Father, Forgive Them!

At Calvary, Jesus offers one of the most powerful prayers ever recorded: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Beaten beyond recognition, publicly humiliated, abandoned by His closest followers, and nailed to a cross, Jesus does not pray for rescue or revenge. He prays for forgiveness — in the middle of His suffering.

This episode explores the depth of that moment. Forgiveness here is not passive or sentimental. It is deliberate. It is costly. It is humility in action. Jesus abandons the right to charge them for what they have done. He releases the debt while it is still being incurred.

We also examine a profound truth: sometimes the people who hurt us are unknowingly participating in God’s larger purpose. Their actions cannot cancel God’s assignment. In some cases, they are fulfilling it.

Forgiveness is not weakness. It is trust. It is confidence that God sees, God knows, and God will handle what we release.

If you’ve wrestled with resentment, justice, or moving forward after betrayal, this episode invites you to consider a higher way — the way of the cross.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force when God said press prayer reaches every single situation He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through And in this podcast we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us Greetings greetings greetings everyone. Welcome back to the press movement podcast. Thank you for joining me today Today we find ourselves at the cross and as you know, jesus has already traveled through gethsemane and traveled there and Even a couple weeks ago.

He spoke to the fact that he had came And his hour was now come But today we get to see the unfolding of the cross The bible says in luke 23 And when they were come to the place, which is calvary there they crucified him and i'm in verse 33 And the male factors one on the right hand and the other on the left So we find ourselves at calvary To this point he has been embarrassed He has been beaten He went on trial before pilot and pilot said I find no fault in him But the people still said give us barabbas, which means instead of jesus They were wanting the thief to be released to them in luke 23 18 They would rather have a thief among them than the one who healed them and who preached to them and pilot Thought to just go ahead and beat him, but the people Would not settle for that. They really wanted jesus dead So he releases barabbas because that was the custom that the people could choose one prisoner to be released and jesus begins the journey To golgotha's hill or calvary as we call it, too It's so wild to me that even pilot had to ask them What evil has he done? He said I found no cause of death in him But the people were so insistent the reason I say that stands out is because You don't look to government for integrity usually but in this instance, they're saying there's nothing wrong here And he's really trying his best to get jesus off the hook You see jesus coming through the streets now after having been beaten and Simon the syrianian came out of the country and he came to help carry the cross of jesus Because by this point jesus is weak. He's going through it and he's going through it publicly He's watching the ones he loved the ones he cared for the ones healed the ones he multiplied the bread and the fish for All these people he's watching them say crucify him we'd rather have a murder and a thief amongst us than have you He's enduring physically.

He's enduring mentally. He's enduring betrayal And at the same time you don't see in this setting his disciples standing with him He had already prophesied they will be scattered and in fact they did He is alone and he is at the low point, but he is at the point that god had always ordained for him You do see a group of people following him and lamenting And jesus turns to them and says daughters of jerusalem weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children But behold the days are coming in which They shall say blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bear and the paps which never gave suck Then shall they begin to say to the mountains following us and to the hills cover us For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? In other words if they could do these things with me here What will they do when i'm gone? He begins to talk to them about Not crying for him because his Work is almost complete. He's almost done But the fight is just beginning for you the bible says That there were two others that went with him two thieves to the cross And when they got to calvary they would be crucified with him One on the right hand and one on the left When we get there we find our prayer In luke 23 34 it says then said jesus father forgive them For they know not what they do And they parted his raiment and cast lots the power of this prayer Is one in understanding How much jesus was suffering that this was not just a passing moment This was not just tap on the hand.

They gave him. I don't know if you've ever seen the passion of the christ It was perhaps the most graphic description or depiction of what jesus went through on the cross But in the beating of him you do see where they do a really thorough job of showing you how violent it was that The way his flesh was beaten the things they used to beat him would have had hooks On the end of the rope so it wasn't just like today some of us got spanked growing up. I got spanked growing up You know, they break out that leather belt or some of you might even got a cord here and there but On the end of that cord or on the end of that belt.

There were no hooks That would sink into my flesh and rip my flesh back and I know how just the little whipping felt with the belts I got The marks it would leave the way my skin would look And I am not anti spanking just for the record I think those little marks and whelps probably helped save my life In the long run, but Those were not Anything compared to what jesus endured because history teaches us at the end of those ropes You would have seen hooks that sunk into the flesh and ripped it away. Every time he was beaten The bible lets you know he was beaten worse than any man Almost to the point of not being recognized In fact, the scripture actually says in isaiah 52 14 As many were astounded at thee his vestige was so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men Now scripture is essentially saying you've never seen someone beaten like this likewise though The scriptures don't denote anyone beaten for this You see nobody else could take on the sins of the world and themselves be innocent completely innocent from birth Never having done anything wrong And yet pleading guilty to the whole world's crimes and taking on the punishment for it The weight of what was upon him. We know because we've looked at gethsemane that this is not something he wanted to endure But once he decided Nevertheless, not my will be done He stuck the course And so what does he have to forgive them for? When you think about it, he's forgiving them for not just the way they damaged him outwardly But the way they betrayed him as a man The way they've disregarded everything he's done for them The way they're mocking him.

They're literally Gambling away his clothes is what the second part of that verse lets you know when they took pieces of his raiment and cast lots He's forgiving them for all of it that word forgive means To send away to permit or give up a thing to a person one of the descriptions of that word or one of the definitions of that word Included the word to abandon He abandoned the right to charge them for this. He asked god do not charge them for this Don't include this on their invoice when they do find themselves in trouble with you. Don't bring this up Is what he's saying? He's forgiving it Forgiveness is a thing with which so many struggle In terms of actually letting things go because that is another definition here It just means to let it go to abandon it write it off Treat it as a debt.

That's no longer owed Is another way I would put that I know from experience. This is a struggle for many because Of various reasons some people want revenge Others don't want revenge. They just want Justification they don't want to feel like somebody got away with something And others just don't know how to move forward or how should I treat you now? Even if I don't want anything back.

How do I treat you now? Jesus teaches us a lot on this cross because he's not teaching us from the standpoint of him Forgiving them before anything happened or even well after he was resurrected He teaches us how to forgive in it How to say I don't want this to count even now The humility of jesus is really shown in this prayer because It takes humility To write off the way a person can treat you It takes humility not to expect Or regard what you believe you're owed It's not that you're wrong necessarily for Wanting to be treated with respect jesus would not have been wrong to say they shouldn't treat me like this or I've done so much they Betrayed me now and i'm going to let them feel the repercussions of that. No He wouldn't have been wrong for that But love made him do it differently And I don't know that this prayer is by any means pardoning all of their sins When I look at this prayer, I don't see him pardoning all of their sins It's not a blank check for them to do whatever they want forgive them for their past or present or future But no, he's asking god to forgive them in this Forgive them in this moment. They don't know what they're doing that word means to see or perceive So he's not writing off everything they've ever done He's writing off the fact Somebody had to participate in his demise Somebody had to fulfill the scriptures somebody had to be the executors of purpose in his life It's an amazing thing when you can say To a person I forgive you But it's another thing when you say I forgive you because The purpose wasn't even yours You don't even know the part you played.

You don't even know the character you were you'll find that Even the hardest and most challenging things in life can be used to birth purpose and you can forgive them not just because of past or Not just because you're trying to let something go But you can also forgive them because of purpose when I say forgive them because of purpose it's because of this pain and this Issue and the way you're doing what you're doing. That's bringing out of me What god always wanted from me That's all they could do Those men that he pardoned those people he pardoned All they could do was bring out of him What god always wanted from him they were characters in another man's story. They didn't even know the script they were a part of Did they have to take this road? No, they had choices But did he let it go that somebody made the choice? To be the one who would gamble somebody made the choice that would be the one who would beat him Somebody made the choice to join in with the ones who would mock him.

He let it go because of purpose because of love Because he didn't want this late to them Today I challenge you in the middle of your story not at the end not when you see how it all worked out But in the middle of your story to trust that god has purpose for you and that people's actions against you cannot cancel the assignment of god, but also Some of them are helping to fulfill the assignment of god Do you trust him enough? To believe he's using the enemies and the things that hurt you to also get you to the place where He wants you to be and where some of you have asked to be Sometimes the answers to our prayers are complicated And that you don't see what god is doing You don't see why when you ask him to do xyz then abc starts happening But he has a way of making all those letters words if you will And making it all come together Because each part is necessary And the things that were done that hurt you Or that broke you that even god didn't want for you because some of us have some real experiences of pain and suffering and betrayal Those things he did not want for you. He can still turn them to work for you If your heart will let them turn You can let people off the hook because god can use what they did And he knows how to handle them Father forgive them for they know not what they do Something to think about something to pray about as you're going throughout your day because prayer reaches every single situation Join the movement join the community like share and subscribe to this podcast Visit us at press to pray.com or find us on instagram or facebook Did you know that when you are quiet your voice is missing to god's ears I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if god already knows? How will I know god is answering and what do I do when I feel like god's not listening? But god is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles We have you have to raise your voice and god wants to hear from you It's too quiet a book about prayer.

It's designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith visit press to pray.com

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