• "Three of the Seven Last Utterances of Jesus"
• Sermon for Good Friday
• March 24, 2005
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

John's gospel gives us three of the seven last utterances of Jesus.

St. John tells us that "When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son!' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home."

The Cross creates a new family. Relationships are changed in the light of Good Friday. The fellowship of the Cross supercedes the fellowship of the natural order. Those who are born again by the water that flows from the side of Christ are joined in a union that supercedes the bond of natural birth. As Jesus said, "Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?... Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother" (Matt. 12:48 NKJV).

As we show forth the perpetual memorial of the Lord's death at the altar of God (1 Cor. 11:26), we take our place with Mary and the beloved disciple at the foot of the cross as part of the new family of God. As St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians (10:17), "We, being many are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread."

Good Friday draws us together to look with faith at the Crucified One; The Crucified One then tells us to look around and behold our mother, father, sister, brother and children.

Jesus said, "I thirst."

The three-hour stay on the cross caused dehydration, but there is a symbolic meaning to these words. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Simon Peter cut the ear off the high priest's servant, Jesus said, "Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given me?" (18:11).

The cup which the Father gave him was the cup of God's wrath against sin. Psalm 75 says, "In the hand of the Lord there is a cup...He pours it out; Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth Drain and drink down." (75:8). God said to Jeremiah, "Take this wine cup of fury from my hand and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it." (25:15 NKJV).

Jesus took the cup of God's wrath and drank it for us. As Isaiah says, "Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows... He was wounded for our transgressions... And the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all" (53:5-6).

The thirst of Jesus was his desire to drink the cup of wrath that is rightly ours to drink. The sacrificial animals of the Old Testament died for sin only under compulsion. The sacrifice of Jesus was acceptable to the Father because he wanted to do the will of God. As Psalm 40 says, "In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God. And your law is within my heart" (6-7).

As Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).

Jesus said, "It is finished."

In his priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus said, "I have finished the work which You have given Me to do" (17:4). The work that the Father gave him to do was to live a perfectly obedient life according the Torah and to offer himself as the sacrifice for sin, bringing all sacrifices to completion.

Sin is the central problem of mankind. The Bible tells that God created the world and said, "It is good." Evil came into the world through the rebellion of angels and mankind against God. God began to provide the answer for sin with the creation of the nation of Israel and the giving of the Torah, with its various sacrifices that provided a temporary covering for sin.

The epistle today (Hebrews 10:1f.) says that "The law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually, year by year, make those who approach perfect." Then it says, "But this Man, after He has offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God... For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."

It is finished because what is necessary for the forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with God has been provided in the life and death of Jesus. What is lacking is only our response of repentance and faith through which the remedy of the cross is applied to our lives.

Repentance and faith are not things we manufacture within ourselves to earn forgiveness and salvation. Repentance and faith can only be our response to the love of God directed towards us on the cross. 1 John says, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

We have not loved God as we ought and we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. God's response to our disobedience and rebellion was to send his Son to live and die for us. In the place of the blows and death we deserve, we find on Good Friday the arms of Jesus extended to us on the cross-finishing the work that was made necessary by our sin. To perceive this gift and grace is the beginning of new life through the cross of Jesus.