These were some of the first words Jesus spoke from the cross. Not a curse, not a cry for justice — a prayer for the people driving the nails. It is one of the most disorienting things He ever said, and it raises an uncomfortable question: if He could forgive from there, what is our excuse for holding on to the things we refuse to let go of?

In October 2006, a twenty-year-old firefighter named Matt Swatzell drove home after a twenty-four-hour shift in Georgia with barely thirty minutes of sleep. Two miles from his house, he fell asleep at the wheel and crossed the centerline. His truck hit the car of a thirty-year-old woman named June Fitzgerald, who was seven months pregnant. She and her unborn son both died. Her nineteen-month-old daughter Faith, who was in the back seat, survived. June's husband Erik was a pastor. When prosecutors asked if he wanted to push for the maximum sentence, Erik said he didn't want any more lives ruined. He asked for leniency. He prayed for the man who had killed his family. He told his youth group to pray for the driver. For two years, while the legal case was open, the two men couldn't speak. On the day before the two-year anniversary of the crash, Matt went to a grocery store to buy a card for Erik. In the parking lot, he saw Erik walking in. He approached him, and broke down crying. Erik walked over and hugged him. "That was the biggest relief I'd ever felt," Matt said later. "Just hearing him say he forgave me — it changed my life completely." The two became close friends, meeting regularly for years afterward. Erik later said: "You forgive as you've been forgiven. It wasn't an option."

That last line is straight from the cross. Jesus didn't forgive because the people around Him deserved it. He forgave because that is what love looks like when it has nothing left to protect. Is there someone you have been unable to forgive? The cross doesn't make it easy. But it does make it possible.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You prayed for the people who crucified You. We confess that we hold on to smaller offences with both hands. Soften what has hardened in us. Help us to forgive — not because it feels right, but because You did it first. Amen.