THE CROSS AND RESURRECTION
THE SEVEN LAST WORDS OF JESUS
Have you ever really paid attention to the last words of Jesus? What do they mean to us today? How do words spoken over 2000 years ago apply to our life today? The cross and all it represents must be believed if you are a Christian or nothing matters at all. It is Christ and Christ alone that saves us and without Him there is no future…nothing. You can’t say you believe in Him and not believe in what He has done for you.
THE FIRST WORDS WERE: Luke 23:33-34: When they came to the place called “The Skull, they nailed Jesus to the cross there, and the two criminals, one on his right and one on his left.
Jesus said "Forgive them, Father! They do not know what they are doing.”
Okay...stop….read that several times. Always ask questions of what is being said and why. When you ask questions then you will search for answers.
"They do not know what they are doing"
They do not know? They ...who killed Jesus?
Who is "they"? You need to know about who “They” are.
Isn’t it funny (not funny) how when something happens we always want to put the blame on others? It is easier to blame others than take responsibility our self. These people were no different.
These people back in the day were no different. They played the blame game. Who killed Jesus? Who crucified the Lord? Was it the Romans? The crowd who had been stirred up? Was it Pilate? Herod? Caiaphas? All of these surely played a part in the death of Jesus. They all in some way conspired to kill an innocent man. Some did it because they thought it would even keep peace. So many really had a part to some extent back then…but if we move ahead to right this moment and ask another question…Where are we when Jesus' kingdom infringes on ours? Where are we when it infringes on our own peace and lifestyle today? Where are we when God somehow, in our minds, infringes on our prosperity and our security?
Somehow because something happened 2000 years ago we don’t feel any responsibility any more than those that were there at that time. Where are we when the victims of our peace cry for justice? Where are we when people want to persecute us, our families, those around us? Where is our compassion? Is it greater or less great than what happened in the day of Jesus? Where are we when we see all the hatred, anger, and terrorism around the world today? Where are we when we see the lonely and do nothing? Where are we when we see the hungry (not those who can work and choose not to)…those who are hungry and have no one to help them? Where are we when our prosperity, our security, our health and all else is being placed in danger of some kind?
Where are we when Christ is crucified among us?
Surely he should have raged at the sinners who nailed our Lord to the cross. Shouldn’t we also rage at the evil we do? The lies we tell? All the sins we commit? Shouldn’t we?
Yet look, for a moment, at the compassion there in the first words that Jesus utters
He intercedes for us before the Father. The compassion Jesus had and has for us is something we can never fully comprehend. It was compassion that called him into being in his mother’s womb.
It was compassion that compelled him to the cross.
It was compassion that brings incredible, unbelievable grace to us today.
It has been compassion that echoes through the centuries to all who participate in the killings of Christ: It is compassion that cries out from the cross: “Father, forgive them they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus gave His life so that we could have life. He took every strip on His body so we would not have to. All our sins…nailed to the cross. All our disease nailed to the cross. Everything we go through and all the curses…nailed to the cross. He suffered and died that we might be made whole. Jesus love has no end. What a wondrous love He has for us.
THE SECOND WORDS Luke 23:39-43
One of the criminals hanging there threw insults at him:
"Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" The other
one, however, rebuked him, saying: "Don't you fear God? Here
we are all under the same sentence. Ours, however, is only
right, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did;
but he has done no wrong." And he said to Jesus, "Remember
me, Jesus, when you come as King!" Jesus said to him,
"I tell you this: Today you will be in paradise with me.”
Are you like the first thief on the cross or the second one. Would you insult the Lord or would stand up for and take responsibility for your own actions in life? Someday you will stand before God. Are you going to hum and haw and make excuses or are you going to take responsibility for the things you did do?
How much are we like the first thief?
Are we full of anger - because we are not rescued from our sin? Are we full of hate because we suffer because of the our sins and the sins of others?
How much do we want God to snap his fingers
And make right what we have made wrong? We want God to be our sugar-daddy and at our beckon call to do whatever we feel that He should do.
How easy it is to cry "save us" and rail against God when there is no magic cure, no miraculous recover, no legions of angels come to our rescue. How easy to blame God for all that goes on in the world when we, as humans, have made a mess of our world. God doesn’t change. He doesn’t walk away. We find we walk away and then when we are having problems we want an instant cure/fix and if God doesn’t do it our way we get all mad and blame God.
How easy it is to scorn the Messiah,
to mock the goodness of the world
and condemn the light of the world
because we are unwilling to face what we ourself have done? We are as guilty as those that yelled insults and cried out “crucify Him”. We were not there but do we really believe if we lived back then we would have been the one that stood up and said not to do that to our Lord? First of all Jesus came to die for us. Anything we did would not have stopped what He came to do.
There is a cure for sin. There is a cure that does not promise magical solution but, in fact, promises the pain of sin is not the end, that when all this life is over and when the suffering is finished that the final word is not torture and defeat….BUT LIFE. JUST AS JESUS IS ALIVE. WHEN WE ARE CHRISTIANS AND JESUS IS OUR LORD WE WILL BE ALIVE WITH HIM, even if in this world we suffer and die.
Our life springing out of the ashes will in the end (if we have Jesus as our Lord)…then our life will be transformed and fulfilled in paradise/heaven.
There were two thieves on the cross. One didn’t get it and one did. To the compassionate thief…the one that recognized the good in the world and the one who spoke to Jesus got it. He knew he, himself, had sinned and he admitted it. To the one who asked even in the worst of his life and storm God granted him comfort and hope. He does that with us as well. No, we don’t deserve it but He give it to all those who love him.
"Today, you will be in paradise with me."
Jesus gave His life for all mankind. He did it to make us whole. He had committed no sins but He loved all mankind enough to stand in their place. Do we get what He did on the cross that day over 2000 years ago?
Do we cry out to our wonderful and precious Lord:
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Oh Lord…I am so sorry I have sinned against you and others. Please forgive me Lord!
THE THIRD WORDS John 19:25-27
Standing close to Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's
sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus
saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so
he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he
said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that
time the disciple took her to live in his home.
Can you imagine what or how you would act. Your body beaten so bad you are disfigured, the blood running down, your beard ripped out, your head bleeding and yet Jesus cares for His mom and His disciple. What or how would we act? Who can ever grasp the grief at this moment in His mama’s heart watching not only her precious son but her Lord and Savior being crucified and she can do nothing to help Him. The depth of her pain we can say we can imagine…but can we? This was her precious child that God gave her and it was her Lord as well. Can you even imagine this scene here. Standing back from the cross as they crucify your baby?
What about Jesus looking down seeing His mama’s pain…how must have He have felt over her pain and suffering watching His? What thoughts ran through His mind? He was not only God He was a man, a son, a brother, a friend…he felt what we feel. As He hung on the cross it was not Himself He was thinking about He thought about others and that included the ones He loved…His mama! Sometimes I wonder what He called her…the name like Mama. Oh the love they must have shared in those 30 years of His life. One of the last things Jesus did was show love to His mom and His friend giving them to each other. Did Jesus wonder what precious gift He could give His mama here. Who would hold and comfort her…who would honor her?
"Woman, here is your son"
Here is one I love, to love you, and for you to love.One who knows me. One who is my brother and who can speak of me. One who can hold you mama and comfort and honor you. I give you to Him to care for you.
One who shares your grief
"Here is your mother"
Here is one I love, for you to love, and to love you.
The one who taught me,
the one who fed me,
the one who wiped away my tears
the one who hugged me,
the one who grieves with you.
When Jesus fell as a child…His mama held Him. She comforted Him, loved Him, and desired the very best for Him. Do we?
Wow. We look at words in the Bible and we don’t take time to read between the lines and learn from them. Oh people take the time. The more you learn the more you will know what God wants for you.
Women, behold your children; children, behold your mothers. Jesus loved His mom. She loved her son. Can you imagine just how she felt watching her son die. But one thing for sure can you imagine how she felt when her son arose from the grave as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Praise the Lord.
Lord Jesus - you gave your life for us.
You suffered and died that we might be made whole.
THE FOURTH WORDS Mark 15:33-34
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice:
"Elo-i, elo-i, lama sabach-thani?” which means, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Of all the agony of that tortuous day
the lacerations of the scourging
the chafing of the thorns around his head
the convulsions of his tormented, dehydrated body as it hung in the heat all the day.
Nothing reaches the depth of this anguished cry of desolation:
"My God, my god, why hast thou forsaken me?"
I want you to think for a moment what it must have felt like to be creator of the universe, lover of our souls, and have the multitude you love and came to save turn their backs on you and yell for your crucifixion. Jesus, who found his purpose and strength in the presence of God and who was sustained by the immediacy of his relationship with God,
and who endured all by the tangible power of God always at work within him, always a center of vitality and peace, found himself totally alone on the cross.
Think also about in the garden where he went to pray and He asked His own to stay away and pray and they went to sleep. He dripped blood sweat. He was about to take on the sins of everyone who has ever lived on this earth and will ever live. Jesus whose very being was God…was alone doing what no one can ever do…save us!
At the cross Jesus was cut off from all that gives life and breath because God could not look upon sin. He was cut off
from all that gives purpose and hope
cut off from the source of his being
cut off, even from himself
plumbing the depths of the human condition
to walk in the place of the utter absence of God, in the place of sinners, in the place of all those that rejected God then and throughout all history. Jesus knew that while He was on the cross God, His Father, could not look upon Him. Jesus quoted the old testament which knew exactly what Jesus would say on the cross.
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
In these words is the central mystery of the crucifixion
which cannot be fully comprehended,
that there is no despair so deep
or evil so overwhelming
or place so far removed from joy, light, and love
from the very heart of God
that God has not been before us,
and where God cannot meet us
and bring us home.
Oh Lord God. I thank you for your sacrifice that I in no way could do. How do I thank you Lord for dying in my place? What words would ever show you? Oh Lord, please allow me entrance into heaven and soften my heart so that I live as you did, do as you did, and love others as you do. Make me yours forever Lord.
Really…what can we say that would ever be anywhere near a place of showing you or others how thankful we are for what you did for us?
Be near when I am dying, O show thy cross to me; Help me always honor you Lord and when the time comes…set me free and take me home.
Please don’t remove your presence from me, but give me more and more wisdom and knowledge to love you and others as you do.
THE FIFTH WORDS John 19:28
After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said
(to fulfil the scripture), "I thirst."
Picture the cross. You are king of kings and Lord of Lords and you are on a cross dying for all the sinners and sins of the world. There is a kind of timelessness about hanging on a cross. Jesus death was not a quiet death by any means. Thousands yelled to crucify Him, and many hurled insults at Him. They took his clothes and drew lots for them. They made fun of Him. Our Lord hung on a cross in pain we can’t imagine and He did nothing to deserve it. Was Jesus called a martyr? Was He? I don’t think so. I would say that He was and is the only unselfish man who ever lived. He took everything we can imagine and everything we go through in our life was nailed to the cross so that we don’t have to pay the penalties for those sins when Jesus is our Lord and Savior.
A cross is as much an instrument of torture
as it is a gallows from which to hang. Our Lord hung on that cross. He hung in the heat of the day. He was thirsty. Imagine seconds into minutes…minutes into hours with the pain He was in. Imagine! His body weak, His breath labored and began to give out…but not until the time of His choosing.
Jesus was denied water.
Water to moisten a parched mouth
Water to free a swollen tongue
Water to open a rasping throat that cannot gasp enough air.
Water to keep hope alive
to keep life alive just a few moments longer.
Water, to a crucified man, is life. But He was denied water. A thirst for water is a thirst for life. Jesus is the water now that quenches our soul. Jesus is our living water. A thirst for life is a thirst for God who promises steams of living water.
Jesus said:
"I thirst."
THE SIXTH WORDS John 19:29-30
A bowl was there, full of cheap wine mixed with vinegar, so
a sponge was soaked in it, put on stick of hyssop and lifted
up to his lips. When Jesus had received the wine, he said,
"It is finished"
What a sigh of relief!
What a cry of deliverance,
that finally,
after seemingly endless pain
and gasping torment,
it is over at last.
The suffering is ended.
The ordeal is finished
and nothing remains
but the blessed peace of the absence of all sensation.
When all there is, is pain
its ceasing is the greatest blessing of all
even when its ceasing comes only with death.
But Jesus' cry is more than just welcoming the ending of pain
it is more than joy at the deliverance death brings.
He does not merely say, "it is over"
he says, "it is accomplished,
fulfilled,
achieved"
Jesus's cry isn't a cry of defeat and despair
It is a cry of success and triumph
- even at the moment of death -
that the race has been run
that he has endured to the end
that the strife is over
and the battle is won.
Jesus' cry is a cry of relief to be sure
but it is also a cry of victory:
"The work I came to do is complete"
there is nothing more to add
"it is finished"
THE SEVENTH WORDS Luke 23:46
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into
thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he
breathed his last.
It is the end, the very end
the end of the ordeal
the end of the suffering
and Jesus
alone on the cross
tortured
exhausted
abandoned by his friends
forsaken by God
gasps for a last breath
and gathers the strength for one final cry.
Why would he choose to speak
so close to the end?
Why would he muster the last energy he had
to cry out with a loud voice?
Couldn't God have heard his thoughts?
Unless God wasn't the only one intended to hear.
Unless his voice was pitched loud
so that we too might hear this final dedication of his soul.
A dedication made despite the pain,
despite the mocking,
despite the agony,
despite the sense of horrible aloneness he felt.
A dedication made to God
before the resurrection,
before the victory of the kingdom,
before any assurance other than that
which faith could bring.
Jesus entrusts his spirit -- his life --
and all that has given it meaning --
to God in faith,
even at the point of his own abandonment
when the good seems so very far away
he proclaims his faith in God,
the darkness cannot overcome it.
"Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit"
Isaiah 53-4-6,9
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions and he was bruised for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that made us whole.
All we like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, although he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Lord God, you have given me/us everything.
You have not held anything back from us.
Lord help us/me to give of ourself so that all we do honors you Lord. Let us never forget the cross and what you did for us.
Never forget what Jesus did on the cross on your behalf…BUT NEVER FORGET WHAT HE DID WHEN HE AROSE FROM THE GRAVE. The cross He did for us but when we arose from the grave. At the very moment He arose from grave we have hope, faith, courage, and victory. Jesus arose…that is the grandest news we can ever hear. He arose and our Lord and Savior is alive. He is alive! He is not laying in the grave as all other religious leaders are. He arose and He sits at the right hand of the Father and He is VICTORIOUS AND BECAUSE HE IS/WAS WE ARE! He might not come before we personally take our turn at death, but we know beyond any doubt that our savior is alive and we will go to Him and that is blessed news for every Christian. It is good to think of the birth and death of our Lord and Savior…BUT IT IS THE RESURRECTION THAT GIVES US ALL THE VICTORY IN HIM! PRAISE THE LORD!
THE SEVEN LAST WORDS OF JESUS
Have you ever really paid attention to the last words of Jesus? What do they mean to us today? How do words spoken over 2000 years ago apply to our life today? The cross and all it represents must be believed if you are a Christian or nothing matters at all. It is Christ and Christ alone that saves us and without Him there is no future…nothing. You can’t say you believe in Him and not believe in what He has done for you.
THE FIRST WORDS WERE: Luke 23:33-34: When they came to the place called “The Skull, they nailed Jesus to the cross there, and the two criminals, one on his right and one on his left.
Jesus said "Forgive them, Father! They do not know what they are doing.”
Okay...stop….read that several times. Always ask questions of what is being said and why. When you ask questions then you will search for answers.
"They do not know what they are doing"
They do not know? They ...who killed Jesus?
Who is "they"? You need to know about who “They” are.
Isn’t it funny (not funny) how when something happens we always want to put the blame on others? It is easier to blame others than take responsibility our self. These people were no different.
These people back in the day were no different. They played the blame game. Who killed Jesus? Who crucified the Lord? Was it the Romans? The crowd who had been stirred up? Was it Pilate? Herod? Caiaphas? All of these surely played a part in the death of Jesus. They all in some way conspired to kill an innocent man. Some did it because they thought it would even keep peace. So many really had a part to some extent back then…but if we move ahead to right this moment and ask another question…Where are we when Jesus' kingdom infringes on ours? Where are we when it infringes on our own peace and lifestyle today? Where are we when God somehow, in our minds, infringes on our prosperity and our security?
Somehow because something happened 2000 years ago we don’t feel any responsibility any more than those that were there at that time. Where are we when the victims of our peace cry for justice? Where are we when people want to persecute us, our families, those around us? Where is our compassion? Is it greater or less great than what happened in the day of Jesus? Where are we when we see all the hatred, anger, and terrorism around the world today? Where are we when we see the lonely and do nothing? Where are we when we see the hungry (not those who can work and choose not to)…those who are hungry and have no one to help them? Where are we when our prosperity, our security, our health and all else is being placed in danger of some kind?
Where are we when Christ is crucified among us?
Surely he should have raged at the sinners who nailed our Lord to the cross. Shouldn’t we also rage at the evil we do? The lies we tell? All the sins we commit? Shouldn’t we?
Yet look, for a moment, at the compassion there in the first words that Jesus utters
He intercedes for us before the Father. The compassion Jesus had and has for us is something we can never fully comprehend. It was compassion that called him into being in his mother’s womb.
It was compassion that compelled him to the cross.
It was compassion that brings incredible, unbelievable grace to us today.
It has been compassion that echoes through the centuries to all who participate in the killings of Christ: It is compassion that cries out from the cross: “Father, forgive them they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus gave His life so that we could have life. He took every strip on His body so we would not have to. All our sins…nailed to the cross. All our disease nailed to the cross. Everything we go through and all the curses…nailed to the cross. He suffered and died that we might be made whole. Jesus love has no end. What a wondrous love He has for us.
THE SECOND WORDS Luke 23:39-43
One of the criminals hanging there threw insults at him:
"Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" The other
one, however, rebuked him, saying: "Don't you fear God? Here
we are all under the same sentence. Ours, however, is only
right, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did;
but he has done no wrong." And he said to Jesus, "Remember
me, Jesus, when you come as King!" Jesus said to him,
"I tell you this: Today you will be in paradise with me.”
Are you like the first thief on the cross or the second one. Would you insult the Lord or would stand up for and take responsibility for your own actions in life? Someday you will stand before God. Are you going to hum and haw and make excuses or are you going to take responsibility for the things you did do?
How much are we like the first thief?
Are we full of anger - because we are not rescued from our sin? Are we full of hate because we suffer because of the our sins and the sins of others?
How much do we want God to snap his fingers
And make right what we have made wrong? We want God to be our sugar-daddy and at our beckon call to do whatever we feel that He should do.
How easy it is to cry "save us" and rail against God when there is no magic cure, no miraculous recover, no legions of angels come to our rescue. How easy to blame God for all that goes on in the world when we, as humans, have made a mess of our world. God doesn’t change. He doesn’t walk away. We find we walk away and then when we are having problems we want an instant cure/fix and if God doesn’t do it our way we get all mad and blame God.
How easy it is to scorn the Messiah,
to mock the goodness of the world
and condemn the light of the world
because we are unwilling to face what we ourself have done? We are as guilty as those that yelled insults and cried out “crucify Him”. We were not there but do we really believe if we lived back then we would have been the one that stood up and said not to do that to our Lord? First of all Jesus came to die for us. Anything we did would not have stopped what He came to do.
There is a cure for sin. There is a cure that does not promise magical solution but, in fact, promises the pain of sin is not the end, that when all this life is over and when the suffering is finished that the final word is not torture and defeat….BUT LIFE. JUST AS JESUS IS ALIVE. WHEN WE ARE CHRISTIANS AND JESUS IS OUR LORD WE WILL BE ALIVE WITH HIM, even if in this world we suffer and die.
Our life springing out of the ashes will in the end (if we have Jesus as our Lord)…then our life will be transformed and fulfilled in paradise/heaven.
There were two thieves on the cross. One didn’t get it and one did. To the compassionate thief…the one that recognized the good in the world and the one who spoke to Jesus got it. He knew he, himself, had sinned and he admitted it. To the one who asked even in the worst of his life and storm God granted him comfort and hope. He does that with us as well. No, we don’t deserve it but He give it to all those who love him.
"Today, you will be in paradise with me."
Jesus gave His life for all mankind. He did it to make us whole. He had committed no sins but He loved all mankind enough to stand in their place. Do we get what He did on the cross that day over 2000 years ago?
Do we cry out to our wonderful and precious Lord:
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Oh Lord…I am so sorry I have sinned against you and others. Please forgive me Lord!
THE THIRD WORDS John 19:25-27
Standing close to Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's
sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus
saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so
he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he
said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that
time the disciple took her to live in his home.
Can you imagine what or how you would act. Your body beaten so bad you are disfigured, the blood running down, your beard ripped out, your head bleeding and yet Jesus cares for His mom and His disciple. What or how would we act? Who can ever grasp the grief at this moment in His mama’s heart watching not only her precious son but her Lord and Savior being crucified and she can do nothing to help Him. The depth of her pain we can say we can imagine…but can we? This was her precious child that God gave her and it was her Lord as well. Can you even imagine this scene here. Standing back from the cross as they crucify your baby?
What about Jesus looking down seeing His mama’s pain…how must have He have felt over her pain and suffering watching His? What thoughts ran through His mind? He was not only God He was a man, a son, a brother, a friend…he felt what we feel. As He hung on the cross it was not Himself He was thinking about He thought about others and that included the ones He loved…His mama! Sometimes I wonder what He called her…the name like Mama. Oh the love they must have shared in those 30 years of His life. One of the last things Jesus did was show love to His mom and His friend giving them to each other. Did Jesus wonder what precious gift He could give His mama here. Who would hold and comfort her…who would honor her?
"Woman, here is your son"
Here is one I love, to love you, and for you to love.One who knows me. One who is my brother and who can speak of me. One who can hold you mama and comfort and honor you. I give you to Him to care for you.
One who shares your grief
"Here is your mother"
Here is one I love, for you to love, and to love you.
The one who taught me,
the one who fed me,
the one who wiped away my tears
the one who hugged me,
the one who grieves with you.
When Jesus fell as a child…His mama held Him. She comforted Him, loved Him, and desired the very best for Him. Do we?
Wow. We look at words in the Bible and we don’t take time to read between the lines and learn from them. Oh people take the time. The more you learn the more you will know what God wants for you.
Women, behold your children; children, behold your mothers. Jesus loved His mom. She loved her son. Can you imagine just how she felt watching her son die. But one thing for sure can you imagine how she felt when her son arose from the grave as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Praise the Lord.
Lord Jesus - you gave your life for us.
You suffered and died that we might be made whole.
THE FOURTH WORDS Mark 15:33-34
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice:
"Elo-i, elo-i, lama sabach-thani?” which means, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Of all the agony of that tortuous day
the lacerations of the scourging
the chafing of the thorns around his head
the convulsions of his tormented, dehydrated body as it hung in the heat all the day.
Nothing reaches the depth of this anguished cry of desolation:
"My God, my god, why hast thou forsaken me?"
I want you to think for a moment what it must have felt like to be creator of the universe, lover of our souls, and have the multitude you love and came to save turn their backs on you and yell for your crucifixion. Jesus, who found his purpose and strength in the presence of God and who was sustained by the immediacy of his relationship with God,
and who endured all by the tangible power of God always at work within him, always a center of vitality and peace, found himself totally alone on the cross.
Think also about in the garden where he went to pray and He asked His own to stay away and pray and they went to sleep. He dripped blood sweat. He was about to take on the sins of everyone who has ever lived on this earth and will ever live. Jesus whose very being was God…was alone doing what no one can ever do…save us!
At the cross Jesus was cut off from all that gives life and breath because God could not look upon sin. He was cut off
from all that gives purpose and hope
cut off from the source of his being
cut off, even from himself
plumbing the depths of the human condition
to walk in the place of the utter absence of God, in the place of sinners, in the place of all those that rejected God then and throughout all history. Jesus knew that while He was on the cross God, His Father, could not look upon Him. Jesus quoted the old testament which knew exactly what Jesus would say on the cross.
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
In these words is the central mystery of the crucifixion
which cannot be fully comprehended,
that there is no despair so deep
or evil so overwhelming
or place so far removed from joy, light, and love
from the very heart of God
that God has not been before us,
and where God cannot meet us
and bring us home.
Oh Lord God. I thank you for your sacrifice that I in no way could do. How do I thank you Lord for dying in my place? What words would ever show you? Oh Lord, please allow me entrance into heaven and soften my heart so that I live as you did, do as you did, and love others as you do. Make me yours forever Lord.
Really…what can we say that would ever be anywhere near a place of showing you or others how thankful we are for what you did for us?
Be near when I am dying, O show thy cross to me; Help me always honor you Lord and when the time comes…set me free and take me home.
Please don’t remove your presence from me, but give me more and more wisdom and knowledge to love you and others as you do.
THE FIFTH WORDS John 19:28
After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said
(to fulfil the scripture), "I thirst."
Picture the cross. You are king of kings and Lord of Lords and you are on a cross dying for all the sinners and sins of the world. There is a kind of timelessness about hanging on a cross. Jesus death was not a quiet death by any means. Thousands yelled to crucify Him, and many hurled insults at Him. They took his clothes and drew lots for them. They made fun of Him. Our Lord hung on a cross in pain we can’t imagine and He did nothing to deserve it. Was Jesus called a martyr? Was He? I don’t think so. I would say that He was and is the only unselfish man who ever lived. He took everything we can imagine and everything we go through in our life was nailed to the cross so that we don’t have to pay the penalties for those sins when Jesus is our Lord and Savior.
A cross is as much an instrument of torture
as it is a gallows from which to hang. Our Lord hung on that cross. He hung in the heat of the day. He was thirsty. Imagine seconds into minutes…minutes into hours with the pain He was in. Imagine! His body weak, His breath labored and began to give out…but not until the time of His choosing.
Jesus was denied water.
Water to moisten a parched mouth
Water to free a swollen tongue
Water to open a rasping throat that cannot gasp enough air.
Water to keep hope alive
to keep life alive just a few moments longer.
Water, to a crucified man, is life. But He was denied water. A thirst for water is a thirst for life. Jesus is the water now that quenches our soul. Jesus is our living water. A thirst for life is a thirst for God who promises steams of living water.
Jesus said:
"I thirst."
THE SIXTH WORDS John 19:29-30
A bowl was there, full of cheap wine mixed with vinegar, so
a sponge was soaked in it, put on stick of hyssop and lifted
up to his lips. When Jesus had received the wine, he said,
"It is finished"
What a sigh of relief!
What a cry of deliverance,
that finally,
after seemingly endless pain
and gasping torment,
it is over at last.
The suffering is ended.
The ordeal is finished
and nothing remains
but the blessed peace of the absence of all sensation.
When all there is, is pain
its ceasing is the greatest blessing of all
even when its ceasing comes only with death.
But Jesus' cry is more than just welcoming the ending of pain
it is more than joy at the deliverance death brings.
He does not merely say, "it is over"
he says, "it is accomplished,
fulfilled,
achieved"
Jesus's cry isn't a cry of defeat and despair
It is a cry of success and triumph
- even at the moment of death -
that the race has been run
that he has endured to the end
that the strife is over
and the battle is won.
Jesus' cry is a cry of relief to be sure
but it is also a cry of victory:
"The work I came to do is complete"
there is nothing more to add
"it is finished"
THE SEVENTH WORDS Luke 23:46
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into
thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he
breathed his last.
It is the end, the very end
the end of the ordeal
the end of the suffering
and Jesus
alone on the cross
tortured
exhausted
abandoned by his friends
forsaken by God
gasps for a last breath
and gathers the strength for one final cry.
Why would he choose to speak
so close to the end?
Why would he muster the last energy he had
to cry out with a loud voice?
Couldn't God have heard his thoughts?
Unless God wasn't the only one intended to hear.
Unless his voice was pitched loud
so that we too might hear this final dedication of his soul.
A dedication made despite the pain,
despite the mocking,
despite the agony,
despite the sense of horrible aloneness he felt.
A dedication made to God
before the resurrection,
before the victory of the kingdom,
before any assurance other than that
which faith could bring.
Jesus entrusts his spirit -- his life --
and all that has given it meaning --
to God in faith,
even at the point of his own abandonment
when the good seems so very far away
he proclaims his faith in God,
the darkness cannot overcome it.
"Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit"
Isaiah 53-4-6,9
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions and he was bruised for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that made us whole.
All we like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, although he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Lord God, you have given me/us everything.
You have not held anything back from us.
Lord help us/me to give of ourself so that all we do honors you Lord. Let us never forget the cross and what you did for us.
Never forget what Jesus did on the cross on your behalf…BUT NEVER FORGET WHAT HE DID WHEN HE AROSE FROM THE GRAVE. The cross He did for us but when we arose from the grave. At the very moment He arose from grave we have hope, faith, courage, and victory. Jesus arose…that is the grandest news we can ever hear. He arose and our Lord and Savior is alive. He is alive! He is not laying in the grave as all other religious leaders are. He arose and He sits at the right hand of the Father and He is VICTORIOUS AND BECAUSE HE IS/WAS WE ARE! He might not come before we personally take our turn at death, but we know beyond any doubt that our savior is alive and we will go to Him and that is blessed news for every Christian. It is good to think of the birth and death of our Lord and Savior…BUT IT IS THE RESURRECTION THAT GIVES US ALL THE VICTORY IN HIM! PRAISE THE LORD!