Our meditations this morning on the Seven Words in which Christ made some partial disclosure of His Mind and Will, will form some part of that co-operation, one little stage in the accomplishment of our life-long task.
II
THE FIRST WORD
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” St. Luke xxiii. 34.
1. Here we are watching the behaviour of the Son of God, the Ideal and Ground of Divine Sonship in humanity.
Is this supreme example of forgiveness an example to us? Is it not something unnatural to humanity as we know it?
We must recall, from a former address, the distinction which we then drew between the animal in us, with its self-assertive instincts, and the Divine in us, that which constitutes us not animal merely, but human, of which the very essence is the self-sacrifice of perfect love. Christ came to reveal God in our manhood. And I need this revelation, just because the animal in me has won so many victories in the past over the Divine, because in me the spiritual fire habitually burns so low and dim.
It is a very different thing to say that forgiveness of all serious injury is a hard thing. It is hard, but not impossible. That which makes it to be possible
is the serious intention of discipleship, co-operating with the indwelling Spirit of Christ transforming us into His likeness.
To assert, on the other hand, that forgiveness of serious wrong is impossible, is to ignore the fact that He Who uttered these wonderful words is the true self of me, and of every man who breathes. He Who hung on the Cross, and spoke these seven words, is the Son of man, the Representative to all ages, to all varieties of human character, of true humanity.
2. Christ-like forgiveness is no weak thing, but the strongest thing in the world.