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God’s Dying
Words It’s interesting to hear a man’s last words before
dying. ·
Napolean said, “I die before my time, and my body will be given back to
the earth... What a deep abyss between my deep misery and the eternal ·
Volataire’s last words were, “I am abandoned by God and man: I shall go
to hell.” ·
John Wilkes Booth said, “Useless...useless.” Others have been more positive: ·
Dwight Moody said, “Earth receded, heaven open, I’ve been through the
gates... If this is death, it’s sweet.” ·
Michael Angelo said, “I die in the faith of Jesus Christ and in the firm
hope of a better life.” ·
Alben Barkley said, “I would rather be a servant in the house of the Lord
than sit in the seat of the mighty.” Most significant of all are the dying words of Jesus
Christ. As God the Son died on a cross,
He spoke seven sayings: “Father,
forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34 NASB). John R.W. Stott wrote, “Jesus seems to have prayed for
his tormenters actually while the iron spikes were being driven through his
hands and feet; indeed the imperfect tense suggests that he kept praying, kept
repeating his entreaty.” Of course,
Jesus was practicing what He had earlier preached: “love your enemies, and pray
for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44 NASB). He was also setting an example for Stephen,
who, while people were throwing stones at him to kill him, would pray, "Lord,
do not hold this sin against them!" (Acts 7:60 NASB). “Truly I
say to you, today you shall be with Me in "Woman,
behold, your son!" [...] "Behold, your mother!" (John 19:26-27
NASB). These words were spoken to Mary and to
the apostle John. John then tells us, “And from that hour the disciple took her
into his own household” (John 19:27 NASB).
The Bible teaches, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and
especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse
than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8 NASB).
Jesus Himself taught this in Mark 7:9-13. It seems that Jesus wanted to make sure that
His mother would be taken care of after He was gone. Joseph was probably dead at this point—the
last time we see him in the Gospel is in Luke 2:51. And Jesus’ brothers may not yet have believed
His teachings on this subject (cf. John 7:5). “My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46 NASB; Mark 15:34). This is a quotation of Psalm 22:1, a psalm that also
predicted the insults Jesus would receive from the Jewish leaders (Psalm
22:7-8; Matthew 27:43), the piercing of Jesus’ hands and feet (Psalm 22:16;
Luke 24:40), and the division of Jesus’ garments (Psalm 22:18; John
19:24). The prophet Azariah said, “the
Lord is with you when you are with Him.
And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him,
He will forsake you” (2 Chronicles 15:2 NASB).
All humanity has forsaken God (Romans 3:11-12), and thus Jesus was
forsaken by God as He endured humanity’s punishment in their place (Isaiah
53:5). “I am
thirsy” (John 19:28 NASB). Here is another reminder of the
humanity of Jesus. As a human, Jesus got
hungry. Matthew writes, “And after He
had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry” (Matthew 4:2
NASB). As a human, Jesus got weary. John writes, “Jesus, being wearied from His
journey, was sitting thus by the well” (John 4:6 NASB). And, likewise, as a human, Jesus got thirsty.
D.A. Carson wrote, “a man scourged, bleeding, and hanging on a cross under the
Near-Eastern sun would be so desperately dehydrated that thirst would be part
of the torture.” And Guy N. Woods wrote,
“it is said that in the case of wounded soldiers suffering thirst this ordeal
transcends and covers up all other agonies.” “It is
finished” (John 19:30). This is coming from the man who
earlier said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how it consumes Me
until it is finished!” (Luke 12:50 HCSB).
What was this baptism? It wasn’t
His water baptism—that had happened nine chapters before He made this
statement. No, this baptism, no doubt,
was the same one He spoke of when He told James and John, “The cup that I drink
you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am
baptized” (Mark 10:39 NASB). That cup
was suffering (Mark 14:36), and thus surely so is the baptism. In other words, Jesus would be immersed in
suffering, and how it consumed Him, how it “distressed” (NASB) Him, until that
suffering was “finished” (Luke 12:50 HCSB).
And now, just before He “bowed His head and gave up His spirit,” He
said, “It is finished” (John 19:30 NASB). “Father,
into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46 NASB). Here Jesus again quoted from the Psalms, this time from
Psalm 31:5, which says, “Into Your hand I commit my spirit” (NASB). Elsewhere in the Old Testament, we read that
when death takes place, “the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the
spirit will return to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7 NASB). As noted before, the Bible tells us that
Jesus’ soul went to “Hades” between His death and resurrection (Acts 2:27
NASB), which in the Old Testament is called “Sheol” (Psalm 16:10). And God is in “Sheol” (Psalm 139:8 NASB), and
thus was there to welcome Jesus’ spirit.
Just as Stephen echoed Jesus’ first saying from the cross, so he echoed
Jesus’ last saying, with his words: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59
NASB). |