Contents:
By all accounts Jesus didn't do a lot of talking on the cross. It was as if he were alone in his pain -- silent for the many hours he hung there, except for a very few words. But these 7 Last Words of Christ from the Cross provide a window into Jesus' soul, a way to understand through his own last words what is ultimately important to this One who is dying on the cross.
These seven words are taken from different gospels, but assembled into what was probably their chronological order according to a simple harmony of the various gospel accounts of the crucifixion:. This Bible study is designed to help you meditate on each of these seven words, one per day, for a single week. Contained in each day's study will be a question that can help you think more deeply about the meaning of the saying. If you like, you can post your answers or thoughts in our online Forum or read others' thoughts about the saying.
This has been termed a model of prayer for everyone when afraid, sick, or facing one's own death. It says in effect: I commit myself to you, O God. In my living and in my dying, in the good times and in the bad, whatever I am and have, I place in your hands, O God, for your safekeeping. The last words of Jesus have been the subject of a wide range of Christian teachings and sermons, and a number of authors have written books specifically devoted to the last sayings of Christ.
Priest and author Timothy Radcliffe states that in the Bible, seven is the number of perfection, and he views the seven last words as God's completion of the circle of creation and performs analysis of the structure of the seven last words to obtain further insight. The saying "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" is generally given in transliterated Aramaic with a translation originally in Greek after it. This phrase is the opening line of Psalm 22 , a psalm about persecution, the mercy and salvation of God.
It was common for people at this time to reference songs by quoting their first lines. The slight differences between the two gospel accounts are most probably due to dialect. Matthew's version seems to have been more influenced by Hebrew , whereas Mark's is perhaps more colloquial. Robertson noted that the "so-called Gospel of Peter 1.
James Dunn considers the seven sayings weakly rooted in tradition and sees them as a part of the elaborations in the diverse retellings of Jesus' final hours. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 1 April The 'Three Hours' Devotion, borrowed from Roman usage, with meditation on the 'seven last words' from the Cross, and held from 12 till 3, when our Lord hung on the Cross, is a service of Good Friday that meets with increasing acceptance among the Anglicans.
Jesus, Interrupted , HarperCollins, The Cross in the New Testament. Ukrainian Orthodox Greek-Catholic Church. Archived from the original on Aug 13, David, in his prayer of confession, cried out to God, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.
Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost. Dunn, Jesus Remembered , Eerdmans, , pp. The authentic gospel of Jesus.
Jesus is not stumbling or falling as in the Synoptic Gospels, but the way of the Cross is presented with majesty and dignity, for "Jesus went out bearing his own Cross" John The third, fifth and sixth sayings can only be found in John's Gospel. The fifth word of Jesus is His only human expression of His physical suffering. Robertson noted that the "so-called Gospel of Peter 1. In contrast, the passion of Jesus in the Gospel of John expresses his Kingship and proves to be His triumphant road to glory. Priest and author Timothy Radcliffe states that in the Bible, seven is the number of perfection, and he views the seven last words as God's completion of the circle of creation and performs analysis of the structure of the seven last words to obtain further insight.
Language of Jesus Bibliography Films. All the pious words that come to our lips sound worse than empty. Jesus you thirst to give me your love and for my love in return. Lord Jesus, let me enter more deeply into your love. Let me understand that I cannot give without receiving nor receive without giving. Thirst is a very fundamental experience. I have only been thirsty once, walking in the desert from Jerusalem to Jericho. After a while we began to feel disorientated, almost disembodied. Brian Keenan, in his hell hole in Beirut, longs for words and for water: I think of rabies and the raging thirst of mad dogs and I know how easy it would be to go mad from thirst.
Now I know the full meaning of the expression so frequently used in our daily lives: Why it is that thirst for water is so fundamental? Maybe it is because our bodies are 98 per cent water. Dehydration is the seeping away of our very being, our substance.
We feel that we ourselves are evaporating. So often the last desire of those who are dying is for something to drink. It also stands for that deepest thirst for the one who gives us substance and being at every moment and who promises eternal life: My body pines for you, like a dry weary land without water.
There is a kind of timelessness about hanging on the cross. It is not a quiet death, over in an instant to one glorious moment of martyrdom like being torn apart by lions. A cross is as much an instrument of torture as it is a gallows from which to hang. Water to moisten the parched mouth, water to free a swollen tongue, water to open a rasping throat that cannot gasp enough air, water to keep hope alive, to keep life alive just a few moments longer. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. The solders give Jesus what they have, some sour old vinegar.
It probably tasted disgusting but it is what poor soldiers drank and so they shared it. They could not afford decent wine.
Jesus accepts what they have to offer. It is all that they have and so it is enough. Faced with our hungry world, with millions who are starving, we may not feel that we have much to give.
Jesus Christ spoke seven times while dying on the Cross to redeem mankind; his seven expressions are known as his Seven Words. The Sayings of Jesus on the cross are seven expressions biblically be with me in paradise (in response to one of the two thieves crucified next to him); Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (last words).
It is the end, the very end, the end of the ordeal and Jesus alone on the cross, tortured, exhausted, abandoned by his friends, forsaken by God gasps for the last breath and gathers the strength for one final cry. Why would he choose to speak so close to the end? Why would he muster the last energy he had to cry out with a loud voice? A dedication made despite the pain, despite the mocking, despite the agony, despite the sense of horrible aloneness he felt. For I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the foreign lands, and bring you back to your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving them natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
We live in an age of profound anxiety. We are fearful about disease and illness, about our futures, about our children, about our jobs, about failure, about death.