The First Cry from the Cross
October 24th, 1869
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."—Luke 23:34.
Our Lord was at that moment enduring the first pains of crucifixion; the executioners had just then driven the nails through his hands and feet. He must have been, moreover, greatly depressed, and brought into a condition of extreme weakness by the agony of the night in Gethsemane, and by the scourgings and cruel mockings which he had endured all through the morning, from Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, and the Praetorian guards. Yet neither the weakness of the past, nor the pain of the present, could prevent him from continuing in prayer. The Lamb of God was silent to men, but he was not silent to God. Dumb as sheep before her shearers, he had not a word to say in his own defense to man, but he continues in his heart crying unto his Father, and no pain and no weakness can silence his holy supplications. Beloved, what an example our Lord herein presents to us! Let us continue in prayer so long as our heart beats; let no excess of suffering drive us away from the throne of grace, but rather let it drive us closer to it.
"Long as they live should Christians pray,
For only while they pray they live."
To cease from prayer is to renounce the consolations which our case requires. Under all distractions of spirit, and overwhelmings of heart, great God, help us still to pray, and never from the mercy-seat may our footsteps be driven by despair. Our blessed Redeemer persevered in prayer even when the cruel iron rent his tender nerves, and blow after blow of the hammer jarred his whole frame with anguish; and this perseverance may be accounted for by the fact that he was so in the habit of prayer that he could not cease from it; he had acquired a mighty velocity of intercession which forbade him to pause. Those long nights upon the cold mountain side, those many days which had been spent in solitude, those perpetual ejaculations which he was wont to dart up to heaven, all these had formed in him a habit so powerful, that the severest torments could not stay its force. Yet it was more than habit. Our Lord was baptised in the spirit of prayer; he lived in it, it lived in him, it had come to be an element of his nature. He was like that precious spice, which, being bruised, doth not cease to give forth its perfume, but rather yieldeth it all the more abundantly because of the blows of the pestle, its fragrance being no outward and superficial quality, but an inward virtue essential to its nature, which the pounding in the mortar did not fetch from it, causing it to reveal its secret soul of sweetness. So Jesus prays, even as a bundle of myrrh gives forth its smell, or as birds sing because they cannot do otherwise. Prayer enwrapped his very soul as with a garment, and his heart went forth in such array. I repeat it, let this be our example—never, under any circumstances, however severe the trial, or depressing the difficulty, let us cease from prayer.
Observe, further, that our Lord, in the prayer before us, remains in the vigour of faith as to his Sonship. The extreme trial to which he now submitted himself could not prevent his holding fast his Sonship. His prayer begins, "Father." It was not without meaning that he taught us when we pray to say, "Our Father," for our prevalence in prayer will much depend upon our confidence in our relationship to God. Under great losses and crosses, one is adapt to think that God is not dealing with us as a father with a child, but rather as a severe judge with a condemned criminal; but the cry of Christ, when he is brought to an extremity which we shall never reach, betrays no faltering in the spirit of sonship. In Gethsemane, when the bloody sweat fell fast upon the ground, his bitterest cry commenced with, "My Father," asking that if it were possible the cup of gall might pass from him; he pleaded with the Lord as his Father, even as he over and over again had called him on that dark and doleful night. Here, again, in this, the first of his seven expiring cries, it is "Father." O that the Spirit that makes us cry, "Abba, Father," may never cease his operations! May we never be brought into spiritual bondage by the suggestion, "If thou be the Son of God;" or if the tempter should so assail us, may we triumph as Jesus did in the hungry wilderness. May the Spirit which crieth, "Abba, Father," repel each unbelieving fear. When we are chastened, as we must be (for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?) may we be in loving subjection to the Father of our spirits, and live; but never may we become captives to the spirit of bondage, so as to doubt the love of our gracious Father, or our share in his adoption.
More remarkable, however, is the fact that our Lord's prayer to his Father was not for himself. He continued on the cross to pray for himself, it is true, and his lamentable cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" shows the personality of his prayer; but the first of the seven great cries on the cross has scarcely even an indirect reference to himself. It is, "Father, forgive them." The petition is altogether for others, and though there is an allusion to the cruelties which they were exercising upon himself, yet it is remote; and you will observe, he does not say, "I forgive them"—that is taken for granted—he seems to lose sight of the fact that they were doing any wrong to himself, it is the wrong which they were doing to the Father that is on his mind, the insult which they are paying to the Father, in the person of the Son; he thinks not of himself at all. The cry, "Father, forgive them," is altogether unselfish. He himself is, in the prayer, as though he were not; so complete is his self-annihilation, that he loses sight of himself and his woes. My brethren, if there had ever been a time in the life of the Son of man when he might have rigidly confined his prayer to himself, without any one cavilling thereat, surely it was when he was beginning his death throes. We could not marvel, if any man here were fastened to the stake, or fixed to a cross, if his first, and even his last and all his prayers, were for support under so arduous a trial. But see, the Lord Jesus began his prayer by pleading for others. See ye not what a great heart is here revealed! What a soul of compassion was in the Crucified! How Godlike, how divine! Was there ever such a one before him, who, even in the very pangs of death, offers as his first prayer an intercession for others? Let this unselfish spirit be in you also, my brethren. Look not every man upon his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Love your neighbours as yourselves, and as Christ has set before you this paragon of unselfishness, seek to follow him, treading in his steps.
There is, however, a crowning jewel in this diadem of glorious love. The Son of Righteousness sets upon Calvary in a wondrous splendour; but amongst the bright colours which glorify his departure, there is this one—the prayer was not alone for others, but it was for his cruellest enemies. His enemies, did I say, there is more than that to be considered. It was not a prayer for enemies who had done him an ill deed years before, but for those who were there and then murdering him. Not in cold blood did the Saviour pray, after he had forgotten the injury, and could the more easily forgive it, but while the first red drops of blood were spurting on the hands which drove the nails; while yet the hammer was bestained with crimson gore, his blessed mouth poured out the fresh warm prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." I say, not that that prayer was confined to his immediate executioners. I believe that it was a far-reaching prayer, which included Scribes and Pharisees, Pilate and Herod, Jews and Gentiles—yea, the whole human race in a certain sense, since we were all concerned in that murder; but certainly the immediate persons, upon whom that prayer was poured like precious nard, were those who there and then were committing the brutal act of fastening him to the accursed tree. How sublime is this prayer if viewed in such a light! It stands alone upon a mount of solitary glory. No other had been prayed like it before. It is true, Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets had prayed for the wicked; but not for wicked men who had pierced their hands and feet. It is true, that Christians have since that day offered the same prayer, even as Stephen cried, "Lay not this sin to their charge;" and many a martyr has made his last words at the stake words of pitying intercession for his persecutors; but you know where they learnt this, let me ask you where did he learn it? Was not Jesus the divine original? He learnt it nowhere; it leaped up from his own Godlike nature. A compassion peculiar to himself dictated this originality of prayer; the inward royalty of his love suggested to him so memorable an intercession, which may serve us for a pattern, but of which no pattern had existed before. I feel as though I could better kneel before my Lord's cross at this moment than stand in this pulpit to talk to you. I want to adore him; I worship him in heart for that prayer; if I knew nothing else of him but this one prayer, I must adore him, for that one matchless plea for mercy convinces me most overwhelmingly of the deity of him who offered it, and fills my heart with reverent affection.
Thus I have introduced to you our Lord's first vocal prayer upon the cross. I shall now, if we are helped by God's Holy Spirit, make some use of it. First, we shall view it as illustrative of our Saviour's intercession; secondly, we shall regard the text as instructive to the church's work; thirdly, we shall consider it as suggestive to the unconverted.
I. First, my dear brethren, let us look at this very wonderful text as ILLUSTRATIVE OF OUR LORD'S INTERCESSION.
He prayed for his enemies then, he is praying for his enemies now; the past on the cross was an earnest of the present on the throne. He is in a higher place, and in a nobler condition, but his occupation is the same; he continues still before the eternal throne to present pleas on the behalf of guilty men, crying, "Father, O forgive them." All his intercession is in a measure like the intercession on Calvary, and Calvary's cries may help us to guess the character of the whole of his intercession above.
The first point in which we may see the character of his intercession is this—it is most gracious. Those for whom our Lord prayed, according to the text, did not deserve his prayer. They had done nothing which could call forth from him a benediction as a reward for their endeavours in his service; on the contrary, they were most undeserving persons, who had conspired to put him to death. They had crucified him, crucified him wantonly and malignantly; they were even taking away his innocent life. His clients were persons who, so far from being meritorious, were utterly undeserving of a single good wish from the Saviour's heart. They certainly never asked him to pray for them—it was the last thought in their minds to say, "Intercede for us, thou dying King! Offer petitions on our behalf, thou Son of God!" I will venture to believe the prayer itself, when they heard it, was either disregarded, and passed over with contemptuous indifference, or perhaps it was caught as a theme for jest. I admit that it seems to be too severe upon humanity to suppose it possible that such a prayer could have been the theme for laughter, and yet there were other things enacted around the cross which were quite as brutal, and I can imagine that this also might have happened. Yet our Saviour prayed for persons who did not deserve the prayer, but, on the contrary, merited a curse—persons who did not ask for the prayer, and even scoffed at it when they heard it. Even so in heaven there stands the great High Priest, who pleads for guilty men—for guilty men, my hearers. There are none on earth that deserve his intercession. He pleads for none on the supposition that they do deserve it. He stands there to plead as the just One on the behalf of the unjust. Not if any man be righteous, but "if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father." Remember, too, that our great Intercessor pleads for such as never asked him to plead for them. His elect, while yet dead in trespasses and sins, are the objects of his compassionate intercessions, and while they even scoff at his gospel, his heart of love is entreating the favour of heaven on their behalf. See, then, beloved, if such be the truth, how sure you are to spend with God who earnestly ask the Lord Jesus Christ to plead for you. Some of you, with many tears and much earnestness, have been beseeching the Saviour to be your advocate? Will he refuse you? Stands it to reason that he can? He pleads for those that reject his pleadings, much more for you who prize them beyond gold. Remember, my dear hearer, if there be nothing good in you, and if there be everything conceivable that is malignant and bad, yet none of these things can be any barrier to prevent Christ's exercising the office of Intercessor for you. Even for you he will plead. Come, put your case into his hands; for you he will find pleas which you cannot discover for yourselves, and he will put the case to God for you as for his murderers, "Father, forgive them."
A second quality of his intercession is this—its careful spirit. You notice in the prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Our Saviour did, as it were, look his enemies through and through to find something in them that he could urge in their favour; but he could not see nothing until his wisely affectionate eye lit upon their ignorance: "they know not what they do." How carefully he surveyed the circumstances, and the characters of those for whom he importuned! Just so it is with him in heaven. Christ is no careless advocate for his people. He knows your precise condition at this moment, and the exact state of your heart with regard to the temptation through which you are passing; more than that, he foresees the temptation which is awaiting you, and in his intercession he takes note of the future event which his prescient eye beholds. "Satan hath desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." Oh, the condescending tenderness of our great High Priest! He knows us better than we know ourselves. He understands every secret grief and groaning. You need not trouble yourself about the wording of your prayer, he will put the wording right. And even the understanding as to the exact petition, if you should fail in it, he cannot, for as he knoweth what is the mind of God, so he knoweth what is your mind also. He can spy out some reason for mercy in you which you cannot detect in yourselves, and when it is so dark and cloudy with your soul that you cannot discern a foothold for a plea that you may urge with heaven, the Lord Jesus has the pleas ready framed, and petitions ready drawn up, and he can present them acceptable before the mercy-seat. His intercession, then, you will observe is very gracious, and in the next place it is very thoughtful.
We must next note its earnestness. No one doubts who reads these words, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," that they were heaven-piercing in their fervour. Brethren, you are certain, even without a thought, that Christ was terribly in earnest in that prayer. But there is an argument to prove that. Earnest people are usually witty, and quick of understanding, to discover anything which may serve their turn. If you are pleading for life, and an argument for your being spared be asked of you, I will warrant you that you will think of one when no one else might. Now, Jesus was so in earnest for the salvation of his enemies, that he struck upon an argument for mercy which a less anxious spirit would not have thought of: "They know not what they do." Why, sirs, that was in strictest justice but a scant reason for mercy; and indeed, ignorance, if it be wilful, does not extenuate sin, and yet the ignorance of many who surrounded the cross was a wilful ignorance. They might have known that he was the Lord of glory. Was not Moses plain enough? Had not Esaias been very bold in his speech? Were not the signs and tokens such that one might as well doubt which is the sun in the firmament as the claims of Jesus to be the Messias? Yet, for all that, the Saviour, with marvelous earnestness and consequent dexterity, turns what might not have been a plea into a plea, and puts it thus: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Oh, how mighty are his pleas in heaven, then, in their earnestness! Do not suppose that he is less quick of understanding there, or less intense in the vehemence of his entreaties. No, my brethren, the heart of Christ still labours with the eternal God. He is no slumbering intercessor, but, for Zion's sake, he doth not hold his peace, and for Jerusalem's sake, he doth not cease, nor will he, till her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth.
It is interesting to note, in the fourth place, that the prayer here offered helps us to judge of his intercession in heaven as to its continuance, perseverance, and perpetuity. As I remarked before, if our Saviour might have paused from intercessory prayer, it was surely when they fastened him to the tree; when they were guilty of direct acts of deadly violence to his divine person, he might then have ceased to present petitions on their behalf. But sin cannot tie the tongue of our interceding Friend! Oh, what comfort is here! You have sinned, believer, you have grieved his Spirit, but you have not stopped that potent tongue which pleads for you. You have been unfruitful, perhaps, my brother, and like the barren tree, you deserve to be cut down; but your want of fruitfulness has not withdrawn the Intercessor from his place. He interposes at this moment, crying, "Spare it yet another year." Sinner, you have provoked God by long rejecting his mercy and going from bad to worse, but neither blasphemy nor unrighteousness, nor infidelity, shall stay the Christ of God from urging the suit of the very chief of sinners. He lives, and while he lives he pleads; and while there is a sinner upon earth to be saved, there shall be an intercessor in heaven to plead for him. These are but fragments of thought, but they will help you, I hope, to realise the intercession of your great High Priest.
Think yet again, this prayer of our Lord on earth is like his prayer in heaven, because of its wisdom. He seeks the best thing, and that which his clients most need, "Father, forgive them." That was the great point in hand; they wanted most of all there and then forgiveness from God. He does not say, "Father, enlighten them, for they know not what they do," for mere enlightenment would but have created torture of conscience and hastened on their hell; but he crieth, "Father, forgive;" and while he used his voice, the precious drops of blood which were then distilling from the nail wounds were pleading too, and God heard, and doubtless did forgive. The first mercy which is needful to guilty sinners is forgiven sin. Christ wisely prays for the boon most wanted. It is so in heaven; he pleads wisely and prudently. Let him alone, he knows what to ask for at the divine hand. Go you to the mercy-seat, and pour out your desires as best you can, but when you have done so always put it thus, "O my Lord Jesus, answer no desire of mine if it be not according to thy judgment; and if in aught that I have asked I have failed to seek for what I want, amend my pleading, for thou art infinitely wiser than I." Oh, is it sweet to have a friend at court to perfect our petitions for us before they come unto the great King. I believed that there is never presented to God anything but a perfect prayer now; I mean, that before the great Father of us all, no prayer of his people ever comes up imperfect; there is nothing left out, and there is nothing to be erased; and this, not because their prayers were originally perfect in themselves, but because the Mediator makes them perfect through his infinite wisdom, and they come up before the mercy-seat moulded according to the mind of God himself, and he is sure to grant such prayers.
Once more, this memorable prayer of our crucified Lord was like to his universal intercession in the matter of its prevalence. Those for whom he prayed were many of them forgiven. Do you remember that he said to his disciples when he bade them preach, "beginning at Jerusalem," and on that day when Peter stood up with the eleven, and charged the people with wicked hands they had crucified and slain the Saviour, three thousand of these persons who were thus justly accused of his crucifixion became believers in him, and were baptised in his name. That was an answer to Jesus' prayer. The priest were at the bottom of the Lord's murder, they were the most guilty; but it is said, "a great company also of the priests believed." Here was another answer to the prayer. Since all men had their share representatively, Gentiles as well as Jews, in the death of Jesus, the gospel was soon preached to the Jews, and within a short time it was preached to the Gentiles also. Was not this prayer, "Father, forgive them," like a stone cast into a lake, forming at first a narrow circle, and then a wider ring, and soon a larger sphere, until the whole lake is covered with circling waves? Such a prayer as this, cast into the whole world, first created a little ring of Jewish converts and of priest, and then a wider circle of such as were beneath the Roman sway; and to-day its circumference is wide as the globe itself, so that tens of thousands are saved through the prevalence of this one intercession "Father, forgive them." It is certainly so with him in heaven, he never pleads in vain. With bleeding hands, he yet won the day; with feet fastened to the wood, he was yet victorious; forsaken of God and despised of the people, he was yet triumphant in his pleas; how much more so now the tiara is about his brow, his hand grasp the universal sceptre, and his feet are shod with silver sandals, and he is crowned King of kings, and Lord of lords! If tears and cries out of weakness were omnipotent, even more mighty if possible must be that sacred authority which as the risen Priest he claims when he stands before the Father's throne to mention the covenant which the Father made with him. O ye trembling believers, trust him with your concerns! Come hither, ye guilty, and ask him to plead for you. O you that cannot pray, come, ask him to intercede for you. Broken hearts and weary heads, and disconsolate bosoms, come ye to him who into the golden censer will put his merits, and then place your prayers with them, so that they shall come up as the smoke of perfume, even as a fragrant cloud into the nostrils of the Lord God of hosts, who will smell a sweet savour, and accept you and your prayers in the Beloved. We have now opened up more than enough sea-room for your meditations at home this afternoon, and, therefore we leave this first point. We have an illustration in the prayer of Christ on the cross of what his prayers always are in heaven.
II. Secondly, the text is INSTRUCTIVE OF THE CHURCH'S WORK.
As Christ was, so his church is to be in this world. Christ came into this world not to be ministered unto, but to minister, not to be honoured, but to save others. His church, when she understands her work, will perceive that she is not here to gather to herself wealth or honour, or to seek any temporal aggrandisement and position; she is here unselfishly to live, and if need be, unselfishly to die for the deliverance of the lost sheep, the salvation of lost men. Brethren, Christ's prayer on the cross I told you was altogether an unselfish one. He does not remember himself in it. Such ought to be the church's life-prayer, the church's active interposition on the behalf of sinners. She ought to live never for her ministers or for herself, but ever for the lost sons of men. Imagine you that churches are formed to maintain ministers? Do you conceive that the church exists in this land merely that so much salary may be given to bishops, and deans, and prebends, and curates, and I know not what? My brethren, it were well if the whole thing were abolished if that were its only aim. The aim of the church is not to provide out-door relief for the younger sons of nobility; when they have not brains enough to win anyhow else their livelihood, they are stuck into family livings. Churches are not made that men of ready speech may stand up on Sundays and talk, and so win daily bread from their admirers. Nay, there is another end and aim from this. These places are not built that you may sit here comfortably, and hear something that shall make you pass away your Sundays with pleasure. A church in London which does not exist to do good in the slums, and dens, and kennels of the city, is a church that has no reason to justify its longer existing. A church that does not exist to reclaim heathenism, to fight with evil, to destroy error, to put down falsehood, a church that does not exist to take the side of the poor, to denounce injustice and to hold up righteousness, is a church that has no right to be. Not for thyself, O church, dost thou exist, any more than Christ existed for himself. His glory was that he laid aside his glory, and the glory of the church is when she lays aside her respectability and her dignity, and counts it to be her glory to gather together the outcast, and her highest honour to seek amid the foulest mire the priceless jewels for which Jesus shed his blood. To rescue souls from hell and lead to God, to hope, to heaven, this is her heavenly occupation. O that the church would always feel this! Let her have her bishops and her preachers, and let them be supported, and let everything be done for Christ's sake decently and in order, but let the end be looked to, namely, the conversion of the wandering, the teaching of the ignorant, the help of the poor, the maintenance of the right, the putting down of the wrong, and the upholding at all hazards of the crown and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the prayer of Christ had a great spirituality of aim. You notice that nothing is sought for these people but that which concerns their souls, "Father, forgive them." And I believe the church will do well when she recollects that she wrestles not with flesh and blood, nor with principalities and powers, but with spiritual wickedness, and that what she has to dispense is not the law and order by which magistrates may be upheld, or tyrannies pulled down, but the spiritual government by which hearts are conquered to Christ, and judgments are brought into subjection to his truth. I believe that the more the church of God strains after, before God, the forgiveness of sinners, and the more she seeks in her life prayer to teach sinners what sin is, and what the blood of Christ is, and what the hell that must follow if sin be not washed out, and what the heaven is which will be ensured to all those who are cleansed from sin, the more she keeps to this the better. Press forward as one man, my brethren, to secure the root of the matter in the forgiveness of sinners. As to all the evils that afflict humanity, by all means take your share in battling with them; let temperance be maintained, let education be supported; let reforms, political and ecclesiastical, be pushed forward as far as you have the time and the effort to spare, but the first business of every Christian man and women is with the hearts and consciences of men as they stand before the everlasting God. O let nothing turn you aside from your divine errand of mercy to undying souls. This is your one business. Tell to sinners that sin will damn them, that Christ alone can take away sin, and make this the one passion of your souls, "Father, forgive them, forgive them! Let them know how to be forgiven. Let them be actually forgiven, and let me never rest except as I am the means of bringing sinners to be forgiven, even the guiltiest of them."
Our Saviour's prayer teaches the church that while her spirit should be unselfish, and her aim should be spiritual, the range of her mission is to be unlimited. Christ prayed for the wicked, what if I say the most wicked of the wicked, that ribald crew that had surrounded his cross! He prayed for the ignorant. Doth he not say, "They know not what they do"? He prayed for his persecutors; the very persons who were most at enmity with him, lay nearest to his heart. Church of God, your mission is not to the respectable few who will gather about your ministers to listen respectfully to their words; your mission is not to the ‚lite and the eclectic, the intelligent who will criticise your words and pass judgment upon every syllable of your teaching; your mission is not to those who treat you kindly, generously, affectionately, not to these I mean alone, though certainly to these as among the rest; but your great errand is to the harlot, to the thief, to the swearer and the drunkard, to the most depraved and debauched. If no one else cares for these, the church always must, and if there be any who are first in her prayers it should be these who alas! are generally last in our thoughts. The ignorant we ought diligently to consider. It is not enough for the preacher that he preaches so that those instructed from their youth up can understand him; he must think of those to whom the commonest phrases of theological truth are as meaningless as the jargon of an unknown tongue; he must preach so as to reach the meanest comprehension; and if the ignorant may come not to hear him, he must use such means as best he may to induce them, nay, compel them to hear the good news. The gospel is meant also for those who persecute religion; it aims its arrows of love against the hearts of his foes. If there be any whom we should first seek to bring to Jesus, it should be just these who are the farthest off and the most opposed to the gospel of Christ. "Father, forgive them; if thou dost pardon none besides, yet be pleased to forgive them."
So, too, the church should be earnest as Christ was; and if she be so, she will be quick to notice any ground of hope in those she deals with, quick to observe any plea that she may use with God for their salvation.
She must be hopeful too, and surely no church ever had a more hopeful sphere than the church of this present age. If ignorance be a plea with God, look on the heathen at this day—millions of them never heard Messiah's name. Forgive them, great God, indeed they know not what they do. If ignorance be some ground for hope, there is hope enough in this great city of London, for have we not around us hundreds of thousands to whom the simplest truths of the gospel would be the greatest novelties? Brethren, it is sad to think that this country should still lie under such a pall of ignorance, but the sting of so dread a fact is blunted with hope when we read the Saviour's prayer aright—it helps us to hope while we cry, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."
It is the church's business to seek after the most fallen and the most ignorant, and to seek them perseveringly. She should never stay her hand from doing good. If the Lord be coming to-morrow, it is no reason why you Christian people should not subside into mere talkers and readers, meeting together for mutual comfort, and forgetting the myriads of perishing souls. If it be true that this world is going to pieces in a fortnight, and that Louis Napoleon is the Apocalyptic beast, or if it be not true, I care not a fig, it makes no difference to my duty, and does not change my service. Let my Lord come when he will, while I labour for him I am ready for his appearing. The business of the church is still to watch for the salvation of souls. If she stood gazing, as modern prophets would have her; if she gave up her mission to indulge in speculative interpretations, she might well be afraid of her Lord's coming; but if she goes about her work, and with incessant toil searches out her Lord's precious jewels, she shall not be ashamed when her Bridegroom cometh.
My time has been much too short for so vast a subject as I have undertaken, but I wish I could speak words that were as loud as thunder, with a sense and earnestness as mighty as the lightening. I would fain excite every Christian here, and kindle in him a right idea of what his work is as a part of Christ's church. My brethren, you must not live to yourselves; the accumulation of money, the bringing up of your children, the building of houses, the earning of your daily bread, all this you may do; but there must be a greater object than this if you are to be Christlike, as you should be, since you are bought with Jesus' blood. Begin to live for others, make it apparent unto all men that you are not yourselves the end-all and be-all of your own existence, but that you are spending and being spent, that through the good you do to men God may be glorified, and Christ may see in you his own image and be satisfied.
III. Time fails me, but the last point was to be a word SUGGESTIVE TO THE UNCONVERTED.
Listen attentively to these sentences. I will make them as terse and condensed as possible. Some of you here are not saved. Now, some of you have been very ignorant, and when you sinned you did not know what you did. You knew you were sinners, you knew that, but you did not know the far-reaching guilt of sin. You have not been attending the house of prayer long, you have not read your Bible, you have not Christian parents. Now you are beginning to be anxious about your souls. Remember your ignorance does not excuse you, or else Christ would not say, "Forgive them;" they must be forgiven, even those that know not what they do, hence they are individually guilty; but still that ignorance of yours gives you just a little gleam of hope. The times of your ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance. The God whom you have ignorantly forgotten is willing to pardon and ready to forgive. The gospel is just this, trust Jesus Christ who died for the guilty, and you shall be saved. O may God help you to do so this very morning, and you will become new men and new women, a change will take place in you equal to a new birth; you will be new creatures in Christ Jesus.
But ah! My friends, there are some here for whom even Christ himself could not pray this prayer, in the widest sense at any rate, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," for you have known what you did, and every sermon you hear, and especially every impression that is made upon your understanding and conscience by the gospel, adds to your responsibility, and takes away from you the excuse of not knowing what you do. Ah! Sirs, you know that there is the world and Christ, and that you cannot have both. You know that there is sin and God, and that you cannot serve both. You know that there are the pleasure of evil and the pleasures of heaven, and that you cannot have both. Oh! In the light which God has given you, may his Spirit also come and help you to choose that which true wisdom would make you choose. Decide to-day for God, for Christ, for heaven. The Lord decide you for his name's sake. Amen.
Provided by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986
Friday, March 2, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
THE SEVEN WORDS OF JESUS ON THE CROSS jesuschristsavior.net
Christ Jesus died on the Cross to redeem mankind, to save us from our sins, because He loves us.
As recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Holy Bible, Jesus Christ was mocked, scorned, and tortured in the praetorium. He carried his cross up the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem to Calvary, nailed to the Cross, hung between two common criminals, and suffered an indescribable end, recalled by the Church on Good Friday of Holy Week.
One may meditate on the Passion of Christ by reflecting on his Seven Words on the Cross
or by a devotion known as the Way of the Cross.
When religious pilgrimages to the Holy Land ended with military occupation of Jerusalem in the Middle Ages, a popular devotion known as the Way of the Cross arose during Lent retracing the Passion, Crucifixion, and Death of Jesus. The fourteen stations of the Cross are (1) Pilate condemns Jesus to death; (2) Jesus takes up his Cross; (3) He falls the first time; (4) Jesus meets his sorrowful mother Mary; (5) Simon helps carry the cross; (6) Veronica cleans his face; (7) He falls the second time; (8) Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem; (9) He falls the third time; (10) Jesus is stripped of his garments; (11) Jesus is nailed to the cross; (12) Jesus Christ dies on the cross; (13) He is taken down from the cross; (14) Christ is laid in the tomb.
Here are his Seven Words, the last seven expressions of Jesus Christ on the Cross recorded in Scripture.
THE FIRST WORD
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
Gospel of Luke 23:34
Jesus says this first word only in the Gospel of Luke, just after he was crucified by the soldiers on Golgotha, with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. The timing of this suggests that Jesus asks his Father to primarily forgive his enemies - Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin; Pontius Pilate and Herod; and the soldiers who have scourged him, mocked him, tortured him, and who have just nailed him to the cross. But could this not also apply to his Apostles and companions who have deserted him, to Peter who has denied him three times, to the fickle crowd, who only days before praised him on his entrance to Jerusalem, and then days later chose him over Barabbas to be crucified? Could this not also apply to us, who daily forget him in our lives?
Does he react angrily? No, he asks his Father to forgive them, because they are ignorant! At the height of his physical suffering, his Divine love prevails and He asks His Father to forgive his enemies.
Right up to his final hours on earth, Jesus preaches forgiveness. He teaches forgiveness in the Lord's prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" (Matthew 6:12). When asked by Peter, how many times should we forgive someone, Jesus answers seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22). At the Last Supper, Jesus explains his crucifixion to his Apostles when he tells them to drink of the cup: "Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:27-28). He forgives the paralytic at Capernaum (Mark 2:5), and the adulteress caught in the act and about to be stoned (John 8:1-11). And even following his Resurrection, his first act is to commission his disciples to forgive: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:22-23).
THE SECOND WORD
"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Gospel of Luke 23:43
Now it is not just the religious leaders or the soldiers that mock Jesus, but even one of the criminals, a downward progression of mockery. But the criminal on the right speaks up for Jesus, explaining the two criminals are receiving their just due, and then pointing to Jesus, says, "this man has done nothing wrong." Then, turning to Jesus, he asks, "Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). What wonderful faith this repentant sinner had in Jesus - far more than the doubting Thomas, one of his own Apostles. Ignoring his own suffering, Jesus mercifully responds with His second word.
The second word again is about forgiveness, this time directed to a sinner. Just as the first word, this Biblical expression again is found only in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus shows his Divinity by opening heaven for a repentant sinner - such generosity to a man that only asked to be remembered!
THE THIRD WORD
"Jesus said to his mother: "Woman, this is your son".
Then he said to the disciple: "This is your mother."
Gospel of John 19:26-27
Jesus and Mary are together again, at the beginning of his ministry in Cana and now at the end of his public ministry at the foot of the Cross. What sorrow must fill her heart, to see her Son mocked, tortured, and now just crucified. Once again, a sword pierces Mary's soul, the sword predicted by Simeon at the Temple (Luke 2:35) . There are four at the foot of the cross, Mary his Mother, John, the disciple whom he loved, Mary of Cleopas, his mother's sister, and Mary Magdalene. His third word is addressed to Mary and John, the only eye-witness of the Gospel writers.
But again Jesus rises above the occasion, and his concerns are for the ones that love him. The good son that He is, Jesus is concerned about taking care of his mother. In fact, this passage offers proof that Jesus was the only child of Mary, because if he did have brothers or sisters, they would have provided for her. But Jesus looks to John to care for her.
St. Joseph is noticeably absent. The historic paintings, such as Tondo-doni by Michelangelo and The Holy Family by Raphael, suggest Joseph was a considerably older man. St. Joseph had probably died by the time of the crucifixion, or else he would have been the one to take care of Mary. Early Christian traditions and the second-century apocryphal Protoevangelium of James held that Joseph was a widower, and his children by his former wife were the "brothers and sisters of Jesus."
Another striking phrase indicating Jesus was an only child is Mark 6:3, referring to Jesus: "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" Now if James, Joses and Judas and Simon were also natural sons of Mary, Jesus would not have been called the "son of Mary," but rather "one of the sons of Mary."
THE FOURTH WORD
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34
This is the only expression of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Both Gospels relate that it was in the ninth hour, after 3 hours of darkness, that Jesus cried out this fourth word. The ninth hour was three o'clock in Palestine. Just after He speaks, Mark relates with a horrible sense of finality, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last" (Mark 15:37).
One is struck by the anguished tone of this expression compared to the first three words of Jesus. This cry is from the painful heart of the human Jesus who must feel deserted by His Father and the Holy Spirit, not to mention his earthly companions the Apostles. As if to emphasize his loneliness, Mark even has his loved ones "looking from afar," not close to him as in the Gospel of John. Jesus feels separated from his Father. He is now all alone, and he must face death by himself.
But is not this exactly what happens to all of us when we die? We too will be all alone at the time of death! Jesus completely lives the human experience as we do, and by doing so, frees us from the clutches of sin.
His fourth Word is the opening line of Psalm 22, and thus his cry from the Cross recalls the cry of Israel, and of all innocent persons who suffer. Psalm 22 of David made a striking prophecy of the crucifixion of the Messiah, at a time when crucifixion did not exist: "They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones" (22:16-17). The Psalm continued: "they divide my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots" (22:18).
There can not be a more dreadful moment in the history of man as this moment. Jesus who came to save us is crucified, and He realizes the horror of what is happening and what He now is enduring. He is about to be engulfed in the raging sea of sin. Evil triumphs, as Jesus admits: "But this is your hour" (Luke 22:53). But it is only for a moment. The burden of all the sins of humanity for a moment overwhelm the humanity of our Jesus.
But does this not have to happen? Does this not have to occur if Jesus is to save us? It is in defeat of his humanity that the Divine plan of His Father and Himself will be completed. It is by His death that we are redeemed. "For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for all" (l Timothy 2:5-6).
THE FIFTH WORD
"I thirst"
Gospel of John 19:28
The fifth word of Jesus is His only human expression of His physical suffering. Jesus is now in shock. The wounds inflicted upon him in the scourging, the crowning with thorns, and the nailing upon the cross are now taking their toll, especially after losing blood on the three-hour walk through the city of Jerusalem to Golgotha on the Way of the Cross. Systematic studies of the Shroud of Turin, as reported by Gerald O'Collins in Interpreting Jesus, indicate the passion of Jesus was far worse than one could imagine. The Shroud has been exhaustively studied by every possible scientific maneuver, and the scientific burden of proof is now on those who do not accept the Shroud as the burial cloth of Jesus.
"He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,
so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed" (l Peter 2:24).
THE SIXTH WORD
When Jesus had received the wine, he said,
"It is finished";
and he bowed his head and handed over the spirit.
Gospel of John 19:30
It is now a fait accomplit. The sixth word is Jesus' recognition that his suffering is over and his task is completed. Jesus was obedient to the Father and gave his love for mankind by redeeming us with His death on the Cross.
The above painting is meant to capture the moment.
What was the darkest day of mankind became the brightest day for mankind.
When Jesus died, He "handed over" the Spirit.
Jesus remains in control to the end, and it is He who handed over his Spirit. One should not miss the double entendre here, for this may also be interpreted as His death brought forth the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of John gradually reveals the Holy Spirit. Jesus mentions living water in John 4:10-11 when he met the Samaritan woman at the well, and during the Feast of Tabernacles refers to living water as the Holy Spirit in 7:37-39. At the Last Supper, Christ announced he would ask the Father to send "another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth" (14:16-17). The word Advocate is also translated as Comforter, Helper, Paraclete, or Counselor. "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you" (14:26). The symbolism of water and the Holy Spirit become more evident in John 19:34: "But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water." The piercing of his side fulfilled the prophecy in Zechariah 12:10: "They will look on me whom they have pierced." The piercing of Jesus' side prefigures the Sacraments of Eucharist (blood) and Baptism (water), as well as the beginning of the Church.
THE SEVENTH WORD
Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit":
Gospel of Luke 23:46
The seventh word of Jesus is from the Gospel of Luke, and is directed to the Father in heaven, just before He dies. Jesus recalls Psalm 31:5 - "Into thy hands I commend my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God." Luke repeatedly pleads Jesus' innocence: with Pilate (Luke 23:4, 14-15, 22), through Dismas, the criminal (Luke 23:41), and immediately after His death with the centurion" "Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, "Certainly this man was innocent" (Luke 23:47).
John's Gospel relates that it was the Day of Preparation, the day before the actual Passover (Pesach in Hebrew, Pascha in Greek and Latin), that Jesus was sentenced to death (19:14) and sacrificed on the Cross (19:31). He died at the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon), about the same time as the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the Temple. Christ became the Paschal or Passover Lamb, as noted by St. Paul: "For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). The innocent Lamb was slain for our sins, so that we might be forgiven.
Jesus fulfilled His mission: "They are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (Romans 3:24-25). The relationship of Jesus to the Father is revealed in the Gospel of John, for He remarked, "The Father and I are one" (10:30), and again, at the Last Supper: "Do you not believe I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works" (14:10). And He can now return: "I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father" (16:28). Jesus practiced what He preached: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
REFERENCES
1 The Revised Standard Version of The Holy Bible. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2005.
2 Bishop Fulton J Sheen. The Seven Last Words - The Message from the Cross. Garden City Books, Garden City, New York, 1952.
3 Pope John Paul II. The Redeemer of Man - the encyclical Redemptor Hominis, Pauline Books and Media, Boston, March 4, 1979.
4 Ignace De La Potterie. The Hour of Jesus - The Passion and the Resurrection of Jesus. Alba House, Staten Island, New York, 1989.
5 St. Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, Third Part, On the Passion of Christ. Translation by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 1920. Reprinted by Christian Classics of Allen, Texas, 1981.
6 St. Alphonsus Liguori. The Way of the Holy Cross. Mother of Our Savior Publishing, Pekin, Indiana, 2007.
7 O'Collins, Gerald. Interpreting Jesus. Geoffrey Chapman, London, and Paulist Press, Mahwah, New Jersey, 1983.
As recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Holy Bible, Jesus Christ was mocked, scorned, and tortured in the praetorium. He carried his cross up the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem to Calvary, nailed to the Cross, hung between two common criminals, and suffered an indescribable end, recalled by the Church on Good Friday of Holy Week.
One may meditate on the Passion of Christ by reflecting on his Seven Words on the Cross
or by a devotion known as the Way of the Cross.
When religious pilgrimages to the Holy Land ended with military occupation of Jerusalem in the Middle Ages, a popular devotion known as the Way of the Cross arose during Lent retracing the Passion, Crucifixion, and Death of Jesus. The fourteen stations of the Cross are (1) Pilate condemns Jesus to death; (2) Jesus takes up his Cross; (3) He falls the first time; (4) Jesus meets his sorrowful mother Mary; (5) Simon helps carry the cross; (6) Veronica cleans his face; (7) He falls the second time; (8) Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem; (9) He falls the third time; (10) Jesus is stripped of his garments; (11) Jesus is nailed to the cross; (12) Jesus Christ dies on the cross; (13) He is taken down from the cross; (14) Christ is laid in the tomb.
Here are his Seven Words, the last seven expressions of Jesus Christ on the Cross recorded in Scripture.
THE FIRST WORD
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
Gospel of Luke 23:34
Jesus says this first word only in the Gospel of Luke, just after he was crucified by the soldiers on Golgotha, with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. The timing of this suggests that Jesus asks his Father to primarily forgive his enemies - Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin; Pontius Pilate and Herod; and the soldiers who have scourged him, mocked him, tortured him, and who have just nailed him to the cross. But could this not also apply to his Apostles and companions who have deserted him, to Peter who has denied him three times, to the fickle crowd, who only days before praised him on his entrance to Jerusalem, and then days later chose him over Barabbas to be crucified? Could this not also apply to us, who daily forget him in our lives?
Does he react angrily? No, he asks his Father to forgive them, because they are ignorant! At the height of his physical suffering, his Divine love prevails and He asks His Father to forgive his enemies.
Right up to his final hours on earth, Jesus preaches forgiveness. He teaches forgiveness in the Lord's prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" (Matthew 6:12). When asked by Peter, how many times should we forgive someone, Jesus answers seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22). At the Last Supper, Jesus explains his crucifixion to his Apostles when he tells them to drink of the cup: "Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:27-28). He forgives the paralytic at Capernaum (Mark 2:5), and the adulteress caught in the act and about to be stoned (John 8:1-11). And even following his Resurrection, his first act is to commission his disciples to forgive: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:22-23).
THE SECOND WORD
"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Gospel of Luke 23:43
Now it is not just the religious leaders or the soldiers that mock Jesus, but even one of the criminals, a downward progression of mockery. But the criminal on the right speaks up for Jesus, explaining the two criminals are receiving their just due, and then pointing to Jesus, says, "this man has done nothing wrong." Then, turning to Jesus, he asks, "Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). What wonderful faith this repentant sinner had in Jesus - far more than the doubting Thomas, one of his own Apostles. Ignoring his own suffering, Jesus mercifully responds with His second word.
The second word again is about forgiveness, this time directed to a sinner. Just as the first word, this Biblical expression again is found only in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus shows his Divinity by opening heaven for a repentant sinner - such generosity to a man that only asked to be remembered!
THE THIRD WORD
"Jesus said to his mother: "Woman, this is your son".
Then he said to the disciple: "This is your mother."
Gospel of John 19:26-27
Jesus and Mary are together again, at the beginning of his ministry in Cana and now at the end of his public ministry at the foot of the Cross. What sorrow must fill her heart, to see her Son mocked, tortured, and now just crucified. Once again, a sword pierces Mary's soul, the sword predicted by Simeon at the Temple (Luke 2:35) . There are four at the foot of the cross, Mary his Mother, John, the disciple whom he loved, Mary of Cleopas, his mother's sister, and Mary Magdalene. His third word is addressed to Mary and John, the only eye-witness of the Gospel writers.
But again Jesus rises above the occasion, and his concerns are for the ones that love him. The good son that He is, Jesus is concerned about taking care of his mother. In fact, this passage offers proof that Jesus was the only child of Mary, because if he did have brothers or sisters, they would have provided for her. But Jesus looks to John to care for her.
St. Joseph is noticeably absent. The historic paintings, such as Tondo-doni by Michelangelo and The Holy Family by Raphael, suggest Joseph was a considerably older man. St. Joseph had probably died by the time of the crucifixion, or else he would have been the one to take care of Mary. Early Christian traditions and the second-century apocryphal Protoevangelium of James held that Joseph was a widower, and his children by his former wife were the "brothers and sisters of Jesus."
Another striking phrase indicating Jesus was an only child is Mark 6:3, referring to Jesus: "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" Now if James, Joses and Judas and Simon were also natural sons of Mary, Jesus would not have been called the "son of Mary," but rather "one of the sons of Mary."
THE FOURTH WORD
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34
This is the only expression of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Both Gospels relate that it was in the ninth hour, after 3 hours of darkness, that Jesus cried out this fourth word. The ninth hour was three o'clock in Palestine. Just after He speaks, Mark relates with a horrible sense of finality, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last" (Mark 15:37).
One is struck by the anguished tone of this expression compared to the first three words of Jesus. This cry is from the painful heart of the human Jesus who must feel deserted by His Father and the Holy Spirit, not to mention his earthly companions the Apostles. As if to emphasize his loneliness, Mark even has his loved ones "looking from afar," not close to him as in the Gospel of John. Jesus feels separated from his Father. He is now all alone, and he must face death by himself.
But is not this exactly what happens to all of us when we die? We too will be all alone at the time of death! Jesus completely lives the human experience as we do, and by doing so, frees us from the clutches of sin.
His fourth Word is the opening line of Psalm 22, and thus his cry from the Cross recalls the cry of Israel, and of all innocent persons who suffer. Psalm 22 of David made a striking prophecy of the crucifixion of the Messiah, at a time when crucifixion did not exist: "They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones" (22:16-17). The Psalm continued: "they divide my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots" (22:18).
There can not be a more dreadful moment in the history of man as this moment. Jesus who came to save us is crucified, and He realizes the horror of what is happening and what He now is enduring. He is about to be engulfed in the raging sea of sin. Evil triumphs, as Jesus admits: "But this is your hour" (Luke 22:53). But it is only for a moment. The burden of all the sins of humanity for a moment overwhelm the humanity of our Jesus.
But does this not have to happen? Does this not have to occur if Jesus is to save us? It is in defeat of his humanity that the Divine plan of His Father and Himself will be completed. It is by His death that we are redeemed. "For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for all" (l Timothy 2:5-6).
THE FIFTH WORD
"I thirst"
Gospel of John 19:28
The fifth word of Jesus is His only human expression of His physical suffering. Jesus is now in shock. The wounds inflicted upon him in the scourging, the crowning with thorns, and the nailing upon the cross are now taking their toll, especially after losing blood on the three-hour walk through the city of Jerusalem to Golgotha on the Way of the Cross. Systematic studies of the Shroud of Turin, as reported by Gerald O'Collins in Interpreting Jesus, indicate the passion of Jesus was far worse than one could imagine. The Shroud has been exhaustively studied by every possible scientific maneuver, and the scientific burden of proof is now on those who do not accept the Shroud as the burial cloth of Jesus.
"He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,
so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed" (l Peter 2:24).
THE SIXTH WORD
When Jesus had received the wine, he said,
"It is finished";
and he bowed his head and handed over the spirit.
Gospel of John 19:30
It is now a fait accomplit. The sixth word is Jesus' recognition that his suffering is over and his task is completed. Jesus was obedient to the Father and gave his love for mankind by redeeming us with His death on the Cross.
The above painting is meant to capture the moment.
What was the darkest day of mankind became the brightest day for mankind.
When Jesus died, He "handed over" the Spirit.
Jesus remains in control to the end, and it is He who handed over his Spirit. One should not miss the double entendre here, for this may also be interpreted as His death brought forth the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of John gradually reveals the Holy Spirit. Jesus mentions living water in John 4:10-11 when he met the Samaritan woman at the well, and during the Feast of Tabernacles refers to living water as the Holy Spirit in 7:37-39. At the Last Supper, Christ announced he would ask the Father to send "another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth" (14:16-17). The word Advocate is also translated as Comforter, Helper, Paraclete, or Counselor. "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you" (14:26). The symbolism of water and the Holy Spirit become more evident in John 19:34: "But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water." The piercing of his side fulfilled the prophecy in Zechariah 12:10: "They will look on me whom they have pierced." The piercing of Jesus' side prefigures the Sacraments of Eucharist (blood) and Baptism (water), as well as the beginning of the Church.
THE SEVENTH WORD
Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit":
Gospel of Luke 23:46
The seventh word of Jesus is from the Gospel of Luke, and is directed to the Father in heaven, just before He dies. Jesus recalls Psalm 31:5 - "Into thy hands I commend my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God." Luke repeatedly pleads Jesus' innocence: with Pilate (Luke 23:4, 14-15, 22), through Dismas, the criminal (Luke 23:41), and immediately after His death with the centurion" "Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, "Certainly this man was innocent" (Luke 23:47).
John's Gospel relates that it was the Day of Preparation, the day before the actual Passover (Pesach in Hebrew, Pascha in Greek and Latin), that Jesus was sentenced to death (19:14) and sacrificed on the Cross (19:31). He died at the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon), about the same time as the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the Temple. Christ became the Paschal or Passover Lamb, as noted by St. Paul: "For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). The innocent Lamb was slain for our sins, so that we might be forgiven.
Jesus fulfilled His mission: "They are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (Romans 3:24-25). The relationship of Jesus to the Father is revealed in the Gospel of John, for He remarked, "The Father and I are one" (10:30), and again, at the Last Supper: "Do you not believe I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works" (14:10). And He can now return: "I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father" (16:28). Jesus practiced what He preached: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
REFERENCES
1 The Revised Standard Version of The Holy Bible. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2005.
2 Bishop Fulton J Sheen. The Seven Last Words - The Message from the Cross. Garden City Books, Garden City, New York, 1952.
3 Pope John Paul II. The Redeemer of Man - the encyclical Redemptor Hominis, Pauline Books and Media, Boston, March 4, 1979.
4 Ignace De La Potterie. The Hour of Jesus - The Passion and the Resurrection of Jesus. Alba House, Staten Island, New York, 1989.
5 St. Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, Third Part, On the Passion of Christ. Translation by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 1920. Reprinted by Christian Classics of Allen, Texas, 1981.
6 St. Alphonsus Liguori. The Way of the Holy Cross. Mother of Our Savior Publishing, Pekin, Indiana, 2007.
7 O'Collins, Gerald. Interpreting Jesus. Geoffrey Chapman, London, and Paulist Press, Mahwah, New Jersey, 1983.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The 7 Words of Jesus on the Cross licoc.org
The 7 Words of Jesus on the Cross
When you examine the words or thoughts of a person under great stress, scrutiny or suffering, you learn the substance of the person; their composition, their faith and their hope.
When we examine what our Savior exclaimed on the cross, we can learn about His true character and His integrity before the Father. We can see the love that pours out from His wounds, directed at us! Neither the heat, nor the sweat mixed with the blood, nor the agony and emotional distress distracted Him from having you and me on His mind that day. From these Seven Words of Jesus we can draw strength and courage for our own walk on this earth as we follow His call to be His disciples. He suffered the extreme penalty of death that we may live!
Are you living, or you a dead man walking?
Between the beatings, flogging and the pain from the crown of thorns on His head, Jesus, sees His mother and the disciple He loved the most:
1- John 19:26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” (27) and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Jesus thinks of His family first. His dearly loved mother and what would become of her was Jesus first concern. He wanted her to be taken care of emotionally and physically, not to mention spiritually. Under great stress do you:
1- Think of yourself first?
2- Distance yourself from those you love?
3- Seek to blame those you love for not helping you?
Remember that stressful times show how close of a relationship you have developed with the Father in Heaven. Those who refresh others, under stressful moments, will themselves be refreshed (Prov 25:13; 2 Tim 1:16)
His face is wincing with the pain from the nails in His wrists and feet, His back is shredded and torn from the flogging, an almost unbearable pain. On top of this, people are wagging their heads at Him, cursing Him and hurling insults:
2- Luke 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Forgiveness is the center of the Gospel: forgiveness of our sins, the opportunity to be redeemed and restored to a relationship with God! Where there is no forgiveness there is bitterness and regret. Instead of allowing bitterness or antagonism to set in, Jesus thinks of them instead of Himself: He thinks about their ignorance and therefore lost state. Jesus’ view is set on eternity, not on what happens in the present moment: “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame!” (Heb 12:2) Besides, he knows He is there for them; they have done nothing to Him, and He has willingly given Himself to them, even though they scorn Him.
When others insult you or curse you, or show you their distaste or lack of approval, how do you respond?
1- Do you allow them to offend you? If you do, then you are only thinking of yourself.
2- Are you able to see past their disapproval of you and into their ignorant state of mind?
3- Are you able to willingly suffer scorn for their sake, shaming their actions and words?
4- Have you forgotten about your forgiveness of sins?
If you forgot about your cleansing of your past sin, you are not able to surrender yourself perhaps you are still holding on to some vestige (trace) of your old self. Get rid of it! Therein lies the root of all bitterness! Where there is no forgiveness, there is restlessness and no peace!
Suffering from exposure, difficulty in breathing, dizziness, and nausea, Jesus promises paradise:
3- Luke 23:43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Up until the last moment, Jesus wants people to be with Him forever. That is His focus and the reason He came into the world! Not even the worst moments on earth He could experience would distract Him from loving you to the fullest extent. (Heb 5:7-9)
Do you ultimately want the best for those around you, especially those who may have, at one time, scorned you or shamed you? When you are stressed:
1- Are you words full of hope and encouragement, or is your selfishness evident by the piercing words you utter because you don’t have time for others?
2- Is your speech full of boasting of what you do and have, or is your speech full of grace and mercy?
Do you ultimately want to be alone, or do you want to have those you love around you? Bitterness and regret are reflections of a poor self-image. What you see in others is a reflection of what is in you. If you are full of the spirit and love, your being will radiate this love. If you are empty (full of bitterness and regret) then you will be a black hole of joy and peace.
Under the greatest distress yet, feeling abandoned and lonely, desperate even, Jesus cries out to His Father:
4- Matt 27:46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ”Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”-- which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
At this point, when Jesus is bearing the sin of the world, His cry of frustration is directed at the Father, who alone is able to bear all our burdens!
When you can’t take it anymore, do you:
1- React or act upon (keep your cool)?
2- Take it out on those around you or seek the face of the Father?
3- Try to blow off some steam or get on your knees and pray?
At the moment of your greatest pain and agony, you can choose to be a vehicle of blessing.
After enduring the reality of His separation from the Father, and being at the lowest point in His earthly life, we can testify to the humble humanity of Jesus:
5- John19:28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
He was still human… Tempted with all our temptations and vulnerable to all that affects us; yet submitting to the Father to be perfected… even Jesus! (Heb 5:8-9) God choose us weak vessels to show His strength! When we are weak, and delight in our weakness, we can then let God be glorified through them! Don’t pretend that you are strong! God will humble you!
When you are at your lowest:
1- Are you ashamed of you weakness? Do you try to appear strong and independent?
2- Do you resist help or scorn advice because you “feel” patronized?
With a simple declaration: “I am thirsty”, Jesus unashamedly shows us His human side on that cross, and God gets the glory!
As Jesus’ life wanes before Him, He looks towards the Father and commits Himself unto death, knowing what awaits Him:
6- Luke 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
Jesus commits his eternal souls to the Father, which meant submitting and humbling Himself unto death, even death on a cross. Jesus saw His physical life on earth as a clear mission directed from Heaven. He used His life on earth and did not allow Himself to be used or manipulated by anything, including the fleshly temptations He faced. This is why in His death He entrusted Himself to the Father.
In whose hands have you committed yourself?
1- Your own? Someone else’s? Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)
2- Whose destiny have you chosen? Are you your own man, or are you going to join those whose destiny is eternity through Jesus Christ? Is your life being built on perishable things or on eternal things?
3- Which path are you walking on? Narrow or wide? Every effort needs to be made to enter the narrow path (Luke 13:24)
1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Jesus knows He has accomplished the work the Father sent Him to do, and voluntarily gives Himself up:
7- John 19:30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus knew the exact moment of His death, and willingly volunteered Himself as the propitiation for our sins. God’s work of salvation is done and it is available for everyone who wishes to join Him at the great feast in the Kingdom of God.
Are you living your life, or have you lived your life in such a way that at this very moment, if Jesus were to present Himself here, you would be able to say: “It is finished! I’m going home!” Or are there some “loose ends” in your life you have yet to take care of?
When all is said and done, all that matters is where will you be in 200 years? Are you living your life in view of where you will be in 200 years? Or do you:
1- Live for the moment without regard of any promise for you?
2- Only care to satisfy your cravings of the present without regard for your reputation?
A good parent lives in such a way as to prepare their children for the future as they live fully each day. They instill vision in their children. In the same way, we want to live in such a way as to leave a legacy of holiness for those whom we leave behind on the earth, that our work for Jesus may continue on earth as we are in Paradise. We cannot only live for the moment, but in view of the promise of eternity.
When Jesus says “It is finished”, He reveals that all along He was living and accomplishing what His Father willed, a careful plan to bring you into Heaven, because of the joy that lays ahead for every individual that allows himself to be washed in His blood.
The following verses are provided for your meditation, following each of the seven instances Jesus spoke from the cross:
How can Jesus words from the cross transform me?
1- Philip 2:3-5 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. {4} Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. {5} Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…
2- Col 1:13-14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, {14} in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And Heb 12:15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
3- John 12:27 “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” And Heb 5:7-9 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. {8} Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered {9} and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…
4- Luke 22:42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
5- 1 Co 1:27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. And 2 Co 12:10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
6- Lu 13:24 "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
7- Heb 4:11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
When you examine the words or thoughts of a person under great stress, scrutiny or suffering, you learn the substance of the person; their composition, their faith and their hope.
When we examine what our Savior exclaimed on the cross, we can learn about His true character and His integrity before the Father. We can see the love that pours out from His wounds, directed at us! Neither the heat, nor the sweat mixed with the blood, nor the agony and emotional distress distracted Him from having you and me on His mind that day. From these Seven Words of Jesus we can draw strength and courage for our own walk on this earth as we follow His call to be His disciples. He suffered the extreme penalty of death that we may live!
Are you living, or you a dead man walking?
Between the beatings, flogging and the pain from the crown of thorns on His head, Jesus, sees His mother and the disciple He loved the most:
1- John 19:26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” (27) and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Jesus thinks of His family first. His dearly loved mother and what would become of her was Jesus first concern. He wanted her to be taken care of emotionally and physically, not to mention spiritually. Under great stress do you:
1- Think of yourself first?
2- Distance yourself from those you love?
3- Seek to blame those you love for not helping you?
Remember that stressful times show how close of a relationship you have developed with the Father in Heaven. Those who refresh others, under stressful moments, will themselves be refreshed (Prov 25:13; 2 Tim 1:16)
His face is wincing with the pain from the nails in His wrists and feet, His back is shredded and torn from the flogging, an almost unbearable pain. On top of this, people are wagging their heads at Him, cursing Him and hurling insults:
2- Luke 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Forgiveness is the center of the Gospel: forgiveness of our sins, the opportunity to be redeemed and restored to a relationship with God! Where there is no forgiveness there is bitterness and regret. Instead of allowing bitterness or antagonism to set in, Jesus thinks of them instead of Himself: He thinks about their ignorance and therefore lost state. Jesus’ view is set on eternity, not on what happens in the present moment: “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame!” (Heb 12:2) Besides, he knows He is there for them; they have done nothing to Him, and He has willingly given Himself to them, even though they scorn Him.
When others insult you or curse you, or show you their distaste or lack of approval, how do you respond?
1- Do you allow them to offend you? If you do, then you are only thinking of yourself.
2- Are you able to see past their disapproval of you and into their ignorant state of mind?
3- Are you able to willingly suffer scorn for their sake, shaming their actions and words?
4- Have you forgotten about your forgiveness of sins?
If you forgot about your cleansing of your past sin, you are not able to surrender yourself perhaps you are still holding on to some vestige (trace) of your old self. Get rid of it! Therein lies the root of all bitterness! Where there is no forgiveness, there is restlessness and no peace!
Suffering from exposure, difficulty in breathing, dizziness, and nausea, Jesus promises paradise:
3- Luke 23:43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Up until the last moment, Jesus wants people to be with Him forever. That is His focus and the reason He came into the world! Not even the worst moments on earth He could experience would distract Him from loving you to the fullest extent. (Heb 5:7-9)
Do you ultimately want the best for those around you, especially those who may have, at one time, scorned you or shamed you? When you are stressed:
1- Are you words full of hope and encouragement, or is your selfishness evident by the piercing words you utter because you don’t have time for others?
2- Is your speech full of boasting of what you do and have, or is your speech full of grace and mercy?
Do you ultimately want to be alone, or do you want to have those you love around you? Bitterness and regret are reflections of a poor self-image. What you see in others is a reflection of what is in you. If you are full of the spirit and love, your being will radiate this love. If you are empty (full of bitterness and regret) then you will be a black hole of joy and peace.
Under the greatest distress yet, feeling abandoned and lonely, desperate even, Jesus cries out to His Father:
4- Matt 27:46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ”Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”-- which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
At this point, when Jesus is bearing the sin of the world, His cry of frustration is directed at the Father, who alone is able to bear all our burdens!
When you can’t take it anymore, do you:
1- React or act upon (keep your cool)?
2- Take it out on those around you or seek the face of the Father?
3- Try to blow off some steam or get on your knees and pray?
At the moment of your greatest pain and agony, you can choose to be a vehicle of blessing.
After enduring the reality of His separation from the Father, and being at the lowest point in His earthly life, we can testify to the humble humanity of Jesus:
5- John19:28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
He was still human… Tempted with all our temptations and vulnerable to all that affects us; yet submitting to the Father to be perfected… even Jesus! (Heb 5:8-9) God choose us weak vessels to show His strength! When we are weak, and delight in our weakness, we can then let God be glorified through them! Don’t pretend that you are strong! God will humble you!
When you are at your lowest:
1- Are you ashamed of you weakness? Do you try to appear strong and independent?
2- Do you resist help or scorn advice because you “feel” patronized?
With a simple declaration: “I am thirsty”, Jesus unashamedly shows us His human side on that cross, and God gets the glory!
As Jesus’ life wanes before Him, He looks towards the Father and commits Himself unto death, knowing what awaits Him:
6- Luke 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
Jesus commits his eternal souls to the Father, which meant submitting and humbling Himself unto death, even death on a cross. Jesus saw His physical life on earth as a clear mission directed from Heaven. He used His life on earth and did not allow Himself to be used or manipulated by anything, including the fleshly temptations He faced. This is why in His death He entrusted Himself to the Father.
In whose hands have you committed yourself?
1- Your own? Someone else’s? Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)
2- Whose destiny have you chosen? Are you your own man, or are you going to join those whose destiny is eternity through Jesus Christ? Is your life being built on perishable things or on eternal things?
3- Which path are you walking on? Narrow or wide? Every effort needs to be made to enter the narrow path (Luke 13:24)
1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Jesus knows He has accomplished the work the Father sent Him to do, and voluntarily gives Himself up:
7- John 19:30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus knew the exact moment of His death, and willingly volunteered Himself as the propitiation for our sins. God’s work of salvation is done and it is available for everyone who wishes to join Him at the great feast in the Kingdom of God.
Are you living your life, or have you lived your life in such a way that at this very moment, if Jesus were to present Himself here, you would be able to say: “It is finished! I’m going home!” Or are there some “loose ends” in your life you have yet to take care of?
When all is said and done, all that matters is where will you be in 200 years? Are you living your life in view of where you will be in 200 years? Or do you:
1- Live for the moment without regard of any promise for you?
2- Only care to satisfy your cravings of the present without regard for your reputation?
A good parent lives in such a way as to prepare their children for the future as they live fully each day. They instill vision in their children. In the same way, we want to live in such a way as to leave a legacy of holiness for those whom we leave behind on the earth, that our work for Jesus may continue on earth as we are in Paradise. We cannot only live for the moment, but in view of the promise of eternity.
When Jesus says “It is finished”, He reveals that all along He was living and accomplishing what His Father willed, a careful plan to bring you into Heaven, because of the joy that lays ahead for every individual that allows himself to be washed in His blood.
The following verses are provided for your meditation, following each of the seven instances Jesus spoke from the cross:
How can Jesus words from the cross transform me?
1- Philip 2:3-5 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. {4} Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. {5} Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…
2- Col 1:13-14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, {14} in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And Heb 12:15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
3- John 12:27 “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” And Heb 5:7-9 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. {8} Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered {9} and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…
4- Luke 22:42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
5- 1 Co 1:27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. And 2 Co 12:10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
6- Lu 13:24 "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
7- Heb 4:11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
A Time to Die – Luke 23:46 keepbelieving.com
Sermon 7 of 7 from the Seven Last Words of Jesus series
August 1991 – 3 P.M. Friday afternoon. It’s another hot day in Jerusalem. Things are worse now. More blood. More screams. More gore. The insects swarm around the three naked bodies. There are shouts, restless words from the crowd. Several hundred people have gathered at Skull Hill to watch the end.
It hasn’t been an ordinary day. Not that you could ever call crucifixion ordinary. But the Romans did it all the time. It was their favored method for dealing with criminals and troublemakers. There were plenty of easier ways to kill people—and the Romans knew all about those ways, too—but crucifixion had its advantage. The primary one being that crucifixion was such a gruesome spectacle that it caught the public attention in a way that something mundane like poisoning could never do.
But this time the Romans had hit the Daily Double, so to speak. They were crucifying three men on the eve of the Jewish Passover. That meant the city would be clogged with religious pilgrims. The message would come through loud and clear—Don’t mess with us.
Things had started well enough. The three men were crucified at 9 A.M.—the normal starting time. The crowd was larger than usual, mostly because of the man in the middle, one Jesus of Nazareth. The hard part was nailing the men to the cross. At best it was a bloody ordeal. If the victims struggled (and most of them did), the thing could turn into a gory mess. But the man in the middle had not struggled at all. He looked half-dead before they laid him on the cross. The scourging must have taken a lot out of him.
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The first three hours were no problem. The three men spoke to one another briefly and people in the crowd shouted various things—mostly jeers and taunts. Jesus seemed to a have a following of people—friends and family—who came to watch the proceedings. They didn’t say much.
Three Hours of Darkness
Everything changed at 12 noon. Suddenly everything went dark. The sun disappeared—just like that—and thick darkness settled over the land. It was the darkness of a cave in the middle of the night, thick, ugly darkness that made the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
It lasted for three hours. At 3 P.M., the sun came out just as suddenly as it had disappeared. All eyes were drawn to the center cross. Something had happened to Jesus during those three hours, exactly what was hard to say. The other two looked awful, the way men always do when they are crucified, but Jesus was different. Something terrible had happened to him during that three hours of darkness, some awful burden that had descended on him and sucked out what little life was left in him. You didn’t have to be a doctor to know that he was about to die.
His chest heaved mightily with each breath, his eyes looked faraway, his voice was little more than a guttural groan, the death rattle was in his throat. Suddenly he shouted something and somebody shouted back to him. Then the soldiers moistened his lips with a sponge stuck on the end of a hyssop stalk. His head dropped, he took another breath, he shouted one word, “Tetelestai!,” and it seemed as if he had died. A moment passed, then he took one final breath, and shouted, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Then he bowed his head and his whole body seemed to slump forward.
Stunned silence. Followed by, “Surely, this was the Son of God.” Shock. “Who was that man?” Anger now, and fear on the faces of the crowd. Here and there, soft sobs and quiet tears. Much later came the spear in the side, but Jesus was long dead at that point.
Last Words
This is how Luke the physician tells the story of the last moments of Jesus’ life:
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. (Luke 23:44-46)
Luke is the only writer to record the last words of the Son of God: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Every word tells us something important:
Father—This was Jesus’ favorite title for God. It spoke of the intimate family relationship that had existed from all eternity. His first word from the cross had been, “Father, forgive them.” His last word was, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” But in between he had cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He called him, “My God” and not “Father” because in that agonizing moment, the Father turned his back on the Son as Jesus bore the sin of the world. God forsaken by God! But no longer. Jesus dies with the knowledge that the price has been fully paid, the cup emptied, the burden borne, estrangement ended. Whatever happened in those three mysterious hours of darkness is now in the past. Jesus yields his life to the One he called “Father.”
Into your hands—O, the touch of a father’s hands. What son does not long for his father to reach out and embrace him? There is something wonderful about this expression. It speaks of safety—"I am safe in my father’s hands"—and of greeting—"Welcome home, Son"—and of love—"Daddy, it’s so good to see you again"—and of approval—"I’m so proud of you, Son.”
For 15 hours Jesus has been in the hands of wicked men. With their hands, they beat him. With their hands, they slapped him. With their hands, they abused him. With their hands, they crowned him with thorns. With their hands, they ripped out his beard. With their hands, they smashed him black and blue. With their hands, they whipped his back until it was torn to bits.
All that is behind him now. Wicked hands have done all they can do. Jesus now returns to his Father’s hands.
I commit—The word means to deposit something valuable in a safe place. It’s what you do when you take your will and your most valuable possessions and put them in a safe-deposit box at the bank.
My spirit—By this phrase, Jesus meant his very life, his personal existence. Now that his physical life was over, Jesus commits himself into his Father’s hands for safe keeping. “Father, I can no longer care for myself. I place myself in your good hands for safe-keeping.”
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
You may not know that these words are a quotation from Scripture. With his final words, Jesus recited Psalm 31:5 and simply added the word “Father” to the front of the quotation. Jewish mothers would teach their child-ren to recite that verse every night before they went to bed. For many children, it would be the first verse of Scripture they ever learned.
On the cross, as his life is ebbing away, Jesus reverts to the prayer of his childhood, the prayer his mother taught him in Nazareth, the prayer with which he ended each day. In the end, his strength gone, his body tor-tured almost beyond recognition, his mind recalls the words he learned as a little boy—"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” The prayer has the same meaning and effect as the prayer many of our children pray each night: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take.”
Sometimes we wonder if our children pay any attention when we recite Scripture and sing to them at bedtime. Often it seems as if our words go in one ear and out the other. But those little ears hear more than we know, and the heart remembers far more than we realize. No one can overestimate the value of patiently teaching the truth of God to our children day in and day out. What seems to be wasted time may some day be the only thing they can remember.
The End of the Story
The moment has come. Jesus has only seconds to live. All that he came to do has been accomplished. It is time to die. Two things happened at the very end of his life that merit our attention.
1. His Physical Sufferings Reached Their Climax. The pain now is unbearable. Breathing is almost impossible. The crowd gathers round, like vultures circling their prey. The friends of Jesus watch in horror as his life ebbs away. Death rattles in his throat. From somewhere down below, a fiendish, evil howling. The angels look away. The Son of God is about to die.
What was it like to die by crucifixion? Several years ago two doctors on the staff of the Mayo Clinic enlisted the help of a Methodist pastor to answer that question. Their research was published in the most prestigious medical journal in America—The Journal of the American Medical Association. (March 21, 1986, pp. 1455-1463) The article was entitled “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ.” They surveyed the ancient literature on the subject of crucifixion along with the best modern historical research.
They begin by describing the Roman practice of flogging:
As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues. Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. (p. 1457)
They then describe the results of scourging:
The severe scourging, with its intense pain and appreciable blood loss, most probably left Jesus in a preshock state … The physical and mental abuse meted out by the Jews and the Romans, as well as the lack of food, water, and sleep, also contributed to his generally weakened state. Therefore, even before the actual crucifixion, Jesus’ physical condition was at least serious and possibly critical. (p. 1458)
The authors then give a detailed description of various crucifixion practices. They note that the crossbar Jesus was compelled to carry weighed 75-125 pounds. Iron spikes (approximately 5-7 inches long) were driven into his wrists and his feet just above the toes. Criminals were normally crucified naked, unless forbidden by local custom. Once crucified the victim was exposed to the elements, including insects which would burrow into the open wounds or the eyes, nose and ears.
Because of the scourging, the victim’s back became a virtual open sore.
When the victim was thrown to the ground on his back, in preparation for transfixion of his hands, his scourging wounds most likely would become torn open again and contaminated with dirt. Furthermore, with each respiration, the painful scourging wounds would be scraped against the rough wood of the stipes. As a result, blood loss from the back probably would continue throughout the crucifixion ordeal. (p. 1460)
But the worst was yet to come. Once the cross was raised, breathing became progressively more difficult until it finally became impossible.
The major pathophysiologic effect of crucifixion, beyond the excruciating pain, was a marked interference with normal respiration, particularly exhalation. The weight of the body, pulling down on the outstretched arms and shoulders, would tend to fix the intercostal muscles in an inhalation state and thereby hinder passive exhalation …
Adequate exhalation required lifting the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows and adducting the shoulders. However, this maneuver would place the entire weight of the body on the tarsals and would produce searing pain. Furthermore, flexion of the elbows would cause rotation of the wrists about the iron nails and cause fiery pain along the damaged median nerves. Lifting of the body would also painfully scrape the scourged back against the rough wooden stipes. (p. 1461)
The authors then summarize the biblical material in a remarkably concise manner:
The soldiers and the civilian crowd taunted Jesus throughout the ordeal, and the soldiers cast lots for his clothing. Christ spoke seven times from the cross. Since speech occurs during exhalation, these short, terse utterances must have been particularly difficult and painful. About 3 P.M. that Friday, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, bowed his head, and died. The Roman soldiers and onlookers recognized his moment of death. (p. 1462)
Only one question is left unresolved. What was the ultimate cause of his death after only a few hours on the cross? Concerning this question, the authors offer two possible answers:
Jesus’ death after only three to six hours on the cross surprised even Pontius Pilate. The fact that Jesus cried out in a loud voice and then bowed his head and died suggests the possibility of a catastrophic terminal event. One popular explanation has been that Jesus died of cardiac rupture…
However, another explanation may be more likely. Jesus’ death may have been hastened simply by his state of exhaustion and by the severity of his scourging, with its resultant blood loss and preshock state. (p. 1463)
All of this leads to a very simple conclusion: “Death by crucifixion was, in every sense of the word, excruciating.” (p. 1461). It is a perfectly chosen word, because excruciating comes from the Latin excruciatus, which means “out of the cross.”
2. He Voluntarily Gave Up His Life. This may seem at odds with the gruesome account given above. Christ was arrested and tried like a common criminal. He was beaten within an inch of his life. He suffered the terrible ordeal of crucifixion and died an agonizing death. Surely his life was forcibly taken from him.
Not so. Jesus himself addressed this question in John 10:17-18.
The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.
This perfectly harmonizes the gospel accounts of the death of Christ. Matthew 27:50 tells us that at the moment of his death, Jesus “dismissed his spirit.” That is, he voluntarily yielded it up to the Father. His life was not taken from him against his will; when the time came, he gave up his life voluntarily. To the very end, the Son of God remained sovereign over the affairs of men.
From all of this we may draw several lessons and applications:
1. He knew it was time to die.
2. He wasn’t afraid to die.
3. He died with his life complete.
4. He died without anger or bitterness.
5. He died in complete control of his senses and his circumstances.
6. He died knowing where he was going—back into the Father’s hands.
The death of Jesus is a model of how the faithful face death. They are not afraid. They are not filled with remorse over wasted opportunities. They endure their portion with grace, knowing that a better day awaits on the other side of the great divide. If they suffer, they hold fast to the promises of God as their only hope. They do nothing to hasten the moment, but when it finally comes, they have courage to face it for they have commit-ted themselves completely into their Father’s hands.
And so Jesus died like a child asleep in his father’s arms. Exhausted, weary, having suffered the worst that man could do, he finally yielded up his life and breathed his last. It was a quiet ending, a graceful exit, a peaceful passing from the brutality of this world.
Take Me Home
Max Lucado paints an unforgettable word picture of what Jesus’ death was like seen from the perspective of heaven:
(No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, pp. 65-75)
Were it a war—this would be the aftermath.
Were it a symphony—this would be the second between the final note and the first applause.
Were it a journey—this would be the sight of home.
Were it a storm—this would be the sun, piercing the clouds.
But it wasn’t. It was a Messiah. And this was a sigh of Joy.
“Father!” (The voice is hoarse.)
The voice that called forth the dead,
the voice that taught the willing,
the voice that screamed at God,
Now says, “Father!” “Father.”
The two are one again.
The abandoned is now found.
The schism is now bridged.
SCRIPTURES REFERENCED
Luke 23
* The Man Who Would Be King: Christ Speaks to the Problem of Frivolous Curiosity
* Last-Second Salvation
* Forgiving the Unforgivable
“Father.” He smiles weakly. “It’s over.”
Satan’s vulture have been scattered.
Hell’s demons have been jailed.
Death has been damned.
The sun is out. The Son is out.
It’s over.
An angel sighs. A star wipes away a tear.
“Take me home.”
Yes, take him home.
Take this prince to his king.
Take this son to his father.
Take this pilgrim to his home. (He deserves a rest.)
“Take me home.”
Come ten thousand angels!
Come and take this wounded troubador to the cradle of his Father’s arms!
Farewell manger’s infant
Bless You Holy Ambassador
Go home death slayer
Rest well sweet soldier
The battle is over.
Freed From the Fear of Death
Of all the fears that trouble the heart of man, perhaps none is greater than the fear of death. All of our fears can be rolled up into this greatest fear—we are afraid to die. We fear death because it is so final. We fear death because we are not sure what happens when we die. We fear death because it means leaving the world we know for another world we know nothing about.
Men will do anything to keep from thinking about death. They will drink themselves into a stupor rather than face the reality of their own mortality. They race through life going 1000 miles an hour, rushing from one thing to another in a desperate attempt to keep their mind off the inevitable.
We fear so many things—nuclear war, financial collapse, international intrigue, AIDS, the onset of old age—but behind them all lurks the great unspoken fear of death. It is unspoken because you cannot speak of the things you truly fear. They are too frightening for words.
Death is the final enemy. It is the end of one thing and the beginning of … What? Modern man does not know how to finish that sentence. Therefore he is afraid.
Into the breach steps Jesus Christ and said, “Fear not, for I have conquered death.” He was there. He died just like all men die. And he came back to tell the story. No one else has ever done that.
“Fear not.” You must be joking? Only a fool doesn’t fear death. Only a fool … or a follower of Jesus.
These are the words of Hebrews 2:14-15.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Who holds the power of death? Satan does. Death belongs to him. Death is his. He owns it. Before Satan was, death was not. When Satan is no more, death will be no more. Between now and then, Satan still rules the realm of death. Men fear death with good reason. They are entering a realm Satan controls.
But the death of Jesus Christ has spoiled Satan’s power. As long as men stayed dead, death was Satan’s ultimate tool to keep men in chains. But one Man changed all that. He died, but he didn’t stay dead. He broke Satan’s power when he tore off the bars of death.
Now no one need fear death any longer. Death still comes to all men, but for those who know Jesus (and only for them), death has changed its character. It is no longer the entrance into the dim unknown. It is now the passageway into the presence of God.
A Little Boy Named Kenneth
In his great sermon “Go Down Death,” (found in A Man Called Peter, pp. 262-274) Peter Marshall tells the story about a little boy he knew who was suffering from a terminal illness. At first he didn’t understand what was happening to him, but as the months passed, and he had to stay inside while his friends went out to play, the truth dawned on him. The idea intrigued him and he wondered what death would be like.
One day his mother was reading to him the stirring tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. She told him of Lancelot and Guinevere and the beautiful maiden Elaine. She read to him of the final glorious battle when so many gallant knights met their death.
At length, she was finished and put the book down. The little boy was silent for a moment. Then he asked the question that had been playing upon his childish mind, the question his mother was dreading to answer. “Mother, what is it like to die? Mother, does it hurt?”
Quick tears sprang to her eyes, so she excused herself to go into the kitchen to compose herself. She knew it was a question of deep significance. She knew she must find a good answer. For a moment she leaned against the kitchen cabinet, her knuckles pressed white against the surface, praying to the Lord for an answer.
And the Lord gave her an answer. In that moment she knew what she should say.
“Kenneth,” she said as she returned to the next room, “Do you remember when you were a little boy and you would play hard all day? When the evening came you would be so tired that when you came in, you would lie down on Mommy and Daddy’s bed and fall asleep.”
“That was not your bed. That was not where you belonged.”
“But you only stayed there a little while. In the morning, you were surprised to wake up and find yourself in your own bed.”
“You were there because someone you loved had come and taken care of you. During the night while you were sleeping, your father came—with big strong arms—and carried you to your own room.”
“Sweetheart, death is just like that. One night you are very tired and very sleepy. We fall asleep and the next morning we wake up to find ourselves in another room—our own room where we belong—because the Lord Jesus has come and with his big arms, he has carried us from our home in this world to our home in heaven.”
The light on the little boy’s face showed that he had understood. And a few days later he fell asleep just as his mother had said.
That is what death is like for the believer.
The Shining Mercy of God
How mistaken we are about death. We think that we are going from the land of the living to the land of the dying. Not so. We are going from the land of the dying to the land of the living. Jesus Christ has said it, and it is so.
As we pass beyond the curtain, we live on and on. But it will not be as it is today. In that day, we rise to new life:
—not with halting limp or wrinkled brow
—not with dimming eyes or faltering steps
—not with twisted spine or runaway tumors
—not with bitter memories or faded dreams
—not with amputated leg or injured heart
No, not with these do we rise. Not clothed with this mortal flesh do we rise. But we rise clothed in the shining mercy of God.
What Happens When We Die?
There is one great lesson we should take away from this story of the final words of the Lord Jesus. Death holds no fear for the Christian, for when we die, we pass from this life into the hands of our Heavenly Father, and he will take care of us.
What happens when we die?
1. Our body is buried and our spirit goes to God.
2. We pass into the personal presence of God.
3. We pass from this life into paradise.
4. We are in the Father’s hands.
These things are true for the followers of Jesus because what happened to him will one day happen to them. Where he leads, they will one day follow.
“Our People Die Well”
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, used to offer this comment as a final apologetic for the evangelical faith: “Our people die well.” Those words sound odd and out-of-place in the 20th century. But several centuries ago it was popular to read books about the art of dying—how to face it with strength and grace. Dying well is one mark of a robust Christian faith. There is such a thing as “dying grace” which the Lord is pleased to give to his children.
We die like the rest of mankind. But we have a hope that transcends the grave. For the followers of Jesus, death has lost its sting and the grave its victory.
What makes the difference? It is Jesus Christ and nothing else. In him and through him and because of him, death has lost its fear for us. Like all men, we prefer to live as long as possible. But when the time comes, we will not shrink back in unspeakable dread. We know One who has been there, and has come back to tell the story. He said, “Fear not. I will be with you.” For those who know Jesus death is not the end but the begin-ning of life.
Our Father, we thank you for a hope that transcends this dying world. We live, we die, and through Jesus Christ, we pass into your loving hands. Teach us to live each day as if it were our last because someday it will be true. In these quiet moments we recommit our lives to you believing that you will be faithful to us, in life and death and in the life to come. We pray these things in the name of Him who conquered death, Jesus our Lord, Amen.
August 1991 – 3 P.M. Friday afternoon. It’s another hot day in Jerusalem. Things are worse now. More blood. More screams. More gore. The insects swarm around the three naked bodies. There are shouts, restless words from the crowd. Several hundred people have gathered at Skull Hill to watch the end.
It hasn’t been an ordinary day. Not that you could ever call crucifixion ordinary. But the Romans did it all the time. It was their favored method for dealing with criminals and troublemakers. There were plenty of easier ways to kill people—and the Romans knew all about those ways, too—but crucifixion had its advantage. The primary one being that crucifixion was such a gruesome spectacle that it caught the public attention in a way that something mundane like poisoning could never do.
But this time the Romans had hit the Daily Double, so to speak. They were crucifying three men on the eve of the Jewish Passover. That meant the city would be clogged with religious pilgrims. The message would come through loud and clear—Don’t mess with us.
Things had started well enough. The three men were crucified at 9 A.M.—the normal starting time. The crowd was larger than usual, mostly because of the man in the middle, one Jesus of Nazareth. The hard part was nailing the men to the cross. At best it was a bloody ordeal. If the victims struggled (and most of them did), the thing could turn into a gory mess. But the man in the middle had not struggled at all. He looked half-dead before they laid him on the cross. The scourging must have taken a lot out of him.
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The first three hours were no problem. The three men spoke to one another briefly and people in the crowd shouted various things—mostly jeers and taunts. Jesus seemed to a have a following of people—friends and family—who came to watch the proceedings. They didn’t say much.
Three Hours of Darkness
Everything changed at 12 noon. Suddenly everything went dark. The sun disappeared—just like that—and thick darkness settled over the land. It was the darkness of a cave in the middle of the night, thick, ugly darkness that made the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
It lasted for three hours. At 3 P.M., the sun came out just as suddenly as it had disappeared. All eyes were drawn to the center cross. Something had happened to Jesus during those three hours, exactly what was hard to say. The other two looked awful, the way men always do when they are crucified, but Jesus was different. Something terrible had happened to him during that three hours of darkness, some awful burden that had descended on him and sucked out what little life was left in him. You didn’t have to be a doctor to know that he was about to die.
His chest heaved mightily with each breath, his eyes looked faraway, his voice was little more than a guttural groan, the death rattle was in his throat. Suddenly he shouted something and somebody shouted back to him. Then the soldiers moistened his lips with a sponge stuck on the end of a hyssop stalk. His head dropped, he took another breath, he shouted one word, “Tetelestai!,” and it seemed as if he had died. A moment passed, then he took one final breath, and shouted, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Then he bowed his head and his whole body seemed to slump forward.
Stunned silence. Followed by, “Surely, this was the Son of God.” Shock. “Who was that man?” Anger now, and fear on the faces of the crowd. Here and there, soft sobs and quiet tears. Much later came the spear in the side, but Jesus was long dead at that point.
Last Words
This is how Luke the physician tells the story of the last moments of Jesus’ life:
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. (Luke 23:44-46)
Luke is the only writer to record the last words of the Son of God: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Every word tells us something important:
Father—This was Jesus’ favorite title for God. It spoke of the intimate family relationship that had existed from all eternity. His first word from the cross had been, “Father, forgive them.” His last word was, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” But in between he had cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He called him, “My God” and not “Father” because in that agonizing moment, the Father turned his back on the Son as Jesus bore the sin of the world. God forsaken by God! But no longer. Jesus dies with the knowledge that the price has been fully paid, the cup emptied, the burden borne, estrangement ended. Whatever happened in those three mysterious hours of darkness is now in the past. Jesus yields his life to the One he called “Father.”
Into your hands—O, the touch of a father’s hands. What son does not long for his father to reach out and embrace him? There is something wonderful about this expression. It speaks of safety—"I am safe in my father’s hands"—and of greeting—"Welcome home, Son"—and of love—"Daddy, it’s so good to see you again"—and of approval—"I’m so proud of you, Son.”
For 15 hours Jesus has been in the hands of wicked men. With their hands, they beat him. With their hands, they slapped him. With their hands, they abused him. With their hands, they crowned him with thorns. With their hands, they ripped out his beard. With their hands, they smashed him black and blue. With their hands, they whipped his back until it was torn to bits.
All that is behind him now. Wicked hands have done all they can do. Jesus now returns to his Father’s hands.
I commit—The word means to deposit something valuable in a safe place. It’s what you do when you take your will and your most valuable possessions and put them in a safe-deposit box at the bank.
My spirit—By this phrase, Jesus meant his very life, his personal existence. Now that his physical life was over, Jesus commits himself into his Father’s hands for safe keeping. “Father, I can no longer care for myself. I place myself in your good hands for safe-keeping.”
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
You may not know that these words are a quotation from Scripture. With his final words, Jesus recited Psalm 31:5 and simply added the word “Father” to the front of the quotation. Jewish mothers would teach their child-ren to recite that verse every night before they went to bed. For many children, it would be the first verse of Scripture they ever learned.
On the cross, as his life is ebbing away, Jesus reverts to the prayer of his childhood, the prayer his mother taught him in Nazareth, the prayer with which he ended each day. In the end, his strength gone, his body tor-tured almost beyond recognition, his mind recalls the words he learned as a little boy—"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” The prayer has the same meaning and effect as the prayer many of our children pray each night: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take.”
Sometimes we wonder if our children pay any attention when we recite Scripture and sing to them at bedtime. Often it seems as if our words go in one ear and out the other. But those little ears hear more than we know, and the heart remembers far more than we realize. No one can overestimate the value of patiently teaching the truth of God to our children day in and day out. What seems to be wasted time may some day be the only thing they can remember.
The End of the Story
The moment has come. Jesus has only seconds to live. All that he came to do has been accomplished. It is time to die. Two things happened at the very end of his life that merit our attention.
1. His Physical Sufferings Reached Their Climax. The pain now is unbearable. Breathing is almost impossible. The crowd gathers round, like vultures circling their prey. The friends of Jesus watch in horror as his life ebbs away. Death rattles in his throat. From somewhere down below, a fiendish, evil howling. The angels look away. The Son of God is about to die.
What was it like to die by crucifixion? Several years ago two doctors on the staff of the Mayo Clinic enlisted the help of a Methodist pastor to answer that question. Their research was published in the most prestigious medical journal in America—The Journal of the American Medical Association. (March 21, 1986, pp. 1455-1463) The article was entitled “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ.” They surveyed the ancient literature on the subject of crucifixion along with the best modern historical research.
They begin by describing the Roman practice of flogging:
As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues. Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. (p. 1457)
They then describe the results of scourging:
The severe scourging, with its intense pain and appreciable blood loss, most probably left Jesus in a preshock state … The physical and mental abuse meted out by the Jews and the Romans, as well as the lack of food, water, and sleep, also contributed to his generally weakened state. Therefore, even before the actual crucifixion, Jesus’ physical condition was at least serious and possibly critical. (p. 1458)
The authors then give a detailed description of various crucifixion practices. They note that the crossbar Jesus was compelled to carry weighed 75-125 pounds. Iron spikes (approximately 5-7 inches long) were driven into his wrists and his feet just above the toes. Criminals were normally crucified naked, unless forbidden by local custom. Once crucified the victim was exposed to the elements, including insects which would burrow into the open wounds or the eyes, nose and ears.
Because of the scourging, the victim’s back became a virtual open sore.
When the victim was thrown to the ground on his back, in preparation for transfixion of his hands, his scourging wounds most likely would become torn open again and contaminated with dirt. Furthermore, with each respiration, the painful scourging wounds would be scraped against the rough wood of the stipes. As a result, blood loss from the back probably would continue throughout the crucifixion ordeal. (p. 1460)
But the worst was yet to come. Once the cross was raised, breathing became progressively more difficult until it finally became impossible.
The major pathophysiologic effect of crucifixion, beyond the excruciating pain, was a marked interference with normal respiration, particularly exhalation. The weight of the body, pulling down on the outstretched arms and shoulders, would tend to fix the intercostal muscles in an inhalation state and thereby hinder passive exhalation …
Adequate exhalation required lifting the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows and adducting the shoulders. However, this maneuver would place the entire weight of the body on the tarsals and would produce searing pain. Furthermore, flexion of the elbows would cause rotation of the wrists about the iron nails and cause fiery pain along the damaged median nerves. Lifting of the body would also painfully scrape the scourged back against the rough wooden stipes. (p. 1461)
The authors then summarize the biblical material in a remarkably concise manner:
The soldiers and the civilian crowd taunted Jesus throughout the ordeal, and the soldiers cast lots for his clothing. Christ spoke seven times from the cross. Since speech occurs during exhalation, these short, terse utterances must have been particularly difficult and painful. About 3 P.M. that Friday, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, bowed his head, and died. The Roman soldiers and onlookers recognized his moment of death. (p. 1462)
Only one question is left unresolved. What was the ultimate cause of his death after only a few hours on the cross? Concerning this question, the authors offer two possible answers:
Jesus’ death after only three to six hours on the cross surprised even Pontius Pilate. The fact that Jesus cried out in a loud voice and then bowed his head and died suggests the possibility of a catastrophic terminal event. One popular explanation has been that Jesus died of cardiac rupture…
However, another explanation may be more likely. Jesus’ death may have been hastened simply by his state of exhaustion and by the severity of his scourging, with its resultant blood loss and preshock state. (p. 1463)
All of this leads to a very simple conclusion: “Death by crucifixion was, in every sense of the word, excruciating.” (p. 1461). It is a perfectly chosen word, because excruciating comes from the Latin excruciatus, which means “out of the cross.”
2. He Voluntarily Gave Up His Life. This may seem at odds with the gruesome account given above. Christ was arrested and tried like a common criminal. He was beaten within an inch of his life. He suffered the terrible ordeal of crucifixion and died an agonizing death. Surely his life was forcibly taken from him.
Not so. Jesus himself addressed this question in John 10:17-18.
The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.
This perfectly harmonizes the gospel accounts of the death of Christ. Matthew 27:50 tells us that at the moment of his death, Jesus “dismissed his spirit.” That is, he voluntarily yielded it up to the Father. His life was not taken from him against his will; when the time came, he gave up his life voluntarily. To the very end, the Son of God remained sovereign over the affairs of men.
From all of this we may draw several lessons and applications:
1. He knew it was time to die.
2. He wasn’t afraid to die.
3. He died with his life complete.
4. He died without anger or bitterness.
5. He died in complete control of his senses and his circumstances.
6. He died knowing where he was going—back into the Father’s hands.
The death of Jesus is a model of how the faithful face death. They are not afraid. They are not filled with remorse over wasted opportunities. They endure their portion with grace, knowing that a better day awaits on the other side of the great divide. If they suffer, they hold fast to the promises of God as their only hope. They do nothing to hasten the moment, but when it finally comes, they have courage to face it for they have commit-ted themselves completely into their Father’s hands.
And so Jesus died like a child asleep in his father’s arms. Exhausted, weary, having suffered the worst that man could do, he finally yielded up his life and breathed his last. It was a quiet ending, a graceful exit, a peaceful passing from the brutality of this world.
Take Me Home
Max Lucado paints an unforgettable word picture of what Jesus’ death was like seen from the perspective of heaven:
(No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, pp. 65-75)
Were it a war—this would be the aftermath.
Were it a symphony—this would be the second between the final note and the first applause.
Were it a journey—this would be the sight of home.
Were it a storm—this would be the sun, piercing the clouds.
But it wasn’t. It was a Messiah. And this was a sigh of Joy.
“Father!” (The voice is hoarse.)
The voice that called forth the dead,
the voice that taught the willing,
the voice that screamed at God,
Now says, “Father!” “Father.”
The two are one again.
The abandoned is now found.
The schism is now bridged.
SCRIPTURES REFERENCED
Luke 23
* The Man Who Would Be King: Christ Speaks to the Problem of Frivolous Curiosity
* Last-Second Salvation
* Forgiving the Unforgivable
“Father.” He smiles weakly. “It’s over.”
Satan’s vulture have been scattered.
Hell’s demons have been jailed.
Death has been damned.
The sun is out. The Son is out.
It’s over.
An angel sighs. A star wipes away a tear.
“Take me home.”
Yes, take him home.
Take this prince to his king.
Take this son to his father.
Take this pilgrim to his home. (He deserves a rest.)
“Take me home.”
Come ten thousand angels!
Come and take this wounded troubador to the cradle of his Father’s arms!
Farewell manger’s infant
Bless You Holy Ambassador
Go home death slayer
Rest well sweet soldier
The battle is over.
Freed From the Fear of Death
Of all the fears that trouble the heart of man, perhaps none is greater than the fear of death. All of our fears can be rolled up into this greatest fear—we are afraid to die. We fear death because it is so final. We fear death because we are not sure what happens when we die. We fear death because it means leaving the world we know for another world we know nothing about.
Men will do anything to keep from thinking about death. They will drink themselves into a stupor rather than face the reality of their own mortality. They race through life going 1000 miles an hour, rushing from one thing to another in a desperate attempt to keep their mind off the inevitable.
We fear so many things—nuclear war, financial collapse, international intrigue, AIDS, the onset of old age—but behind them all lurks the great unspoken fear of death. It is unspoken because you cannot speak of the things you truly fear. They are too frightening for words.
Death is the final enemy. It is the end of one thing and the beginning of … What? Modern man does not know how to finish that sentence. Therefore he is afraid.
Into the breach steps Jesus Christ and said, “Fear not, for I have conquered death.” He was there. He died just like all men die. And he came back to tell the story. No one else has ever done that.
“Fear not.” You must be joking? Only a fool doesn’t fear death. Only a fool … or a follower of Jesus.
These are the words of Hebrews 2:14-15.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Who holds the power of death? Satan does. Death belongs to him. Death is his. He owns it. Before Satan was, death was not. When Satan is no more, death will be no more. Between now and then, Satan still rules the realm of death. Men fear death with good reason. They are entering a realm Satan controls.
But the death of Jesus Christ has spoiled Satan’s power. As long as men stayed dead, death was Satan’s ultimate tool to keep men in chains. But one Man changed all that. He died, but he didn’t stay dead. He broke Satan’s power when he tore off the bars of death.
Now no one need fear death any longer. Death still comes to all men, but for those who know Jesus (and only for them), death has changed its character. It is no longer the entrance into the dim unknown. It is now the passageway into the presence of God.
A Little Boy Named Kenneth
In his great sermon “Go Down Death,” (found in A Man Called Peter, pp. 262-274) Peter Marshall tells the story about a little boy he knew who was suffering from a terminal illness. At first he didn’t understand what was happening to him, but as the months passed, and he had to stay inside while his friends went out to play, the truth dawned on him. The idea intrigued him and he wondered what death would be like.
One day his mother was reading to him the stirring tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. She told him of Lancelot and Guinevere and the beautiful maiden Elaine. She read to him of the final glorious battle when so many gallant knights met their death.
At length, she was finished and put the book down. The little boy was silent for a moment. Then he asked the question that had been playing upon his childish mind, the question his mother was dreading to answer. “Mother, what is it like to die? Mother, does it hurt?”
Quick tears sprang to her eyes, so she excused herself to go into the kitchen to compose herself. She knew it was a question of deep significance. She knew she must find a good answer. For a moment she leaned against the kitchen cabinet, her knuckles pressed white against the surface, praying to the Lord for an answer.
And the Lord gave her an answer. In that moment she knew what she should say.
“Kenneth,” she said as she returned to the next room, “Do you remember when you were a little boy and you would play hard all day? When the evening came you would be so tired that when you came in, you would lie down on Mommy and Daddy’s bed and fall asleep.”
“That was not your bed. That was not where you belonged.”
“But you only stayed there a little while. In the morning, you were surprised to wake up and find yourself in your own bed.”
“You were there because someone you loved had come and taken care of you. During the night while you were sleeping, your father came—with big strong arms—and carried you to your own room.”
“Sweetheart, death is just like that. One night you are very tired and very sleepy. We fall asleep and the next morning we wake up to find ourselves in another room—our own room where we belong—because the Lord Jesus has come and with his big arms, he has carried us from our home in this world to our home in heaven.”
The light on the little boy’s face showed that he had understood. And a few days later he fell asleep just as his mother had said.
That is what death is like for the believer.
The Shining Mercy of God
How mistaken we are about death. We think that we are going from the land of the living to the land of the dying. Not so. We are going from the land of the dying to the land of the living. Jesus Christ has said it, and it is so.
As we pass beyond the curtain, we live on and on. But it will not be as it is today. In that day, we rise to new life:
—not with halting limp or wrinkled brow
—not with dimming eyes or faltering steps
—not with twisted spine or runaway tumors
—not with bitter memories or faded dreams
—not with amputated leg or injured heart
No, not with these do we rise. Not clothed with this mortal flesh do we rise. But we rise clothed in the shining mercy of God.
What Happens When We Die?
There is one great lesson we should take away from this story of the final words of the Lord Jesus. Death holds no fear for the Christian, for when we die, we pass from this life into the hands of our Heavenly Father, and he will take care of us.
What happens when we die?
1. Our body is buried and our spirit goes to God.
2. We pass into the personal presence of God.
3. We pass from this life into paradise.
4. We are in the Father’s hands.
These things are true for the followers of Jesus because what happened to him will one day happen to them. Where he leads, they will one day follow.
“Our People Die Well”
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, used to offer this comment as a final apologetic for the evangelical faith: “Our people die well.” Those words sound odd and out-of-place in the 20th century. But several centuries ago it was popular to read books about the art of dying—how to face it with strength and grace. Dying well is one mark of a robust Christian faith. There is such a thing as “dying grace” which the Lord is pleased to give to his children.
We die like the rest of mankind. But we have a hope that transcends the grave. For the followers of Jesus, death has lost its sting and the grave its victory.
What makes the difference? It is Jesus Christ and nothing else. In him and through him and because of him, death has lost its fear for us. Like all men, we prefer to live as long as possible. But when the time comes, we will not shrink back in unspeakable dread. We know One who has been there, and has come back to tell the story. He said, “Fear not. I will be with you.” For those who know Jesus death is not the end but the begin-ning of life.
Our Father, we thank you for a hope that transcends this dying world. We live, we die, and through Jesus Christ, we pass into your loving hands. Teach us to live each day as if it were our last because someday it will be true. In these quiet moments we recommit our lives to you believing that you will be faithful to us, in life and death and in the life to come. We pray these things in the name of Him who conquered death, Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Tetelestai! – John 19:30 keepbelieving.com
Sermon 6 of 7 from the Seven Last Words of Jesus series
July 1991 – Unfinished Business … We were reminded of several good examples this week.
—On Wednesday, President Bush flew to Mt. Rushmore for a special 50th Anniversary celebration. It’s a little-known fact that the sculptor, a man named Gutzon Borglum, never finished his work. If you study the faces carefully, it’s clear that he spent more time on George Washington than he did on the other three presidents. That’s because he originally planned to extend the figures of each president down into the chest area. But he never lived long enough to see his dream through to completion. His son continued his work for a few months after his death, but he ran out of money. It’s been 50 years—and millions of tourists since then, but Mt. Rushmore for all its grandeur remains an unfinished work of art.
—On Thursday night Sandi Patti sang with the Boston Pops Orchestra at a great 4th of July celebra-tion. The audience numbered in the tens of thousands. I caught her closing number—a song I hadn’t heard in 20 years—"Let There be Peace on Earth.” The crowd held hands and swayed back and forth as she sang—"Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” It was a moving sight to see so many earnest voices singing what is essentially a prayer for peace. But just a flick of the channel showed how far we are from “the peace that was meant to be.” The screen transported us to some faraway land called Slovenia where tanks were blasting away at farmhouses and men were marching off to war. It was a solemn reminder that the quest for peace is just that—a quest and not a finished journey. With so much killing in the world, the voice of Sandi Patti was like a midsummer night’s dream. The search for lasting peace on earth is another bit of unfinished business.
—But the most poignant reminder came last Monday. He was only 54 and in many ways, still rising in his profession. Several months ago, while vacationing in Arizona and Utah, he noticed a nagging pain in his chest. When he returned home, he had the doctors run some tests. The news was bad, as bad as it gets. Michael Landon had pancreatic cancer—inoperable and basically untreatable. His life was measured in days and weeks, not months and years. He died last Monday, leaving behind a wife, 9 children and millions of fans. Unfinished business? Plenty. No one plans to die at age 54.
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That may be our worst fear … that we will die before our time. But it happens all the time.
We die too young … .
Or we die too soon …
Or we die with our work unfinished …
Or we die with our dreams unfulfilled.
Living an Unfinished Life
We all know what it’s like, don’t we? All of us have unfinished things cluttering up the highway of life.
—the half-mowed lawn
—the half-read book
—the letter started but never sent
—the abandoned diet
—the degree we never finished
—the phone calls never returned
But it can be much more serious than that.
—the abandoned child
—the job we quit in a fit of anger
—the wrecked marriage
—the bills never paid
—the promises never kept
All of us go through life leaving behind a trail of unfinished projects and unfulfilled dreams. How few there are who can come to the end of life and say, “I finished exactly what I set out to do.”
A Dying Man’s Final Words
Only one person in history never left behind any unfinished business. His name is Jesus Christ. He is the only person who could come to the end of his life and say—with absolute and total truthfulness—"I have finished everything I set out to do.”
It is Friday in Jerusalem and a huge crowd has gathered at the place called Skull Hill. It was on the north side of the city, just outside the Damascus Gate, and located by the side of a well-traveled road. The Romans liked to hold their crucifixions in public places. Killing people in public had a salutary effect on the masses.
This particular crucifixion started at 9 A.M. For three hours everything proceeded normally. Then at exactly 12 noon, the sky went black. Not overcast, but pitch black, so black that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It wasn’t anything normal like an eclipse. The darkness seemed to pulse and throb, almost like the darkness was a living thing, an evil mutant creature escaped from some science fiction movie.
Only this was no movie. What happened was real. For three hours darkness fell across the city of Jerusalem. There were screams, hideous cries, moans, and other unidentifiable sounds. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the darkness lifted, disappeared, vanished, and sanity returned to the earth.
One glance at the middle cross made it clear that this man Jesus would not last much longer. He looked dead already. His body quivered uncontrollably, his chest heaving with every tortured breath. The soldiers knew from long experience that he wouldn’t make it to sundown.
Then it happened. He shouted something—"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Someone in the crowd shouted back to him. Moments passed, death drew near, then a hoarse whisper, “I thirst.” The soldiers put some sour vinegar on a sponge and lifted it to his lips with a stalk of hyssop. He moistened his lips and took a deep breath. If you listened you could hear the death rattle in his throat. He had less than a minute to live.
Then he spoke again. It was a quick shout. Just one word. If you weren’t paying attention, you missed it in all the confusion. Then he breathed out another sentence. Then he was dead.
What was that shout? In Greek it is only one word … Tetelestai … “It is finished.”
Was, Is And Always Will Be
Tetelestai comes from the verb teleo, which means “to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish.” It’s a crucial word because it signifies the successful end to a particular course of action. It’s the word you would use when you climb to the peak of Mt. Everest; it’s the word you would use when you turn in the final copy of your dissertation; it’s the word you would use when you make the final payment on your new car; it’s the word you use when you cross the finish line of your first 10K run. The word means more than just “I survived.” It means “I did exactly what I set out to do.”
But there’s more here than the verb itself. Tetelestai is in the perfect tense in Greek. That’s significant because the perfect tense speaks of an action which has been completed in the past with results continuing into the present. It’s different from the past tense which looks back to an event and says, “This happened.” The perfect tense adds the idea that “This happened and it is still in effect today.”
When Jesus cried out “It is finished,” he meant “It was finished in the past, it is still finished in the present and it will remain finished in the future.”
Note one other fact. He did not say, “I am finished,” for that would imply that he died defeated and exhausted. Rather, he cried out “It is finished,” meaning “I successfully completed the work I came to do.”
Tetelestai, then, is the Savior’s final cry of victory. When he died, he left no unfinished business behind. When he said, “It is finished,” he was speaking the truth.
What Was Finished?
When you read these words of Jesus, only one question grips the mind—What was finished? As you survey the commentators, you find that each writer has his idea of the answer to that question. In fact, the answers are as varied as the writers themselves.
This week as I prepared for this message, I pulled my green commentary by Matthew Henry, who lived and wrote over 300 years ago. Although many have surpassed him in details of exegesis, his work endures as one of the greatest devotional commentaries ever written. In his remarks on this saying of Jesus (volume 5, p. 1201), he lists 8 things that were finished or completed when Jesus cried out “It is finished.”
1. The malice of his enemies was finished. By nailing him to the cross, they had done their worst. There was nothing more they could do to the Son of God.
2. The sufferings ordained by God were finished. Many times during his ministry, Jesus spoke of “the work” he was sent to do and of the “hour” of trouble that was coming. He once spoke of a “baptism” of suffering he must undergo. All those things were ordained by God. None of them happened by chance. Even the evil plans of the Jews fit somehow into God’s greater plan to save the world through the death of his Son (Acts 2:23). But those sufferings were now at an end.
3. All the Old Testament types and prophecies were fulfilled. Matthew Henry lists a number of examples—He had been given vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:21), he had been sold for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12), his hands and feet had been pierced (Psalm 22:16), his garments had been divided (Psalm 22:18), and his side was pierced (Zechariah 12:10). There are many other prophesies surrounding his death. All those had been or very soon would be fulfilled.
4. The ceremonial law was abolished. As Romans 10:4 puts it, Christ is “the end of the law.” It finds its completion and fulfillment in him. Therefore, all the Old Testament rules concerning animal sacrifices are set aside. And the rules and regulations concerning the priesthood are out of date since the Greater Priest has now laid down his life for his people. Those laws pointed to the cross. But once Jesus died, they were no longer needed. “The Mosaic economy is dissolved, to make way for a better hope.”
5. The price of sin was paid in full. Do you remember the words of John the Baptist when he saw Jesus? He called him “The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) That “taking away” of sin was accomplishment by the death of our Lord.
6. His physical sufferings were at an end. “The storm is over, the worst is past; all his pains and agonies are at an end, and he is just going to paradise, entering upon the joy set before him.”
7. His life was now finished. When Jesus cried out “It is finished,” he had only a few seconds to live. All that he had come to do had been fully accomplished. His life and his mission came to an end at exactly the same moment.
8. The work of redemption was now complete. This is undoubtedly the major meaning. Matthew Henry expands on what Christ’s death accomplished in four statements, each one beginning with the letter F. The death of Christ provided a …
A. Full satisfaction for sin
B. Fatal blow to Satan
C. Fountain of grace opened that will flow forever
D. Foundation of peace laid that will last forever
Paid In Full
But there is more to the meaning of tetelestai. It means all of the above, but it especially applies to the price paid for the sins of the world. Merrill Tenney (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, IX, 185) notes that the verb
was used in the first and second centuries in the sense of “fulfilling” or “paying” a debt and often appeared in receipts. “It is finished” (Tetelestai) could be interpreted as “Paid in full.”
“Paid in full” means that once a thing is paid for, you never have to pay for it again. In fact, “paid in full” means that once a thing is paid for, it is foolish to try to pay for it again. That point came home to me several weeks ago when we visited our good friends Grant and Fern Brown who live in Norwood, Colorado. Grant is the distinguished pastor of the San Miquel Basin Christian Fellowship. We knew each other in Texas because he served as my song leader at Northeast Bible Church while he was a student in seminary. For the last five years he has had a very fruitful ministry in the remote West End of Colorado.
Because we are good friends, whenever he and Fern and the girls come through Chicago, they stay with us. And several years ago we stayed with them in Colorado. So he was delighted when I phoned to say that we would be passing through Norwood on our way back from Arizona. He said fine, they would be glad to put us up. I assumed that we would be camping on sofas or whatever for the night—which was fine with us—but when I called him from southern Utah to let him know we would arrive in 3 or 4 hours, he said that he had a room for us at the local hotel—the Back Narrows Inn. I thought he was kidding. First of all, I didn’t think Norwood was big enough to have a hotel. Second, I just thought it was a joke. But he was serious. “Our house isn’t big enough (they had moved since we came through a few years ago), so we’ll put you up in the hotel.” When I protested, he said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ve worked it out with the owner and I’ve already taken care of the bill.” That was that. We were staying at the hotel and he was paying. And nothing I could say would make the slightest difference.
We got to the Back Narrows Inn about 10 P.M. and found it to be a small, turn-of-the-century building that had been converted into a 15 or 20 room hotel. When we arrived, the owner greeted us, handed us our keys, and said, “Your friend has taken care of everything.” Indeed he had. We didn’t even have to formally check in. No credit cards, no filling out forms, no “How will you be paying for this, sir?” It wasn’t necessary because my friend Grant Brown had personally paid the price in full. All that was left to us was to enjoy our rooms, provided free of charge to us by virtue of a friend’s hospitality.
Name Your Sin
So let me ask you a personal question. What sin is keeping you from God today? Is it anger? Is it lust? Is it a hard heart of unbelief? Is it alcohol abuse? Is it an uncontrollable temper? Is it cheating? Is it stealing? Is it adultery? Is it abortion? Is it pride? Is it greed?
Let me tell you the best news you’ve ever heard. It doesn’t matter what “your” sin is. It doesn’t matter how many sins you’ve piled up in your life. It doesn’t matter how guilty you think you are. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been doing this week. It doesn’t matter how bad you’ve been. It doesn’t matter how many skeletons rattle around in your closet.
All of your sins have been stamped by God with one word—Tetelestai—Paid in full.
Anger … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Uncontrolled ambition … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
SCRIPTURES REFERENCED
John 19
* I Thirst
* Final Words of a Family Man
* Paid in Full
Psalms 22
* What Angels Wish They Knew
* The Forsaken Christ
* Who is Jesus Christ?
Gossip … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Drunkenness … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Fornication … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Embezzlement … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Lying … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Disobedience … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Slothfulness … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Pride … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Murder … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Bribery … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Those are just examples. Just fill in the blank with whatever sins plague your life. Then write over those sins the word Tetelestai because through the blood of Jesus Christ the price for “your” sins has been Paid in Full.
Three Abiding Principles
1. Since Jesus Christ paid in full, the work of salvation is now complete. That is what “It is finished” means. The debt was paid, the work was accomplished, the sacrifice was completed. And since the verb is in the perfect tense, it means that when Jesus died, he died once for all time. The sacrifice was suffi-cient to pay for the sins of every person who has ever lived—past, present or future.
And that explains what theologians mean when they talk about the “finished work” of Jesus Christ. That’s not just a slogan; it’s a profound spiritual truth. What Jesus accomplished in his death was so awesome, so total, so complete that it could never be repeated. Not even by Jesus himself. His work is “finished.” There is nothing more God could do to save the human race. There is no Plan B. Plan A (the death of Christ) was good enough.
2. Since Jesus Christ paid in full, all efforts to add anything to what Christ did on the cross are doomed to failure. A few years I found a great passage tucked away in the Doctrinal Statement of Dallas Theological Seminary. In Article VII, “Salvation Only Through Christ,” I found three rather long and involved sentences. I quote them here because they speak directly to the point at hand.
We believe that, owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation however great, no attainments in morality however high, no culture however attractive, no baptism or other ordinance however admini-stered can help the sinner take even one step toward heaven; but a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word is essential to salvation, and only those thus saved are the sons of God.
We believe, also, that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and was made a curse for us, dying in our place and stead; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, nor all the churches that have existed since the days of the Apostles can add in the very least degree to the value of the blood, or to the merit of the finished work of Jesus Christ. (italics added)
I submit to you that that statement is absolutely correct. It says it all. You can’t add anything to the value of what Jesus did on the cross. You are doomed to failure if you try.
Let me put it very simply. If Jesus paid it all, you don’t have to. If you try to pay for your salvation, it means you don’t think he paid it all. There is no middle ground between those two propositions.
God is not trying to sell you salvation. He’s not offering salvation at half-price. He’s not offering to go “Dutch Treat” with you. He’s not offering salvation on an installment plan.
God is offering you salvation free of charge. That’s what Tetelestai means. Jesus paid in full so you wouldn’t have to pay anything.
3. Since Jesus Christ paid in full, the only thing you can do is accept it or reject it. A few years ago a Nigerian pastor gave me a hymnbook entitled “Sacred Songs and Solos.” When you open to the title page, you find that it was compiled by Ira Sankey (D. L. Moody’s songleader) almost a hundred years ago. This hymnbook—though very old—is still used by the churches of Nigeria and contains many hymns we in America would consider out-of-date. But some of them are gems. These are the words to number 142:
Nothing either great or small—
Nothing, sinner no.
Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago.
“It is finished!” yes, indeed.
Finished every jot:
Sinner, this is all you need—
Tell me, is it not?
When He, from His lofty throne,
Stooped to do and die,
Everything was fully done:
Hearken to His cry.
Weary, working, burdened one,
Wherefore toil you so?
Cease your doing; all was done
Long, long ago.
Till to Jesus’ work you cling
By a simple faith,
“Doing” is a deadly thing—
“Doing” leads to death.
Cast your deadly “doing” down—
Down at Jesus’ feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete.
They don’t write hymns like that nowadays. There’s enough good theology in those six stanzas to save the entire world. Just consider these two lines—"Cease your doing; all was done long, long ago.” It’s true. “All was done” when Jesus cried “It is finished.” It was finished then, it is finished now, and to the glory of God, after a million times a million years have passed, it will still be finished.
Thanks be to God that Jesus left no unfinished business behind. He finished what he came to do, and in finish-ing his work he paid in full the price for your sins. As the hymn says, “Sinner, this is all you need. Tell me, is it not?”
July 1991 – Unfinished Business … We were reminded of several good examples this week.
—On Wednesday, President Bush flew to Mt. Rushmore for a special 50th Anniversary celebration. It’s a little-known fact that the sculptor, a man named Gutzon Borglum, never finished his work. If you study the faces carefully, it’s clear that he spent more time on George Washington than he did on the other three presidents. That’s because he originally planned to extend the figures of each president down into the chest area. But he never lived long enough to see his dream through to completion. His son continued his work for a few months after his death, but he ran out of money. It’s been 50 years—and millions of tourists since then, but Mt. Rushmore for all its grandeur remains an unfinished work of art.
—On Thursday night Sandi Patti sang with the Boston Pops Orchestra at a great 4th of July celebra-tion. The audience numbered in the tens of thousands. I caught her closing number—a song I hadn’t heard in 20 years—"Let There be Peace on Earth.” The crowd held hands and swayed back and forth as she sang—"Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” It was a moving sight to see so many earnest voices singing what is essentially a prayer for peace. But just a flick of the channel showed how far we are from “the peace that was meant to be.” The screen transported us to some faraway land called Slovenia where tanks were blasting away at farmhouses and men were marching off to war. It was a solemn reminder that the quest for peace is just that—a quest and not a finished journey. With so much killing in the world, the voice of Sandi Patti was like a midsummer night’s dream. The search for lasting peace on earth is another bit of unfinished business.
—But the most poignant reminder came last Monday. He was only 54 and in many ways, still rising in his profession. Several months ago, while vacationing in Arizona and Utah, he noticed a nagging pain in his chest. When he returned home, he had the doctors run some tests. The news was bad, as bad as it gets. Michael Landon had pancreatic cancer—inoperable and basically untreatable. His life was measured in days and weeks, not months and years. He died last Monday, leaving behind a wife, 9 children and millions of fans. Unfinished business? Plenty. No one plans to die at age 54.
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That may be our worst fear … that we will die before our time. But it happens all the time.
We die too young … .
Or we die too soon …
Or we die with our work unfinished …
Or we die with our dreams unfulfilled.
Living an Unfinished Life
We all know what it’s like, don’t we? All of us have unfinished things cluttering up the highway of life.
—the half-mowed lawn
—the half-read book
—the letter started but never sent
—the abandoned diet
—the degree we never finished
—the phone calls never returned
But it can be much more serious than that.
—the abandoned child
—the job we quit in a fit of anger
—the wrecked marriage
—the bills never paid
—the promises never kept
All of us go through life leaving behind a trail of unfinished projects and unfulfilled dreams. How few there are who can come to the end of life and say, “I finished exactly what I set out to do.”
A Dying Man’s Final Words
Only one person in history never left behind any unfinished business. His name is Jesus Christ. He is the only person who could come to the end of his life and say—with absolute and total truthfulness—"I have finished everything I set out to do.”
It is Friday in Jerusalem and a huge crowd has gathered at the place called Skull Hill. It was on the north side of the city, just outside the Damascus Gate, and located by the side of a well-traveled road. The Romans liked to hold their crucifixions in public places. Killing people in public had a salutary effect on the masses.
This particular crucifixion started at 9 A.M. For three hours everything proceeded normally. Then at exactly 12 noon, the sky went black. Not overcast, but pitch black, so black that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It wasn’t anything normal like an eclipse. The darkness seemed to pulse and throb, almost like the darkness was a living thing, an evil mutant creature escaped from some science fiction movie.
Only this was no movie. What happened was real. For three hours darkness fell across the city of Jerusalem. There were screams, hideous cries, moans, and other unidentifiable sounds. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the darkness lifted, disappeared, vanished, and sanity returned to the earth.
One glance at the middle cross made it clear that this man Jesus would not last much longer. He looked dead already. His body quivered uncontrollably, his chest heaving with every tortured breath. The soldiers knew from long experience that he wouldn’t make it to sundown.
Then it happened. He shouted something—"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Someone in the crowd shouted back to him. Moments passed, death drew near, then a hoarse whisper, “I thirst.” The soldiers put some sour vinegar on a sponge and lifted it to his lips with a stalk of hyssop. He moistened his lips and took a deep breath. If you listened you could hear the death rattle in his throat. He had less than a minute to live.
Then he spoke again. It was a quick shout. Just one word. If you weren’t paying attention, you missed it in all the confusion. Then he breathed out another sentence. Then he was dead.
What was that shout? In Greek it is only one word … Tetelestai … “It is finished.”
Was, Is And Always Will Be
Tetelestai comes from the verb teleo, which means “to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish.” It’s a crucial word because it signifies the successful end to a particular course of action. It’s the word you would use when you climb to the peak of Mt. Everest; it’s the word you would use when you turn in the final copy of your dissertation; it’s the word you would use when you make the final payment on your new car; it’s the word you use when you cross the finish line of your first 10K run. The word means more than just “I survived.” It means “I did exactly what I set out to do.”
But there’s more here than the verb itself. Tetelestai is in the perfect tense in Greek. That’s significant because the perfect tense speaks of an action which has been completed in the past with results continuing into the present. It’s different from the past tense which looks back to an event and says, “This happened.” The perfect tense adds the idea that “This happened and it is still in effect today.”
When Jesus cried out “It is finished,” he meant “It was finished in the past, it is still finished in the present and it will remain finished in the future.”
Note one other fact. He did not say, “I am finished,” for that would imply that he died defeated and exhausted. Rather, he cried out “It is finished,” meaning “I successfully completed the work I came to do.”
Tetelestai, then, is the Savior’s final cry of victory. When he died, he left no unfinished business behind. When he said, “It is finished,” he was speaking the truth.
What Was Finished?
When you read these words of Jesus, only one question grips the mind—What was finished? As you survey the commentators, you find that each writer has his idea of the answer to that question. In fact, the answers are as varied as the writers themselves.
This week as I prepared for this message, I pulled my green commentary by Matthew Henry, who lived and wrote over 300 years ago. Although many have surpassed him in details of exegesis, his work endures as one of the greatest devotional commentaries ever written. In his remarks on this saying of Jesus (volume 5, p. 1201), he lists 8 things that were finished or completed when Jesus cried out “It is finished.”
1. The malice of his enemies was finished. By nailing him to the cross, they had done their worst. There was nothing more they could do to the Son of God.
2. The sufferings ordained by God were finished. Many times during his ministry, Jesus spoke of “the work” he was sent to do and of the “hour” of trouble that was coming. He once spoke of a “baptism” of suffering he must undergo. All those things were ordained by God. None of them happened by chance. Even the evil plans of the Jews fit somehow into God’s greater plan to save the world through the death of his Son (Acts 2:23). But those sufferings were now at an end.
3. All the Old Testament types and prophecies were fulfilled. Matthew Henry lists a number of examples—He had been given vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:21), he had been sold for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12), his hands and feet had been pierced (Psalm 22:16), his garments had been divided (Psalm 22:18), and his side was pierced (Zechariah 12:10). There are many other prophesies surrounding his death. All those had been or very soon would be fulfilled.
4. The ceremonial law was abolished. As Romans 10:4 puts it, Christ is “the end of the law.” It finds its completion and fulfillment in him. Therefore, all the Old Testament rules concerning animal sacrifices are set aside. And the rules and regulations concerning the priesthood are out of date since the Greater Priest has now laid down his life for his people. Those laws pointed to the cross. But once Jesus died, they were no longer needed. “The Mosaic economy is dissolved, to make way for a better hope.”
5. The price of sin was paid in full. Do you remember the words of John the Baptist when he saw Jesus? He called him “The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) That “taking away” of sin was accomplishment by the death of our Lord.
6. His physical sufferings were at an end. “The storm is over, the worst is past; all his pains and agonies are at an end, and he is just going to paradise, entering upon the joy set before him.”
7. His life was now finished. When Jesus cried out “It is finished,” he had only a few seconds to live. All that he had come to do had been fully accomplished. His life and his mission came to an end at exactly the same moment.
8. The work of redemption was now complete. This is undoubtedly the major meaning. Matthew Henry expands on what Christ’s death accomplished in four statements, each one beginning with the letter F. The death of Christ provided a …
A. Full satisfaction for sin
B. Fatal blow to Satan
C. Fountain of grace opened that will flow forever
D. Foundation of peace laid that will last forever
Paid In Full
But there is more to the meaning of tetelestai. It means all of the above, but it especially applies to the price paid for the sins of the world. Merrill Tenney (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, IX, 185) notes that the verb
was used in the first and second centuries in the sense of “fulfilling” or “paying” a debt and often appeared in receipts. “It is finished” (Tetelestai) could be interpreted as “Paid in full.”
“Paid in full” means that once a thing is paid for, you never have to pay for it again. In fact, “paid in full” means that once a thing is paid for, it is foolish to try to pay for it again. That point came home to me several weeks ago when we visited our good friends Grant and Fern Brown who live in Norwood, Colorado. Grant is the distinguished pastor of the San Miquel Basin Christian Fellowship. We knew each other in Texas because he served as my song leader at Northeast Bible Church while he was a student in seminary. For the last five years he has had a very fruitful ministry in the remote West End of Colorado.
Because we are good friends, whenever he and Fern and the girls come through Chicago, they stay with us. And several years ago we stayed with them in Colorado. So he was delighted when I phoned to say that we would be passing through Norwood on our way back from Arizona. He said fine, they would be glad to put us up. I assumed that we would be camping on sofas or whatever for the night—which was fine with us—but when I called him from southern Utah to let him know we would arrive in 3 or 4 hours, he said that he had a room for us at the local hotel—the Back Narrows Inn. I thought he was kidding. First of all, I didn’t think Norwood was big enough to have a hotel. Second, I just thought it was a joke. But he was serious. “Our house isn’t big enough (they had moved since we came through a few years ago), so we’ll put you up in the hotel.” When I protested, he said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ve worked it out with the owner and I’ve already taken care of the bill.” That was that. We were staying at the hotel and he was paying. And nothing I could say would make the slightest difference.
We got to the Back Narrows Inn about 10 P.M. and found it to be a small, turn-of-the-century building that had been converted into a 15 or 20 room hotel. When we arrived, the owner greeted us, handed us our keys, and said, “Your friend has taken care of everything.” Indeed he had. We didn’t even have to formally check in. No credit cards, no filling out forms, no “How will you be paying for this, sir?” It wasn’t necessary because my friend Grant Brown had personally paid the price in full. All that was left to us was to enjoy our rooms, provided free of charge to us by virtue of a friend’s hospitality.
Name Your Sin
So let me ask you a personal question. What sin is keeping you from God today? Is it anger? Is it lust? Is it a hard heart of unbelief? Is it alcohol abuse? Is it an uncontrollable temper? Is it cheating? Is it stealing? Is it adultery? Is it abortion? Is it pride? Is it greed?
Let me tell you the best news you’ve ever heard. It doesn’t matter what “your” sin is. It doesn’t matter how many sins you’ve piled up in your life. It doesn’t matter how guilty you think you are. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been doing this week. It doesn’t matter how bad you’ve been. It doesn’t matter how many skeletons rattle around in your closet.
All of your sins have been stamped by God with one word—Tetelestai—Paid in full.
Anger … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Uncontrolled ambition … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
SCRIPTURES REFERENCED
John 19
* I Thirst
* Final Words of a Family Man
* Paid in Full
Psalms 22
* What Angels Wish They Knew
* The Forsaken Christ
* Who is Jesus Christ?
Gossip … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Drunkenness … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Fornication … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Embezzlement … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Lying … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Disobedience … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Slothfulness … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Pride … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Murder … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Bribery … Tetelestai … Paid in Full
Those are just examples. Just fill in the blank with whatever sins plague your life. Then write over those sins the word Tetelestai because through the blood of Jesus Christ the price for “your” sins has been Paid in Full.
Three Abiding Principles
1. Since Jesus Christ paid in full, the work of salvation is now complete. That is what “It is finished” means. The debt was paid, the work was accomplished, the sacrifice was completed. And since the verb is in the perfect tense, it means that when Jesus died, he died once for all time. The sacrifice was suffi-cient to pay for the sins of every person who has ever lived—past, present or future.
And that explains what theologians mean when they talk about the “finished work” of Jesus Christ. That’s not just a slogan; it’s a profound spiritual truth. What Jesus accomplished in his death was so awesome, so total, so complete that it could never be repeated. Not even by Jesus himself. His work is “finished.” There is nothing more God could do to save the human race. There is no Plan B. Plan A (the death of Christ) was good enough.
2. Since Jesus Christ paid in full, all efforts to add anything to what Christ did on the cross are doomed to failure. A few years I found a great passage tucked away in the Doctrinal Statement of Dallas Theological Seminary. In Article VII, “Salvation Only Through Christ,” I found three rather long and involved sentences. I quote them here because they speak directly to the point at hand.
We believe that, owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation however great, no attainments in morality however high, no culture however attractive, no baptism or other ordinance however admini-stered can help the sinner take even one step toward heaven; but a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word is essential to salvation, and only those thus saved are the sons of God.
We believe, also, that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and was made a curse for us, dying in our place and stead; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, nor all the churches that have existed since the days of the Apostles can add in the very least degree to the value of the blood, or to the merit of the finished work of Jesus Christ. (italics added)
I submit to you that that statement is absolutely correct. It says it all. You can’t add anything to the value of what Jesus did on the cross. You are doomed to failure if you try.
Let me put it very simply. If Jesus paid it all, you don’t have to. If you try to pay for your salvation, it means you don’t think he paid it all. There is no middle ground between those two propositions.
God is not trying to sell you salvation. He’s not offering salvation at half-price. He’s not offering to go “Dutch Treat” with you. He’s not offering salvation on an installment plan.
God is offering you salvation free of charge. That’s what Tetelestai means. Jesus paid in full so you wouldn’t have to pay anything.
3. Since Jesus Christ paid in full, the only thing you can do is accept it or reject it. A few years ago a Nigerian pastor gave me a hymnbook entitled “Sacred Songs and Solos.” When you open to the title page, you find that it was compiled by Ira Sankey (D. L. Moody’s songleader) almost a hundred years ago. This hymnbook—though very old—is still used by the churches of Nigeria and contains many hymns we in America would consider out-of-date. But some of them are gems. These are the words to number 142:
Nothing either great or small—
Nothing, sinner no.
Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago.
“It is finished!” yes, indeed.
Finished every jot:
Sinner, this is all you need—
Tell me, is it not?
When He, from His lofty throne,
Stooped to do and die,
Everything was fully done:
Hearken to His cry.
Weary, working, burdened one,
Wherefore toil you so?
Cease your doing; all was done
Long, long ago.
Till to Jesus’ work you cling
By a simple faith,
“Doing” is a deadly thing—
“Doing” leads to death.
Cast your deadly “doing” down—
Down at Jesus’ feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete.
They don’t write hymns like that nowadays. There’s enough good theology in those six stanzas to save the entire world. Just consider these two lines—"Cease your doing; all was done long, long ago.” It’s true. “All was done” when Jesus cried “It is finished.” It was finished then, it is finished now, and to the glory of God, after a million times a million years have passed, it will still be finished.
Thanks be to God that Jesus left no unfinished business behind. He finished what he came to do, and in finish-ing his work he paid in full the price for your sins. As the hymn says, “Sinner, this is all you need. Tell me, is it not?”
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