I. Jesus prays. It is something to be capable of prayer in acute anguish of body. He prays, not for Himself. That is more. A cry for pity, for relief, for mitigation, for death a cry for patience, for faith, for grace, for heaven this might be. But to forget self altogether in suffering, to think of others, to use that breath of life, each gasp of which is torture, in prayer for another life or another soul this is not the manner of men, but it is the prayer of Christ. Yet once again, to think, even then of some loving and beloved one, some life next our own, and to pray for its welfare, and its salvation this too might be might just be. Jesus prays for His enemies, for His murderers, for His crucifiers. He prays, and He inspires the prayer; the first martyr, Stephen, prayed it after Him: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."
II. Inventive love, it has been written, makes ignorance a plea for mercy. These rude executioners, the direct objects of the intercession, might not the Sufferer have arraigned them for that ignorance which was doing despite to God Himself in the display of every hateful characteristic of the fallen and sinful nature. Evidently the ignorance is no innocence. Else why the prayer, Forgive them? St. Paul's ignorance was no innocence, for he speaks of himself, in the same breath, as needing mercy, and mercy is, by definition, kindness to the sinful.
III. We see in all this the exceeding great love, the self-forgetfulness, of Jesus Christ: His considerateness, stronger than death, yea, prevalent because of death, towards men who pierce Him; His unprovokableness by slight or insult; His far-seeing hope for the unthankful and the evil. He looks to the end, the eventual state, the eternity to be lived through. Let Him see of the travail of His soul, in that one case over which alone you have control your own. It has been written, "Wander whither thou wilt, thou must come at last to the place of a skull." Let it be to that Golgotha where Christ gave Himself to be life from the dead.
C. J. Vaughan, Words from the Cross,p. 1.
I. The first thing that strikes me in this passage, is that it is one of our Saviour's dying sayings. His death must ever be the most public event in time the central fact of history. All the children are sent for all are called to look and listen while He is dying. Every dying word of His is set down with most exact minuteness, and set down for the purpose of perfect and eternal publication. No preacher like the dying Christ; no pulpit like the Cross; no congregation like that which was and ever is around it; no sermon like the seven sentences used there.
II. Observe, secondly, that this saying is one of seven. What is the deep thought that underlies this mystic seven? Looking intently on the surface, we recognise that, at least, here is the sign of "order, heaven's first law," and have an evidence that the work finished by Jesus on the Cross has a Divinely symmetrical completeness. Looking below the surface, we gradually find that here, as in other Scripture passages, the number seven on any series of words or actions marks that series as conveying some revelation of God to us, which is distinguished even above His other revelations by its great glory and its importance.
III. We are struck with the fact that the first of these seven sayings of Christ crucified is a prayer for His crucifiers. As chance had nothing to do with making the sayings seven, so chance had nothing to do with the place of each in the order of succession. To our mind, this order shows development of a revelation and not mere sequence in time. It shows what so filled the Saviour's heart when He was dying as to make this speech its first overflow.
IV. This prayer of love was effectual. When the Holy Spirit lighted up the meaning of the Cross, brought out its force, showed the crucifiers what they had been doing, made a judgment day in their souls, and pricked them to the heart; then they cried out, and looking to Him whom they had pierced, were forgiven.
C. Stanford, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xviii., p. 232.
References: Luke 23:34. Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. vii., p. 86; H. Wace, Expositor,2nd series, vol. ii., p. 196; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,3rd series, p. 24; Ibid.,4th series, p. 28; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week,p. 247; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts,p. 112; Ibid., Sermons,vol. xv., No. 897. Luke 23:35-37. Homiletic Magazine,vol. x., p. 206; Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 160. Luke 23:39. S. Minton, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 198. Luke 23:39-43. J. C. Ryle, Church Sermons,vol. i., p. 57; Homiletic Magazine,vol. x., p. 193.Luke 23:39-45. Ibid.,vol. xii., p. 142; Ibid.,vol. xiv., p. 236; Christian World Pulpit,vol. i., p. 333; Ibid.,vol. xiii., p. 217; R. C. Trench, Studies in the Gospels,p. 297. Luke 23:40-42. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxii., No. 1881.Luke 23:41. J. Keble, Sermons from Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday,p. 31.