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

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

These words are not spoken from the podium or in the comfort of a sanctuary, but from the splintered wood of a Roman cross on Calvary by our Lord Jesus Christ. Roman soldiers, Jewish leaders, and perhaps symbolically, all of sinful humanity, want Jesus to be crucified to death (Acts 4:27–28; Isaiah 53:3–6). They all unjustly condemned, brutally scourged, stripped, and mocked Jesus (Matthew 27:26–31; Mark 15:16–20). Yet, Jesus, in His dying breath, didn’t cry for vengeance or for self-justification; rather, He prayed for the mercy of these people (Luke 23:34).

If we look to Jesus’ ministry, where parables play a key role in His teachings to make them understandable to every human’s capacity for knowledge (Matthew 13:10–13), we need to consider few of the below parables:

1. The Parable of the Prodigal Son – the returned prodigal son got compassion and restoration of His Father (Luke 15:11–24).

2. The Tax Collector in the Temple – it is the tax collector, not the Pharisee, who goes home justified before God (Luke 18:9–14).

3. The Thief Crucified Beside Jesus - A lifetime of wrongdoing, yet in one sincere moment of repentance, the thief is welcomed into eternal life by Jesus (Luke 23:39–43).

Jesus restored all their lives and never condemned their lives or status (John 8:11; Luke 19:10).

Now, to the theological significance of the words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Let’s go through this, one point at a time.

Father, forgive them - To whom is this addressed?

We can understand that it is addressed to the father (Luke 23:34), but for whom is it intended?

Is it only for the Roman soldiers? Or the jeering crowd? Or the religious authorities who engineered His death? Or is it for all of the above?
I believe this is addressed to all of them. These words reverberate as a divine act of advocacy. Even in death, our Lord is a mediator—our mediator, the mediator for all humanity (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 7:25). He is the Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14–15) who prays for His executioners but not against them.
Even if the people haven’t asked, He shows mercy and asks the Father to forgive them. (Romans 5:8; Luke 23:34).
This forgiveness is not received by their asking or because they deserve it. It is a pre-emptive forgiveness received only by the unilateral grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9; Titus 3:5), which He has on us/humanity.
As a human being, we might think they all need to be punished, that justice has not been served. But we need to understand, by going deeper into the Bible, that this is not an act that implies a suspension of justice.

It is justice transformed by the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:25–26).
He is the King of Peace (Isaiah 9:6; Zechariah 9:9–10), not the King of War. This King of Peace has a very divine, powerful heart of forgiveness to save but not to destroy (John 3:17).

And the reason? “For they know not what they do.” - ignorance vs innocence:

Jesus continues to speak to Father, that they are ignorant of Him, the Messiah. Hence, he is asking for his Forgiveness.

I think, they may be ignorant, but that ignorance does not make them innocent.
We must understand that ignorance does not make you innocent. being Ignorant does not imply he/she blameless or innocent of their actions as it does not remove the culpability or guilt of the person who has done wrong, even if they didn't fully grasp the consequences of their actions.

We must note that here, Jesus does not ignore or deny the guilt of those who crucified Him. (Acts 2:23).

He acknowledges their wrongdoing, but He recognizes that it stems from a lack of spiritual insight. (1 Corinthians 2:8).

They do not see the truth of who Jesus is, and thus, they act in ignorance (Acts 3:17).

Rather than condemning them outright, Jesus prays for God’s mercy to mitigate the consequences of their actions, offering them forgiveness not because they deserve it, but because their blindness and ignorance of God’s truth require divine grace and compassion. (Luke 23:34; Romans 5:8).

And so, we come to ourselves. What does this saying require of us?
In a world where justice is often equated with retribution, this cry from the cross (Luke 23:34) is a rebuke and a revolution.

Forgiveness, in Jesus’ vision, is not optional. It is not sentimental. It is foundational (Matthew 6:14–15; Colossians 3:13). The Christian life begins and ends in mercy. (Titus 3:5; James 2:13).
This is perhaps most painfully demonstrated in the story of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who—as Luke recounts in Acts 7— Stephen in his death echoes Jesus’ words as he dies:

“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” (Acts 7:60)
Forgiveness, even of the unforgivable, is the mark of discipleship (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:36–37).

But let us be honest: This is a hard teaching.

In cases of deep injustice—genocide, abuse, oppression— to forgive seems to betray justice itself. And yet, as Bonhoeffer (German theologian) reminds us in The Cost of Discipleship, costly grace is precisely that—costly. Not because it ignores evil, but because it defeats it without replicating it (Romans 12:21).

Reference: (Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 1937)

Martin Luther King Jr. (American Christian minister & civil rights leader) believed, was not forgetting. It was not weakness. It was the only power strong enough to break the cycle of hate and revenge (Romans 12:17–19; Ephesians 4:31–32).”

Reference : “Certainly one can never forget, if that means erasing totally for his mind. But when we forgive, we forget in the sense that the evil deed is no longer a mental block impeding a new relationship.” — Martin Luther King Jr., Loving Your Enemies, Christmas 1957

Let us return to the moment itself.
Jesus speaks. “Father, forgive them…” (Luke 23:34)
And then silence.
There is no answer from the sky. No voice from heaven. Only the grim business of execution.
But in that silence, the seed of resurrection is planted (John 12:24). Forgiveness is not just a moral choice. It is the beginning of new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 21:5). The world is being remade—not through force, but through mercy (Matthew 5:7; James 2:13).
This saying is not simply a prayer from the past. It is a call to us—to forgive, even when it costs us; to love, even when it hurts; to see in our enemies what God sees: not monsters, but people trapped in ignorance, fear, and sin (Matthew 5:44; Ephesians 6:12).

And so, I leave you with this thought:
If the Son of God, in the hour of His death, could forgive the very hands that nailed Him to a tree— then what might we, who live by His name, forgive? (Luke 23:34; Matthew 18:21–22)

Think of the people in your life who need your forgiveness. What might happen if we truly embody Christ’s mercy? (Colossians 3:13).

Thank you,

DRS Chaitanya CSM, MBA, MSc