THE LAST WORDS OF JESUS.
By H. A. St. John
How many times we have heard friends relate the last words of some dear one that had passed away. The last sayings of loved ones, uttered just before falling asleep in death, are cherished by the living with peculiar regard; they linger in the memory, and not infrequently have a restraining or moulding influence upon the life. The death of Jesus on Calvary is a death affecting all mankind for weal or woe, as no other death can. It was a death in which all are concerned, and hence should have a deep interest. And by every Christian the seven last sayings of Jesus on Calvary should be cherished and often considered; and to their consideration we now briefly invite your attention. 1. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Thus Jesus prayed at the time when, without resistance, He was being nailed to the cross. Forgiveness is the first blessing in Christian life. And this forgiveness can not be obtained while the penitent is unwilling to forgive others their trespasses against him. The repentant sinner must forgive, if he would be forgiven. It is one of the most explicit conditions of pardon found in the Bible. Here we learn a most important lesson, given under the most aggravating circumstances. The trespasses of others against us can never be so great, so aggravating, so unreasonable, and unjust, as were the trespasses of the wicked against Christ. Hence we can never have so good a reason to be unforgiving. By penitence some of those wicked men afterward found pardon; while others, by their impenitence, rendered the Saviour’s prayer impossible of fulfilment in their behalf. As we are all guilty, not only of trespassing against others, but also of crucifying Christ, His prayer was for us. So by true repentance let us make it possible of fulfilment. 2. “Verily I say unto thee to-day, shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” Altho Jesus was passing through the most intense physical suffering and mental anguish, His ear was open to hear, and His heart glad to respond, to the call of the penitent thief for help. This request was a bright gleam of joy that came to Jesus in this hour of His deepest distress. To be called Lord, to be asked to remember the penitent thief when He should come to His kingdom, were expressions of faith and repentance especially gratifying to the Son of God in that darkest hour of His earthly experience; and they were rewarded by a promissory note to the thief, worth more than all the wealth in this world of ours. So the disciple of Jesus, having been forgiven all his trespasses because he has forgiven all that have trespassed against him, will ever be ready and glad to point the penitent to the Lamb of God, that “taketh away the sin of the world.” 3. “Woman, behold thy son!” “Behold thy mother!” These words were addressed to His mother, and the disciple John. He could no longer be the earthly support of His widowed and heart-broken mother; but His filial love shone out with surpassing beauty in those brief words, which created and cemented a bond of union as mother and son, between His mother and the beloved John, in whose heart He Himself was enshrined. From that hour John took the mother of Jesus to his own home, and he received many rich blessings in caring for her during the remainder of her mortal life. In these words of Jesus another characteristic of the true child of God is beautifully revealed. In every heart where this love abides, there will be seen the same loving interest and tender care of parents. 4. “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” This was the despairing cry of Jesus in the crisis of that greatest of all tragedies. For a brief time He was left to feel forsaken of His Father. Yet the Father was never nearer His beloved Son than at that very moment. But Jesus was to be a Man of sorrows—the heaviest of sorrows, and to be made acquainted with grief—the deepest of grief. So the Christian will have hours of darkness; he will sorrow and grieve. But he should not forget that the Father’s presence and love are over him still, and that there is bright sunshine soon to follow. There is a purpose, a lesson, in these dark shadows that cross our pathway, which we will understand some day; and then, if not at the time, we shall see that they have worked for our good. 5. “I thirst.” With a loud voice these words were uttered. They were an intense expression of a natural, physical, temporal want. Who will respond to this human cry of a soul in physical distress? A soldier was moved to touch the Saviour’s lips with a sponge saturated with a bitter stupefying liquid; but there was no loving hand to give the cup of cold water. Said the priests, “Let be.” Here is a lesson for the follower of Christ. Do you hear the loud call from suffering representatives of Christ all around you? Do you hear the cry, “I chill. I suffer. I hunger. I thirst?” Do you say, “Let be?” Do you leave all calls for help to the unsympathizing, the unfeeling? Inasmuch as you do it not for one of the least of God’s children, you would have done it not for Christ. 6. “It is finished.” In trumpet tones Jesus cried, “It is finished.” Never did three words mean more than when they came from the lips of the dying Son of God. He had finished the work His Father had given Him to do, and He had finished it gloriously, triumphantly, eternally. This was not a cry of defeat, but a shout of everlasting victory. From world to world throughout the universe of God, these all-victorious words were repeated, and shouted with glad hosannas. The banner of King Jesus was planted on the eternal heights, never again to be endangered. So every Christian must come to a time when his work, for eternity, is finished. May we all, like the apostle Paul, be able to say, “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me at that day.” 7. “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit!” Jesus yielded up His life for a season, committing it to the care of His Father, whose character and love He had so vividly and wondrously revealed to the world. It was in safe keeping. It was impossible that such a One should be holden by death. Acts 2:24. Erelong His Father called Him, gave Him back His life, to die no more, and seated Him at His right hand in glory, with an exaltation and a name above every other. In like manner every Christian, at the end of life’s journey, when the solemn hour arrives when he can keep his life no longer, can commend it into the hands of the loving All-Father, to receive it again at the resurrection of the just. So the reader may see, that in the seven sayings of Christ on Calvary we have embraced the seven distinct phases of Christian experience and work, from the hour of pardon till probationary life is surrendered. And it is a comforting and encouraging thought that we can pass through them all, and in the end come off more than conquerors through Him who so loved us that He gave His life for us on Calvary. H. A. ST. JOHN.