Archives: April 2009

Famous last words

By Mike Pilavachi

As Jesus died he made seven statements that I'm convinced are the most incredible statements that a person could make as they are dying. While it's not precisely clear from the Bible which order they were said in (different gospels give you different versions). I've put them in an order that makes sense to me. What is clear though, is that these are words which will live forever.

‘Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing’

In Luke 23v34 Jesus says 'father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing'. What had they done? Together with the occupying Roman forces, his fellow Jews had falsely accused him, lied about him, beaten, tormented and tortured him. He could have rained down fire on them, poured out a string of verbal abuse and threats or called down all manner of curses upon them. Instead he forgave them, making sure that the Jesus we see on the cross acts 100% in line with the Jesus that we have read about beforehand.

His death on the cross becomes even more amazing when we realise exactly who the 'they' were that Jesus was referring to when he asked his father to grant forgiveness. It wasn't just the authorities or the soldiers that Jesus was talking about, it was us. Jesus' death was caused by us; we sent him there. My sin and yours were the ticket that lead him to the place where he paid for all our sin. Make no mistake, when it comes to our wrongdoing and habit of living our lives away from God, there was only one true sacrifice that could have been made to secure our relationship with him. As a just God, our heavenly father could not let our sin pass without a just punishment, and Jesus paid the price on our behalf when he took our place on the cross.

In his holiness God judged that the payback for sin is death, but in his love he also decided that he would send the most precious thing that he had to pay the price so that he might have us back. Jesus, as he hung on the cross, said through the pain and the agony, said 'father, forgive Mike Pilavachi as he doesn't know what he is doing'.

My God, my God, why have you foresaken me?

To understand the true horror of Jesus’ cry on the cross (Mark 15v34) it is vital that we understand how for eternity, God the Son and God the Father were continually united. For the time that he hung on the cross God the Son knew the agony of separation from his Father. It was a key part of the punishment for sin that simply could not be avoided.

Sadly, the idea of being separated from God for a time probably does not fill us with the same sense of fear and dread as it did Jesus. But for many of us, as we agonise over the death of a loved one, this sense of loss is a vaguely familiar taste to our lips. When things go wrong in our lives we can often feel something of what Jesus felt, as though God is a million miles away and nothing can seem to bring him back. Jesus not only shared but felt more deeply than we could ever feel that sense of foresakeness.

Here is your son

In John’s version of the passion we read that Jesus sees John the Apostle and Mary his mother standing together around the cross, watching him die. Can you imagine what it must have been like for Jesus' own mother to watch her firstborn son die on the cross, crucified like a common criminal? Jesus says to his mother:

"'Dear woman, here is your son'
And to John;
'Here is your mother'."
John 19v26-27