THE LAST WORDS OF JESUS
If you pull the four Gospels
together you find that as Jesus hung dying on the cross there were seven moments
when he spoke: the famous “Seven last words from the cross”.
They have been
written about endlessly over two thousand years, but they always bear thinking
about again. Because they are found scattered in the different Gospels, Luke
and John especially, we can’t always be absolutely sure of the exact order in
which they were spoken, but I don’t think that matters.
1 Father, forgive them - they don’t know what
they’re doing. Luke 23:34.
Can you imagine what it was
like to be crucified? Our English word “excruciating” comes directly from “cross”
and “crucify”, and we use it to speak of pain beyond words. Most of us would
probably be utterly broken mentally, sheer gibbering wrecks, as the horror of
what was being done to us dawned.
Hardier souls might be able
to keep control of their mental processes - enough, perhaps, to feel rage and
to direct hatred towards the perpetrators of this cruelty.
But Jesus? With perfect calm
control he offers to his Father in heaven a prayer for the forgiveness of these
people. Indeed, he almost seems to be excusing them: “they don’t know what they
are doing”, implying that they are more worthy of pity than of hatred.
Jesus called his followers
to be forgiving towards their enemies, and they were not just empty words. If
ever someone practiced what he preached, it was him. And we who trust in him,
who are included in the number of those who have received his forgiveness, are
called to follow him in this as in all things.
Lord God,
thank you for the wonderful mercy and forgiveness that has been extended to me.
Help me always to remember that a forgiven person must also be a forgiving
person. Amen.
2 I tell you the truth, today you will be with
me in paradise. Luke 23:43.
Jesus was crucified between
two criminals. One of them abused him, mocking his claim to be the Christ. But
the other rebuked that man: he recognised his own guilt, and then added a truly
humble prayer: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”. To which
Jesus replied with the promise that he would, that day, “be with me in paradise”.
The experts debate what
exactly is meant by “paradise”. Is it essentially another name for “heaven”? Or
is it more like a temporary resting place for those awaiting the final
resurrection?
Whatever, two things are
certain. First, paradise is wonderful, free of all sin, pain and suffering.
Second, paradise is the destiny of a man who had, by his own admission, been
involved in crime, violence and disorder.
Death is not the end. For
those who are “remembered” by Jesus - and that is anyone who humbly asks him -
there are joys beyond our imagining.
Lord
Jesus, thank you that you have gone ahead to prepare a place even for me. Amen.
3 Dear woman, here is your son... Here is your
mother. John 19:26-27.
The male disciples had run
away, afraid that they too might end up on a cross. But the women stayed,
huddled together at the foot of the cross, along with “the disciple Jesus
loved”, probably the young lad John.
Jesus looks down and sees his mother Mary
and John side by side. He commits them to the care of one another with a great
tenderness.
There were times in the past
when Jesus had wounded Mary by his single-minded devotion to his heavenly
Father. But his love for her was never in doubt, and even in his death agonies,
when self-obsession would have been understandable, he is concerned for her
well-being.
Poor Mary! Was there ever a
darker day in her life? But in John’s care she becomes enfolded in the life of
the infant church, and, like Naomi - “the bitter woman” - in the Old Testament,
all her sorrow is turned to joy.
4 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Matthew 27:46.
Jesus has been on the cross
for six hours. Can you feel the searing heat? Can you hear the buzzing of the
flies? Can you sense the immense weariness and weakness that is overcoming him?
The answer may well be, Yes, to some extent at least.
But if we ask, Can you
imagine the immense aloneness that came from bearing the weight of human sin on
his shoulders, the sense of being separated even from his heavenly Father,
something he had never known before, the only answer can be, No, never.
Is there a greater pain in
human experience than being forsaken, abandoned, by someone you have always
loved? The woman left by an unfaithful husband... the businessman deserted by
the partner he started the business with... the parent cast off by his child...
the child cast off by her parent?
Jesus knew all this and
more. Hence this cry of utter distress: Father, where are you? Why aren’t you there
any more? I can’t cope with this emptiness, this ever-growing vacuum!
5 I am
thirsty. John 19:30
At one level Jesus’s
pathetic request for water - that, surely, is what this is - simply highlights
his humanity. After all those hours grilling in the sun it is hardly surprising
if he is parched almost beyond endurance.
But at a deeper level there
is something much more significant here.
If you look up “water” in
your Bible concordance you will find that there are more references in John’s
Gospel than in the other three put together. John is the only one who records
these three little words.
But how ironic it is that
they should be spoken by the same man who offered “living water” - fresh, clear,
cold, splashing, cleansing water - to the woman at the well! (John 4:10) And
that he should be the one who made the promise that “whoever believes in me shall never be
thirsty”! (John 6:35)
The one who quenches thirst allows
himself to be tortured by thirst. If this isn’t love beyond measure, what is?
6 It is finished. John 19:30.
Like “I am thirsty”, what we
have in our Bibles as “It is finished” is only one word in John’s Greek.
You could perhaps take it as
a word of final despair: “It’s all over. I can’t take any more. I’ve had
enough.” But that would be a complete misunderstanding. It is in fact a cry of
triumph: Done! Over! Accomplished! Finished!
Jesus is declaring that by
dying in this way he has at last brought to an end the work his Father sent him
to earth to do: that is, to make atonement for the sins of all men and women.
He is the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and this
sacrifice is the means by which this is done.
The experts tell us that the
word John uses here is in fact a routine commercial term; it is what would be written
on your bill, as proof of payment, once you had finally settled it. In today’s
language: Paid. Paid in full.
I wonder if we have ever
really got our heads round this greatest of all truths: All my sins are dealt
with once for all by the shedding of Christ’s blood. Yes, even the worst, the
most shameful.
Which means two great
things. First, I am called to sing a song of praise; second, I am called to
live a life of holiness. Isn’t this, in a nutshell, what it means to be a
Christian?
7 Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Luke
23:46.
In one sense, Jesus didn’t
“die”. Rather, he “gave up his spirit”; he voluntarily surrendered his life.
Right to the very end he was
in control, and after all the traumas and horrors of the preceding hours he now
calmly rests himself in the hands of the God who sent him.
Luke tells us that he
uttered this prayer “in a loud voice”. But that doesn’t mean an uncontrolled
shout. No, he simply summoned up his last dregs of strength to make sure that
everybody within earshot would know that he was dying in confidence and in
peace.
If this is so, surely it
leaves us only one prayer we can offer...
Father, help me to
live such a Christ-centred, Spirit-filled life that, when the day comes for me
to die, I will be able to do so with these very words of Jesus on my lips. Amen!
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