Father, Forgive Them: Jesus' Prayer from the Cross
Most people, in terrible pain, think of themselves. Luke tells us that as Roman soldiers nailed Jesus to a cross outside Jerusalem, the first words He spoke were a prayer for the very people hurting Him.
One simple fact
Luke's Gospel says Jesus was crucified at a place called "The Skull," between two criminals, one on His right and one on His left (Luke 23:33). While He prayed for His executioners, the soldiers below were dividing His clothes by casting lots (Luke 23:34). Read Luke 23:32-43 (ESV, Bible Gateway)
The words of Jesus
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Luke 23:34 (ESV) Bible Gateway
A few verses later, one of the criminals beside Him asked, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:42-43). Even on the cross, forgiveness was the first thing He offered and the last thing He gave away.
A historical reference: the crucified man of Giv'at ha-Mivtar
Rome crucified thousands of people, but for a long time archaeology had no physical trace of a single victim from Jesus' world. That changed in 1968, when rescue excavations at a Jewish burial cave at Giv'at ha-Mivtar in northern Jerusalem uncovered a stone bone box (an ossuary) from the early Roman period inscribed with the name Yehohanan.
Inside were the bones of a man in his twenties. His right heel was still pierced by a large iron nail with bits of olive wood attached, and the bones of his feet were broken. It remains the only known skeletal evidence of crucifixion found in Israel. The ossuary and a replica of the heel bone are displayed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The Biblical Archaeology Institute: Ossuary of Yehohanan · Holy Land Photos: Crucifixion heel bone and nail, Israel Museum
That nail shows how real and how brutal the death Luke describes was. It makes Jesus' prayer all the more remarkable: He forgave in the middle of exactly this kind of suffering.
A firsthand testimony: "already forgiven and forgotten"
In an account published by the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), a woman identified as Misericordia AC describes being gravely ill and seeing a tunnel of light. As she reported it, she met Jesus there, and her greatest worry, the wrongs of her past, was answered with the same mercy He prayed from the cross:
"I saw a tunnel with a light, which drew me towards it... I saw Jesus, young and with a beard, as I have since seen him in the image of the Divine Mercy. He was saying, 'Come.' I saw some moments from my life, which caused me to feel repentance. I said to him, 'Not yet, give me more time to repent.' I heard, within myself, 'Everything you have confessed is already forgiven and forgotten.'"
Misericordia AC, NDERF Experience #4695
She added that Jesus "was smiling," and that she came back feeling "a great peace and joy." Her conclusion was simple: the passage from life to eternity is peaceful "if we are reconciled to God, and that God loves us with a personal love."
Today
If there is someone you can't forgive, or something you can't forgive in yourself, start where Jesus started: with a prayer. "Father, forgive them" is a prayer anyone can pray, even through clenched teeth, and it opens the door He died to open.