus' words. They do not know what they are doing. Pray for them, and remember that they should be pitied, not feared. That is why we must love them.
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