Forgive Them, They Don't Know What They Do

"If you knew that you were going to die for someone what would you look for in them - a reason to find fault, or a reason to complete your mission? If you knew that your mission needed to be completed you would desperately attempt to find the good in each life you encountered. I don’t believe that it was our sin that held Messiah to the stake - it was His love for us! Our sin put Messiah on the stake, but His love for us kept Him there!" -- Rev. Troy Heidt

Luke 23:32 Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. 33 Finally, they came to a place called The Skull. All three were crucified there—Yahshua on the center stake, and the two criminals on either side.

34 Yahshua said, "Father, forgive these people, because they don’t know what they are doing." And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

35 The crowd watched, and the leaders laughed and scoffed. "He saved others," they said, "let him save himself if he is really Elohim’s Chosen One, the Messiah." 36 The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. 37 They called out to him, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" 38 A signboard was nailed to the stake above him with these words: "This is the King of the Jews."

39 One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, "So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!"

40 But the other criminal protested, "Don’t you fear Elohim even when you are dying? 41 We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong." 42 Then he said, "Yahshua, remember me when you come into your Kingdom."

43 And Yahshua replied, "I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise."

There was a rancher who owed a very great debt to the local bank. We’ll call him Gus, and Gus was in no way able to repay his debt at all. The local banker was wealthy- but he didn’t get wealthy from people who neglected their bills. A meeting was called and the man who had the great debt was threatened with foreclosure on his property and possessions if he failed to pay. Gus had gone to several of his "so-called" friends and tried to borrow money to pay back or at least make a payment to the bank to hold off the foreclosure- but his friends were no help. The hour of the meeting came and Gus –who was a proud man- actually got on his knees and cried and begged with the banker to not foreclose and to be merciful on him. The banker in a moment of generosity said to Gus, "I know you are unable to pay and I believe you are a good person- I’m not going to take away your ranch or anything- as a matter of fact I’m going to forgive your debt!" An unbelievable turn of events for Gus had given him a second chance!

As Gus walked out of the bank, a rancher south of town came up to him. This rancher was in desperate need of hay and he knew that he could get some from Gus! Gus lived north of town and it’d been a lot better for hay up there. The rancher shyly approached Gus and said, "Hey- I don’t supposed I could get a few tons of hay from you!" Gus looked at him and remembered that he’d supplied this guy with hay last fall and he hadn’t paid for that yet. So Gus said, "Hey- if you could pay me what you owe me- maybe we’d talk- but your gonna have to go somewhere else if you want hay! I’m tired of people who don’t keep their word!’

Now old Gus didn’t know that one of the bank tellers was out smoking a cigarette behind the parking lot and heard the whole conversation- when she went in and told her boss- as bank tellers are known to do- he was livid. He called for her to go see if Gus was outside and if he was to bring him back into the bank! They found Gus and brought him back into the bank and the banker said, "Gus, you son of a gun, I forgave your debt cause you begged for mercy. Well, you’d better run home and start tagging your equipment cause we’re throwing an auction on your property! Consider this a foreclosure notification!"

(Yahshua told this story in Matt 18:23-35)

Yahshua said in Matt 6: 14 "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

So here’s the logic to all this- the easiest way to go to hell is to make life hell for others. Make sure you judge everyone, don’t forgive anything, and take offense at everything. Hey, if you think you’re bummed out now and get the short end of the stick- just wait until judgement day!

You see- offense is hard to deal with. Let’s refer back to the crucifixion and Messiah saying, "Father, forgive these people, because they don’t know what they are doing."

See, He was actually dealing with a lot more than an "unfriendly" assembly or a feeling of neglect at the time! He wasn’t sulking in the background because people weren’t paying enough attention to him. Sin is offense! Our sin offends Elohim. Our sins offend one another. The thing we have to be aware of when offense comes to us through others is our responsibility to deal with that offense!

In the Greek the term "offense" is scandalon, which means a stick, that trips one up or a stumbling block. An offense is something that can come into your life and destroy what Yahweh is doing if you allow yourself to trip over it!

Luke 17:1-4One day Yahshua said to his disciples, "There will always be temptations to sin, but how terrible it will be for the person who does the tempting. 2 It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around the neck than to face the punishment in store for harming one of these little ones. 3 I am warning you! If another believer sins, rebuke him; then if he repents, forgive him. 4 Even if he wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, forgive him."

So Yahshua is saying here- "Yeah, the person who sends offense into our lives is in trouble- but you are in trouble if you don’t learn how to forgive those offenses! They will destroy you." It’s wrong that people say stupid things and it’s a sin that people do things to make you feel isolated, uncomfortable, hurt, or dejected- but it’s just as big of a sin for you if you can’t say, "Father forgive them!" If you don’t confront the right people about the wrong things, that offense don’t nest in the heads of the offenders it nests in the heads of the offended! You can’t be free from the consequences of other people’s sins until you are free to forgive other people’s sins!

"Well, my dad was a drunk and he was never around and he made me insecure and I…" Forgive him and get freedom from that bondage. "My mother was a screamer and now I’m a screamer and…" Forgive her and get free from her bondage! You can hold sins against others- the bible actually says that in John 20:23!

23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you refuse to forgive them, they are unforgiven."

One does have to remember the Bible also says in Mark 11:23

24 Listen to me! You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you will have it. 25 But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too."

So the only logical conclusion to reconcile this school of thought is that if you are holding a sin against someone- you’d better be sin free! If you want to be mad at someone for talking trash about you and not forgive them- honey you’d better make sure you have a lock on your own lip or your going to hell just cause you can’t "get over it"!

How can we break free from bondage? Our freedom comes through forgiveness with Messiah being the ultimate example of that!

Paul gives Titus instruction about people who shouldn’t be chosen for leadership in the assembly in Titus 1:15 Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are defiled. 16 Such people claim they know Yahweh, but they deny him by the way they live. They are despicable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.

We have to be set free from the bondage of offense in order to be used by Yahweh in a positive way! We have to understand that if we don’t learn to forgive and let go we can’t be used of Yahweh. Proverbs 15:8 says, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh!"

You don’t have to live in depression and stress and strife- it’s a choice you make when you fail to forgive! It’s also a choice you make when you start judging others through your offense-tainted eyes. To the pure are all things pure, but to the offended everything is an offense. Forgiveness will free you to take off those offense tainted glasses!

Luke 6: 37 "Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. Stop criticizing others, or it will all come back on you. If you forgive others, you will be forgiven. 38 If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving—large or small—it will be used to measure what is given back to you."

Ultimately, you get what you want by giving it away! You want everyone to be your friend- then go out and be everybody’s friend! Quite being a depressed little psycho and hoping that people are going to start treating you like the life of the party! If you want mercy- be a giver of mercy. Offenses come because of pride- take your eyes off of yourself and your situation and Yahweh will help you in your need when you help others. If you sow encouragement, joy, and love; you will reap those things. If you sow depression, tears, and sorrow; you will reap those things.

There’s something you need to understand about people. On occasion you may encounter someone you don’t like. You may also encounter someone you can’t find anything even remotely endearing about. We struggle with this because we don’t put ourselves in the mindset of our Savior. If you knew that you were going to die for someone what would you look for in them- a reason to find fault, or a reason to complete your mission? If you knew that your mission needed to be completed you would desperately attempt to find the good in each life you encountered. I don’t believe that it was our sin that held Messiah to the stake- it was His love for us! Our sin put Messiah on the stake, but His love for us kept Him there!

I’ll close with this:

On a hot afternoon a group of religious zealots looking to find fault with Yahshua stumbled across a woman in the act of adultery. (I don’t know how one manages to stumble across that- but they did) They dragged her to Yahshua and threw her in the dust. She was shamed and uncovered and the dirt was matted to her face from the tear streaks that lined her cheeks. The zealots said, "This woman was caught in the act of adultery- and according to the Law of Moses she must be stoned!" Yahshua just looked at them and started writing in the sand with his finger. They continued to demand an answer- so he said, "Alright, stone her, but let he who is without sin cast the first stone!" The oldest began to see that there were things in their life that weren’t up to par and they dropped their stones- the youngest were last to realize their sins- but eventually one by one stones were dropped and accusers disappeared. The woman sheltering her face from the stones doesn’t realize that her accusers are gone and Yahshua says, "Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?" She looks up and sees no one with stones waiting to chuck them at her and she says, "No one Master!" Yahshua says, "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more!" So many people have been driven away from the assembly by people with stones. So many people have been driven away from a better life by people with stones. So many people have been crippled and bruised by people with stones. If you really want to lead someone to Yahshua - you’ve got to drop your stones! They need a relationship with Yahweh, not a stone from an angry believer!

Can we build a bridge in our assemblies and homes and communities through expressing the love of Messiah to a hurting world? The entire assembly was built upon one selfless act of Divine love. In the moment of His greatest pain and agony our Master looks at his aggressors and says, "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing!" Imagine the difference we could make in this world if we could manifest a forgiving and loving heart in each and every circumstance of life. Imagine how many people we could reach if we’d react to their anger and abuse with love and forgiveness. Imagine what the assembly could be like if it was to become a sanctuary of forgiveness and not a field of stones! Will you start the revolution today? All you have to do is let go of your hurt and your pride and learn to love with the mind of Messiah.

One person at a time, we can turn the tides!