Final Words From the Cross

By Adam Hamilton

In life and in death, Jesus’ words were powerful and meaningful. Despite the serious effort and increased pain required for Jesus to speak as he hung on the cross, Jesus spoke seven “final words”—statements that have much to teach us about Jesus, his Father, and ourselves:


Father Forgive Them
Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise
Behold Your Son…Behold Your Mother
My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
I Thirst
It Is Finished . . . Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit
Postscript: The Words After That


In 24 Hours That Changed the World, Adam Hamilton took us on a Lenten journey through the last day of Jesus' life. Now in this inspiring follow-up book, Hamilton explores these final words as seen and heard through the eyes and ears of those who stood near the cross.

Each chapter begins with the biblical account followed by a first-person story as might have been told from the viewpoint of one of the characters at the cross. Then the chapter explores the meaning of Jesus’ dying words for our lives today. Following the last statement, a postscript recounts the words Jesus spoke following his resurrection, including what truly were the final words Jesus spoke while walking this earth.

Join the crowd now and experience the final words from the cross.

Final Words from the Cross offers six chapters/sessions plus a postscript chapter/session, so that classes have the option of a seventh session on Easter Sunday.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Feb 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781501858482

Adam Hamilton

Adam Hamilton is the founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. Started in 1990 with four people, the church has grown to become the largest United Methodist Church in the United States with over 18,000 members. The church is well known for connecting with agnostics, skeptics, and spiritual seekers. In 2012, it was recognized as the most influential mainline church in America, and Hamilton was asked by the White House to deliver the sermon at the Obama inaugural prayer service. Hamilton, whose theological training includes an undergraduate degree from Oral Roberts University and a graduate degree from Southern Methodist University where he was honored for his work in social ethics, is the author of nineteen books. He has been married to his wife, LaVon, for thirty-one years and has two adult daughters.

Book preview

Introduction

In 24 Hours That Changed the World (Abingdon, 2009) I retraced the final day of Jesus’ life beginning with the Last Supper and ending with his crucifixion. In that book I devoted six chapters to the events of that final day with only a small section of one chapter focused on Jesus’ final words. In this volume I’ll devote six chapters to a more in-depth consideration of the six hours during which Jesus hung dying on the cross and to what are traditionally called the seven last words of Jesus, but which are more accurately called the seven last statements of Jesus.

When reading together the four accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion, and particularly the words Jesus spoke from the cross, the reader is confronted with the fact that the Gospels do not agree as to exactly what Jesus’ final words were. Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts have nearly word-for-word agreement. They record only one statement of Jesus from the cross—what often is called the cry of dereliction—in which Jesus, quoting Psalm 22:1, cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Matthew and Mark both include the ipsissima verba—the actual words of Jesus as he spoke them in Aramaic: Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? followed by their Greek translation. Luke and John do not record these words at all, nor do they give even a hint that Jesus felt abandoned by God. Rather, Luke and John each include three different and distinct sentences Jesus uttered from the cross, and in these words Jesus seems focused on his mission and is confident that God ultimately will deliver him.

My assumption in this book is that over the course of six hours Jesus spoke all seven of these statements recorded in the Gospels. I see them not as contradictory but as complementary. It is true that each Gospel writer’s account of the final words is consistent with the way he has portrayed Jesus throughout the Gospel. Each statement tells us something important about Jesus. Together they offer a powerful and moving picture of what was on the heart and mind of Jesus as he died. It is possible that not all of the Gospel writers recalled or had access to all of these statements. It also seems likely to me that Luke and John may have been familiar with the cry of dereliction and that their accounts were meant to offer a counterbalance to the sense one receives from Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels. Luke and John offer a kind of clarification that Jesus ultimately did not die disillusioned and feeling abandoned by God; rather, his final words and thoughts were words of complete trust in his Father.

A word about the order of the last statements of Jesus: Because no one Gospel includes more than three of the final seven phrases Jesus spoke, we do not know the exact order in which Jesus spoke these words during the six hours on the cross. I have used, in this book, the traditional ordering of these statements:

Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.

Today you will be with me in Paradise.

Behold your son. . . . Behold your mother.

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

I thirst.

It is finished.

Into your hands I commit my spirit.

I have combined the final two statements of Jesus into one chapter, allowing the book to coincide with the six weeks of Lent. I also have included a postscript, The Words After That, an Easter meditation on the words Jesus spoke following his resurrection, including what were truly the final words Jesus spoke while walking this earth.

In this book I’ve chosen to begin each chapter with a first-person narrative of someone who stood near the cross, hearing the particular statement of Jesus. My hope in doing so is to help you imagine yourself at the foot of the cross and to help you see and hear what transpired there. These accounts are, of course, fictional, though they are imagined based upon the information we do have from the Gospels.

It should be mentioned that in Twenty-Four Hours That Changed the World I prepared video segments in which I took viewers to the Holy Land to visit the traditional sites where the final events of Jesus’ life are said to have occurred. Available for this present volume is a small group discussion guide and DVD with videos not filmed in the Holy Land but edited from sermons I preached on the Final Words—a series of sermons that served as the basis of this book. The videos are designed to promote discussion among book clubs, Bible study groups, and Sunday school classes.

Let us join the crowd now and experience the final words from the cross.

1.

Father, Forgive Them . . .

As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. . . . When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:26, 33-34a)

Simon of Cyrene

We had spent two weeks sailing from the north coast of Africa to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. My sons were small boys, yet old enough to feel the excitement as we approached the Holy City. As our small caravan came over the last hill, Rufus let out a shout, Look, Father, the Temple! There she stood, the earthly palace of God, gleaming as she towered over the city. Though my family had lived in Cyrene for generations, Jerusalem was for us, as for every Jew, our heart’s home.

That night we joined our cousins in Bethany for the Passover Seder that marked the beginning of the Festival, sharing a meal and recalling God’s salvation of our people. We ended that meal, as we did every year, praying for the coming of the Messiah. The next morning Rufus, Alexander, and I left early to spend the day in Jerusalem, visiting the Temple and then the Festival taking place near the markets.

As we approached the city we saw what appeared to be a parade coming our way. But soon we could see that this was no parade. There were Roman soldiers driving three criminals toward the rock quarry where criminals were crucified. Each of these criminals was carrying a heavy beam across his shoulders. One clearly had been badly beaten, for his body was bloodied and he looked as though he could barely walk. I took Rufus and Alexander by the hand and pulled them away from the road. I did not want them to see this terrible thing.

Just then the tragic figure, the sorely wounded man, stumbled and fell at my feet. I saw that his brow was wrapped in a crude crown of thorns, and suddenly I realized who this man was. This was Jesus of Nazareth, whom some had claimed was the Messiah. He had been critical of the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. I could not believe it—they had actually sentenced him to death.

Everything happened so quickly. I was lost in my thoughts when I heard one of the soldiers say, You there! You carry his cross! And you, Jesus, get to your feet! There was nothing I could do. I told my boys, Stay close. I picked up the beam, far heavier than I had imagined, and pitched it over my shoulder. Then I reached out a hand to Jesus to help him up. He was clearly in pain. But there was still, in his face, a strength and determination. He looked me in the eyes, as if to thank me, and then he set his face toward Calvary.

It was only a five-minute walk to the place they called The Skull—Calvary—where the Romans crucified their victims. Dropping the beam before the executioners, I stepped back, searching for my boys. And then we stood and watched as they assembled the cross. Then they stripped Jesus naked and laid him atop the beams. They stretched his arms to the sides before they drove the spikes into his wrists as he shouted in pain. Then they nailed his ankles into the side of the cross, one on the right and one on the left. Finally, they hoisted his cross up and in position and, as they did, he let out another shout of pain.

Because I had never been so close to a crucifixion, I had not realized what a horrible thing this was. Rufus began to cry. Alexander became nauseous. There were two thieves being crucified with Jesus, and the soldiers hoisted each one into the air.

The Romans shouted to the crowd, Take a look at your king now! This is a lesson from Rome—don’t forget it! The soldiers, laughing, began to throw dice for his clothing. Some in the crowd wept. Others hurled insults at him. The religious leaders stood with their arms crossed, a strange expression of satisfaction upon their faces.

And then Jesus took a deep breath, and someone in the crowd said, Shh! He’s about to say something. This is what he said: Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.

I would never forget these words. A dying man, tortured and crucified, praying that God would forgive his tormentors. What kind of man would do such a thing? His words would haunt me the rest of my life. Ultimately, they would be the reason I became one of his followers.

I have been with dozens of people as they were approaching death. A person’s dying words sometimes simply express his or her needs: Could you please move the pillow? or May I have a drink? Sometimes they express a concern for others—a final I love you or It’s going to be okay. A person’s final words reveal what is on his or her heart at the time, and sometimes they reveal the nature of the person’s faith and hope. John Wesley is said to have uttered these words as he died: Best of all, God is with us.

In the case of one being crucified, the very act of speaking was painful and required great exertion. It is thought that death comes to those being crucified due to some combination of exhaustion, shock, buildup of fluid around the heart and in the lungs, and asphyxiation. To speak while being crucified would require great effort as the victim would have to pull himself up by the nails in the wrists in order to expand the diaphragm to speak. For all of these reasons, words were sparse among the victims of crucifixion.

The Gospels record seven statements Jesus made from the cross. There are three