Forgive Them

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 28th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Luke 23:34:

“Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

The power of forgiveness! When the Lord Jesus, our beloved Saviour, said that statement, He was hanging on a cross. There were crude spikes nailed through His hands and through His feet. He was suffering, He had a crown of thorns rammed onto His head and the blood was flowing, and yet through it all, He could say, “Forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.”

Forgiveness is a very powerful weapon. It is used in order to be set free. It’s a massive paradox. Although the Saviour of the world was nailed to the cross, yet He was totally free. You see, when you forgive someone then you receive freedom, you receive life abundantly. It is very liberating.

I want to tell you a story about one of my dearest friends. He is now in his mid-eighties. He came to see me a week ago, all the way from England with his beloved wife. This man is stone blind. He cannot see anything. He wears hearing aids because he can’t hear too well, he has had two hip replacements, but I have never seen a man so happy, so content with life before. Folks, do you know what happened? When he was a very young man in his early twenties, he went to Uganda. He went there to help the poor and he spent everything he had when he was over there. 

His father was a very wealthy farmer and he said to him, ”If you don’t come back to England I am going to sell the farm.” But while he was in Uganda, he contracted malaria and when he came back to Britain they gave him the wrong dosage of medicine and it made him blind. But I want to tell you, they said, “You can sue the hospital for millions of British pounds.” Do you know what his response was? “No, I forgive them because it was only a mistake. It was never intentional.” That is a giant of the faith. You see, when you don’t forgive, then you have hatred in your heart, revenge, jealousy, but when you forgive, then you have liberty and freedom. Today, forgive that person who has done that thing to you.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.