When he said, "Forgive them."

The world has seen no greater love:

            to die for people who befouled His face with spittle,

                        or to pray for those who made His suffering their sport…

That was no bargain day at Calvary, when God was given in

exchange for Man!

            And yet, nobody else would do.

                                    . . .

            “Forgive them” is His last word,

                        mercy is the whole conclusion of the matter,

                                    and affection is the final sentence of His life.

            Here is the love you have been looking for.

                        If your poor life is lost for meaning,

                        If you think you are a burden dragging down society,

                                    Look to the Cross!

            So here,

                        There is no greater love in all the universe.

                        None quite so perfect, nor so vast,

                                    and none so intimate:

The story of Atonement is the story of a King who fell down for a slave,

            and of a Judge becoming his own prisoner.

-Wyn Blair Sutphin, No Greater Love, 1965

sermons on the Last 7 Words of Christ