Okay, this is not doctrine. This is not dogma. It's just my imagination... I am putting myself in the place of Jesus, as he faces the cross at Calvary, and even as He is going through the throes of His crucifixion. Please do not think I am being irreverent or presumptuous. I do not pretend to be holy or to identify with the Deity, as Christ surely was.
This is, from the viewpoint of a man (of which Jesus was one) standing before his God at the point of persecution from those whom he loves, my imagined prayer of Christ, who loved others more than He loved life itself...
"Oh God, how much of this pain must I endure?
And from the ones whom I have loved since my commitment to do so...
For although my only intentions have been good, upright and noble,
they nonetheless think evil of me,
As though I have wronged them in some way.
You know, oh Lord, as I know, that were it not for my commitment
to love them unto my death, I could casually toss them aside.
For they are an ungrateful lot, and they actively disregard my affection,
valuing it as nothing—as though I have derived benefit in extending it
—as though I have something to gain from their favor.
Yet, even as I have striven to bring unto them the Word of Life,
they have either disregarded or directly refuted my Words,
exchanging them for the trite sayings of their sages
who are all either dead or dying.
They are all ignorant, yet I love them, and I will die for them.
Oh God, the deep tragedy is in this: that so many of them will die,
never coming to an awareness of the value of my sacrifice.
This, Oh Lord, is my deepest pain—that some will never acknowledge
the value of my crucifixion and death.
And now, Oh God, even as I rhetorically ask,
'My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me?'
I know the answer: It is for the sake of those whom I love,
that they may receive life.
Let it be so, my Lord and my God!
I shall freely exchange my life for those whom you will draw unto yourself,
not out of duty, but out of love.
For I love them, even as you love them.
Forgive them of their sins, Oh God,
for they know not what they do."