After reading Luke 23:34 and Acts 7:60, tell how, in your own words, the prayers of Stephen and Jesus at the time of their deaths were similar and how they were different. Use complete sentences.
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Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals -- one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.'And they divided up his clothes by casting lots." (Luke 23:32-34)
The scene around the cross is crass and unfeeling. The soldiers are part of an execution detail, bored with crucifixion. Perhaps this team will have conducted several crucifixions this week already. The first time they saw a crucifixion they may have been moved by its brutality, but now they are calloused, emotionless.
First, the soldiers begin with the cruel process of nailing the criminal to a cross, then hoisting him up, the cross swaying forward, then back until it is secured with wedges at the bottom to hold it upright in the hole. And when that task is done, they sit around the base waiting for the criminal to die -- sometimes for days. To pass the time they gamble, deciding by a casting of lots who will be awarded the victim's last possessions. That is the scene.
But in the midst of it comes an astounding, powerful word from the "criminal" on the center cross:
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34a)