Father, Forgive Them
MUSIC BLOG
02-08-2024
Father, Forgive Them
Children’s choirs have always had a soft place in my heart. First, it was in the children's choir that I first began to see that God was calling me into full-time ministry. My music minister, Gene Stokes, was the best children’s choir leader. He was full of knowledge and had the unique ability to share his knowledge with others and was especially gifted with children and youth.
My path to ministry was peppered with copious amounts of singing, practicing, and performing. My parents wanted to make sure that I was well-rounded, so I participated in sports, but my passion was always music. I may have had the admiration of my teachers, but not so much my peers. There was a lot of teasing and taunting that went along with my choices. So much so, that for a while I chose a different end, public school music educator. After college, I taught school for two years in a little town in southeastern Kansas.
My first year of teaching was a struggle. For starters, I was the third person to fill the role of music teacher in 1 ½ years. Saying the students were difficult was an understatement. They had gotten rid of two others in a short time, and they were convinced that I would be number three. In addition, Longton, KS is in a remote section of the state, even by Kansas standards. It was 40 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart or regular grocery store, and I traveled that distance 2 times a week to go to church on Sundays and Wednesdays. There were not a lot of people my age in town, so I spent a lot of time alone. It was after Christmas that my then-girlfriend broke up with me. I had talked to her about my desire to get married and she had other plans that didn’t include me. My mother was very sick and had spent time in the ICU in Kansas City and I was feeling very distant from everyone else. I realized that even the childhood faith that I had was wearing very thin in the real world that I was now living. I had no real assurance that If I died, I would go to heaven. It was in the month of February 1980 that I knew I had to make some changes. I decided to get on my knees and start praying. I determined not to get up until I had found peace with God and assurance of my salvation. I was on my knees for about an hour and a half. I confessed every sin I was aware that I had committed and asked God to please forgive me and come into my life and I would do whatever He wanted.
I finished the year and accepted my contract for year 2 at Longton USD 283. Even then, I knew that I would be heading on to seminary to fulfill God’s early call on my life. Even from the beginning, many things in my thinking and attitude began to change. Forgiving myself of things that God had already forgiven had been a continual struggle as was forgiving others of the wrongs they had done to me. I began to see the interconnectedness of forgiving others with accepting and experiencing God’s forgiveness.
To Hear Jesus say the words from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing!” Choosing not to forgive others is a huge contradiction, one that I realized I had to change. As a part of our children’s choir rehearsal, I have made it a point to include a closing prayer, the Lord’s Prayer. As this is the model prayer that Jesus gave His disciples, we must teach our children and our congregations the same. Forgive us our transgressions as we forgive those who transgress against us was modeled by our Lord on the cross. Even His own disciples, who had walked with Him for 3 years didn’t show up to support their teacher, master, and Lord. Then a thought struck me just this week. If Jesus hadn’t been forgiving others all His life, every day of His life He would not have been able to look out from the cross and choose to forgive those who He knew were very conscious of what they were doing in the physical world but had no clue what was transpiring in the spiritual world. They knew what they knew, but they didn’t know the whole story.
Luke 23:33-35
33 When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified Him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. 34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided His clothes and cast lots.
35 The people stood watching, and even the leaders kept scoffing: “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One!”
This was the first word from the cross. He had to do what was most pressing before He could do the other. Father, forgive them: not because they were worthy, not because they were innocent, not because they had the best intentions. On the contrary, they were unworthy, guilty, vile, and pernicious. Jesus forgave because in that moment more than any in His life He was showing the heart of the Father as recorded by John in chapter 3 verse 16. “For God so loved the world . . .”
Forgiveness is a shirt we must wear constantly. We cannot leave home without it. It’s greater than any credit card. Others get in our way, upset our apple cart, stab us, and wound us sometimes with malicious intent but usually through no fault of their own. They step in our mess, and we get mad. We then go to God and complain about it. We ask God to change them. We stew about it. We don’t feel any respite. God seems silent and distant. If we go back to the model prayer we remember, forgive us and we forgive. In the moment of our great anguish let us hearken back to our Savior’s anguish and learn.
As we choose to forgive as Jesus himself forgave, we then unblock to Holy Spirit from continuing to do His great work in us. Jesus went on to forgive the thief on the cross, take care of his mother, cry out to God, declare his bodily needs, declare His work to be complete, and surrender His life spirit back to God.
You may have yet your greatest work to do and so may I. Forgiving yourself and others may be the first step.
Blessings,
Marty