Jesus' last words

Jesus Christ spent the last hours of his life nailed to the cross. Mocked and rejected by that world he will save. The only spotless person who ever lived took the consequences of our guilt and paid with his own life. The Bible testifies that at Calvary, hanging on a cross, Jesus spoke some significant words. These last words of Jesus are a very special message from our Savior when he was suffering the greatest pain of his life. They reveal to us his deepest feelings of love in those moments when he gave his life for ours.

Forgiveness

“But Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots.” (Lk 23,34)Only Luke recounts the words Jesus spoke shortly after the nails had been driven through his hands and feet. Around him stood soldiers casting lots for his clothing, the common people incited by the religious authorities, and onlookers eager to witness this gruesome spectacle. The chief priests, along with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.” (Mt 27,42).

To his left and right were hanging two criminals who had been sentenced to die on the cross with him. Jesus was deceived, arrested, flogged and condemned, even though he was absolutely innocent to God and man. Now, hanging on the cross, despite the physical pain and rejection, Jesus asked God to forgive those who caused him pain and suffering.

salvation

The other criminal said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!” And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Lk 23,42-43).

The salvation of the criminal on the cross is a standing example of Christ's ability to save and His willingness to accept all who come to Him, no matter what their situation.
He too had taunted Jesus before, but now he corrected the other criminal. Something changed in him and he found faith while hanging on the cross. We are not told of any further conversation between this repentant criminal and Jesus. Perhaps he was so moved by the example of Jesus' suffering and the prayer he heard.

All who surrender their lives to Jesus, who accept Jesus as their Savior and Redeemer, receive not only the strength to face the challenges of the present, but eternal hope for the future. A future beyond death, eternal life in the kingdom of God.

of Love

But not everyone who witnessed Jesus' crucifixion was hostile to him. Some of his disciples and a few women who had accompanied him on his travels spent those last hours with him. Among them was Mary, his mother, who now feared for the son God had miraculously given her. Here, the prophecy Simeon had once given Mary after Jesus' birth was fulfilled: "And Simeon blessed her and said to Mary... and a sword will pierce your own soul as well." (Lk 2,34-35).

Jesus ensured his mother's care and asked his trusted friend John for help: “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” (Joh 19,26-27)Jesus showed honor and concern for his mother during the most difficult time of his life.

Fear

When he exclaimed these words, Jesus thought of himself for the first time: “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mt 27,46; Mk 15,34)Jesus quoted the first part of Psalm 22, which prophetically points to the suffering and exhaustion of the Messiah. Sometimes we forget that Jesus was a whole human being. He was God incarnate, but like us, he was subject to physical sensations and feelings. “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land.” (Mt 27,45).

Hanging there on the cross for three hours, in darkness and tormented by pain, bearing the burden of our sins, he fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Jes 53,4-6)His last three words followed each other very quickly.

Leiden

“After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished, he said, in order to fulfill the Scripture: ‘I thirst.’” (Joh 19,28)The moment of death drew ever nearer. Jesus endured the heat, the pain, the rejection, and the loneliness, and he survived. He could have suffered and died silently, but instead, quite unexpectedly, he asked for help. With this, the thousand-year-old prophecy of David was fulfilled: “Disgrace breaks my heart and makes me sick. I look for someone to pity me, but there is no one; I look for comforters, but I find none. They give me gall to eat and vinegar to drink for my thirst.” (Ps 69,21-22).

"I am thirsty," Jesus cried out on the cross. He suffered the torment of physical and mental thirst. This was so that our thirst for God could be quenched. And that thirst will truly be quenched when we come to the fountain of living water—our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel. He is the rock from which Heavenly Father miraculously pours water for us in the desert of this life—water that satisfies our thirst. We no longer need to thirst for the closeness of God, because God is already very close to us with Jesus and will remain close in eternity.

It is finished!

“When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished.’” (Joh 19,30)I have reached my goal; I have fought the battle to the end and have now won the victory – that is the meaning of Jesus' words, "It is finished!" The power of sin and death is broken. For humanity, the bridge back to God has been built. The conditions for the salvation of all people have been created. Jesus has completed his work on earth. His sixth statement was one of victory: Jesus' humility is also expressed in these words. He has reached the end of his work of love – for no one has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (Joh 15,13).

You who have accepted Christ by faith as your "all in all," tell it every day that it is finished! Go and tell those who are torturing themselves because they think they can please God through their own efforts of obedience and mortification. All the sufferings that God requires, Christ has already suffered. All the bodily pain that the law required for His satisfaction Christ has long since endured.

surrender

“Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And when he had said this, he breathed his last.” (Lk 23,46)This is Jesus' very last word before his death and resurrection. The Father heard his prayer and took Jesus' spirit and life into his hands. He declared his death as redemption for the many to be valid, thus not allowing death to have the final word.

On the cross, Jesus achieved that death no longer leads to separation from God, but is the gateway to unrestricted, intimate communion with God. He bore our sin and overcame its consequences. Those who rely on him will experience that the bridge to God, the relationship with him, lasts even in death and beyond. Anyone who trusts Jesus, gives his heart to him and relies on what he did for us on the cross is and will remain in God's hands.

by Joseph Tkach