Luke 23:12 “Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day, for before they had been enemies with each other.”

✝️ After Jesus was tried by the Sanhedrin, they sent Him to Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea for trial. But when Pilate came to know that Jesus was from Galilee, he sent Jesus to Herod who was in Jerusalem at that time for trial. Herod mocked and made fun of Jesus along with his officers and sent him back to Pilate saying that he found no fault with Jesus. Pilate too found no fault with Jesus after he heard all the accusations done against Him .

✝️ Before the crucifixion of Jesus, we find that because of Jesus, two enemies had now become friends – Pilate and Herod.
✝️ Children of God, let us remember that Jesus through His suffering and death has reconciled us to God, the Heavenly Father. And now He also reconciles us to one another by teaching us to love and forgive one another just as He has forgiven us our faults and failures. Let us imitate Jesus our Lord and Savior, who loved us so much as to die for our sins so that we could be freed from the slavery of sin and live a life of righteousness and holiness. Amen.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
6975 – Patsy Fernandes

To love the unlovable leads to forgive the unforgivable

Luke: 23

❇️ Jesus said,” Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.”(v34)

❇️ Cross of Calvary became an altar on which Christ was sacrificed to forgive the unforgivable. Sin is an all time pandemic which only God could solve on that first Good Friday .

❇️ First cry of our Saviour from the cross was an intercessary prayer for forgiveness to all. Forgiveness is granting pardon without harbouring resentment

Our sins are of two types

1.Sins committed knowingly

2.Sins committed unknowingly

❇️ First type of sins lead to guilt in us.Guilt is an obligation to suffer punishment.Christ was offered as a guilt offering on the cross (Isa.53:10) which was a comprehensive offering for the guilt of entire humanity.

❇️ God also wanted to forgive those sins we committed unknowingly which would make the redemption of humanity complete. Thus keeping this in mind our Redeemer in the midst of agony asked the Father to forgive those sins we committed unknowingly.

Why did Christ petition his Father on the cross instead of himself forgiving ?

❇️ Forgiving sin and its consequences is a divine prerogative. Christ did not use his divine prerogative since he was hanging on the cross as a true representative of humanity. Therefore he took the role of a pleader asking for the forgiveness for our sins.

❇️ Christ obtained forgiveness to the unforgivable by his love and sacrifice.We too can forgive the unforgivable for the following reasons.

▪️ God the Father forgave us, the unforgivable on the basis of what Christ did on the cross and hence we should come forward to forgive the unforgivable.

▪️We can forgive the unforgivable by realizing that they too do not know what they do to us and Christ wants us to emulate him in forgiving them.

▪️To forgive the unforgivable the prerequisite is to love the unlovable.This is the way for peace and inner healing as shown by Christ on the cross.

✅ Insights learnt:

▪️Christ’s death caused God to
forgive the unforgivable

▪️We can enjoy peace and
inner healing by forgiving
the unforgivable

▪️To love the unlovable leads to
forgive the unforgivable

Dr. E. Christadoss
Vellore 🙏🏽