At one of the most painful moments of the crucifixion, the Gospel of Luke records Jesus praying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” He did not answer cruelty with revenge. He answered with a prayer for forgiveness. But who was Jesus praying for, why did He say these words, and what did He mean by “they do not know”? Nearly two thousand years later, this brief prayer remains one of the most challenging and powerful teachings associated with Jesus.
Jesus Spoke of Forgiveness While He Was Being Crucified
The words appear in Luke 23:34. The scene surrounding them is important. Jesus had already been arrested, questioned, mocked, beaten, and taken outside Jerusalem to be crucified. Luke says that He was crucified alongside two criminals, while soldiers divided His clothing by casting lots.
It is within this setting that Luke records Jesus saying:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
The remarkable part is not simply that Jesus spoke about forgiveness. He had taught forgiveness throughout His ministry. What makes this moment extraordinary is when He said it.
Earlier, Jesus had instructed His followers to “love your enemies” and “pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27–28). At the cross, Luke presents Jesus doing exactly what He had taught others to do. His teaching about mercy was no longer an idea spoken safely to a crowd. He was praying for forgiveness while experiencing injustice himself.
There is no recorded demand for retaliation in these words. Instead, Jesus addresses God as “Father” and asks for mercy toward others.
For Christians, that makes Luke 23:34 one of the clearest examples of Jesus living the message He had preached.
Who Did Jesus Mean When He Said “Forgive Them”?
Luke does not explicitly identify every person included in the word “them,” which means we should be careful about claiming more than the text tells us.
The immediate context includes the people participating in or surrounding the crucifixion. Roman soldiers carried out the execution and divided Jesus’ clothing. Religious and political authorities had played roles in the events leading to His crucifixion, while Luke also describes members of the crowd watching what happened.
For that reason, Christian interpreters have understood Jesus’ prayer in different but overlapping ways. Some understand it primarily as a prayer for the soldiers carrying out the execution. Others see a broader request for forgiveness encompassing those responsible for His suffering.
There is also an important historical point. The crucifixion of Jesus must never be used to assign collective guilt to Jewish people. Crucifixion was a Roman method of execution, and the Gospel narratives describe particular individuals and authorities within a specific historical setting, not an entire ethnic or religious people across generations.
The larger theological meaning of the prayer goes beyond trying to construct a list of guilty individuals.
Jesus was surrounded by people contributing to His suffering, yet His response was a request for mercy.
That is what makes the scene so difficult to forget.
What Did Jesus Mean by “They Do Not Know What They Are Doing”?
The second half of Jesus’ prayer is just as important as the first:
“…for they do not know what they are doing.”
This does not necessarily mean that everyone involved was completely unaware of their actions. The soldiers knew they were conducting an execution. Those who had participated in the proceedings knew that Jesus had been condemned.
The statement can instead be understood at a deeper level: they did not fully comprehend the significance of the person being crucified or, from the Christian perspective, the full meaning of what was taking place.
This theme appears elsewhere in the New Testament. In Acts 3:17, Peter tells his listeners that they and their rulers acted in ignorance. Paul similarly writes in 1 Corinthians 2:8 that if the rulers of that age had understood God’s wisdom, they would not have crucified “the Lord of glory.”
Ignorance, however, is not presented simply as an excuse that makes every action acceptable.
Jesus asks the Father to forgive.
That distinction matters. Forgiveness is meaningful precisely because something requiring forgiveness has occurred.
In this scene, Jesus acknowledges human wrongdoing without allowing wrongdoing to have the final word.
These Words Echo What Jesus Had Been Teaching All Along
Luke 23:34 becomes even more powerful when placed beside Jesus’ earlier teachings.
When His disciples asked how they should treat enemies, Jesus did not merely tell them to tolerate those people. In the Sermon on the Plain, He taught:
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27–28)
Jesus also repeatedly connected receiving mercy with extending mercy to others. Forgiveness appears in the prayer He taught His disciples: “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us” (Luke 11:4).
Then consider what happens during His arrest.
When one of Jesus’ followers strikes the servant of the high priest and cuts off his ear, Luke says Jesus stops the violence and heals the wounded man (Luke 22:49–51). Shortly afterward, Jesus Himself is taken away.
These episodes form a consistent pattern in Luke’s Gospel.
Jesus teaches mercy.
Jesus refuses retaliation.
Jesus heals someone associated with those arresting Him.
And finally, from the cross, Jesus prays for forgiveness.
Seen this way, “Father, forgive them” is not an isolated sentence added to an otherwise unrelated story. It is the culmination of a way of living Jesus had been teaching throughout His ministry.
He asked His followers to love their enemies.
At the moment when doing so became unimaginably difficult, He demonstrated what those words meant.
Why “Father, Forgive Them” Still Matters Nearly 2,000 Years Later
There is one important textual detail readers should know. The sentence in Luke 23:34 is absent from some early manuscripts of Luke, while appearing in many others. Modern Bible translations therefore sometimes include a textual footnote. Scholars continue to discuss whether the words belonged to Luke’s earliest recoverable text.
That uncertainty should be acknowledged rather than hidden.
At the same time, the prayer has been part of Christian tradition from very early centuries, and its message strongly reflects themes found elsewhere in Jesus’ teachings. The New Testament soon presents a striking parallel in the story of Stephen, the first Christian martyr described in Acts. As Stephen is being killed, he prays, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).
The echo is difficult to miss.
A follower of Jesus responds to those harming him in the same spirit of mercy attributed to Jesus at the cross.
Perhaps this explains why “Father, forgive them” has remained so powerful. Forgiving someone when an argument is over is difficult enough. Asking for mercy while the wound is still being inflicted is something far more radical.
Christian forgiveness does not require pretending that cruelty was harmless. It does not mean injustice should be ignored, nor does it necessarily remove consequences or eliminate the need for boundaries. Rather, Jesus’ prayer demonstrates a refusal to allow hatred and revenge to become the final response to wrongdoing.
The cross therefore contains one of Christianity’s most demanding lessons.
Jesus had every reason, from a human perspective, to speak words of anger.
Instead, Luke remembers a prayer.
“Father, forgive them.”
Those few words have survived empires, wars and nearly two thousand years of history because they confront every generation with the same difficult question:
If Jesus could ask for mercy in His darkest hour, what might forgiveness require from those who choose to follow Him?
Leave a Reply