A Cup Brimful of Sweet Grace

 Good evening. If you have a Bible, please turn with me to Luke, Luke's gospel chapter 23:26-38. But this evening, we will just look at one verse, verse 34, but we're going to read Luke chapter 23:26-38.

You can hear that I have a slightly funny accent. Okay, I like to tell people I'm from Texas. Doesn't really work. I'm from Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the north of Ireland, in the United Kingdom. So that's the reason for my accent, but I hope you can still follow along.

So Luke chapter 23 and let's read God's word from verse 26 and as we do so, let me pray for us. Father, in your light, we see light. So we pray that you would come now and by your Holy Spirit, illuminate the reading and the preaching of your word so that we might see Jesus more clearly, love Him more dearly and follow Him more nearly. Amen. And we ask this in his precious name.

Amen.

Luke chapter 23 and verse 26.

“26 And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.””

The Sweet Water of Forgiveness

Verse 34 and Jesus said “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Amy Carmichael the Irish missionary to India once wrote “A cup full of sweet water when jolted only spills sweet water.” A cup brimful of sweet water when jolted only spills sweet water. It's quite a striking image, isn't it?

We can just picture it. A cup brimful of cold, fresh, clean water. What happens when your hand is jolted? What does it spill? Cold, fresh, clean water. I think Amy Carmichael's words wonderfully illustrate Jesus first words from the cross. We might say that in his crucifixion, Jesus was jolted. He was jarred and what spilled out of his mouth from his heart was only the sweet water of forgiveness.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Earlier in his life, Jesus had taught that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks and so on the cross, his heart overflowed and his mouth spoke and what came out the sweet grace of forgiveness as he was being crucified, revenge did not come out of his mouth, just remission, retaliation did not come out of his mouth.

Just words of reconciliation. Father, forgive them. Jesus words reflected his heart, gentle and lowly. They reflected his grace, full and free. And this is brought out even more brightly and beautifully. When we consider some things concerning Jesus's first words from the cross. Jesus spoke seven times from the cross.

And these words are the first words. that He speaks from the cross. And if we consider some things in the context about these words, then they can help us to appreciate them even more. Here's the first thing, four things we should consider. Here's the first consider. The intense suffering that Jesus went through.

The intense suffering. Verse 33 “And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified Him.” Jesus is brought to the place known as Golgotha. The skull. To be crucified. The skull communicates a place of suffering and death. Which is exactly what Jesus is about to experience in his crucifixion.

This is a moment of intense suffering for Jesus. But his suffering does not begin at the end of his life. Jesus suffering spanned the whole of his life.

The Suffering of His Hidden Years

There is the suffering of his hidden years. Jesus suffering begins in his circumcision, when He undergoes the knife and sheds blood for the first time as an eight day old baby boy. Then immediately after his circumcision, his life is threatened by Herod the Great, and as a result, He and His family have to flee to Egypt. Such a journey entailed its own dangers. And so too would have been living in a foreign land. When Herod the Great eventually dies, there's still no relief from the threat of death for Jesus.

Herod's son Archelaus reigns in Judah after his father's death. And that's why Joseph, Jesus’s adopted father, is afraid to settle again in Bethlehem after he returns from Egypt. And so he relocates the family to the town of Nazareth in Galilee. Nazareth was known as a despised town. And so we can imagine that in that town, Jesus growing up years would not have been easy.

The Suffering in His Ministry

This was some of the suffering He experienced in his early years. But then it continued in his later years, the writer to the Hebrews tells us that his whole life was a life of suffering Hebrews chapter five, verses seven to eight. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death.

And He was heard because of his reverence. Even though He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. The suffering of Jesus life is seen in the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness. But it's also something he experiences throughout his public ministry. Jesus suffers at the hands of Satan.

He suffers at the hands of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. He suffers at the hands of his own people, the Jews, and when He visits his hometown of Nazareth, his own people reject Him. Jesus life in public ministry was a life of suffering. And then comes the suffering of his arrest and trial, which leads to the climax of his suffering in his crucifixion.

The Suffering in His Trial

It begins on a Thursday evening of Passover week. After Jesus has finished praying to His Father in anguish in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas Iscariot arrives to betray Him with a kiss. Jesus is then arrested and taken to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest. Through the night, those who guard Him, mock Him. They beat Him, they spit on Him, they blindfold Him and strike Him in the face and say, prophesy who hit you.

Early in the morning, following his sleepless night, He is brought before the Jerusalem council and questioned false testimonies are compiled against Him in a kangaroo court, having confessed to being the Son of God, the chief priests and the elders lead Him to Pilate, the Roman governor, to be prosecuted for being a rival king to Caesar.

Pilate questions Him for a time on his own, but finds no fault in Him. But after He hears that He's from Galilee, He has Him Escorted across the city to Herod Antipas, another son of Herod the Great, who by then had jurisdiction over the region of Galilee. Herod Antipas questions Jesus, but receives no response.

So He and his military men treat Jesus with contempt, which probably means they verbally abused Him and most likely physically. abused Him. They place a purple robe on Him in mockery of his so called royal status. And then they send Him back to Pilate. When Pilate receives Him back, He informs the priests, the rulers, and people that He can find no fault in Him.

And so he says he will have Him flogged and then released. But the Jews are unappeasable. They shout together, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him! They demand that a man guilty of insurrection and murder, Barabbas, be released in his place. Pilate concedes and Sentences Jesus to crucifixion, but first he has Him flogged.

The flogging entailed being beaten with a whip that had pieces of bone and metal attached to the end of its leather stripes, strips. With each slash of the whip, the flesh of Jesus back is torn open. Following his flogging, Jesus is then taken into the praetorium, where the Roman garrison of soldiers gather to continue his torture.

The soldiers dress Him in a purple robe. They press a crown of thorns. On his head, they put a wooden reed in his right hand, and then they begin to mock Him. They salute Him saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they bow down in a worship pose. Then they rise, and they take the reed from his right hand, and they strike Him on the head with it.

Jesus experiences all of this from late Thursday evening to early Friday morning, who can doubt that his suffering was intense from the spiritual and psychological anguish in a garden to a sleepless night of beatings and mockery, to being betrayed and disowned by his own disciples. to false accusations in a kangaroo court, to being dragged back and forth across the city before civic rulers, to rejection by his own people, to a flogging that opened up his back like a ploughed field, to more beatings and mockery before a merciless Roman garrison.

The Suffering in His Crucifixion

Jesus suffered. He suffered intensely. In fact, as He carries his crossed up Golgotha's hill, just think about the weight of carrying a wooden cross up a hill. They have to call a man called Simon of Cyrene to help Him carry the cross because He has become so weak. And yet despite all of this suffering, his suffering has not yet reached its climax, its extremis.

That would be reserved for the crucifixion over the next six hours on Golgotha's Hill. One scholar states that crucifixion was the Roman Emperor's terror apparatus ad horrendum. Cicero, the Roman philosopher, called crucifixion, quote, “the most cruel and horrifying punishment.“

It was so horrific that Roman citizens were not even to use the word crucifixion on their lips. The procedure of crucifixion and to involved tying or impaling the victim to a wooden frame in the shape of a cross. The arms were spread out and tied or nailed to the horizontal beam. The feet were tied together and then nailed to the vertical beam. In Jesus case, He is nailed to the cross with the nails piercing through his flesh, through his bones, through his nerves, in his hands and feet.

He experiences the pain of crucifixion for six hours from nine o'clock in the morning to three pm. He has the piercing pain of the crown of thorns on his head. The excruciating pain of the nails in his hands and feet. The pain of his open back from the lashing, pressing against the wooden upright beam. His entire body would have been burning with pain and all his senses are engaged in the pain in touch by the beatings and the floggings and the nails, in taste by the sour wine that they give Him to drink, in smell by the stench of dead corpses on crosses around Him, in hearing by the mocking of the crowds, in sight by seeing the Jews and the Romans hate on Him and the sight of his mother weeping for Him.

The Physical and Emotional Pain

The physical and emotional pain, however, is not the only way he suffers. There's also the public shame. He is crucified between two criminals. When He Himself has been found innocent under Roman law, not once, not twice, but three times found innocent. There's also the public shame of his nakedness. Before He is crucified, He is stripped of his linen cloth with the soldiers gambling over it at the foot of the cross.

In Jewish culture and law, nakedness was associated with guilt and shame. Jesus's suffering involved public shame, not just physical pain. And to make matters worse, He suffers all of this, no one stands by Him. The crowds hate Him. The disciples disown Him. Peter denies Him. John and his mother are distant from Him.

Silent. Although He is crucified between two people, He could not be more alone. Later on, after three hours on the cross, He will realize that not even God is with Him. He will cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? His words will be absorbed into the darkness without an echo. No rending of the heavens like at His baptism.

No voice from heaven, no divine approval. This is my Son with whom I am well pleased. No Holy Spirit descending on Him like a dove. No, only silence, only absence, only forsakenness. He will be completely and utterly alone in the dark. He will be suspended between heaven and earth in the darkness, alone. The solitude of His suffering is part of the intensity of his suffering.

The Overflowing Heart

Now, just think about all of that suffering. From His circumcision to His crucifixion, from physical pain and public shame, from the silence to the solitude, just think about all of that suffering and what are His first words from the cross. Father forgive them.

A cup brimful of sweet water when jolted only spills sweet water. This is the first thing that illuminates the brightness and the beauty of Jesus's opening words. He speaks them in a moment of intense suffering. Father, forgive them. There's a second thing that heightens the brightness and beauty of His words, and that is the incalculable crime committed against Him.

The Incalculable Crime

The incalculable crime committed against Him. There's the intense suffering of what they do to Him, but there's also the incalculable crime committed against Him.

Jesus's words might at first sight suggest otherwise. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Can you be accused or found guilty of a crime when you didn't know what you were doing? It seems as if Jesus is acknowledging some level of ignorance in the soldier's actions. After all, are the soldiers not simply following instructions?

And so their guilt would appear to be non existent, or perhaps minimal at best. But to say that they have no guilt, or even little guilt, runs contrary to Jesus plea to his Father to forgive them. Which means they're guilty of something. What's more, it's not like these soldiers are just following instructions.

Just think about how they have treated Jesus during his trial, and arrest, and interrogation. They've mocked Him, they've blindfolded Him, they've struck Him in the face, they've punched Him, they've told Him to prophesy to Him, blindfolded, who hit you? They've struck Him in the head with his staff, they've pulled out his beard, they've put a crown of thorns on his head, they've put a purple robe on Him and bowed down as if he is a king to mock Him.

All of that is not just soldiers following orders.

That is not how a man was to be treated if found guilty under Roman law. These soldiers are guilty of misusing and abusing their position. They are guilty of great cruelty. And since they are men who have the law of God written on their hearts, They know they're guilty, but it's not just the soldiers who are guilty.

It's the Jews as well The them and the they of Jesus's words do not just refer to the Roman soldiers It's everyone who has played a part in Jesus's crucifixion pilot Herod, the chief priests and Pharisees, the Jewish people who cry out, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! So when Jesus says, Father, forgive them, He is including the Jews as well as the Romans.

Pilate as well as Herod. Now if you think about it, the Jews are even more guilty than the Romans for crucifying Jesus because not only do they have the law of God written in their hearts like the Romans do, they also have the Word of God in their minds and in their hearts. Their sin is more serious.

Because the word of God had told them who God was going to send to them, the Messiah, the Christ. And what have they done? They've rejected Him and crucified Him. So what then does Jesus mean when He says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Well, I think the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul help us here.

In Acts chapter 3 verse 15, Peter, speaking to the Jews, says, You killed the author of life. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul writes, None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. In other words, when the Gentile leaders and the Jewish people crucified Jesus, they did so with the blinders on.

The true extent of Jesus identity was hidden from them. Had they known who He really was? The author of life, who gave them breath to wake up that morning, they wouldn't have done it. Had they seen who He really was, the Lord of Glory, who one day would be their judge, they wouldn't have done it .But the fact that they still did do it, even though blinded in ignorance, means they still needed to be forgiven.

The Divine Pardon

In other words, Jesus is not absolving them of guilt. He's not minimizing their guilt. Rather, He is saying that they need to be forgiven for an incalculable crime that they're not even aware of. On that dreadful Friday afternoon, they were guilty of killing the Author of Life. They were guilty of crucifying the Lord of Glory.

The crime was immeasurable. The debt was incalculable, no matter how ignorant they were. Ignorance, never equals innocence. Ignorance, never equals innocence. It's like if you go and visit another country, and you're old enough to drive in that country, and you're caught speeding. Well, what happens? You get penalized.

And you can say to the police officer, But in my country, we're allowed to drive this fast on the highway. Does it get you off? No. You still get penalized. Your ignorance does not equal Innocence. And it's the same here. Just because the people are ignorant of who Jesus is. doesn't mean they're innocent for what they do to Him.

Hence, Jesus's words, Father, forgive them, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And yet, here is where we see the grace of Jesus again, shines so brightly and beautifully. Not only is Jesus the recipient of intense suffering, He's also the victim of an incalculable crime. And yet, in that moment of being jarred and jolted, what comes out of his mouth.

The sweet water of forgiveness. Father, forgive them. Forgiveness, not vengeance, flowed from Jesus's heart that Friday afternoon.

But at this point, a question arises. How can Jesus pray such a prayer? After all, He knows that God cannot forgive sin without a sacrifice. He knows God cannot remit sin without recompense. God cannot justify without justice. God cannot pardon without a payment. Jesus knows this, so why does He say, Father, forgive them?

The Incredible Substitution

Well, because of the third observation from this passage, Jesus's words of forgiveness or His prayer for forgiveness is possible because of number three, the incredible substitution, the incredible substitution. We've seen the intense suffering, the incalculable crime, and number three. The incredible substitution.

The reason Jesus can pray for forgiveness is because he's paying for forgiveness. He can pray for forgiveness because He's paying for forgiveness. The substitutionary nature of his death is the exchange that takes place between Him and Barabbas. Do you remember Barabbas? The man guilty of murder and insurrection.

He is released in the place of Jesus and Jesus takes his place. This was a custom, a tradition at the Passover festival where the Roman governor would release a prisoner and punish another prisoner. Pilate's preference is to release Jesus, since He's done nothing wrong. The Jews preference is to release Barabbas.

A man in prison for insurrection and murder. Interestingly, Barabbas in Aramaic. Do you know what it means? Bar, Abbas, Abba. Son of the Father. That's what Barabbas means. Son of the Father. What is Jesus? Who is Jesus? Son of the Father. Here is one son of the father who deserves to die. Here is one Son of the Father who does not deserve to die and the innocent Son of the Father takes the place of the guilty son of the father.

Barabbas is the son of his father, the devil, a murderer from the beginning. Jesus is the Son of His Father in heaven, righteous throughout all his life. Yet Jesus substitutes for Barabbas. The innocent dies in the place of the guilty. It is an incredible. substitution. It's an extraordinary exchange and as such it serves as the basis for Jesus's prayer of forgiveness for sinners.

He can pray the prayer of forgiveness because He's paying for forgiveness. And this is where we see His grace shine all the brighter again because in this very moment of making the substitutionary payment. Those for whom He is making it, are the ones causing Him to suffer it. Those for whom He is making the payment, are the ones causing Him to suffer it.

And yet what does He say? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. A cup brimful of sweet water when jolted only spills sweet water. On the cross Jesus was jolted, He was jarred, and what came out of his mouth? The sweet water of forgiveness.

We've seen the intense suffering, the incalculable crime, the incredible Substitution. Well, let me ask us in closing what these words mean for us 2, 000 years later. Jesus spoke these words from the cross over 2, 000 years ago, but they echo down to us this evening through the scriptures by the Holy Spirit and in doing so Jesus comes to us this evening and He offers us an invitation, an inclusive invitation.

An Inclusive Invitation

This is the fourth observation about these words. They entail an inclusive invitation. Notice how Jesus words are indistinct. They are indiscriminate. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. The they. And the them are non specific. He does not say, Father, forgive the soldiers, for they know not what they do.

He does not say, Father, forgive Pilate and Herod and the Jews, for they know not what they do. He says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. His words are indistinct and therefore they are all inclusive. They're all inclusive. Here's how Charles Spurgeon, a Baptist minister, put it this way He says, “There is no word of accusation upon those dear lips.”

Father, forgive them. Into that pronoun, them, I feel I can crawl. Can you get in there? 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 person may step and it shall bear them up to heaven.

Father, forgive them. What a beautiful application of that big little word, them.

Let me ask you this evening, have you ever climbed into that word them Father? Forgive them you could have been in a Pentecostal church, a Christian church all your life. You can have been in a Christian family your whole life. You could have been coming to youth group since your teenage years, let me ask you, have you ever climbed into the big little word, them?

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

The great news is that if you do climb into that word, if you do put your trust in the Lord Jesus. The great good news is He will forgive you. How do I know that? Think about the thief on the cross. Think about the Roman Centurion. They heard the words of Jesus that day. They saw how He died. They believed in Him and they were forgiven.

Today, Jesus said you will be with me in paradise. And weeks later at Pentecost, many of the Jews who had shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” were converted when Peter preached his Pentecost sermon. Okay. You're all from Pentecost churches, right? You know that sermon? Well, yeah. Remember, who's He preaching to?

The Jews who crucified Jesus. And what happens? 3,000 of them are converted.

John Calvin has a lovely comment on this passage. He says, “Those who spilled Jesus blood came later. He was referring to partaking in the Lord's Supper, drinking the wine as a symbol of Jesus blood. Those who spilled his blood, those who said crucify Him, crucify Him, came later to drink his blood at the Lord's Supper.

Jesus prayer was answered immediately. The thief on the cross, the Roman centurion, it was answered subsequently. On the day of Pentecost, let me ask you, will it be answered tonight? Will it be answered in your life? Have you ever climbed into the big little word them? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

When Jesus spoke those words, His arms were wide open on the cross, and they're still wide open this evening. Hear the Savior call you. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Let's pray.

Father, please help us to step into that big little word, and taste the sweet water of your Son's forgiveness. Help us to drink the blood that we have spilt because of our sins. And so forgive us our sins as we forgive others who sin against us. And we ask this in Jesus's gracious name. Amen.