With my last two posts I’ve brought up scriptures that are commonly used to argue that disciples of Christ cannot judge wrong behavior, and explained why this interpretation is false. I will continue this pattern with today’s entry, where I examine the greatest act of non-judgment in all the scriptures. It is, of course, the moment where Christ was upon the cross, being executed for false charges, and asking Heavenly Father to forgive his killers. Luke 23:33-34:

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.

34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

If Christ would forgive the people that did the greatest evil imaginable to him, then shouldn’t we excuse everyone else for anything that they ever do?

Well, no. That goes too far. And the reason why is that while Christ’s forgiveness was certainly magnanimous, it was not absolute. I believe there are two clear limitations on Christ’s forgiveness here.

1. He was not seeking forgiveness for everyone. It seems clear in these two verses that the “them” he asked forgiveness for was the same “they” that “parted his raiment,” which would mean the Roman guards assigned to carry out his execution. There is nothing to suggest the Jesus was asking for forgiveness for the Pharisees that had called for his death on trumped up charges, knowing full well that they were condemning an innocent man, and of whom Christ said, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Christ was able to distinguish between the truly guilty, and those only guilty by association, and here he only asked forgiveness for the latter.
2. He was not trying to have them forgiven for everything. Jesus was speaking specifically of his execution, which was carried out by these men only because it was assigned to them by their superiors to do so. He was beseeching for them in this matter where they “knew not what they did,” but that would not make them any less culpable for other sins, ones where they did know what they did. Before or after executing Christ, if any of these men should lie, or steal, or contradict their conscience in any way, they would still be on the hook for those actions.

Thus, this passage is an example of forgiving the ignorant when they are ignorant. It makes no assertions, however, about the knowingly guilty. Does this passage still have a lesson of love of forgiveness for followers of Christ? Of course! We should all aspire to similarly remove ourselves from our pain and recognize whether we have been wronged deliberately or ignorantly, and we should have the presence of mind to pardon those that are still learning. We should be gracious enough to give the benefit of the doubt as far as it can rationally be extended, though not so far that it becomes a farce.