The Greatest Sacrifice – Why did Jesus forgive those who crucified Him?
Happy Thoughts!
This earth was once treaded upon by a Messiah, who not only forgave people, but also embraced a painful death to absolve their sins. He embraced death for the upliftment of mankind. He even forgave those who betrayed him and those who crucified him. It is the greatest form of forgiveness and sacrifice ever known.
Christmas is an opportune time to understand this sacrifice and see how it practically applies to our lives. Christmas is one of the two most important, revered and widely observed Christian festivals; the second one being Easter. While Christmas is of a celebratory kind, Easter has a more serious undertone. Both the festivals are given equal importance in the Christian faith all over the world. Christmas is the day when this Messiah was born, while Easter is the day when here turned back to life after being crucified on the preceding Friday, thus marking it as the Day of Resurrection.
Every festival has a specific purpose, a particular reason for which it is observed. It can be truly celebrated only if this purpose is understood and fulfilled. Without clarity of purpose, all that remain are mere formalities and empty rituals. People form their own opinions and assumptions about festivals without digging in to find out the real crux. The purpose of this day is to remember what Jesus would want from us; what he would expect us to do.
Understanding the deeper message that the incidents from Jesus’ life conveys, can give true happiness. Those who don’t understand the profoundness, grieve the loss and those who understand the superficial meaning, take this day as a mere routine ritual. A sincere seeker of the truth would contemplate on the true meaning; he would dig deeper to find the missing link in his understanding.
Jesus was not bound by those who were crucifying his body. His was a free choice to sacrifice his physical body for the cause of humanity. His sole motive of life and also of physical death was to serve the divine purpose. This free choice can only emerge where there is higher consciousness, where life is not constrained by any tendencies or compulsions, where one is rooted in the firm conviction of one’s true nature as pure consciousness, beyond the physical body. It is time to contemplate the divine purpose of our life.
If someone were to tell you that a certain person has taken birth with the sole purpose of dying, it may sound illogical and even nonsensical. One may wonder, “Why would someone be born with the purpose of dying?” And yet, Jesus fulfilled this higher purpose through the highest sacrifice.
When Jesus was being crucified, he sought forgiveness for those who were crucifying him: “Please forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” Jesus wanted their folly to be forgiven firstly because he could see that they could never really achieve what they were trying. By crucifying him, they would put an end to his physical form, but the Christ – the living essence – would continue to live on. It is like trying to bury one’s own shadow! If you dig a ditch and position your shadow over it, you cannot cover up your shadow. So what they were trying was never going to happen.
It is crucial to understand who you are actually dealing with, in all your actions. If you slap a rock, what effect would it bear upon you? And if you slap a tree trunk, what effect would the action bear upon you? And what if you do it to an animal? Further, if you slap a human, how would the karma bear upon you? And now, if you were to slap the president of a nation, can you imagine its consequence? The action being the same, its karmic effect differs, depending on the level of consciousness that you are dealing with.
As we progress on the path of spirituality, we learn that all our dealings are with God Himself. Whatever we do, we do unto Him; whatever we give, we give unto Him, and whatever we get, we get from Him. When this understanding sinks in, the result of every deed comes back magnified beyond our imagination. When you do something, either with a negative intention ora positive one, its result comes back to you multiplied many times. This is the law of nature.
Jesus could see the effect that such a sinful act would have, because those crucifying him were committing the act on the highest consciousness. They were doing it toGod Himself. Such a gruesome deed would severely bear upon those crucifying him and also upon the onlookers, even though they weren’t actually partaking in it. In boundless compassion, Jesus was asking forgiveness for them all.
Forgiveness is a virtue that can help us absolve ourselves of the past and pave the way for our growth and happiness. Forgiving helps us live in the present. It helps us move on without anger, contempt, resentment, and guilt.
We go through various situations in life and deal with different people. Intentionally or unintentionally we hurt others or others might hurt us. But at the end of the day – can we seek forgiveness for acts done by us? How many people have we truly been able to forgive? And how many have we still not? To our surprise, we might perhaps find that the number of such people, including ourself, could be more than we could imagine. On this auspicious day, let us take time to forgive people around us and seek forgiveness from those whom we may have hurt, even unintentionally.
Further let this day be an opportunity to contemplate on what is it that Jesus would want from us? What is the higher will? What is the purpose of being born?
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