Luke 23:34

But in this gospel we find no trace of that agony and sorrow on the cross. He had already gone through it all in spirit with God, so He is above it all. Luke shows us, more than any other gospel, the perfection of Christ as Man. He is so far above His circumstances that He is taken up with others. His first word on the cross is, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Then He can turn to the poor thief at His side and say, "Today you will be with Me in paradise." And His last word is, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit."

He did not pray this prayer at the start. He prayed it after He had served among them for three and a half years. He had shown them His most wonderful love, in words no one could better. He had blessed their children and fed them when they were hungry. He had healed the sick and cleansed the leper. He had opened the eyes of the blind and raised the dead. Then they spat on His scarred face. They tore His back with the whip and crowned His head with thorns. They nailed Him to a cross. That was not enough for them: they sat down to watch Him suffer, to gloat over His pain and to mock Him. The tide of man's hatred rolled over Him, wave upon wave. It was then that His voice rose above the storm.

The men crucifying Him were in the process of committing the greatest crime ever. They had plenty of evidence of who the Lord Jesus was, and they rejected Him with their eyes open. They were responsible for what they did. But the Lord Jesus, in infinite grace, says the words "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Their hatred made them blind. They did not see how deep their guilt was, or what their actions really meant. So the Lord treats them as ignorant men, as men who killed by accident and not as murderers. Through this prayer He was opening the city of refuge to them (Numbers 35).

They did not know what they were doing, so He prayed for them. But their ignorance could never clear them in God's sight. That is why the Lord had to plead for them… God can be gracious, but He could not pass over a man's wrongdoing. The same is true of those who crucified His Son. By His prayer the Lord showed what their guilt was. At the same time He offered up Himself as the true sacrifice and asked the Father to forgive them.

The prayer of Jesus as they crucified Him was completely unexpected. That prayer was answered about fifty days later. Peter preached salvation through the risen Christ in Jerusalem, and 3,000 people ran for that refuge. The prayer was unusual because it was the fruit of such divine compassion as had never come to light before.

They heard His prayer, yet they did not stop what they were doing. The very next sentence reads, "and they cast lots to divide His garments." By telling it this way, the writer brings out the sharp contrast between His spirit and theirs. He was thinking of others. The soldiers wanted only what they could get, so they took their share of His clothes. The chief priests and the people took the chance to show the bitter hatred in their hearts.

Later Stephen, when he was stoned to death, prayed in a similar way. But he could not say that the Jews did not know what they were doing. He said only, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:60). Stephen had told the Jews plainly that this same Jesus whom they had crucified was now raised by the power of God. That was the proof of God's approval of Him. Yet the Jews still rejected Him, even though He was risen from the dead.