Hello all - it's been a while!  I've still been active in my church, albeit in a more limited way.  But I am still passionate about worship, and I was lucky to be asked to do a short reflection this Good Friday on one of the Lord's 'last words'.  I was assigned Luke 23:32-25.  Here's what I've come up with - I would love some feedback!

³² Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. ³³ When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”^[c] And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

 ³⁵ The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

There are three parts of this familiar scripture that became new to me as I wrote this reflection.   But before I share them with you, I have a confession to make – I love footnotes.  I know, I’m a geek; I get a sick pleasure out of learning completely useless little facts.  But I can’t help it – footnotes are great.  I discover the most interesting things when I read them.  So you might be able to imagine how excited I got when I saw the miniscule letter c hanging off the end of “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”.  Scripture part #1. 

The footnote said… wait for it… “Some early manuscripts do not have this sentence.”

Great, I thought.  How am I supposed to interpret that?!  I mean, this particular saying of Jesus doesn’t exist in any of the other Gospels (I know, I checked!), but it’s probably one of the more famous ‘last words’ that he spoke.  “Some early manuscripts do not have this sentence”, really?  You’re telling me that Jesus didn’t actually say it?

So I did what I often do when faced with frustration; I dismissed it.  I promised myself that I’d come back to it later.  But you see, those of you who know me might know that I’m easily distracted and I had spotted another footnote – a cute little superscripted character on the second half of the same verse (or as I like to call ‘Scripture Part #2’): “And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.”  This little d had me flipping to a cross reference in Psalm 22, verse 18, which reads “They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.”

Oooh, now that’s interesting.  Was the writer of Luke tying in a part of the Old Testament on purpose?  Let’s see… which Psalm is this again?  Psalm 22, verse one: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”…

Sound familiar?  You see, psalms were literally ‘songs’ in those times, ones that everyone knew the lyrics to.  When Jesus spoke that first line, perhaps he trying to remind us all of the spirit of hope – not despair – that that particular Psalm embodies.  That, as the psalm’s later verses tell us “He has not forgotten the one who is hurting.  He has not turned away from his suffering.  He has not turned his face away from him.  He has listened to his cry for help.”   That’s verse 24.

And Psalm 22’s last verse is as hopeful and promising as you can get.  “Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord.  His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born.  They will hear about everything he has done.”

Cool.  That’s talking about us, by the way.  We are the future generations.  We’ve been told the stories of God and of Jesus over and over.  We hear verses like “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” and “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” and we recognize them... like lyrics of a familiar song.

Confidence in my biblical investigative skills renewed, I went back to struggle with Scripture part #1.  Being a self-professed geek, I read a number of theological papers; some claimed that the early church had taken that part out on purpose because they couldn’t possibly imagine forgiveness for the Jews.  Others argued that it had been added later to strengthen the faith convictions of Christian martyrs.  To be honest, I got confused and more than a little bored.  So I put the papers and the Greek translations away, and reread the scripture.  This is when I noticed ‘Scripture Part #3’.

“The people stood watching”.  I almost missed it, being so distracted with the footnotes and Christ’s own words.  But I think there’s a link there.  Jesus asks for forgiveness for a people who are ignorant, who don’t know what they’re doing.  And that ignorance is confirmed as the people stood – watching, not acting, and not understanding the real meaning of what was going on.

We’re a different people in a different time.  In fact, we are the future generations that Psalm 22 talked about.  We KNOW the stories of Christ and the wonders of the Lord; we know what Jesus endured on our behalf, and why – to forgive us for our sins and shortcomings… and for our ignorance.  Ah – there’s the catch.  Can we say we’re ignorant?  We live in a crazy, speed-of-light world where information is literally, everywhere.  We hear it, watch it, read it, stream it, tweet it… the messages get faster and shorter so we can cram more of it into our heads in less amount of time.  But I think we often find ourselves never looking past the headlines, never reading the footnotes.  Maybe this is what Jesus was saying to us in his last words.  Maybe it isn’t just a call for God to forgive those responsible for his death; maybe it’s a call for us, the future generations, to go deeper.  To KNOW what we are doing, to understand the consequences of our actions and choices, to look closer at all things in our lives and our faith, and to not just stand by, watching.  So let this Good Friday service be a gift; a chance to take the time to listen intently to the familiar last words of Christ, and to discover the deeper message he wants us to hear.