Dreams or Visions?
Our Sunday School class has been reading through Genesis one chapter at a time. Dreams and visions are frequently mentioned. Some mornings we spend lots of time trying to decipher the difference between the two. It’s uncomfortable for us to think God might speak to us in dreams or visions today.
This was not the case for the ancient peoples. Elihu claimed that God speaks to us in our sleep, warning us of danger, to save us from the Pit (Job 33:14-18). I’ve often prayed those words over my loved ones.
I tended to have many nightmares as a child, seldom waking from pleasant dreams. I’ve grown out of the nightmares. I often wake from odd and scrambled dreams, but give them no mind.
But this morning’s dream was different and caught my attention.
The Dream
It seems I had left a large family gathering to take a walk. Someone was with me, but I could not tell who. Returning to the group we walked past houses – so we were in a neighborhood and not the country.
I saw a tall swing set in the distance near the family gathering. Two people were swinging – perhaps a child, the other an adult. They were swinging in unison to get as high into the sky as possible. I had a sense something terrible was about to happen.
Suddenly they were swinging much too high! Words caught in my throat. I tried but couldn’t warn them.
Were others nearby witnessing what we were? If so, why did they not intervene? Did they not know? Caught up in the moment did they egg them on, “Go higher, swing higher!” In those fleeting moments of exhilaration, adrenaline pumping legs up into the sky, the two went dangerously beyond that mysterious place where gravity keeps us grounded.
Their bodies flew off their seats. They spun through the air, arms and legs flailing as they hurtled to the ground.
My legs were heavy. I tried to run to them but was unable to move.
Instead, I woke up.
Forgive them.
While still in that dream-state before fully awakening I wondered, “If this was an adult on the swings why did they behave so recklessly? I sensed anger rising in me. Surely, they knew better! So, why did they put lives in danger?”
Questions tumbled around in my groggy brain. Was this a parent with their child? A grandparent with a grandchild? Would they both survive? And if so, what would this do to their families?
I envisioned a life of disability and debilitation. How would anyone survive this trauma? Two bodies broken beyond repair. Dreams shattered. Relationships severed. Blame and guilt having the final say. Forgiveness and reconciliation virtually impossible.
Then the words of Jesus came to mind, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.”
Why those words?
I got out of bed, went downstairs, loaded the dishwasher, and made a pot of coffee.
But why those words? I’ve been pondering their meaning all morning wondering why this surfaced in my dreams.
I’ve long understood this statement to mean that it is Jesus who is doing the forgiving.
I thought it was Jesus, while on the cross in agony and dying, who mustered the strength to utter those precious words who was doing the forgiving of those among the crowds who shouted in unison, “Crucify him! Crucify him! (Matt 27:22-24; Mk 15:13-15; Lk 23:18-24; Jn 19:6-16, NRSV).
While in painful anguish, fighting to take a breath, I always thought Jesus uttered the words of forgiveness to those who pounded the nails into his hands and feet, to those who mocked and derided him.
The lesson I took away from this account was that of Jesus forgiving his enemies while hanging on the cross, and because of that I too must imitate Jesus and forgive others. This of course is true of us. It is expected that we love our enemies (Lk 6:35) and forgive as the Lord’s prayer teaches (Matt 6:9-15; Lk 11:1-4). But Luke is doing more.
Father forgive them …
However, I am reconsidering this application for this verse. I do not think that is the point the gospel writer is making here in Luke 23:34a near the close of his gospel. 1
Jesus is addressing his Father, not the crowds. Take note of this. Jesus is speaking to his Father! Why? I believe Luke is presenting Jesus as our true High Priest. (Aha! This is when I realized the instigation for this dream. The evening before I printed off an article to read that addressed baptism and the priesthood).
Jesus is the only one who mediates between humanity and God. Is Jesus appealing to, or commanding, the Father to forgive? If spoken in a commanding tone why would Jesus dare to speak to his Father in this way?
I would propose that even while dying on the cross, before his death and resurrection, Jesus was advocating for humanity. No doubt he had in mind those contemporaneous in his day when asking God to forgive them, to keep at bay the prerogative, the right, of the closest relative to avenge the death of an innocent person. Learn more about the one who had right to avenge bloodshed in the Old Testament in Prepare Me to be a Sanctuary.
Had Jesus, while existing as the Incarnated one of the Trinity, come to fully realize the limitations of humanity? The Hebrew writer thinks so (Heb 4:15). We are slow to listen and quick to speak. We judge others when we have little insight. We are easily persuaded to join those who mock and malign others, murdering with our speech. Our flesh is weak even though our mind tells us otherwise. Our hearts deceive us. It leads us into many snares of temptation.
Ignorance is a given of our human condition. It allows us to be easily deceived. In our human frailty, we lack the foresight to comprehend the ongoing consequences of our actions – whether they be immoral, unethical, or the painful consequence of willful or accidental disregard for the laws of nature as revealed in my dream.
We, like those Jesus asked his Father to forgive, do not know what we are doing. I was reminded of Peter’s sermon at Pentecost where those who heard his message were “pierced to the heart” (Acts 2:37), when they realized the consequences when they joined with those who had sought the death of the Son of God. They didn’t know!
In the retelling of this dream with my hubby over our morning coffee I found myself getting emotional. Words caught in my throat. I steeled my voice and realized that in the sharing of this strange and vivid dream I realized it may be meant to show me why I too could forgive even more.
Caught up in their pain and loss my parents did what they did out of ignorance. Or at least that’s what I want to believe. Whether they thought what they did was the best at that moment or whether it was driven by a lack of love on their part, I believe they were ignorant of the ongoing consequences their behavior would have on those in their care. They were human. As humans we make decisions that we later deeply regret.
So, with Jesus, I think I might be closer to a place to mean it when I say, “Father, forgive them, for they knew not what they were doing.”
- Luke is the only gospel that contains this statement. According to Bruce Metzger’s 1971 edition of the Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, those words are absent and are “probably not part of the original Gospel of Luke … [but they were] retained, within double square brackets, in its traditional place where it had been incorporated by unknown copyists relatively early in the Transmission of the Third Gospel.” Pg 180; However, John Nolland’s 1993 Word Biblical Commentary (35c) attempts to reassure us that “its presence in many MSS [indicates that it] is … Luke [who] put it there.” Pg. 1141
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