“But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’”
—Luke 23:34
Even while being sinned against by unrepentant people, Jesus carried no grudge.
While on the cross, he:
- forgave and asked mercy for his tormentors while still suffering in the middle of pain, torture, and injustice.
- made sure his mother had a caretaker, both providing for her and honoring John with a calling (John 19:26–27).
- ministered and witnessed to the thief on the cross next to him (Luke 23:39–43).
This is a picture of how we’re to act while suffering, even terribly and unfairly, at the hands of evil. We’re to pray for our enemies, to forgive, to care for our brothers and sisters, and to minister to unbelievers.
It’s so easy to let bitterness take root, unforgiveness win, and resentful anger take over. These are so often our dominating sins, but if they’re allowed to smolder in the background, every new hurt will be like gasoline on a fire, inflaming those attitudes all over again. This will not only prevent us from doing the good we could do in the lives of those around us, but will do both us and others harm (Hebrews 12:15).
However, if we smother the cinders of offense by constantly turning from those attitudes in ourselves, by forgiving how Jesus forgave (Ephesians 4:31–32), by being willing to lay down our lives for others (John 15:13), and by trusting that the last shall be first (Mark 10:31), the gasoline of pain will find no spark to ignite.
When suffering, we must continually give our own hurt to the Lord so these things don’t overtake us and we can be a gift to others even in the midst of our own pain.
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