And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them," for they know not what they do."
Devotion
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"one on his right and one on his left"
The Place Between Criminals · kakourgos · G2557 · GREEK
Kakourgos means evildoer or criminal — someone who works evil. In crucifying Jesus between two criminals, the soldiers unknowingly fulfilled Isaiah 53:12, which foretold that the Servant of God would be "numbered with the transgressors." Jesus did not merely die for sinners; he was positioned among them — placed in solidarity with the worst of humanity at the moment of his greatest suffering.
The cross was a criminal's death, and Jesus went there voluntarily, flanked by criminals. His position between two guilty men was not accidental but prophetic — Scripture had predicted that the righteous Servant would be reckoned among the lawless. He didn't die alongside them because he deserved it; he chose their company because we do.
📖 Luke 23:32–34 · The Man in the MiddleThey bring three men to Golgotha — the Place of the Skull. Two are criminals, condemned by Roman law. One is the Son of God, condemned by religious law. They are all crucified in the same way, at the same place, at the same hour. Passers-by would see three crosses and assume three criminals.
But the placement is not random. The soldiers positioning the crosses are, without knowing it, fulfilling ancient Scripture: "He was numbered with the transgressors." Seven hundred years earlier, Isaiah had written of a Servant who would be cut off from the land of the living and make his grave with the wicked. Now those words take shape in wood and iron.
Jesus is in the middle. He is always in the middle — between God and humanity, between justice and mercy, between what we deserve and what we need. On the cross, that "between" becomes visible and brutal. He is not among criminals as a mistake. He is there as a substitute, as a stand-in, as the one who takes the place of exactly the kind of people flanking him on each side.
And from that middle position, his first words are not about himself. They are about the very ones who placed him there.
"Father, forgive them"
The Release · aphes · G863 · GREEK
Aphes comes from aphiemi — to send away, to release, to let go. In the mouth of Jesus on the cross, it carries the full weight of divine authority: not "I hope you'll forgive them someday" but a present, active petition to the Father for the release of guilt from those who are in the very act of killing him. This is not passive forbearance. It is active intercession at the point of maximum pain.
Forgiveness from Jesus was not an afterthought — it was his first word from the cross. Before he breathes his last, before the atonement is complete, he is already interceding. This is who he is: not a reluctant savior but an eager one, praying for mercy even while mercy's price is being paid in his body.
📖 Luke 23:34 · The First Word Was IntercessionThey have driven the spikes. Jesus's arms are stretched wide, the weight of his body pulling against the nails. The soldiers are going through the routine of crucifixion — it is not their first, it will not be their last. The crowd jeers. The religious leaders watch with satisfaction.
And Jesus prays.
Not for relief. Not for rescue. Not for judgment on those who put him here. He prays for them. "Father, forgive them." The word — aphes — is a command-petition: release them, let them go, send this guilt away from them. It is not a suggestion. It is the intercession of a High Priest at the altar of his own body.
The soldiers don't look up. The crowd doesn't fall silent. Nothing dramatic happens in that moment — except that heaven hears a prayer, and the Son of God in agony opens his mouth not to curse but to cover. This is the character of Jesus on full display: not in the miracle moments but here, at the worst moment, where his first instinct is mercy.
Those who drove the nails did not know they were driving them into the one who would pray for them. That is the scandal of the cross — and the grace of it.
"they know not what they do"
The Blindness That Mercy Covers · ouk oidasin · G1492 · GREEK
Ouk oidasin — "they do not know" — comes from oida, a verb of perception and understanding. The people executing Jesus were not fully aware of the magnitude of their act. They did not know they were crucifying the Son of God, the Author of life, the one in whom all things hold together. Jesus speaks this not as an excuse but as a compassionate diagnosis: their ignorance is real, and it moves him to mercy rather than condemnation.
Jesus offers forgiveness before repentance is given. He does not wait for his executioners to understand what they've done — he prays for them in their ignorance. This is mercy that reaches further than guilt can go, covering not just what people know they've done but what they did without fully understanding it.
📖 Luke 23:34 · Mercy Before UnderstandingThe soldiers are doing their job. Crucifixion is a task — brutal, but routine for Rome's enforcers. They drive nails by the numbers. They divide his garments by lot because that's what you do with the clothes of the condemned. They don't know they're fulfilling Psalm 22:18. They don't know who he is.
The religious leaders know more, but not enough. They know Jesus has claimed to be the Son of God. What they don't know — what they cannot see — is that he actually is. They believe they are removing a blasphemer; they are cutting themselves off from the only one who could save them.
The crowd doesn't know either. They follow the mood, the energy of condemnation. In days prior they shouted hosanna; now they shout crucify. They are swept along by a current they can't fully understand.
And Jesus, hanging there, sees all of it — the ignorance, the blindness, the fog of human sin that keeps people from knowing what they're doing — and he does not condemn. He covers. "They know not what they do." It is a diagnosis and a prayer at once: they are blind, Father, so release them. They are lost, so forgive them. They do not know — so show them grace before they can even ask.
Declarations
- ✦ Jesus is the great Intercessor who prays for sinners even in the moment of their sin.
- ✦ Because of Jesus, I am forgiven — not because I earned it but because he prayed for me.
- ✦ Jesus covers my blindness with mercy before I even know I need it.
- ✦ Because of Jesus, I can forgive those who have wronged me, drawing from his inexhaustible grace.
- ✦ Jesus transforms enemies into the forgiven through a prayer prayed at the cross.
Prayer
Jesus, I stand at the cross and hear your first words — and they are not about yourself. Before you breathe out your pain, before you cry in thirst, before you speak of paradise or your mother — you pray for the ones who are killing you. "Father, forgive them." Lord, that breaks me open. You prayed for your executioners. You covered people in their blindness before they knew they needed it. I confess that I have used hurt as a reason to withhold grace, and I have waited for apologies before I was willing to pray for those who wronged me. Forgive me for the smallness of my mercy compared to yours. Today I come to the cross and I receive your intercession for me — for all I have done in ignorance, in rebellion, in blindness. And I ask for the grace to extend what you have given: to pray for those who have hurt me, to cover rather than expose, to release rather than hold. Make me a person who responds to injustice the way you did — not with retaliation, but with a prayer. Thank you that your first word from the cross was forgiveness. Let that be my first word too. Amen.
Think about it
Is there someone in your life you have been withholding forgiveness from? What would it look like to pray "Father, forgive them" on their behalf — not because they deserve it, but because Jesus did it for you?
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