Luke 22:33-34: “When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified Him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.”
Have you ever been moved by an image? Visuals inspire us to action. Visuals create a thirst in us to share in the experience of another. We live in a visual generation.
Who can forget the picture of Neal Armstrong taking one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind. Those images inspired thousands and even millions to a life of flight and exploration.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in an innumerable sea of participants as he thundered "I have a dream." Those images motivated and captured a generation of Americans to fight for equality and achieve it.
President Ronald Reagan traveled to the Berlin Wall because he wanted the power of the symbolic visual to be splashed across the world. He stood before the symbol of fascism, the wall of separation between East and West, the wall of political, cultural and philosophical divide. The Wall represented tyranny and oppression. Reagan, against the urging of some of his advisors, spoke through the passages of history and said: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
No image has changed the world like the visual of Jesus, the Lamb of God hanging on the cross uttering “Father forgive them.” What kind of love is this? The fulness of the Godhead bodily nailed to a Roman symbol of torture and left to die outside of the Holy City. Onlookers were scoffing, skeptics mocking, and followers mourning. He did it willingly so that we could have forgiveness. The indescribable essence of the horror of sin and the unimaginable depth of the love of God captured in one moment of time and one scene.
Will you be moved by this image on this day? God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. The Savior has come and the door of heaven is open today. Trust in Jesus today.