Why Did Jesus Forgive on the Cross?

TRANSCRIPT

I wanted to share with you this morning a story, and it's about the very first time that I struggled with forgiveness. And I grew up as one of four sisters and with a mom and dad who really modeled the ways of Jesus. So forgiveness as a general rule came pretty easy for us because it was just the normal kind of sisterly squibs that you were, squabbles you were dealing with, like, um, shared rooms and borrowed clothes and things like that.

So, generally, no problem at all with forgiveness. But then came year seven, bu I was in the aquarium club.

It was a thing, guys, in our classroom, we had about 14 fish tanks. And in those fish tanks was everything from like goldfish to discus and tetra. Like every, every kind of fish that you could imagine. And, um. I loved it because we didn't have pets at this point, and so like I was just living my best life, being a part of the aquarium club and caring for the fish and like I was an animal lover.

Anyway, one day this friend comes up to me and she says that our teacher had asked us to clean the Axel lots, the Mexican walking fish. Um. You all know that, um, we'd been asked to clean that fish tank and like that was an honor. As I'm saying it, I'm like, yeah, you didn't all have the same childhood as me, did you?

Um, so she said, there's only this one problem. It needs to be done urgently. It's gotta happen this afternoon. In fact, we have to skip pe, but the teacher has asked us to do it, so I'm like. Great. Like I'm willingly there. I'm, I'm cleaning the tank. I'm thinking what a responsibility I'm helping out. Then the teacher walks in and she is mad as anything.

Turns out my friend had just wanted to skip pe. She didn't wanna go to sport gets worse, people gets worse. She throws me under the bus and says it was my idea, and that I'd convinced her to skip. Sport and come and care for the Axel lot. Now, this teacher, you could, there was no point like trying to push back or do anything It, it just, it was what it was.

And I got in trouble, which I was not used to, first of all. Secondly. Grounded from being a part of the aquarium club for four weeks, a month, not helping to clean fish tanks, which I realize now was probably not a punishment, but at the time, I was devastated and I felt completely betrayed. The next day my friend came up to me and she really sincerely apologized and, but for the first time in my young life, I really felt this tension about forgiveness.

Like I kind of didn't want to forgive her. I felt like she should have been the one that got in trouble, and it was this. I distinctly still remember this gnawing kind of feeling within me. And, um, the thing is that I knew that Jesus wanted me to forgive, but, and to put into practice what he actually calls us to do and asks us to do.

But it was really hard and I knew even at that age and at that moment, that following Jesus comes. At kind of a cost because it means choosing to live a different way. How about you? I mean, most of us love the idea of forgiveness when we are on the receiving end, but it gets a little bit harder when it feels like it's not deserved, and that's where it gets real.

See, it's one thing to admire Jesus. And it's completely, entirely something else to follow him. And that's what this series has been all about. We have been investigating Jesus. We've been trying to ask two really key questions. How do we know that there's something to follow and why? Why follow? Why now in the 21st century do people in this room and you guys that are watching us online, why do people choose to surrender, to basically write a blank check with their lives to a first century rabbi?

Why would we do that? And what we have discovered across the last few weeks is that the center of our faith, the very thing that Christianity rises and falls on is one person. And that is Jesus of Nazareth and everything rises and falls off him. And so, um, across this series, we've kind of been doing a deep dive, particularly into Luke's account.

There are four gospels, as we know, four Century, four first century accounts, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. And even if just one of them is historically accurate, then we need to pay attention because if. What Jesus says about himself in these gospels is true. Then he is definitely somebody worth following.

So Luke, who wrote this gospel, he was actually not one of the original 12 disciples. He was a doctor, and so he wasn't actually there for a lot of Jesus's. Um, miracles and he wasn't at the crucifixion, but what he was, was a researcher and he was someone that cared about accuracy and he was a documenter.

And so he spoke with eyewitnesses, he spoke to people who had been there and heard what Jesus was. Saying and seeing his miracles firsthand and who were so overwhelmed by what they were seeing, that they couldn't stop talking about it. And those were the things that he recorded, and he documented it all.

And he actually opens his gospel by saying this, and I know we've looked at this every week, but just to look at it again, he says, many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled amongst us. So he's saying, this isn't a myth. This is not a legend. These things actually happened and they happened here and now to the people that I am interacting with, real people, real places, real history.

And so it continues just as they were handed down to us by those. Who from the first were eyewitnesses. So he's kind of like this investigative journalist back in his day, and he wasn't writing like religious poetry. He was actually documenting history. He was documenting a real life. He was documenting the life of Jesus and what he captured.

Was so compelling and it was so beautiful, and it was so precious to the early church that they copied it and they collated it, and they collected it, and it actually formed part of what we, of course now call the Bible. So Luke documented a life, but it's what happened at the very end of his life that made it worth telling in the first place what happened at the end of Jesus' life.

F kind of made sense of and gave context to everything that Jesus had lived and said and shared. And so this morning what I want us to do is to look at the end of the story. And so Luke records this in chapter 23, so let's kick it off in verse 33. It says, when they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified Jesus.

There. You know what is fascinating to me about those three words, crucified, Jesus, Luke, and actually the other gospel writers, that's all they say. They don't spend a lot of time sort of unpacking or describing that moment. And I was like, I wonder why, why is that? But back. In the first century, they understood what crucifixion looked like.

They'd, they'd seen it. Um, it was brutal. It was public. It was agonizing and it was designed to not just prolong pain, but to humiliate the person. And for, for us, you know, and perhaps our only context sometimes is because we've watched the passion of the Christ, or we've watched an episode of the chosen like, I'm not sure that we.

Ever will fully understand the weight of those few words they crucified Jesus. I don't think we can ever fully imagine what that looks like. Before Jesus crucifixion came the flogging, you know, and, and that was with lashes from a whip that had pieces of bone and metal, and it would literally tear skin and muscle.

And then a crown of thorns was jammed onto his head. He was spat on, he was mocked, and then came the cross beams and he, he had to walk, stumbling, bleeding down a road carrying the weight of the cross beam of the, um, of the cross. And then there was the nails driven through his wrists and through his ankles.

And finally hanging. And, and essentially that was like suffocation. Every breath you had to push against the weight of the nails just to breathe suffocating slowly. And, and we just read, they crucified Jesus. But understand that when this was written, they knew, they knew the heaviness and, and just the agony that was wrapped up in those few words.

And so they crucified Jesus there along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. And then Jesus said, and what comes next? I kind of think is where Luke is saying this is the surprising end. Well, this is the beginning to the end of of Jesus' story. And what comes next is the very heart.

Of what Jesus invites you and I into, and when you think about it, it actually makes perfect sense because he what, what he next says. It sums up the way that he lived, the way that he taught it sums up what he called each and every one of his followers too. He lived the way that he died and that's what he invites.

Each and every one of us too as well. It's bold, it's freeing. As Pastor Kev said, it is completely upside down. It's counterculture, one of the values that underpins who we are. And he invites us as a people, as people who choose to follow him, not to mirror the people that hurt us and mistreat us. And he says, don't react to those who reject you.

And he says, you know, if someone sees you as an enemy, don't return the favor live differently. And even on the cross in that kind of agony, Jesus stayed true to his way. He showed love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness. And so what did Jesus say that was so remarkable? And Jesus said, father, forgive them for, they do not know what they are doing.

Father forgive them. You know, I, I wonder sometimes about the guards that were at the foot of the cross, they were casting lots. It says to divide up his clothing. And I sometimes think like, did they just look up and say like, what? What did he say? And the other one probably said, your role. Come on forgiveness.

That's weak, that's passive. He's defeated. And by all appearances, Jesus had lost, his enemies had won. And many of you know the backstory, and Kev just shared with us what happened across this one incredible week. Even when he was arrested that night in the garden, he refused to resist. And he refused to allow his followers to resist either.

And one, one of his followers, you know, struck the, um, who was it, the servant of the high priest, and cut his ear off. Jesus immediately healed that man, and Jesus said, no more of this. No more. He said, put away your swords the way of the world. Is not my way. I've come to show you a different way. I've come to show you a new way to live.

I've come to show you a better way to live. And when his followers realized that he wasn't gonna fight back and that, you know, he wasn't going to respond and react like the king that they thought he should, many of them actually fled. They unfollowed.

They weren't ready for a Messiah who didn't defend himself the way that they thought an earthly king should defend himself. But you know what? They shouldn't have been surprised by Jesus' actions that night. ORI response when he was arrested because that had been the posture of Jesus his whole entire life, his whole entire ministry and that posture was the one that he had asked his followers to take as well, and that he take asks you and I to take.

But it's so un everything in us, isn't it? It's so counterculture and it's why many people admire Jesus. But so few choose to follow, because following Jesus means choosing a different way to forgive, even when it feels unfair to love, even when that's not returned, and to lay down your right to real, to retaliate.

Believing in Jesus is easy. Following Jesus. That's costly. What offer, what Jesus offers us is free. It's given freely. There is absolutely nothing that we could do to earn or to deserve it, and yet to be a follower of Jesus, to be a person of his way, a person of the way it costs. And as I said, that's why I think there are so many admirers.

But so few followers. So here's the question. Which one are you? The way of Jesus can seem really unnerving and it certainly is upside down and it certainly is countercultural, but when you see it lived out, it is jaw dropping. It is beautiful. When someone chooses to respond like Jesus, their reactions cut through the dark and they bring light and it stops people in their tracks, and it certainly does not look weak or passive or like they've lost.

It stirs something in us, doesn't it? Because it just feels right. I wanted to share a story with you this morning, and there's a picture here of a family. This is Danny and Layla Abdullah, and many of you would probably remember their story from about four years ago. I. In 2020, they lost three of their children.

Anthony, who was 13, Angelina, who was 12, Sienna, who was eight, and their cousin Veronica, who was 11. These four kids were killed when they were walking along a footpath to get ice cream one evening, and a drug and alcohol affected driver mounted the footpath and struck them down. That kind of tragedy could easily destroy a family.

Absolutely. And the world I think would've understood if they had responded with anger and with bitterness. But Layla, through tears only a couple of days later stood in front of the cameras and she said, I forgive him. I forgive him. Now, that moment stunned the nation. It. Pierced the silence, and she, they, they didn't pretend that it didn't hurt and they didn't pretend that they didn't not want justice, but, and they didn't excuse what happened either.

It went through the court system. But Layla, she said, I forgive him. They chose to respond with forgiveness. That is not weakness. That is strength and that's the kind of strength that only Jesus Christ can give. It's powerful. A moment like that can change the world, and that's exactly what, what it looks like when someone doesn't just admire Jesus, but actually chooses to follow him.

Forgiveness and grace don't make sense In a world where everybody is out for revenge and people demand payback, but when it's, when it's lived out, like these guys lived it out, it shifts something and it cuts through the noise and it makes people stop and wonder, could I respond like that? Would I respond like that?

And deep down, when you hear a story like this, you just know, you know that this way, Jesus' way, it's better, it's better. And Jesus invites us to that kind of better. And in the end, Jesus didn't just teach it or live it, he died it. See Luke records, not just what happened to Jesus, but he also records that he invited his followers.

Into the same kind of life, into the same kind of living. He records how Jesus invited his followers and, and taught them how to respond when life breaks apart and, and how to respond instead of reacting when things don't go our way and when we are tempted to perhaps fight back or give up. And in Luke nine.

He gives this invitation, and I wanted us to quickly look at it this morning, and at the time when Jesus was saying this, I actually don't think that the disciples fully would've understood it, but on the other side of the cross, I. It would've made so much more sense. And so this is what he says in Luke nine.

He says, then to then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple, another version, um, that's recorded, actually says if anyone desires to come after me. So if anyone wants to follow me, if anyone wants to come and be part of my movement, and I reckon at this point they're nodding along. Yeah, that's us, Jesus.

And so he's like, great. Here's what it looks like. Let's have a look. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves. Hmm. To follow Jesus, you have to say no to you. You have to say no to your ambitions and to your appetite and to your ego. You have to say no to what culture around you says you have to say no to your right to be right.

That can be really hard. Sometimes you have to say no to revenge. You have to say yes to grace, even when it's undeserved and you have to say yes to loving even when it's not easy. That's what it looks like to deny themselves, but he doesn't stop there. He says, whoever wants to be my bit of disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross.

Now, in the first century. This would've made a little bit more sense, I reckon, than what we kind of understand and grapple with now. But basically, in their world, if you were carrying a cross, your independence was over, it was gone. You were not calling the shots anymore. And so you have to take up your cross.

And then Jesus adds a word that I believe changes everything. And I think actually is the difference between a believer and a follower. 'cause he says you have to take up your cross. What I Daily. Daily. This is not a one time salvation prayer. This is a daily decision to follow Jesus. And that is what made the early church so powerful.

That is what made the Jesus movement outlast the temple and the empire. It caught on because his believers, his followers didn't just believe they followed. Every single morning, your kingdom come, not mine. Every single morning your will be done, not mine. Every single morning. This is a daily rhythm of surrendering to the Holy Spirit and being shaped more and more into his likeness.

I'm yours. All of me. I am. All in. We say around here, not only has Jesus saved us and forgiven us, but he is also our Lord and our king. I love that beautiful song, Beth, that you introduced to us this morning, and I'm submitting. All of my life. Under your lordship. That's what it looks like. My hands, my feet, my dreams, my hopes, my relationships, my time, my money, my resources, my future.

I am all in. I'm carrying across. And I am abandoning my independence. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. That's what it means to follow, to literally follow his way, not my way. Do you do that? Do I do that as a community of Christ followers?

Do we do that? Is that the distinguishing mark of who we are or have we slipped into sometimes this kind of cultural Christianity that says, forgive me and bless my family and bless this food and I'll sing out when a big problem hits my life. That kind of living does not change the world, but following does.

You know, there were some people that were with Jesus in those final moments, and it looked like he had lost, he had been arrested, he had been beaten, he had been crucified, and they decided that they didn't want to lose the same way, and so they walked away. But what they didn't understand is that. In surrender, we find freedom.

And the opposite of a life of surrender is a life that is driven by appetite and by fear and by control. It's a clenched fist kind of life that clings to stuff and clings to success and self and here and now. And Jesus says, don't live like that. Don't live like that. He actually says whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

And the tighter that you hold onto your life, the faster that it will slip away. Whatever you clinging to wealth or status or independence, that actually diminishes over time. It's like hoarding seed. If you hoard a whole bunch of seed and just put it in the shed, it's just gonna rot. But the moment that you take that seed and you plant it and you sow it, it brings new life.

Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. Invest it into my kingdom. He's saying, invest it into my mission. Invest it into my movement. That is how you find real life, because if you live for yourself, all you will ever have to show for yourself is yourself.

But Jesus invites us to sow our lives into something bigger. Our time, our talent, our energy, our resources, we can invest that into something bigger and something more eternal. And when you choose, when you see someone living that way, it's spectacular. It is inspiring and you actually want the kind of contentment that they have and the kind of freedom that they have, and the kind of joy and the hope that they have.

And then after this, Jesus asks a really piercing question. He says, what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self? What good is it if you chase success your whole life and you get it, but then at the end you realize you were playing the wrong game? And Luke, he's saying that's the whole point.

Jesus hasn't invited you to play a slightly better version of the same game. It's something that's completely different, different culture, different priorities, different values, different pace. He invites us to live a completely different way. He came to reverse the order of things, and so. Yeah. Now that you sort of see, well, we particularly, we've seen how the story ends, right?

And so we get it. We get that, that this statement, well, not this one, but another one that, that we read, which says the son of man didn't come to be saved to, um, sorry to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, knowing how his story ends. Now we know that's not just a nice little statement or a word picture.

It's literal, it's real. And if we are not careful though, we can live small lives, small, close fisted lives, self-focused whilst missing out on an invitation to be a part of something so much bigger, something eternal, something that lasts beyond us. Something that lasts beyond our lifetime and beyond our generation.

A life that looks like to the world. Maybe we are losing. A life that looks like we are giving it all away, but that leads to joy and peace and contentment and real life. And Jesus, he lived that way to the very end. Jesus said, father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. They thought they knew, didn't they?

In that moment, the only thing that they knew was what the world had taught them about power. And pride and how Earthly kingdoms win. And so Luke continues with what the eyewitnesses had told him. He says, the people stood watching and the rulers even sneered at him, and they said he saved others. Let him save himself.

If he is God's Messiah, the chosen one, they said if he's really a king, act like it. Save yourself kings use force, not forgiveness. In their minds, Jesus did not at all look like a king. And then Luke goes on to say, the soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself and one of the criminals who hung their held insults at him.

Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself. And us. If you really are the Christ, do what kings do. Save yourself. Fix it. Win. And Jesus could have, in that moment, he could have called down armies of angels. That's the kind of power that our king has. But what they didn't know, what they couldn't understand yet.

Was that this was not the end of the story. They were standing at the beginning of the end, and we now know how it ends. But if Jesus had saved himself in that moment and proved himself king like they wanted him to prove, he would've forfeited the plan and his very purpose, he would have, he could have stepped down to prove his power.

But we, he would've forfeited his opportunity to save us. He chose to stay. He chose the cross. He chose you to the bitter, bloody painful end. Jesus chose you and he put others first. Oh, fit heavy. Quick history quiz. Just to lighten the mood, raise your hand if you know who the emperor of Rome was on the day that Jesus was crucified.

Hmm, Kev. And just a hinge. It's not Nero and it's not Caesar. 'cause Caesar, well, Caesar's part of his name, but Caesar's just a title. Does anyone know? We've got one hand, two, we've got two hands.

But every single person that walked in here this morning and every person that's watching online has heard of the name of Jesus Christ. A carpenter from Nazareth, Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius Caesar. He was the most powerful man in the empire. When this story was playing out, and now he's just a footnote.

Yeah. In the crucifixion story of a Galilean named Jesus Kingdom of this world, kingdom of God. Yeah. So who are you going to follow? Who's gonna rule your life? You, your appetites. Your desires, your ambition, the culture around you, or will you surrender and let Jesus be king? Because at the end of the day, that's a decision that we all have to make each and every day.

Are you an admirer? And let's be honest, most people admire Jesus, even people of other religions. He had some good stuff that he said. A lot of people like his teachings. A lot of people go to church. But Luke would say being an admirer is not enough, or are you a follower? Followers live out his values, his fans appreciate them, but they don't like to let them actually interrupt the way that they live.

But a follower, they let him lead. They welcome the Holy Spirit to interrupt their decisions and their lives. They wrestle daily with obedience and with surrender, and yes, even with forgiveness, they pick up their cross daily following. Jesus is a good decision. It's a good invitation. It's a better way to live.

And for those of us who already call ourselves Christians, why should anybody outside our faith take Jesus seriously? If we don't, it's a little hard to hear, but the center of the Christian life is one of a daily surrender and daily submitting to our king. It was now about noon, Luke says, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon for the sun stopped shining, and the curtain of the temple was torn into.

The curtains were huge. They were 30 centimeters thick. There were actually two curtains. There was one that separated the Holy of Holies, and then there was another curtain that separated, um, the temple from the people in the outer court. We don't know which curtain to, you know what? It actually doesn't matter because what it symbolizes is that God.

It was going out. The curtain did not tear from bottom to top. It was torn from top to bottom, and it was kind of God's way, I think, of saying the temple era is over. I am going out to find the ones that I love. I love, um, pastor Kev said last week about, it's not about good or bad. It's about lost and found.

And in this moment, God was saying, I am going out to find my lost sheep. I'm going out to find my lost son and my lost daughter, the ones that I love. Everyone is invited. And Jesus called out with a loud voice, father, into your hands. I commit my spirit. And when he had said this, he breathed his last. You know, there would've been confusion at this moment.

There would've been sorrow, there would've been frustration, grief, maybe even anger. How could the story end this way? And when all the people who had gathered to witness the sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and they went away. But all those who knew him stood at a distance watching.

Jesus died on the cross the way he lived with arms wide open. The cross took his breath away, but his death took our sin away. And Luke, as he wrote these words, must have thought, but we haven't even got to the best part yet because three days later. Jesus rose again, defeating death, crushing sin, and changing everything, and that is what we get to celebrate next Sunday.

On Easter Sunday. But today, today we sit in the weight of his love. Next week we celebrate his victory, but right now his invitation is clear. Open your hands, deny yourself. Pick up the cross and follow daily because the world does not need more fans of Jesus, but it does need more followers. Can you imagine a community like that?

A city like that. Christians living with wide open hands and arms the way that Jesus did, loving God and loving others followers of Jesus just like his followers centuries ago. Those kind of followers will change the world. Would you pray with me? Thank you, Jesus, for the way that you love us. Thank you for the way that you lived, and thank you, Jesus, for the way that you died with your arms wide open, accepting and loving us all.

How could we respond Jesus any other way than by giving you our entire lives? Holy Spirit, would you help us to search our hearts to see what we are still holding onto relationship or, or comfort status, or. Our plans and our control culture's, voice or other people's opinions, whatever it is, we choose to trust it to you.

Jesus. We choose to surrender and we bring everything, all of our lives under your Lordship. We don't just believe. We choose to follow Jesus today, tomorrow, day by day. And I thank you, Lord, that when we live in surrender to you, living every day with you at the center of it all, we find life, abundant life here and now and for all eternity.

Thank you for that. In Jesus' name.