2026 Midweek Lenten Sermon A

Rev. Rolf Preus| February 25, 2026| Luke 23:32-34

There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death.  And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.  Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

Jesus taught his disciples to love.  In Matthew 6:43-44 we read:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”

Jesus practiced what he preached.  When the Roman authorities, spurred on by the Jewish leaders, nailed Jesus to a cross to be crucified between two criminals, he prayed to his Father in heaven, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

Jesus set the pattern for his Christians to follow.  Stephen was the first Christian martyr.  After he preached a powerful sermon condemning Israel for persecuting the prophets and murdering Jesus Christ, the Jewish leaders stoned him to death.  As Stephen was dying, he cried out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  Then he said, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.”  Then he died.

They do you wrong and you want to get back at them.  You feel the pain, the betrayal, and the humiliation.  You want revenge.  And Jesus says no.  Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.  That’s what Jesus did.  That’s what his Christians are called to do.

They have done you wrong and they’re not sorry.  It’s bad enough to suffer from the evil deeds of others.  But it’s more than the loss and pain they have inflicted.  What galls you is that they are not in the slightest bit sorry.  If they were sorry and asked you for forgiveness, then you might be able to forgive them.  But they don’t even think they’ve done you wrong.  Or they think that whatever you suffered at their hands you deserved.  So, they’re not sorry and they’re not going to apologize.  They’re going to hate you, not because of what you did against them, but because of what they did against you.  They feel the need to hate you because they need to justify the wrong they did to you.  So, they demonize you.  They paint you as evil.  You pray that they will repent.  They don’t.  They keep hating you instead. 

What can you do?  You can pray for them.  You can pray, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”  When Jesus prayed this prayer, did not his Father answer?  Do you think that God the Father would deny the prayer of his beloved Son?  What is Jesus doing on that cross?  John the Baptist called him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  On the cross he was sacrificed for the sin of the world.  It was as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world that Jesus prayed his Father to forgive those who were crucifying him.  It was as the Savior suffering for sinners that Jesus prayed that prayer.  Jesus, by his vicarious suffering, was earning the forgiveness he asked his Father to give.  For whom?  For those whose sin he bore.  That’s everyone.  Could the Father have denied Jesus his prayer to forgive those who were crucifying him while Jesus was paying for the sins of those who were crucifying him?  It is unthinkable.  Our Father in heaven forgave those for whom Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them.”

We have a theological term for this.  It is called objective or universal justification.  It means that God has forgiven, that is, justified everyone for whom Jesus died and that is everyone.  To forgive means to take sins away.  To justify means to pronounce someone to be righteous.  Since, if your sins are taken away you are righteous, “to forgive” and “to justify” mean the same thing.  Objective justification means that God, apart from anybody personally believing it, has justified the world.  Universal justification means that God has justified the whole world.

Now some are quick to object.  You must believe, they say.  Yes, you must believe.  That is true.  What should you believe?  Should you believe that if you believe in Jesus, God will forgive you?  Or should you believe that God has forgiven you for Christ’s sake?  The gospel is not a deal.  God will do this if you do that.  The gospel is a gift.  God freely forgives us.  If we believe the gospel we have what it promises.  If we don’t, we don’t.  It’s really quite simple.  The truth must be true before we can believe it.  The truth of the matter is that the Father in heaven forgave those that Jesus asked him to forgive.  Jesus asked his Father to forgive those who were crucifying him.  Who were they?  Let the hymnist answer:

Who was the guilty?

Who brought this upon thee?

Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee.

’Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee.

I crucified thee.

Jesus prayed for you when he was dying for you.  He prayed that his Father would forgive you.  He did.  You believe that.  Your faith relies on that.  When your faith received forgiveness from God it received a power from God that only Christians have.  It is the power to forgive.  Not just on your behalf, but on God’s behalf.

There are three sides to forgiveness: gained, given, and gotten.  Jesus gained forgiveness for the whole world when he offered his holy life into death on the cross and suffered for our sins.  Forgiveness is gained.  God gives forgiveness in his gospel and sacraments.  The gospel is the good news that God, for the sake of Christ’s obedience and death, forgives you your sins.  This forgiveness is given in the gospel that announces it.  It is given in baptism.  It is given in the Lord’s Supper.  It is given in the absolution spoken by the pastor in church.  It is given by the absolution spoken by Christians in their daily lives.  It is gained on the cross.  It is given in the word.  And it is gotten through faith.  You cannot say that you’ve gotten forgiveness from God unless you believe the gospel because it is the gospel that gives it to you.  The gospel is for everyone, but only those who believe it will receive it through faith.

If you know somebody who has done you wrong but doesn’t think he has done you wrong, you can forgive him in your heart.  You can look to the cross of Christ and see Jesus dying for that person.  And you can decide that you will not hate or curse the one who has wronged you.  We pray in the General Prayer, “In mercy, bring to repentance the enemies of your church and grant them amendment of life.”  We ask God to be merciful to our enemies, and we pray for their repentance.

Father, forgive them.  These are precious words.  “For they do not know what they do.”  The Roman soldiers were known for their cruelty in carrying out the sentence of crucifixion.  One would have to be callused indeed to participate in such an execution.  It was designed to be particularly painful.  Nailed to a cross, hanging there, the criminal would find it hard to breathe, so he would push up his legs to open his lungs for more air.  That would only prolong their death.  The soldiers knew what they were doing when they subjected convicted criminals to the torture of the cross. 

But they did not know what they were doing when they crucified Jesus.  They knew what crucifixion was.  They didn’t know who Jesus was.  He was God in the flesh.  That the incarnate God would permit men to abuse him, treat him like a criminal, and subject him to such cruel indignity is beyond comprehension.  But he did. 

What punishment so strange is suffered yonder!

The Shepherd dies for sheep that loved to wander;

The master pays the debt his servants owe him,

Who would not know him.

No, they didn’t know what they were doing.  Callused their consciences may have been, but would they deliberately murder God?  While suffering for the sin of the world our Savior had the compassion to pray for those who were crucifying him.  As so we pray.  When we forgive those who sin against us, who are not sorry, and who continue in their sin, we confess our faith in our God who joined the human race to die for us.  We do understand what God did for us on the cross.  Knowing that we are forgiven gives us the heart to forgive.