Through the Season of
Lent our congregation has travelled a journey through the everyday wilderness,
looking for the life of God’s Spirit. We end our journey this morning at the
cross. The stones we have carried and used in various symbols are gathered now at
the base of the cross, a symbol of our journey, and a symbol of our lives.
Remember these stones: They are us, gathered as God’s people. Now they are at
the foot of the cross, bound together by the death of Christ. We are gathered
together at the cross, remembering the one whose death brings us life, and we
are gathered together each one ready to take up our own cross and follow Jesus
throughout our lives and into Eternity.
The seven last words
of Christ are a harmonised set of sayings, which Jesus spoke on the cross as
recorded in the four gospels. Howard Charles (my NT professor at AMBS) has
observed that the gospel accounts are essentially extended passion narratives.
Each gospel is structured with the crucifixion story as its climax. Indeed, the
Passion of Christ is the gospel, so that as we hear the story of the cross
again, the gospel itself is shaping and reforming our lives.
There are a variety of
ways that we can consider the seven last words. We can look through them at the
work of Christ on the cross. Sometimes we use images of what we call atonement
– Christ’s victory over sin and death on the cross; Christ bearing all human
sin and its consequences on the cross; Christ bringing us life by entering our
death. These images (and others) take us deep into the mystery of salvation.
Another way is to see
the seven last words as the flow of our own lives – from our entrance into life
in Christ to the relationships we experience as members of God’s family and as
creatures on this earth to the alienation and physical distress we experience
as human relationships fail us to the final triumph of God’s work in our lives
and our reunion with God in Eternity.
This progression asks how
we experience the cross ourselves, and how Christ identifies with us in our own
lives. It is important to remember that this individual emphasis is directed
towards the community of God’s people. The cross ushers in God’s Reign in this
world, an all-encompassing reality that includes the structures and powers of
our lives. We respond as individuals, but we live in community. Therefore, we
close this morning’s service with communion, in which we both remember Christ’s
death, and we also commit ourselves to Christ and to each other. We take
communion together, eating the bread and drinking the cup as the community
formed by Christ’s sacrifice. We are the body of Christ. We eat the body of
Christ in the dramatic metaphor of communion, and we become the Body of Christ
as God works within all of us together. As we hear the seven last words,
remember the body of Christ as a whole, which lives in this world for the sake
of the world as God’s representatives and as a foretaste of Heaven.
The first set of readings covers forgiveness,
salvation, and relationship. The second
set covers the realities of life as we experience it. The third set describes the end of our
lives, as we follow in the way of Christ. Taken together they show us our own
lives in the light of the cross.
The Seven Last Words of Christ
Read by representatives of the
congregation, which is the body of Christ
1) Forgiveness: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34
2) Salvation: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in
paradise.” Luke 23:43
3) Relationship: “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.” John 19:26–27
4) Abandonment: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:34
5) Distress: “I thirst.” John
19:28
6) Triumph: “It is finished.” John
19:30
7) Reunion: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.” Luke 23:46
Conversion
The first word is
spoken about the crowd, and the second word is spoken to the thief on the
cross. Together they show forgiveness, and repentance, and salvation. We may
think that we are not nearly so bad as the thief or the people calling for
Jesus’ death, but in fact we are much alike. They were self-centred and
careless of what they were doing. We also tend to be self-centred. We hurt each
other, defending our own ideas, defending ourselves. As the thief says, we
deserve to die for all that we have done in this world. Christ’s words remind
us that this self-centredness is not terminal. We can change. We can give up
control of our lives, and when we do, we receive the life of Christ and the
assurance of Christ’s presence in our lives in life and in death.
The third word –
Jesus’ provision for his mother as he died – reminds us that this step into
discipleship is a step into a radical caring for each other. We give ourselves
to love, whatever our life situation. I think of the example of Joy Davidman, a
Jewish atheist from New York City. She married a man named Bill Gresham, who
turned out to be alcoholic and given to bouts of deep depression. One day in
Spring 1946 he did not return from work, leaving Joy and their two sons at
home. He called her on the phone, saying that he didn’t know how to cope and
that he wasn’t coming home. He was gone for several days, and in her distress,
Joy found God. (Or rather, God found Joy.)
Here is how her
biographer describes it:
In her words, she was
all alone with her fears and the quiet. She recalled later that “for the first
time my pride was forced to admit that I was not, after all, ‘the master of my
fate’. … All my defenses – all the walls of arrogance and cocksureness and
self-love behind which I had hid from God – went down momentarily – and God
came in.” She went on to describe her perception of the mystical encounter this
way:
It is infinite, unique; there are no words, there are no comparisons. …
Those who have known God will understand me. … There was a Person with me in
that room, directly present to my consciousness – a Person so real that all my
previous life was by comparison a mere shadow play. And I myself was more alive
than I had ever been; it was like waking from sleep. So intense a life cannot
be endured long by flesh and blood; we must ordinarily take our life watered
down, diluted as it were, by time and space and matter. My perception of God
lasted perhaps half a minute.
Her biographer
continues, “During this intensely spiritual episode Joy was stunned to find
herself on her knees …: ‘I must say, I was the world’s most surprised atheist.’
To her astonishment, the former ardent materialist not only knew that God was
there, but that He ‘had always been there’ and that He loved her.”
All our experiences
are different – from growing up in a Christian home and knowing God all our
lives to meeting God in the depths of despair and turning from a life of
rebellion to life in Christ. All our experiences are also the same – an
encounter with Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus on the cross meets us, wherever we
are, and Jesus gives to us also the path of the cross. In the words of Friday’s
prayer in the Anglican Church:
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he
suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully
grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the
way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
Life in the Way of Christ
So we enter into life
in the way of Christ. Then we hear the fourth and fifth words: words of Abandonment:
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” and words of Distress: “I thirst.” Conversion,
entering life in the way of Christ, does not mean that we avoid the troubles of
this world. I know that the Prosperity Gospel says that faith leads to
prosperity, but Jesus said that we take up our cross and follow him. What Jesus
tells us is true.
How many times have
you known a faithful follower of Christ who feels abandoned? Often. I think of a
good Mennonite brother whose daughter is dying of cancer. He asks, “I have
served God all of my life. Why does this happen to my daughter?” “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?” “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”
Jesus adds, “I
thirst.” A simple statement, which leads into unplumbed depths. How can one who
calls himself “the water of life” thirst? How can the eternal Son of God, who
is one with the Father, experience separation from the eternal God? How can God
be abandoned by God? These matters are too deep for us to unravel; we can only
state them and thank God that they are true.
As the writer of
Hebrews puts it (Hebrews 2: 14-18):
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity
so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death
– that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery
by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s
descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every
way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in
service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because
he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being
tempted.
Jesus walked where we
walk and lived where we live. Whatever pain or distress you bring into the
church building this morning, Jesus also feels it and carries your burden for
you. Jesus pleads with God the Father on your behalf and on mine for mercy and
grace and strength.
End of Life
We come to the end of
Jesus’ life on earth, and we discover what happens in death. I am old enough
now to think about dying. I know that one day, sooner or later, I will stop
breathing. My body will lie on a bed somewhere, lifeless. Many of us have
walked through life with a loved one, until that person stops breathing. We
hold our funerals and commit our loved ones to God.
What about ourselves?
What about you? What about me? What happens when we die? Jesus came to the end
and said two things: One was a word of triumph – “It is finished”, and one was
a word of reunion: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
The triumph lay in
doing what God called him to do. Sometimes we talk about leaving a legacy. We
want people to remember us. We wonder, “What can I do that will stand above the
rest?” Jesus offers only one path, the path of faithfulness. When he said, “It
is finished”, he meant, “I did what I was sent to do.” We want to be impressive
or memorable; Jesus calls us to be faithful. We want to be known for wit or
friendliness or success. Jesus calls us to be faithful.
Faithfulness is not
flashy or popular. It may mean staying with something we don’t want to do. At
its centre, it means that we look to God for direction – individually and
corporately – and we follow. Not that we succeed, but that we follow. Not that
we impress others, but that we do what God asks. Day in and day out. At the
end, we too can say, “It’s done. It’s over. I did what I was asked to do. I
followed Christ whether I understood or not. I stood with God’s people, whether
I understood or not. This life is finished, and it is good.” Faithfulness to
God makes life good.
Faithfulness also leads
to reunion with God. You remember the funeral for our loved former pastor. You
remember the picture he wanted there – the picture of the father welcoming the
“prodigal son” (as we call him) home. Jesus welcomes us home. “Father, into
your hands I commend my spirit.” When we give ourselves to God, we are home
with God.
I love the description
of General William Booth entering into heaven, beginning with the words:
Booth led boldly with his big bass drum …
And then describing
his parade around heaven. Finally, the poem brings Booth to Jesus:
And when Booth halted by the curb for prayer/ He saw his Master thro’
the flag-filled air./ Christ came gently with a robe and crown/ For Booth the
soldier, while the throng knelt down./ He saw King Jesus. They were face to
face,/ And he knelt a-weeping in that holy place./ Are you washed in the blood
of the Lamb?
Conclusion
Jesus died for us and
for our salvation. More, Jesus showed us the path to walk in our own lives –
from conversion or commitment to walk with him, through all the joys and
troubles of our lives, to the very end, when we also can say, “Father, into
your hands I commend my spirit.” We take up our cross and follow Jesus to the
very end, when we find complete and perfect union with God, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit.
May it be so. Amen.
2019 Good Friday
Steinbach Mennonite Church
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