Christ’s Plea for Ignorant Sinners

Christ's Plea for Ignorant Sinners

(No. 2263)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 3, 1892.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTOBER 5, 1890.

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do." Luke 23:34.

WHAT tenderness we have here; what self-forgetfulness; what almighty
love! Jesus did not say to those who crucified Him, "Be gone!" One such
word and they would have all fled. When they came to take Him in the
garden, they went backward and fell to the ground when He spoke but a
short sentence! And now that He is on the Cross, a single syllable
would have made the whole company fall to the ground, or flee away in
fright.

Jesus says not a word in His own defense. When He prayed to His Father,
He might justly have said, "Father, note what they do to Your beloved
Son. Judge them for the wrong they do to Him who loves them and who has
done all He can for them." But there is no prayer against them in the
words that Jesus utters. It was written of old, by the Prophet Isaiah,
"He made intercession for the transgressors"–and here it is fulfilled!
He pleads for His murderers, "Father, forgive them."

He does not utter a single word of upbraiding. He does not say, "Why do
you do this? Why pierce the hands that fed you? Why nail the feet that
followed after you in mercy? Why mock the Man who loved to bless you?"
No, not a word, even, of gentle upbraiding, much less anything like a
curse. "Father, forgive them." You notice Jesus does not say, "I
forgive them," but you may read that between the lines. He says that
all the more because He does not say it in words. But He had laid aside
His majesty and is fastened to the Cross and, therefore, He takes the
humble position of a suppliant, rather than the more lofty place of One
who had power to forgive. How often, when men say, "I forgive you," is
there a kind of selfishness about it? At any rate, self is asserted in
the very act of forgiving. Jesus takes the place of a pleader, a
pleader for those who were committing murder upon Himself. Blessed be
His name!

This word on the Cross we shall use, tonight, and we shall see if we
cannot gather something from it for our instruction, for, though we
were not there and we did not actually put Jesus to death, yet we
really caused His death–we, too, crucified the Lord of Glory and His
prayer for us was, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do."

I am not going to handle this text so much by way of exposition, as by
way of experience. I believe there are many here to whom these words
will be very appropriate. This will be our line of thought. First, we
were, in a measure, ignorant. Secondly, we confess that this ignorance
is no excuse. Thirdly, we bless our Lord for pleading for us and
fourthly, we now rejoice in the pardon we have obtained. May the Holy
Spirit graciously help us in our meditation!

I. Looking back upon our past experience, let me say, first, that WE
WERE, IN A MEASURE, IGNORANT. We who have been forgiven, we who have
been washed in the blood of the Lamb, we once sinned in a great measure
through ignorance. Jesus says, "They know not what they do." Now, I
shall appeal to you, Brothers and Sisters–when you lived under the
dominion of Satan and served yourselves and sin–was there not a
measure of ignorance in it? You can truly say, as we said in the hymn
we sang just now–

"Alas! I knew not what I did."

It is true, first, that we were ignorant of the awful meaning of sin.
We began to sin as children–we knew that it was wrong, but we did not
know all that sin meant. We went on to sin as young men–perhaps we
plunged into much wickedness. We knew it was wrong, but we did not see
the end from the beginning. It did not appear to us as rebellion
against God. We did not think that we were presumptuously defying God,
setting at nothing His wisdom, defying His power, deriding His love,
spurning His holiness, yet we were. There is an abysmal depth in sin.
You cannot see the bottom of it.

When we rolled sin under our tongue as a sweet morsel, we did not know
all the terrible ingredients compounded in that deadly bittersweet. We
were, in a measure, ignorant of the tremendous crime we committed when
we dared to live in rebellion against God. So far, I think, you are
with me.

We did not know, at that time, God's great love for us. I did not know
that He had chosen me from before the foundation of the world. I never
dreamed of that! I did not know that Christ stood for me as my
Substitute, to redeem me from among men. I did not know the love of
Christ–did not understand it. You did not know that you were sinning
against eternal Love, against infinite compassion, against a
distinguishing Love such as God had fixed on you from eternity. So far,
we knew not what we did.

I think, too, that we did not know all that we were doing in our
rejection of Christ and putting Him to grief. He came to us in our
youth and, impressed by a sermon, we began to tremble and to seek His
face. But we were decoyed back to the world and we refused Christ. Our
mother's tears, our father's prayers, our teacher's admonitions often
moved us–but we were very stubborn and we rejected Christ. We did not
know that, in that rejection, we were virtually putting Him away and
crucifying Him! We were denying His Godhead, or else we would have
worshipped Him. We were denying His love, or else we would have yielded
to Him. We were practically, in every act of sin, taking the hammer and
the nails and fastening Christ to the Cross, but we did not know it.
Perhaps, if we had known it, we would not have crucified the Lord of
Glory. We knew we were doing wrong, but we did not know all the wrong
that we were doing.

Nor did we know fully the meaning of our delays. We hesitated–we were
on the verge of conversion, but we went back and turned, again, to our
old follies. We were hardened, Christless, still prayerless, and each
of us said, "Oh, I am only waiting a little while till I have fulfilled
my present engagements, till I am a little older, till I have seen a
little more of the world!" The fact is, we were refusing Christ and
choosing the pleasures of sin instead of Him–and every hour of delay
was an hour of crucifying Christ, grieving His Spirit and choosing this
harlot world in the place of the lovely and ever-blessed Christ! We did
not know that.

I think we may add one thing more. We did not know the meaning of our
self-righteousness. We used to think, some of us, that we had a
righteousness of our own. We had been to Church regularly, or we had
been to the Meeting House whenever it was open. We were christened; we
were confirmed, or, perhaps, we rejoiced that we never had either of
those things done to us. Thus, we put our confidence in ceremonies, or
the absence of ceremonies! We said our prayers; we read a chapter in
the Bible night and morning. We did–oh, I do not know what we did not
do! But there we rested–we were righteous in our own esteem. We had
not any particular sin to confess, nor any reason to lie in the dust
before the Throne of God's majesty. We were about as good as we could
be and we did not know that we were, even, then, perpetrating the
highest insult upon Christ, for, if we were not sinners, why did Christ
die? And, if we had a righteousness of our own which was good enough,
why did Christ come here to work out a righteousness for us?

We made Christ to be a superfluity, by considering that we were good
enough without resting in His atoning Sacrifice. Ah, but we did not
think we were doing that! We thought we were pleasing God by our
religiousness, by our outward performances, by our ecclesiastical
correctness! But all the while we were setting up antichrist in the
place of Christ! We were making out that Christ was not needed! We were
robbing Him of His office and glory! Alas, Christ would say of us with
regard to all these things, "They know not what they do." I want you to
look quietly at the time past wherein you served sin and see whether
there was not a darkness upon your mind, a blindness in your spirit, so
that you did not know what you did.

II. Well now, secondly, WE CONFESS THAT THIS IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE.
Our Lord might urge it as a plea, but we never could. We did not know
what we did and so we were not guilty to the fullest possible
extent–but we were guilty enough–therefore let us acknowledge it.

For first, remember, the law never allows this as a plea. In our own
English law, a man is supposed to know what the law is. If he breaks
it, it is no excuse to plead that he did not know it. It may be
regarded by a judge as some extenuation, but the law allows nothing of
the kind. God gives us the Law and we are bound to keep it. If I erred
through not knowing the Law, still it was a sin. Under the Mosaic Law
there were sins of ignorance and for these there were special
offerings. The ignorance did not blot out the sin. That is clear in my
text, for, if ignorance rendered an action no longer sinful, they why
would Christ say, "Father, forgive them"? But He does–He asks for
mercy for what is sin–even though the ignorance, in some measure, is
supposed to mitigate the criminality of it.

But, dear Friends, we might have known. If we did not know, it was
because we would not know. There was the preaching of the Word, but we
did not care to hear it. There was this blessed Book, but we did not
care to read it. If you and I had sat down and looked at our conduct by
the light of the Holy Scripture, we might have known much more of the
evil of sin, much more of the love of Christ, much more of the
ingratitude which is possible in refusing Christ and not coming to Him.

In addition to that, we did not think. "Oh, but," you say, "young
people never think!" But young people should think. If there is anybody
who need not think, it is the old man whose day is nearly over. If he
thinks, he has but a very short time in which to improve–but the young
have all their lives before them. If I were a carpenter and had to make
a box, I would not think about it after I had made the box. I would
think, before I began to cut my timber, what sort of box it was to be.
In every action, a man thinks before he begins or else he is a fool. A
young man ought to think more than anybody else, for now he is, as it
were, making his box. He is beginning his life-plan–he should be the
most thoughtful of all men. Many of us, who are now Christ's people,
would have known much more about our Lord if we had given Him more
careful consideration in our earlier days. A man will consider about
taking a wife. He will consider about making a business. He will
consider about buying a horse or a cow, but he will not consider about
the claims of Christ and the claims of the Most High God! And this
renders his ignorance willful and inexcusable.

Beside that, dear Friends, although we have confessed to ignorance, in
many sins we did not know a great deal. Come, let me quicken your
memories. There were times when you knew that such an action was wrong
when you began it. You looked at the gain it would bring you–and you
sold your soul for that price and deliberately did what you were well
aware was wrong. Are there not some here, saved by Christ, who must
confess that, at times, they did violence to their conscience? They did
despite to the Spirit of God, quenched the Light of Heaven, drove the
Spirit away from them, distinctly knowing what they were doing! Let us
bow before God in the silence of our hearts and acknowledge to all of
this. We hear the Master say, "Father, forgive them; for they know not
what they do." Let us add our own tears as we say, "And forgive us,
also, because in some things we did know. In all things we might have
known, but we were ignorant for lack of thought, which thought was a
solemn duty which we ought to have rendered to God."

One more thing I will say on this head. When a man is ignorant and does
not know what he ought to do, what should he do? Well, he should do
nothing till he does know! But here is the mischief of it–when we did
not know, yet we chose to do the wrong thing. If we did not know, why
did we not choose the right thing? But, being in the dark, we never
turned to the right, but always blundered to the left from sin to sin!
Does not this show us how depraved our hearts are? Though we are
seeking to be right, when we are left alone, we go wrong of ourselves.
Leave a child alone. Leave a man alone. Leave a tribe alone without
teaching and instruction–what comes of it? Why, the same as when you
leave a field alone! It never, by any chance, produces wheat or barley!
Leave it alone and there are rank weeds, thorns and briars– showing
that the natural set of the soil is towards producing that which is
worthless!

O Friends, confess the innate evil of your hearts as well as the evil
of your lives, in that, when you did not know, yet, having a perverse
instinct, you chose the evil and refused the good and, when you did not
know enough of Christ and did not think enough of Him to know whether
you ought to have Him or not, you would not have come to Him that you
might have life! You needed light but you shut your eyes to the sun.
You were thirsty but you would not drink of the living spring and so,
your ignorance, though it was there, was a criminal ignorance which you
must confess before the Lord. Oh, come to the Cross, you who have been
there, before, and have lost your burden there! Come and confess your
guilt, again, and clasp that Cross afresh! Come and look to Him who
bled upon it and praise His dear name that He once prayed for you,
"Father forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Now, I am going a step further. We were, in a measure, ignorant, but we
confess that that measurable ignorance was no excuse.

III. Now, thirdly, WE BLESS OUR LORD FOR PLEADING FOR US.

Do you notice when it was that Jesus pleaded? It was while they were
crucifying Him. They had not just driven in the nails, they had lifted
up the Cross and dished it down into its socket–and dislocated all His
bones so that He could say, "I am poured out like water, and all My
bones are out of joint." Ah, dear Friends, it was then that, instead of
a cry or groan, this dear Son of God said, "Father, forgive them; for
they know not what they do." They did not ask for forgiveness for
themselves–Jesus asks forgiveness for them! Their hands were stained
with His blood and it was then, even then,

that He prayed for them! Let us think of the great love with which He
loved us, even while we were yet sinners, when we were rioting in sin,
when we drank it down as the ox drinks down water! Even then He prayed
for us! "While we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died
for the ungodly." Bless His name tonight! He prayed for you when you
did not pray for yourself! He prayed for you when you were crucifying
Him!

Then think of His plea, He pleads His Sonship. He says, "Father,
forgive them." He was the Son of God and He put His Divine Sonship into
the scale on our behalf. He seems to say, "Father, as I am Your Son,
grant Me this request and pardon these rebels. Father, forgive them."
The filial rights of Christ were very great. He was the Son of the
Highest. "Light of Light, very God of very God," the second Person in
the Divine Trinity–and He puts that Sonship here before God and says,
"Father, Father, forgive them." Oh, the power of that Word from the
Son's lips when He is wounded, when He is in agony, when He is dying!
He says, "Father, Father, grant My one request! O Father, forgive them;
for they know not what they do." And the great Father bows His awful
head in token that the petition is granted.

Then notice that Jesus here, silently, but really pleads His
sufferings. The attitude of Christ when He prayed this prayer is very
noteworthy. His hands were stretched upon the transverse beam. His feet
were fastened to the upright tree and there He pleaded! Silently His
hands and feet were pleading and His agonized body from the very sinew
and muscle pleaded with God! His Sacrifice was presented complete and
so it is His Cross that takes up the plea, "Father, forgive them." O
blessed Christ! It is thus that we have been forgiven, for His Sonship
and His Cross have pleaded with God and have prevailed on our behalf.

I love this prayer, also, because of the indistinctness of it. It is,
"Father, forgive them." He does not say, "Father, forgive the soldiers
who have nailed Me here." He includes them. Neither does He say,
"Father, forgive sinners in ages to come who will sin against Me." But
He means them. Jesus does not mention them by any accusing
name–"Father, forgive My enemies. Father, forgive My murderers." No,
there is no word of accusation upon those dear lips. "Father, forgive
them." Now into that pronoun, "them," I feel that I can crawl. Can you
get in there? Oh, by a humble faith, appropriate the Cross of Christ by
trusting in it and get into that big little word, "them"! It seems like
a chariot of mercy that has come down to earth into which a man may
step–and it shall bear him up to Heaven. "Father, forgive them."

Notice, also, what it was that Jesus asked for–to omit that would be
to leave out the very essence of His prayer. He asked for full
absolution for His enemies–"Father, forgive them. Do not punish them.
Forgive them. Do not remember their sin. Forgive it, blot it out, throw
it into the depths of the sea. Remember it not, My Father. Mention it
not against them any more forever. Father, forgive them." Oh, blessed
prayer, for the forgiveness of God is broad and deep! When man
forgives, he leaves the remembrance of the wrong behind. But when God
pardons, He says, "I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember
their sin no more." It is this that Christ asked for you and me long
before we had any repentance, or any faith–and in answer to that
prayer we were brought to feel our sin! We were brought to confess it
and to believe in Him! And now, glory be to His name, we can bless Him
for having pleaded for us and obtained the forgiveness of all our sins!

IV. I come now to my last remark, which is this–WE NOW REJOICE IN THE
PARDON WE HAVE OBTAINED. Have you obtained pardon? Is this your song?–

"Now, oh joy! My sins are pardoned,

Now I can, and do believe."

I have a letter, in my pocket, from a man of education and standing,
who has been an agnostic. He says that he was a sarcastic agnostic and
he writes praising God and invoking every blessing upon my head for
bringing him to the Savior's feet. He says, "I was without happiness
for this life and without hope for the next." I believe that that is a
truthful description of many an unbeliever. What hope is there for the
world to come apart from the Cross of Christ? The best hope such a man
has is that he may die the death of a dog and that may be the end of
him. What is the hope of the Roman Catholic when he comes to die? I
feel so sorry for many devout and earnest friends, for I do not know
what their hope is. They do not hope to go to Heaven–not for some
time, at any rate–they believe some "purgatorial" pains must be first
endured. Ah, this is a poor, poor faith to die on–to have such a hope
as that to trouble your last thoughts! I do not know of any religion
but that of Christ Jesus which tells us of sin pardoned, absolutely
pardoned!

Now, listen. Our teaching is not that, when you come to die, you may,
perhaps, find out that it is all right, but, "Beloved, now we are the
sons of God." "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life." He
has it now and he knows it,

and he rejoices in it! So I come back to the last head of my
discourse–we rejoice in the pardon Christ has obtained for us. We are
pardoned! I hope that the larger portion of this audience can say, "By
the Grace of God, we know that we are washed in the blood of the Lamb."

Pardon has come to us through Christ's plea. Our hope lies in the plea
of Christ and especially in His death. If Jesus paid my debt–and He
did it if I am a believer in Him–then I am out of debt. If Jesus bore
the penalty of my sin–and He did it if I am a Believer–then there is
no penalty for me to pay, for we can say to Him–

"Complete Atonement You have made, And to the utmost farthing paid

Whatever Your people owed. Nor can His wrath on me take place, If
sheltered in Your Righteousness, And sprinkled with Your blood. If You
have my discharge procured, And freely in my place endured

The whole of wrath Divine– Payment God can't twice demand, First of my
bleeding Surety's hand, And then, again, at mine."

If Christ has borne my punishment, I shall never bear it! Oh, what joy
there is in this blessed assurance! Your hope that you are pardoned
lies in this–that Jesus died. Those dear wounds of His bled for you!

We praise Him for our pardon because we do know, now, what we did. Oh,
Brothers and Sisters, I know not how much we ought to love Christ
because we sinned against Him so grievously! Now we know that sin is,
"exceedingly sinful." Now we know that sin crucified Christ. Now we
know that we stabbed our heavenly Lover to His heart! We slew, with
ignominious death, our best and dearest Friend and Benefactor! We know
that, now, and we could almost weep tears of blood to think that we
ever treated Him as we did! But, it is all forgiven, all gone! Oh, let
us bless that dear Son of God who has put away even such sins as ours!
We feel them more, now, than ever before. We know they are forgiven and
our grief is because of the pain that the purchase of our forgiveness
cost our Savior. We never knew what our sins really were till we saw
Him in a bloody sweat. We never knew the crimson hue of our sins till
we read our pardon written in crimson lines with His precious blood!
Now we see our sin and yet we do not see it, for God has pardoned it,
blotted it out, cast it behind His back forever!

From now on ignorance, such as we have described, shall be hateful to
us. Ignorance of Christ and eternal things shall be hateful to us. If,
through ignorance, we have sinned, we will have done with that
ignorance! We will be students of His Word. We will study that
masterpiece of all the sciences, the knowledge of Christ Crucified. We
will ask the Holy Spirit to drive far from us the ignorance that
genders sin. God grant that we may not fall into sins of ignorance any
more, but we may be able to say, "I know whom I have believed and,
henceforth I will seek more knowledge till I comprehend, with all
saints, what are the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths of
the love of Christ, and know the love of God, which passes knowledge!"

I put in a practical word here. If you rejoice that you are pardoned,
show your gratitude by your imitation of Christ. There was never before
such a plea as this, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do." Plead like that for others. Has anybody been injuring you? Are
there persons who slander you? Pray, tonight, "Father, forgive them;
for they know not what they do." Let us always render good for evil,
blessing for cursing–and when we are called to suffer through the
wrong-doing of others–let us believe that they would not act as they
do if it were not because of their ignorance. Let us pray for them and
make their very ignorance the plea for their forgiveness–"Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do."

I want you to think of the millions in London just now. Think of those
miles of streets, pouring out their children this evening! Think of
those public houses with the crowds streaming in and out. Go down our
streets by moonlight. See what I almost blush to tell. Follow men and
women, too, to their homes, and be this your prayer–"Father, forgive
them; for they know not what they do." That silver bell–keep it always
ringing. What did I say? "That silver bell"? No, it is the golden bell
upon the priest's garments. Wear it on your garments, you priests of
God, and let it always ring out

its golden note, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do." If I can set all God's saints imitating Christ with such a prayer
as this, I shall not have spoken in vain.

Brothers and Sisters, I see reason for hope in the very ignorance that
surrounds us. I see hope for this poor city of ours, hope for this poor
country, hope for Africa, China and India. "They know not what they
do." Here is a strong argument in their favor, for they are more
ignorant than we were. They know less of the evil of sin and less of
the hope! Send up this fiery shaft of prayer, straight to the heart of
God, while Jesus, from His Throne, shall add His prevalent
intercession, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

If there are any unconverted people here, and I know that there are
some, we will mention them in our private devotion, as well as in the
public assembly. And we will pray for them in words like these,
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." May God bless
you all, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON LUKE 2333-46; JOHN19:25-30.

We have often read the story of our Savior's sufferings, but we cannot
read it too often. Let us, therefore, once again repair to "the place
which is called Calvary." As we just now sang–

"Come, let us stand beneath the Cross,

So may the blood from out His side

Fall gently on us, drop by drop.

Jesus, our Lord is crucified." We will read, first, Luke's account of
our Lord's crucifixion and death.

Luke 23:33. And when they were come to the place which is called
Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the
right hand, and the other on the left. They gave Jesus the place of
dishonor. Reckoning Him to be the worst criminal of the three, they put
Him between the other two. They heaped upon Him the utmost scorn which
they could give to a malefactor–and in so doing they unconsciously
honored Him. Jesus always deserves the chief place wherever He is. In
all things He must have the pre-eminence. He is King of sufferers as
well as King of saints.

34. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do. How startled they must have been to hear such words from One who
was about to be put to death for a supposed crime! The men that drove
the nails, the men that lifted up the tree must have been started back
with amazement when they heard Jesus talk to God as His Father–and
pray for them–"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
Did ever Roman legionary hear such words before? I should say not. They
were so distinctly and diametrically opposed to the whole spirit of
Rome. There it was, blow for blow–only in the case of Jesus, they gave
blows where none had been received. The crushing cruelty of the Romans
must have been startled, indeed, at such words as these, "Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do."

34, 35. And they parted His raiment, and cast lots. And the people
stood beholding. The gambling soldiers little dreamed that they were
fulfilling the 22nd Psalm, which so fully sets forth our Savior's
sufferings and which He probably repeated while He hung on the tree.
David wrote, "They parted My garments among them, and cast lots upon My
vesture." "And the people stood beholding," gazing, looking on the
cruel spectacle. You and I would not have done that– there is a public
sentiment which has trained us to hate the sight of cruelty, especially
of deadly cruelty to one of our own race–but these people thought that
they did no harm when they "stood beholding." They also were thus
fulfilling the Scriptures, for the 17th verse of the 22nd Psalm says,
"They look and stare upon Me."

35. And the rulers also with them derided Him. Laughed at Him, made Him
the object of course jests.

35, 36. Saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He is Christ,
the Chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him, and
offering Him vinegar. In mockery, not giving it to Him, as they did
later in mercy, but in mockery, pretending to present Him with weak
wine, such as they drank.

37. And saying, If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself. I fancy
the scorn that they threw into their taunt–"If You are the King of the
Jews"–that was a bit of their own. "Save yourself–that they borrowed
from the rulers. Sometimes a scoffer or a mocker cannot exhibit all the
bitterness that is in his heart except by using borrowed terms, as
these soldiers did.

38. And a superscription also was written over Him in the letters of
Greek, Latin and Hebrew–THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. John tells us
that Pilate wrote this title and that the chief priests tried in vain
to get him to alter it. It was

written in the three current languages of the time, so that the Greek,
the Roman and the Jew might, alike, understand who He was who was thus
put to death. Pilate did not know as much about Christ as we do, or He
might have written, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS AND OF THE GENTILES,
TOO.

39. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed at Him, saying,
If You are Christ, save Yourself and us. He, too, borrows this speech
from the rulers who derided Christ, only putting the words, "and us,"
as a bit of originality. "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us."

40-41. But the other answering rebuked him saying, Do you not fear God,
seeing you are in the same condemnation? And we, indeed, justly, for we
receive the reward of our deeds: but this Man has done nothing amiss. A
fine testimony to Christ–"This Man has done nothing amiss"–nothing
unbecoming, nothing out of order, nothing criminal, certainly–but
nothing even, "amiss." This testimony was well spoken by this dying
thief.

42-46. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when You come into
Your Kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto you, today
shall you be with Me in Paradise. And it was about the sixth hour, and
there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the
sun was darkened, and the veil of the Temple was rent in the midst. And
when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Your
hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up His ghost.
He yielded His life. He did not die, as we have to do, because our
appointed time has come, but willingly the great Sacrifice parted with
His life–"He gave up the ghost." He was a willing Sacrifice for guilty
men. Now let us see what John says concerning these hours of agony,
these hours of triumph.

John 19:25. Now there stood by the Cross of Jesus His mother, and His
mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. Last
at the Cross, first at the sepulcher. No woman's lips betrayed her
Lord; no woman's hands ever smote Him; their eyes wept for Him; they
gazed upon Him with pitying awe and love. God bless the Marys! When we
see so many of them about the Cross, we feel that we honor the very
name of Mary.

26. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the Disciple standing by,
whom He loved, He said unto His mother, Woman, behold your son! Sad,
sad spectacle! Now was fulfilled the word of Simeon, "Yes, a sword
shall pierce through your own soul, also, that the thoughts of many
hearts may be revealed." Did the Savior mean, as He gave a glance to
John, "Woman, you are losing one Son, but yonder stands another who
will be a son to you in My absence"? "Woman, behold your son!"

27. Then said He to the Disciple, Behold your mother! "Take her as your
mother, stand in My place, care for her as I have cared for her." Those
who love Christ best shall have the honor of taking care of His Church
and of His poor. Never say of any poor relative or friend, the widow or
the fatherless, "They are a great burden to me." Oh, no! Say, "They are
a great honor to me–my Lord has entrusted them to my care." John
thought so–let us think so! Jesus selected the Disciple He loved best
to take His mother under his care. He selects those whom He loves best,
today, and puts His poor people under their wings. Take them gladly and
treat them well.

27. And from that hour that Disciple took her into his own home. You
expected him to do it, did you not? He loved his Lord so well.

28. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished,
that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. There was a
prophecy to that effect in the Psalms, and He must fulfill it. Think of
our dying Savior prayerfully going through the whole of the Scriptures
and carefully fulfilling all that is there written concerning
Him–"That the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, I thirst."

29. 30. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a
sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth.
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, For He did receive it.
It was a weak kind of wine, commonly drunk by the soldiers. This is not
that mixed potion which He refused, wine mingled with myrrh, which was
intended to stupefy the dying in their pains–"When He had tasted
thereof, He would not drink"–for He would not be stupefied. He came to
suffer to the bitter end the penalty of sin and He would not have His
sorrow mitigated. But when this slight refreshment was offered to Him,
He received it. Having just expressed His human weakness by saying, "I
thirst," He now manifests His all-sufficient strength by crying, with a
loud voice as Matthew, Mark and Luke all testify.

30. He said, It is finished. What, "it," was it that was finished? I
will not attempt to expound it. It is the biggest, "it," that ever was!
Turn it over and you will see that it will grow, and grow, and grow,
and grow till it fills the whole earth–"It is finished."

30. And He lowered His head, and gave up the ghost. He did not give up
the ghost and then bow His head because He was dead. But He bowed His
head as though in the act of worship, or as leaning it down upon His
Father's bosom–and then gave up the ghost.

Thus have we had two Gospel pictures of our dying Lord. May we remember
them and learn the lessons they are intended to teach.