A Final Word
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Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today here. For some of you, this is your first time here since the fire. Some of you have been here many times. I’ve been here so many times.
So, for each of us we feel something different being here. Some still feel hurt, some feel relief, some feel anxious. All are okay feelings right now, as long as you remember that there is the other side to this whole situation and on the other side are many blessings.
Which brings us to Good Friday.
Some of you have been to many Good Friday services, some less, some a few. Some may feel it’s tradition, something to do because it’s what we’ve always done.
Some feel it’s a good reminder of what Jesus did for us.
Some, I hope that number to grow a little today. Are impacted by what Jesus did for you. Your heart hurts at what he went through on your behalf. Not with guilt or shame, but with deep gratitude.
We are in a unique place today. It seems like a hollowed out basement and it is. But it might be a tomb, but not really. Today, I think it’s a canvas. A place where deep hurt happened can turn into a place of healing.
And it may seem impossible to look at something that cause so much pain and hurt and say that it now causes Joy and healing, but I give you Exhibit A: The Cross.
For many years this was a device of pain, suffering and death.
People went up on it, they didn’t come back down alive. This was a symbol of fear and control, but has now become a symbol of faith and freedom all thanks to Jesus and 7 short sentances.
On Palm Sunday I talked about perspectives and how different gospels reveal different things because the same event was looked by different people.
We looked at the triumphal entry, Jesus entering Jerusalem from all four gospels. and today we’re going to look at the crucifixion from all 4 gospels and hopefully gain some understanding.
34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
As far as we can tell this is the first thing Jesus said after he was nailed to the cross.
Now, getting a little PG-13 here, I won’t get too graphic, but right after the nails are driven in and you are hoisted up of that cross, the pain is immense. the nerves in your hands and feet and going crazy. Jesus who had also been flogged is not in great shape and has the crown of thorns on his head. Yet, through all this he has humanity on his mind.
His first words on the cross are words of forgiveness directed to the Father.
Now, Jesus, fully God, left heaven and came to earth. But that doesn’t mean heaven is empty. God is still in heaven. We and Jesus, distinguish the one in Heaven as Father and the One on earth as Son. This doesn’t mean there are two gods. Just different persons of the one being. And they are still relational.
Jesus is in conversation with the Father even on the cross as he is talking the sins of mankind upon himself. He is begging the Father to forgive the ones who placed his son on the cross. Namely, you and me. We can’y single out the Jews as killing Jesus. We all did. He came to die for us all and offer us FORGIVENESS.
43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Jesus wasn’t the only guy up there on the cross. He had one on either side of him. There came a time on the cross where both of them ridiculed him. But there came a change in one of the men on the cross. I don’t know if he saw Jesus ask God to forgive, or if he saw something else, but through the pain and agony of the crucifixion this man spoke to Jesus and asked Jesus to remember him. This wasn’t a last minute covering of bases. This wasn’t last rights. This was repentance.
This may have been the man hearing Jesus’ words and saying, “ I deserve what I’m getting, he doesn’t. He says as much in verses 40-41. He calls out to be saved, not from the cross, but saved from eternal death; to join him on the cross and then in heaven.
So Jesus tells him. Today, you will be with me in paradise. This is SALVATION
26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
This seems pretty straight forward. Mary was there at the crucifixion. So was John, no other disciple showed up as far as we know. Jesus spent day and night with his disciples for three years. He knows them and trusts them. Someone had to take care of his mother. Jesus wanted one of his followers to do so. Sure, he had younger brothers and sisters, but they were not followers at this time. John showed up. That’s like when a person dies and the whole inheritance goes to the brother who would squander it and didn’t even bother to show up, instead of the one who was there. Jesus needed to entrust his mother and her care to someone he trusted. Perhaps if Peter had shown his face it might have been different, but what is really important here is the care of another human being. Even on the cross Jesus cared about RELATIONSHIP.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
This is the only of the 7 words of Jesus from the cross that are in two gospel accounts.
and if you did what I did in my research and looked up the 7 last sayings of Jesus and next to each reference there is a Theological Interpretation. We’ve hit two so far and they seem right. This one didn’t seem to match to me. ABANDONMENT. Sure at face value, that’s what it looks like Jesus is saying. But looking at the context of the gospels we see Jesus over and over telling his disciples he was going to die. He prayed in the garden the night before about it. Reading this verse in the tone of abandonment is like saying Jesus forgot that he came for this exact purpose and Jesus didn’t forget.
His first statement, he was talking to the Father, the second, the criminal on the cross, the third, I believer, the crowd. But Pastor, the first two words are My God, isn’t it obvious who he is talking to?
Open up to Psalm 22:1
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
Before a guy named Steve put chapters and verses into the Bible, if you wanted to reference a segment of the Bible you would read or recite the first few words of the passage. There there had been chapters and verses, Jesus might have yelled out Psalm 22.
16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—
Jesus isn’t crying out because he is afraid and feels abandoned. He’s crying out to the people. Psalm 22 is fulfilled right here, right now. Here we have FULFILLMENT (cross out abandonment)
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
What scripture was just fulfilled
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
and
21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
I can’t honestly say who Jesus is speaking to here. But in his last moments as a regular human being, he’s thirsty. This is a great illustration of his humanity. God doesn’t thirst and Jesus illustrated in John 4 that if you drink from his well you will never know thirst.
But understand what is being done to Jesus here. He’s not JUST physically thirsty. He’s taking on all the sins of all mankind. His spirit is empty.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is like being perfectly healthy on Monday and having advanced stage 4 cancer through your body on Tuesday. Jesus was thirsty.
Even though he knew this was coming, he still felt the DISTRESS, that came with being physically and spiritually dry.
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
This one is my personal favorite. It is finished. What is finished.
The curse to the serpent
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Something was started 4,000 years earlier in Genesis 3 and culminated here on the cross. Some people think that after Jesus died that he went to hell to be punished for our sins for three days. We already know from the criminal on the cross that that same day Jesus would be in heaven with him.
But what some people think is that the cross wasn’t enough. Jesus had to suffer more. But there is nothing in scripture to point us in the direction that Jesus continued to suffer after his death.
It is finished. Sin is defeated. Sure, it’s dead, but it’s still deadly. We still have to be watchful of sin, still avoid it and run from it. But It is finished. Years ago, in Hong Kong I heard a message about those three words and how they were translated. If you take a greek New testament and translate from Greek (tetelestai) to English, you get “it is finished”
When you take Tetelestai and translate it to cantonese you get
jyun sing zo
Which when you translate it to English you get the word
ACCOMPLISHED, my studies had the word triumph, but really, this word is much better in my mind. Jesus accomplished all he came to do. He defeated sin.
and finally,
46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
Jesus is not a created being. He was with the Father in complete unity all up until he stepped down into his creation. We have many instances of Jesus, God the Son, appearing briefly in the flesh in the Old Testment, but this is by and far that longest time Jesus has been away. more than 30 years. Though all this pain and suffering. Taking on the sins of the world, it is all at an end. It is accomplished. Jesus is done. He can go home.
Have you ever been on a long trip? Sometimes, no matter how much fun you have on the trip, there comes a point when you need to be home.
During my sabbatical last year there came a point about half way through where I was thinking it would be nice to go home. I had rested well and thought it could go home.
Another pastor asked me about this, not knowing what I was thinking, his reply was this. Take your time. Don’t go home when your well rested. Go home when your rest is done and when that time comes, you’ll need to be home. I’ll tell you the final drive from Coure d’alene to Bly was the longest drive I’ve been on. And we drove here from Alaska.
Jesus has been out of heaven for 30+ years. He was yearning to be home.
Even though we’ve never been there like Jesus. There will, I hope, come a point where we too are yearning to be there. If you’re not there yet, that’s fine, you’re not done here. And that’s okay, take your time. Jesus was at the end. He got to go home, yes he would come back in three days, but he got a weekend with Dad, he got REUNION. We will too, one day. But until then, we are at work. The Job, to share the gospel. to let people know what is to come.
To Forgive, to offer Salvation, be in relationship to others, to be the Fulfillment of Jesus’ words, to point people away from their distress and to him, to accomplish the mission he has for us and to one day be in full reunion with him.
I don’t know where you are at today. You could be at a great place in your walk with Jesus, you could be at a horrible place. I’m going to invite you to join me in prayer today. To do something. If you are a follower of Jesus, say thanks, for all he has done and will do in your life. If you’ve fallen away and want to rededicate, thank Jesus and move forward with his love and grace. If you don’t know Jesus as your LORD and Savior, I encourage you to take that step today and we’ll go through that in prayer, because he can accomplish in you today what he accomplished 2 thousand years ago. He can defeat the sin in your life and make you brand new.
And when we finish praying. I’ve got some chalk down here and I want to give you the opportunity to make think mess your canvas. Write a verse, draw a picture, write a prayer. But do it for Jesus. To glorify him.
Let’s pray
