They don't know what they are doing!

    Ever go to a city park and see a person screaming at a tree or a park bench?  Clearly you know that this person is not in their right mind.  They, of course, do not know this.  To them what they are doing is completely sane.  You don't get angry at people like this but instead you pity them and pray they get help.

    Jesus uttered these words from cross, "Father, Forgive them for they know NOT what they do!"

    While it may appear that Jesus was saying this to the Pharisees standing below, I think those words were for ALL of us. Like the insane person in the park, he looks at us with pity and feeling for us as he sees us make bad decision after bad decision.  Bad choice after bad choice.  As Isaiah says, "We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way".

    As I watched the movie "The Passion" , I was impressed by Mel Gibson's use of Satan wandering around in the background during Jesus' trial and flogging.  Not acting as a spectator, but instead as an instigator of the evil being done.  The people doing the evil were not doing it fully on their own accord.  They were merely puppets on a larger stage and the battle was not between Jesus and the Jews or Jesus and the Romans, but was really a battle between Jesus, the Son of God, and Satan.

  Last Friday I watched a video showing a Planned Parenthood spokes person give testimony to a Florida state board on a bill called "Infants Born Alive" in which a baby born after a botched abortion should be allowed to get medical attention.  The spokes-person for Planned-Parenthood , Alisa LaPolt Snow, argued against this bill siting that the decision should be between the mother and the physician.  One congressman argues, "I think that at that point the patient would be the child struggling there on the table. Wouldn't you agree?"   Her look was one of confusion. She looked as if she had never considered that as an option before. (To see the rest of the discussion go here)

   At first I was angry that someone could be so cold and heartless towards a newborn baby.  But now I see that I must have "the mind of Christ" and say to them as well, "God forgive them for they know not what they do".  They don't see what they are doing as evil.

  Like the person screaming in the park, they are lost .... they just don't know it.