Today we’re doing our last in the
series of the last words of Jesus, the things that he said while on the cross.
But before we get to that, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the
dying words, the famous last words of some famous people you may have heard of.
A lot of times their last words say a whole lot about how they lived their
lives and what was important to them.
Nathan Hale, Revolutionary War hero,
died in 1776, and said, “I regret that I have but one life to lose for my
country.” Joan of Arc, as she was being burned at the stake, said, “Hold high
the cross, so I may see it through the flames.” Phineas Barnum, of Barnum and
Bailey’s Circus, as he was dying said, “How were the circus receipts at
Last words really can be very
revealing about who we are and what kind of situations we’ve been through. Last
words for movies and books are also really important. The last words to my
favorite movie are really great. My favorite movie, for those of you who don’t
know, it’s an American classic. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Chevy
Chase’s character Clark Griswold has this mission to have the perfect family
Christmas, but everything goes wrong. His uncle burns down his Christmas tree.
His boss, instead of giving a large check for a Christmas bonus, enrolls him
the in “Jelly-of-the-month club.” His cousin’s family comes and mooches off
them for the holidays. Everything is going wrong, but he perseveres, and in the
end, everything works out, and at the end of the movie as he’s standing out in
the front lawn looking at his house, glowing with 10,000 Italian imported twinkle
lights, he gets a big smile on his face and says, “I did it.” He had made it
through. He had persevered. He had pulled it off.
Now why do I tell that story. I tell
it because I think there is a misconception about the last words of Christ. As
Jesus is on the cross and he says, “It is finished. Father, into your hands I
commend my spirit,” a lot of times it gets viewed as this is the point in time
where Jesus gives it up. This is the point where he’s done living, and he just
sort of pulls the plug on himself. He’s done. He quits. We look at his saying,
“It is finished,” as kind of the end.
But I really don’t think that’s what
Jesus was saying at all. And if our last words really do say something about
who we are and what our lives were like, there’s no way that Jesus last words
revolve around him quitting or taking the easy way out or anything like that. I
think what Jesus was really saying here when he said, “It is finished,” could
be more correctly translated, “It is accomplished.” Or as Clark Griswold would
say, “I did it.” I preserved. I made it through. I pulled it off.
Jesus was saying, “I have done what I
have come to do. I did it. My mission is complete.” And if we look at it that
way, then it begs the question, then what was it that needed completion, and
how did that happen through Jesus, and why did it culminate on the cross? In
other words, Jesus, what was your mission, and how in the world does your death
on the cross complete your mission?
Well, to discover that, let’s just
look at what Jesus said his mission was. Why did Jesus say that he was here? In
Luke 19:10 Jesus said, “The son of man came to seek out and save the lost.” And
Jesus had done that. He had sought out the lost. He hadn’t gone to the high and
mighty but to the lowly and hurting and he made them into disciples. And he
ordained them to continue making disciples in his name. But the only way to
truly save them was to die for them. A
perfect lamb must be sacrificed to make amends, atonement for sin. In order to
be perfect, you had to be God. But in the same time he had to be a man. Only
Jesus fit the bill, and so a sacrifice, and eternal sacrifice, had to be made
to save the lost. So in his death, Jesus accomplished this part of his mission,
to seek and save the lost.
In John 10:10 Jesus reveals another
part of his mission, when he says, “I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly.” Remember, that’s from the passage where Jesus talks about being
the gate for His sheep. He came that we may have life, and have it abundantly.
And Jesus fulfilled this mission in many ways. He healed people. He restored
people back to life. But most of all, he had taught people the true meaning of
life, what it really means to live. And that life through God and through him
is the only way to having an abundant life. His death on the cross, freeing us
from the bonds of sin, from slavery to sin, is the final and most fundamentally
important aspect of having an abundant life. His death freed us from sin,
allowing us to live abundant, full lives in his name.
But perhaps Jesus’ most important part
of his mission is found in John 14:7 when he says, “From now on you do know him
(the Father) and have seen him” and in verse 11 he says, “I am in the Father,
and the Father is in me.” Jesus’ ultimate mission was to reveal God, to
interact with humanity as God in flesh. To allow for a moment in time for
people to not only see God, but to hear God, to touch God, and to see what
God’s love for his people. It is a love that is so strong, that it even took him
to the cross. So Jesus, on the cross, is the ultimate image of God for the
world. The ultimate revelation of who God is. God is saying in all of this, “I
am first and foremost a God of mercy, sacrifice, patience, and love.” That was
a part of the mission of Jesus, to show those attributes of God, and the
ultimate example of all of these things…God’s live, mercy, patience, and
sacrifice…the ultimate example of these is seen in Jesus on the cross. So when
he said, “It is finished,” what he’s really saying is, “Look now, this is what
I came for. I came to find you and to save you. I came to give you an abundant
life. And I came to show you the Father. Look now, I’m doing it for you.” (Pause)
Depending on which Gospel you read,
the last words of Christ are different. If you’re reading Matthew or Mark, then
you heard the last words of Jesus last week, “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?” John says his last words were, “It is finished.” But Luke records
the last words of Jesus on the cross as, “Father, into your hands I commend my
spirit.” Now Jesus was on the cross for a few hours, so I’m sure he said all of
these things, and the order isn’t really that important.
But again, I think there has been a
misunderstanding of Jesus’ words here on the cross. I think it often gets
viewed, when Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” that he
just decided at that point to stop living. Like he just pulled the spiritual
plug on himself, as if life and death is something you can just turn on and off.
I just don’t buy that. As a man, Jesus never took shortcuts around this type of
thing. If he wanted to go from
So to think that Jesus would start
that on the cross by euthanizing himself just doesn’t seem to fit with me. I
think Jesus died, just like any other man, and again, I take comfort in that,
that he loved me enough to truly sacrifice for me and bear it out. He didn’t
get a stunt double. You know, he did it.
I think instead of reading these words
of Christ in that sense, that he is literally giving up his spirit at this
point, we need to take them for what they really are. I think two main things
are happening here. First, he is quoting scripture. When he says Father, into
your hands I commend my spirit,” He is quoting David from the Psalms. He went
back to hymns of the Jews, and they would have recognized this in hearing him
say it. It would be like one of us dying and saying, “I once was lost, but now
I’m found. Was blind but now I see.” These were their hymns, and they would
recognize them, and their meaning. Let me read the first few verses of Psalm 31
for you.
In you, O Lord, I seek refuge; do not
let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me. Incline your ear
to me; rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to
save me. You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name’s sake lead me
and guide me, take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my
refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord,
faithful God.
Jesus, like David in the Psalm, is
facing shame and danger from his enemies, but he calls on God to deliver him.
He calls God his refuge and rock. He calls on God, I love this part, to “rescue
him speedily.” But most of all, he says, “into your hands I commit my spirit,”
meaning God, I am totally trusting my soul to you through all of this.
Remember, liked we talked about last
week, Jesus had never died before. This was new territory. And he was about to
die, be raised, and take the sin of the world upon his shoulders. And in this,
he wanted God to know that he trusted him completely, and basically he said,
“My life, and my death, my spirit is in your hands. Do what you have to do, but
save me. I know we’re going to triumph through it all. I know you have plans
for victory through this.”
And I think that’s what the cross is
really all about. The cross isn’t just about death and misery and sin and
suffering. The cross isn’t the end. The cross isn’t where defeat happened. The
cross is where victory happened. The cross is where Jesus won. The cross is
where Jesus said, “I did it! It is finished! I’ve accomplished what I came to
do. I have pulled it off.”
Next week marks the beginning of Holy
week, with Palm Sunday. Also known as the triumphal entry, where the people
celebrated as he entered
You know, if you have never made the
decision to follow Christ, I invite you as we enter this Holy week to hear this
story in a new light. I invite you, as you hear the story of the triumphal
entry, of the last supper, of his arrest, his persecution, and his death on the
cross, I invite you to hear it as if in each of these moments Jesus is saying,
“See? I did that for you. That was all for you.” He didn’t take the easy way
out. He persevered. He pulled it off. He did it.
Pastor
Dan Metzger
Van
Buren United