A radical Good Friday thought: The last seven words of Jesus
I was just sitting here, thinking about "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." And I was thinking that if Jesus could forgive His accusers, torturers, murderers, we could forgive those in our lives who hurt us, mistreat us. Then I thought, wait a minute. Jesus didn't say "I forgive you" from the Cross. He asked the Father to forgive them. We sometimes put a lot of pressure on ourselves to instantly and miraculously forgive those who hurt us, or who do terrible things, evil things. And we beat ourselves up internally if we can't. But what if we aren't expected to. Not that we shouldn't try - we must. But Jesus taught us to pray for our enemies. And that's exactly what He did on the Cross. He lifted them up in prayer for forgiveness, even as he bore those awful wounds at their hands. When we are hurting, when someone has hurt us and we can't find it in our hearts to forgive them, we can breathe easier following Jesus...