Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, let us hear Your voice interceding from the cross. Amen.
Texts: Mark 15:25. Luke 23:34. Isaiah 53:12
Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him. … Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots. … Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Devotion
The following thoughts now fall on my heart with Jesus’ intercession for His murderers: 1) Only love and mercy is found in His soul, not a trace of anger, not a drop of bitterness. They inflict on Him the most frightful pains, but He excuses them and prays for them. He prays for the soldiers, for Pilate, the priests, and all who take part in crucifying Him. 2) While praying for others, He pours out His blood. Naked and bloody, clothed in shame and pain hangs the Pure and Holy One and He prays that the Father, for the sake of His suffering, might forgive those who cause His suffering. “Totally and completely surrounded by the waves of pain He sinks down into the spiritual need of His enemies and seeks to deliver them.” In the service of evil they stretch out His hands and nail them to the cross, but in that very way He stretches out His hands in prayer for them. His first Word on the cross is the word of a High Priest. 3) He prays and asks for full forgiveness for all, so that it is ready when the sinner will simply seek and receive it. Here He does not pray with the condition: “If it is Your will, My Father,” but completely unconditionally: “Father, forgive them!” His blood and death are a perfect, fully valid payment for the guilt of sin for the whole world. These men surely ought to know what they were doing. They have no excuse. But the Lord excuses them and provides grace for them if they would accept it.
Such is our High Priest Jesus Christ. My heart praises and worships Him. He spreads His vicarious atonement over the most hardened sinners. He takes the sins of all upon Himself, so in Him there is forgiveness for all. Many of Satan’s blind instruments, whom Jesus prays for, continue in their unbelief and are lost, but it is not because there was no forgiveness to be had for them. They simply would not repent so that Jesus’ blood could cleanse them from all their sin. Thousands of Jews and Gentiles have experienced the power in the intercession of the Crucified and thank Him for it in eternal salvation.
And we joined in nailing God’s Son to the cross. He died also for our sins. Even we stand under the grace of His High-Priestly intercession and can be fully assured that all our sins also are paid for and atoned for by His blood. Go in, my soul, before God’s face. Receive full forgiveness for everything by the fullness of His merit, and receive the adornment of His priestly purity, patience, and pity, so that you too can stand well-pleasing before the Father and that you may love and bless your enemies.
Closing Prayer
God, help and bless us for this by Your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hymn
O come and stand beneath the cross
And hear what Jesus speaks to us;
The words that from His mouth proceed
Will comfort us in times of need.
Upon the cross my Jesus lay
Despite the dragon’s devious way,
The voice of grace resounded clear
With life and comfort us to cheer.
He prayed for all His enemies:
“O Father dear, forgive them this;
They know not what they do and say,
But blindly walk their sinful way.”
O Jesus, pray Thou, too, for me
That I increase my strength in Thee,
My heart is weak, my eyes are blind,
But grant that I Thy light may find.
Kingo: Kom under Jesus Kors at staa L 331:1-4 HCH 100:1-3 tr. P. C. Paulsen and DeGarmeaux (stanza 2);
tune: Herrnhut (ELH 324); alternate hymn: When I survey the wondrous cross ELH 308:3-4