Words from the Cross (Part VII)

Articles

Lance Byers
07/20/24 - Words from the Cross

“It is finished.” “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”

The final moment had come, and Jesus had been vilified, beaten, despised, rejected, and His death was certain in human terms. These words, without any understanding of the gospel, seem the most obvious meaning of all: death has finally come, and Jesus feels its cold grasp coming to claim Him. Yeilding not to ignorance and our own understanding, though haves us see that these words are the most meaningful and consequential of all the things Jesus said on the cross. To understand them, we need to look back to the words Jesus said in John 10:14-18

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jesus states that no one takes Jesus’ life away from Him. What a statement! Who can say that their life cannot be taken from them? How about a man who was condemned to die by local authorities and cornered, but simply was able to walk away? (Luke 4:28-30) How about a man who the devil, himself, could confidently say that if He were to hurl Himself off a tall tower that the angels from heaven would come down to prevent Him from being wounded? (Luke 4:9-11) How about a man who was able to continue living despite His flesh being ripped apart in a scourging (Mark 15:15), His head suffering from the trauma of beatings (Mark 15:19), enduring in a weakened state the dragging of his own cross across the city until He could no longer bear it (John 19:17 and Mark 15:21), and then being nailed and hoisted up upon that same cross in agony? None of this killed this man!

Going forward in the story, shortly after Jesus’ death, it was approaching sundown, and the Jews wanted to hurry the process so that the condemned men would not still be hanging on Shabbat. (Speculation could be made that they also wanted to hasten the death of this man, Jesus, whom they wanted dead.) To facilitate this, the soldiers would break the legs of the condemned men so they could no longer push up to exhale and they would suffocate ending the torture of crucifixion and their life. John 19:32-34, 36-37 describes the affair:

“So, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. … For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken.’ And again, another Scripture says, ‘They will look on him whom they have pierced.’”

John lets us know through the fulfilment of prophecy that the promises of the old law had been fulfilled. Jesus came to this earth with a mission, and now it had been finished with the last prophecies, and the time of his departure, a departure of His own volition, had arrived. Jesus had left His own body behind, laying down His own life after crying out with a loud voice these words. The centurion, likely a Roman pagan, standing there saw this happen and praised God, at once, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” (Luke 23:47)

Anyone can die, though. Could it have been a coincidence? How about the initial theory of superficial observation where Jesus could have just felt His body shutting down and death drawing eerily near? Looking at John 10:18 again we can find the proof:

“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

again, had the authority, not only to leave His earthly life behind, but to take it up again after death. After three days in the tomb, dead, Jesus took up that life again and came from the tomb, and offers this new life, spiritually, to us as well.

Lance Byers

7/19/2024