His Final Words: “Why Have You Forsaken Me?”

by David Chadwick

Jesus is the Word. Made flesh. Who dwelled among humanity (John 1:14). His words will go down for all of time as the most significant words ever spoken. They perfectly reflect the divine heart of God for the world.

Here is another example of some of Jesus’s final words on the cross. In Matthew 27:46, he said, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus was quoting from Psalm 22, a Messianic psalm. Many scholars believe that as a rabbi, Jesus may very well have quoted, at least under his breath, the entire psalm. Much of what happened to him on the cross was prophesied in Psalm 22. While we don’t know for certainty if the entire psalm was quoted, we do know that the first verse was stated, making a clear claim that he was the long awaited Messiah.

If we are to use the Word of God as a sword (Ephesians 6:17), how profound for Jesus to live by example and to quote the Word as he carried out his mission on earth.

There was another even more significant meaning to these final words on the cross. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before he went to the cross, Jesus asked God if there was any other way to avoid having the drink of the Father’s cup.

In the Old Testament, drinking from the cup was always a reference to God’s judgment being poured out on his enemies. Jesus knew that when he drank from the cup of God’s judgment, he would absorb all sin upon himself, something too terrifying to comprehend. From eternity past up until that moment, the Son always had a perfect relationship with the Father. But when all the world’s sin came upon him, he knew the Father would have to abandon his Son, if even for a moment.

This is the reason Jesus stated this sentence of feeling forsaken. At that moment, all the world’s sins came upon him and the Father could no longer have union life and perfect fellowship with his Son.

But that was the price both the Father and the Son were willing to pay for our sins to be forgiven! What a glorious grace! It cost Jesus everything to perform this act of forgiveness and love. Because Jesus was forsaken, we are now forgiven! Hallelujah! What a Savior!

What great love and grace Jesus displayed for us on the cross!

His Final Words: “Behold, Your Son”

by David Chadwick

Over the next two weeks, we are looking at some of the final phrases Jesus spoke while on the cross.

Final words are very important. When someone is nearing the end of life, the words they release are usually incredibly purposeful and poignant. Anyone in the presence of someone who is approaching the end of life should pause and take note of what is being said as their words tend to be pretty significant.

The most important final words ever spoken were spoken by Jesus.

In John 19:26-27, Jesus said, “Woman, behold, your son!…Behold, your mother!”

He was speaking to John, his beloved disciple.

The word behold is powerful. It means “to gaze upon” or “to observe.”

In these words, Jesus was taking in all of the details of the needs around him, even in the midst of his excruciating death.

Jesus wanted to make sure that his mom was cared for after he died. With profound love for his mom, at the point of death, Jesus honored one of the 10 Commandments to honor his mother. At that point, Joseph had already died and I suppose Jesus knew that she would need someone to care for her as she aged.

John was not only Jesus’s beloved disciple, but he was most certainly the youngest of all the disciples. Some think he could have been as young as 14 when he first decided to follow Jesus. Jesus’s commission to John and Mary therefore pointed out the incredibly important gift of the biblical family.

Over time, we learn that John did care for Mary. He took her to Ephesus where he pastored. Evidently, she became a pillar of that community of faith and the Ephesian church helped care for her, perhaps and especially when John was exiled on Patmos.

Dear friends, family is so important. It should be fought for and cherished whenever possible. There is no greater gift than a family who is unified and yielded to Jesus and his principles.

Even from the cross, Jesus was magnifying the importance of family, which is the microcosm of the greater family of God called the church. He highlighted the gift of caring for parents.

His Final Words: “Today You Will Be With Me In Paradise”

by David Chadwick

“Today you will be with me in paradise.” Some of Jesus’s famous last words found in Luke 23:43.

Did you know that when Jesus was crucified, he was placed on the cross in between two thieves? These two criminals were undeniably guilty of their crimes. According to Roman law, they were justifiably receiving their deserved death sentence. Their punishments fit their crimes.

Yet their responses to Jesus were entirely different. In the presence of the Savior of the world, they had two very different responses. One thief, in his human pride, never acknowledged the Lord of love and his forgiving grace. He remained obstinate and impertinent to Jesus. He died and headed straight toward hell.

The other thief, however, encountered the saving grace of Jesus in his dying breaths. He recognized who was in his midst and accepted the free gift of eternal life. His heart was softened, and he was repentant.

This story has a profound impact on the gospel of Jesus. The repentant criminal proved that anyone can receive Jesus’s gift of eternal life. Yes, even in his or her last breath.

Grace means grace! Nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken away from it. It’s not based on works, so that no man can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). Rather, it is a free gift that Jesus gives because he is the Lord of love.

While crucified on the cross next to Jesus, the repentant thief humbly received the gift of grace. Jesus responded to him with these final words, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

When the thief died, he would immediately be with Jesus in paradise, where he would experience the restoration and perfection of heaven that will one day come to earth to restore everything back to its original intent.

May all of us realize that Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection is what allows us to be in his presence immediately after we die. There’s no purgatory. No intermediary state. No holding place. Simply to be absent from the body is to be present with Jesus, as Paul clearly stated in 2 Corinthians 5:7.

What good news from some of Jesus’s final words on the cross!