“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”
You pleaded on our behalf Jesus. That is beyond beautiful to me.
You knew in that selfless plead that we lacked the awareness of your love for us.
That as humans, in our limited capacities, we are in a way, confined to our actions in the moment.
It’s only after the fact of our actions, that we tend to realise the grave mistake we had unleashed through that moment of choice.
But by then, it often seems too late.
All actions have consequences.
You knew. Even when we don’t. The gravity of our actions.
Yet you, out of your sovereign design, allow us to act out of our own free will. Out of our deepest dignity as humans, that of choice.
And it’s only in this sacred dignity, this gift, this ability to choose, that we can experience what love really means.
An officer of the law made a choice the other day that had the gravest of consequences. A human life was lost. A person, a beautiful unfolding story, gone just like that.
Yet, only after this officer had taken the life of this precious human being, will he have the opportunity to experience your grace, your love, your justice and mercy.
What a paradox beyond what I can currently comprehend.
So, I look to you Jesus, you are the expression of beauty and truth that this world so desperately needs. That I so desperately need.
You are love in all it’s varied expressions. You lived for justice and died overflowing with mercy. Even towards those who were murdering you, taking your life, torturing you in some of the worst ways imaginable.
“I can’t breathe”
The sound waves of life, so inhumanely being taken from this dear man.
A sound of dying is what we are hearing.
You know this sound.
As you too, could not breathe.
And yet your words in those moments were not for your own life, but you spoke and pleaded for us, for our forgiveness.
Why?
How?
This officer had his full weight crushing into the neck of another man. This officer who was deaf to the heart wrenching pleading of a dying man, a man who was human just like him. A son, a friend, a life.
Yet this officer was blind to see…
a human soul in front of him.
…
So Jesus, I look to who you are and I believe this now more than ever
That there is not a single problem that we face collectively as a human race that can’t find a solution in the individual choice to follow your way.
So start with me.
Your love in action for my soul will always be more than enough.
You suffered for me
for us, on that cross.
In your pain, you held me in your heart. So that in my pain, I’d be held there too.
I love you beyond anything in my life
Deeper and deeper, day by day, moment by moment.
You are the help and we are your conduits.
My love is your love
A love this world so desperately needs.
I’ll choose again and again, with all that I am, to follow your way.
A way of forgiveness that you lived on the cross.
A way of freedom that you expressed with your life.
A way of love that makes us more deeply human.
My love is your love
And we need you now more than ever.
