Reflections on the last seven Utterances of Christ from the Cross

Transcription

1 s on the last seven Utterances of Christ from the Cross We gather on this day to be confronted by Jesus hanging on the cross. Jesus, whom we believe is the Son of God, suffering the pain of crucifixion. A voice from heaven had declared This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him! (Matt 17.5) Here we are faced by Jesus and we listen to his words. Seven in number. We come to give our attention to Jesus and his voice from the cross.we come to be silent because coming to the cross on this day is not a day for lots of words. The First Word: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. 23:34) (Luke The first word speaks of forgiveness. It is addressed to the Father, and so we are over-hearers, those who listen to a conversation, deep in the heart of God. Jesus prays Father forgive. Forgiveness belongs to God. Reconciliation belongs to God. We do not reconcile ourselves to God, but God reconciles himself to us. Jesus had said Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you and we see now that this was no metaphor, no idealistic dream, for he prays for his enemies, the main foes of his good news, us. In this new world that the cross begins, the first words are, Let there be forgiveness. Jesus names us as those who don t know what we are doing. He unmasks our pretence to think we do know what we are doing. We go from childhood to adulthood, we go from instinct and reaction, to rationality and intentionality; we become self-aware; But Jesus says we don t know what we re doing that we are not as knowing or seeing, as good or just as we think or believe. So Jesus prays, Father forgive them. That the first word is about forgiveness, reminds us that we are sinners.

2 To gather here today with Jesus on the cross is to acknowledge the sinfulness of humanity ; to confess that we are not different, we are not immune ; we are no different from the crowd that cried crucify him Father forgive them is to know God has the power to really forgive, to free us from that which we cannot change. The Second Word: Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. 23:43) (Luke Two criminals are crucified alongside Jesus and as we overhear their conversation, we perhaps glimpse ourselves. One criminal says if you are the Christ, save yourself and us. In this, we see how we believe, but that our belief struggles to see the cross as salvation. We do not want a suffering saviour. Yet it is because Jesus does not save himself from death that he is the Christ and not the other way round. The other criminal sees something else in Jesus. He sees that he has acted wrongly but that Jesus is innocent, and more than innocent, that Jesus is a king with a kingdom. He says remember me meaning don t just recall my face, but save me. He does not ask something different from the other criminal, but whilst the other criminal believed salvation was getting out of life alive, this criminal understands that salvation will come out of death, that there is a kingdom beyond Rome or Jerusalem and Jesus has the power to re-member him in it. Jesus responds with today not tomorrow, not at the end of all things, but Today, you will be with me in paradise. This word paradise appears only here in the entire New Testament. Paradise today tells us that the cross is about transforming our lives today We don t have to wait for salvation, for good news, for the grace of Christ is a gift for today. The Third Word: Woman, this is your son. Disciple, this is your mother. (John 19:26)

3 We are given no commentary to any of what Jesus says from the cross and so there is a temptation to fill the meaning in ourselves. As Jesus suffers he address his mother, he says to her woman, the same way he did at the wedding at Cana (John 2.4). This at the very least protects us from seeing this exchange as a sentimentalism about family. Are these words to his mother an expression of his care and concern? Or are they part of Jesus letting go of his earthly existence severing ties of family and friendship? Here at the cross, a new family is created one which as John said at the beginning of his gospel is not born from natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband s will, but born of God (John 1.13). Jesus here, from the cross, creates the church as the new family of God. Disciples are bound together in new familial relationships through the blood of Jesus. The church is born in the midst of death, as the Apostle Paul puts it: we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Cor. 4.10). If the first word was about yesterday, and the second word was about today, we might see this third word as speaking about tomorrow: Jesus speaks of the continuing friendship that is in his body, in the church. The Fourth Word: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Mark 15:34) These words ring out in the darkness - in the silence. They echo in our lives, in our feelings of abandonment and forsakenness. Yes Jesus, we say, we recognise this cry, we have claimed it as our own. We are comforted by our saviour having known the despair of the human condition. We are, perhaps, relieved, that in these words from the cross we hear this word.

4 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It is this word that jars with our calling of this Friday Good. It is this word that questions seeing the cross as triumphant. The word comes from the Psalms, it is the cry of David, it is the cry of Israel, and it is the cry of Jesus. The deepest horror of the cross is this ; To face Good Friday, to enter it, to dwell in this day, is to ask, is all lost? is Christ, and all of humanity, God-forsaken? This is suffering at its most deep, this is love at its most profound: Jesus is the God-forsaken in order that we might be reconciled. The Fifth Word: I am thirsty. (John 19:28) This fifth word reminds us, that the one who speaks these words is hanging on a cross; whose every word comes amidst gasps for breath and the pain of crucifixion. I thirst. The physicality of crucifixion rudely awakens our spiritual ponderings and confronts us once again with the reality that Jesus is suffering, - he is dying, - he thirsts. Jesus is one who has previously promised to quench humanity s thirst with the gift of living water (John ). Jesus quenches our thirst by becoming thirsty himself. The gift of life that Jesus offers comes only through the giving of his own life. More than that, Jesus thirsts for the kingdom and for God: Blessed are those who thirst for righteousness for they will be filled (Matt 5.6) he desires that all will be fulfilled, all will be complete, all will be satisfied in God.

5 The Sixth Word: It is finished! (John 19:30) The way that John s gospel presents the story, Jesus sees the cross as the work he has been sent to do. He speaks of laying down his life of his own accord (John ) Jesus refers to the coming hour meaning the cross and that this hour will be for God s glory (John 12.23, 27) He speaks of being lifted up from the earth and drawing all people to himself (John 12.32) So when Jesus says It is finished he means his mission is complete, it is accomplished. His death is his victory. John the Baptist had said Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1.29) and for John, Jesus is the Passover lamb, whose sacrificial mission is now completed. God s great cosmic drama which began in love and ends in love is finished in what happens over these three Great Days. The Seventh Word: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit! (Luke 23:46) On an obvious level, Jesus was putting his future in the hands of his Heavenly Father. But when we look carefully at Psalm 31 from which Jesus quoted, we see more than that which first meets the eye. O LORD, I have come to you for protection; don t let me be disgraced. Save me, for you do what is right. (v. 1) I entrust my spirit into your hand. Rescue me, LORD, for you are a faithful God. (v. 5) Praise the LORD, for he has shown me the wonders of his unfailing love. He kept me safe when my city was under attack. (v. 21) By quoting a portion of Psalm 31, therefore, Jesus not only entrusted his future to his Father, but also implied that he would be delivered and exonerated. God would not deliver his son from death by crucifixion. But

6 beyond this lay something marvellous. I entrust my spirit into your hands points back to the familiar suffering of David in Psalm 31, but more importantly it also points forward to the resurrection.