…FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO

A Sermon by Rev. Mark R. Thomson

Harundale Presbyterian Church

March 18,2001

3^rd Sunday in Lent

Scripture: Luke 23:32-37

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight,

O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen (Based upon Psalm 19:4)

"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

So says the son of God to those who mocked him, beat him, held his arms stretched out against the wooden tree and pounded iron nails into his flesh, and hung him up to die a cruel and violent death.

With each blow of the hammer"…they know not what they do." Why couldn’t they see what they were doing?

Had they only known what they were doing, perhaps it could have been different. But so it goes with sinful humanity who too often "know not what they do."

"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

In that one powerful line of scripture spoken by an innocent man being killed, the world is convicted of violence, convicted of ignorance and at the same time the world is exposed to the undeserved grace of God.

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It is the second half of Jesus’ words from the cross that has drawn my attention as of late. "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.’ I was always taught that ignorance of the law is no excuse. Yet in essence, Jesus is forgiving the ignorance of those who are hurting him. "They know not what they do." Sinful humanity too often doesn’t realize the hurt it is causing. Yet God is merciful. Thank God. I had an opportunity this past weekend to visit with some relatives in Altoona, PA. They are both school teachers in the Altoona school district. They related to us the stressful events of the last week. My uncle is a music teacher and was beginning rehearsal when a young student came up to him and said that one of the other students had come to school with a gun in his book bag. Apparently he had been bragging about it on the bus. Most of the students were scared and didn’t want to say anything, but this one young student felt he had to report it, especially in light of the past weeks events in California and the two students who died.

Of course, this scared my uncle as well. Because they were in rehearsal, the kids book bag was in the band room and not with him on stage. My uncle made an excuse to get the kid to carry a tuba to the band room where he was met by the assistant principle and together they confronted him with the accusation. My uncle was praying that the gun was not on the kids person, but still in the book bag. They found the gun, which turned out to be an air pistol, and a knife in the kid’s bag. The kid denied he brought the gun to school; he said someone else must have put it there….But who knows what could have happened. My aunt, tears in her eyes, said, "Our lives could have been changed forever. I could have lost my husband. You never know."

That night we went out to dinner and took Jessica to a place called "Slinky Action Zone" which is an arcade place like Chucky-Cheeze. My aunt stood watching a young boy, plastic gun in hand, gleefully splattering the blood of electronic people in a video game and she turned to me and said, "We don’t know what we are doing, do we?"

As a parent getting ready to send my child into the public school system, I can not help but be afraid. As an engineer, I know the numbers, the odds are very low of anything happening. Yet…you never know. I don’t think my parents experienced the same level of anxiety as parents do today.

I went around work asking people if they thought we lived in a more violent world, and the response was a resounding, "Yes." I asked them what they thought the cause was. O course violent TV and video games were mentioned, but all thought there was something more but couldn’t put their finger on it. I couldn’t either until I went to a web-site called the "Teen Think-Tank" which contained the reflections of teenagers discussing the causes of school violence. The reasons all boiled down to "a lack of respect between people."

At the point it hit me like a brick. So often, what people don’t know they are doing is they are failing to respect others.

When my daughter was hit by a young boy she asked me, "Why did he do that daddy?" My response was, "He’s wrong sweety, he doesn’t know what he is doing. We don’t hit what do we do?" "Hug and kiss daddy." Right. Next time block his punch and tell him he’s wrong.

When another child came up and stole a toy Jess was playing with, she asked me, "Why did he do that daddy?" "He’s wrong sweety, he doesn’t know what he is doing."

"…they know not what they do."

How many times have I found myself saying the same thing. Why? Because, perhaps what has changed in our world, the root cause of many problems, is a basic lack of respect for one another.

There is a lot of violence on TV, and there’s lots of violent video games out there. As Christians we should question the use of these by our children. They desensitize us to others pain. But we know somewhere that our children will be exposed to this stuff, so most importantly we must teach them to respect others and not take their queues for life from TV. We must teach them that, "they know not what they do."

Most of the teenagers in the think-tank put the blame on families not teaching their kids basic values and respect. I agree. But I also acknowledge that there are so many voices that our children are exposed to that it makes it difficult to raise our children.

I realize that my fear of the school system was really a fear of the other kids and those parents who "know not what they do" when they fail to teach their kids respect.

I also realize how so much is out of my control. I can’t change all the neglectful parents. I can’t teach all the children to be respectful. I’m angry that the world is like this. I can only pray. I can only teach my child the ways of Christ. I’m thankful for the church community where we can come to find rest for our souls.

I find a tremendous comfort in reflecting on how Jesus handled himself on the cross. "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do."

"My ways are not your ways," says the Lord.

There are three things I hope you will take away from this as you go into the world today.

First, people too often "know not what they do." The bullies of the world whether in school or work are wrong. The people who tease us because of our looks are wrong. The racists and bigots who throw dirty looks and vicious comments, are wrong! The abusive people of the world who try to control are wrong.

Too often when we teased, or abused we might be tempted to think, "Its me…there’s something wrong with me…I’m a bad person." Jesus was an innocent man hung on a cross. Its wasn’t him who was wrong. "They know not what they do."

Blessed are you when people persecute you for righteousness sake. God knows you have been wronged. Look back at the world that might sometimes hurt you and say as Christ did from the cross, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Second, unlike the world, we do not seek vengeance on those who wrong us. Jesus from the cross prays for his Father to have mercy and forgive. Perhaps this is the hardest part for us. We are surrounded by heroes in our media, all who always seek revenge on those who hurt them. Combine the lack of respect in our culture with violent TV, and video games, a lack of parental involvement and we are faced with a volatile mixture with the potential for things like Columbine happen.

While not condoning at all the school violence that has occurred, I find it interesting that many of the cases are of children who received no respect from their peers and sought vengeance upon those who had hurt them.

Vengeance is not the answer God wants us to offer. "Vengeance is mine," says the Lord, "not ours." "Love your enemy", says Jesus. Yet, in our society, to not get even is a sign of weakness. Most people don’t get even by killing someone else; yet vengeance can be more subtle. Holding a grudge is a form of vengeance – our way of getting back.

The person at work who can’t let go of the fact that you got the promotion and not them. The person at work who can’t get over the fact that someone criticized their great idea. Vengeance can be subtle as well.

Now let me make something clear. Not seeking vengeance is different than simply taking abuse silently. Too often we interpret Christian mercy as passivity in the face of violence. The abused wife who takes it without complaint. That’s not what I want to put forth. Defending yourself against the bully is one thing. Going after the bully to get even is another. Getting out of an abusive relationship is one thing…setting the bed on fire is another. Not taking vengeance is different that seeking justice.

Christian seek justice. Christians do not seek revenge. Rather, we look at those people who are abusive as sad, lost souls who are in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. They know not what they do. One of the interesting things about Jesus’ prayer from the cross is that Jesus himself didn’t forgive them, he asked for the Father to forgive him. Now aside from the Trinitarian riddle that Jesus is God, there is something there for us to take hold of.

Sometimes what has happened to us hurts so bad that it is difficult for us to utter the word forgiveness. Yet while we struggle with our ability to forgive, we can ask God to forgive them as Christ did. That at least begins us on the path of forgiveness.

What we must contend with in our culture is the stigma that we are weak because we don’t seek to get even; weak because we seek forgiveness. It is the cross we must carry as Christians. Paul reminds us that it is in weakness that we are truly strong. Our hero is not Rambo, or Steven Segal, or Walker Texas Ranger – but rather our hero is Christ. The world may not think Christ is cool. "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

Third, the church must be the living alternative to a world without respect. The world is crying our to understand what is going wrong. To be a light shining on the hill, this must be the place where we respect one another, we respect differences of appearance, and differences of opinion. In Christ there is no Greek or Jew, slave or free; we are all children of God together and deserve to give everyone we meet that level of respect.

We need to show the world that the better person doesn’t seek revenge when wronged. Rather when we are persecuted, mistreated, hung on the cross so-to-speak, we know God is with us and that it is not we who have the problem, but them. Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. In doing so, we expose them to the undeserved Grace of God. In doing so, we become living examples of the Good News.

We need to show the world that our children must be loved and taught how to be good people and that this begins with the family and is supported by the church family. One of the disturbing things I read about teaching respect for one another is that is must be done early in life. To have respect for another person, that person must be capable of empathy – the ability to step into another person’s shoes and understand how they must feel. Some studies have shown that if empathy is not taught to a child by age 4, it will be difficult to teach it to them later.

It seems more and more I have to explain to my daughter how those other kids, "know not what they do." It is hard to raise your child to be respectful and kind when we are surrounded by so many competing voices. Its hard to see a child being mean in the play area at the mall, while the parents sits idly by reading the newspaper failing to teach their child how to be good. In fact its so hard, that usually I have a talk with the child.

It is hard to learn empathy if the TV is the only teacher.

Father forgive us sinful humans, for too often we know not what we do.

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It is a fact of life that people will sometimes mistreat us. People can be mean and rude. How we respond to them says a lot about whose we are. If we are the worlds, then we will want revenge; we will want to get even.

As Christ’s you know that "they know not what they do." Its not me. I’m not crazy, the world is. Remember that you are nothing more and nothing less than a beloved child of God, no matter what the world thinks. But also remember that the person who is rude is also nothing more and nothing less than a beloved child of God. Christ from the cross gave his executioners that respect, we must do the same to those who hurt us.

"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

So says the son of God to those who mocked him, beat him, held his arms stretched out against the wooden tree and pounded iron nails into his flesh, and hung him up to die a cruel and violent death.

In that one powerful line of scripture spoken by an innocent man being killed, the world is convicted of violence, convicted of ignorance and at the same time the world is exposed to the undeserved grace of God.