What Jesus Prayed on the Cross

"Father forgive them for they know not what they do." This is the prayer that Jesus prayed when He hung on the cross at Calvary as the mob jeered and mocked and waited for Him to die.

I was having a hard time recently with forgiveness and the Lord showed me something in the prayer that He prayed on the cross that I found very powerful and helpful to me.

1. He didn't say, "That's okay." It isn't okay to be merciless, cruel and bloodthirsty, condemning anyone but especially an innocent person.

2. He didn't say, "I forgive you", as He hung on that cross. He told Peter if your brother repents and cones to you for forgiveness 70x7 times, you are to forgive him each time. The mob at the cross was anything but repentent.

3. He prayed, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." When Jesus prayed that prayer, He was casting His burden on the Lord. He was laying Himself, His pain, sorrow, grief, etc. at God's feet and putting Himself and them into God's hands.

Sometimes we don't know or understand why someone does or says hurtful and harmful things to us. But the instant we lay them down into God's hands, those things lose their power over us. We are releasing our faith and coming into agreement with God's promises. He says, "I'll contend with those who contend with you." Jesus said that whatever we bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven and whatever we loose on Earth will be loosed in heaven. Finally, the most powerful revelation of this prayer...The instant we do that, we essentially cover that person with our "blood" the way Jesus did us with His in spirit because we're offering our wounded and "bleeding" (hurt, anger, fear, shame, disappointment, etc.) selves for their redemption from the "sin" or wrong they've done to us. We are also opening the door for God to heal them from their wounds because we're interceding for them.

What a powerful statement! "Father forgive them..." Amen!