A

July    19th

FORGIVE THEM    BECAUSE THEY    DON’T   KNOW

“As Plato   said,   every   soul    is  deprived    of  truth   against its will.   The same    holds   true    for justice,

self-control,   goodwill    to  others, and every   similar virtue. It’s    essential   to  constantly  keep    this    in

your    mind,   for it  will    make    you more    gentle  to  all.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS,   MEDITATIONS,    7.63

s he wound his way up Via Dolorosa to the top of Calvary Hill, Jesus (or Christus as he would have
been known to Seneca and other Roman contemporaries) had suffered immensely. He’d been beaten,
flogged, stabbed, forced to bear his own cross, and was set to be crucified on it next to two common
criminals. There he watched the soldiers roll dice to see who would get to keep his clothes, listened as
the people sneered and taunted him.
Whatever your religious inclinations, the words that Jesus spoke next—considering they came as he
was subjected to unimaginable human suffering—send chills down your spine. Jesus looked upward and
said simply, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
That is the same truth that Plato spoke centuries earlier and that Marcus spoke almost two centuries
after Jesus; other Christians must have spoken this truth as they were cruelly executed by the Romans
under Marcus’s reign: Forgive them; they are deprived of truth. They wouldn’t do this if they weren’t.
Use this knowledge to be gentle and gracious.