Are you a list-maker? I have occasions when I am cogent enough to make a list. Usually when my wife tells me I need to make one. She is a consummate list maker. There are lists all over the place. And often she even follows them! Just kidding, dear.
The best part about making a list is that you can often have a clear sense of direction. On the paper (or various electronic listmaking gadgets) you can see the goals ahead of you. You have an idea of what needs to be done and often the order in which they might be accomplished. A list can help keep you on task, can remind you of what you might have forgotten and can even be an incentive to getting down to the tasks at hand. They can a help to prioritizing, can set an agenda, and can even impress others with how much you intend to take on.
But there is one other function of a list the neglect of which would make all the above moot. A list you gives you the opportunity to cross stuff off. Whoo-hoo. There is a sense of completion, a sense of accomplishment when you are able to cross off an item. Tasks that sit there on the list sometimes can intimidate you, can threaten you or just plain worry you. But once you are able to cross them off, you are able to cheer over a job well done. Or a task completed anyway.
Doesn't it feel great to be able to cross off something? Even crossing off the easy jobs give you a sense that you are getting somewhere. But when you are able to cross off the hard ones, then you know a significant moment has come. Then you want to bask in the glory for a moment.
I have this tendency to want to dwell in that sense of accomplishment for a while, to reflect on that job well done mentality. I'd love to be able to just sit and think "Wasn't that wonderful?" Didn't I do a good job? Aren't I proud of myself for being able to cross this off my list?
But I can't. Usually, anyway. Because there is something else to do. Something else that waits to be accomplished, something else that sits there on the list waiting to be done. Somewhere else to go, someone else to call, another event to plan or attend. Something else to do. Like die, for instance.
OK, most of the time I don't put that on my list. But as we come here to the end of the Words from the Cross, we discover that Jesus is also in the process of completing the tasks at hand.
Again this week we have two Words, the sixth and seventh Words from the Cross. Which means we are nearly done. Listen:
John 19:30 When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
AND
Luke 23:46-49 Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, and said, "Certainly this man was innocent!" 48 And all the multitudes who assembled to see the sight, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance and saw these things.
We could have just chosen verse 46 from Luke 23, like we chose only one verse from John's 19th chapter. Of all of the words, these two are the most personal for Jesus. I'm not sure that the Centurion's comment adds much to our understanding of what was going on with Jesus. It does show us one response to his death that we might emulate, but it doesn't really help us hear the theological meaning of what Jesus said. Likewise with the other responses presented there in Luke's gospel. Those who were beating their breast might have been moved by what took place, might have been troubled and convicted by what they observed, just like us. Or they might have just been going through the motions, professional mourners doing their job, not really being touched, not really being challenged by what they say. And it is possible that many of us are like those women who followed and while we want to be present, we want to be connect to this man, to this death, we also want to keep some distance while we watch. To save our own skins perhaps, to keep a little cleaner, to invest a little of ourselves but not too much.
I shouldn't condemn those women, however, at least they were there. And even at a distance they couldn't help but be affected by what they saw.
But all of that is really beside the point here. Jesus' Words would have been just as important, just as rife with possibility if he had been completely alone on that skull like hill that Friday afternoon. That is what I mean by saying that these words were the most personal of all the words.
None of the seven Words appear in all four gospels. Most of them only appear in one. My God, My God appears in two - Matthew and Mark, but the rest only in one each.
Except, an argument could be made that the sixth Word, "It is Finished" appears in all four. Certainly not as written, not in those words, so don't go running for your gospel concordance. However, if you look at Matthew and Mark you will find the notation that just before he died, just before he gave up his spirit (and that difference is vitally important - as we'll see in a moment) he cried out in a loud voice.
Some folks interpret that cry as a last gasp of pain, as a surrender or collapse. But given what else we read, I doubt that very much. In Greek the sixth Word is not a phrase or a sentence, it is one Word: "telesthai." "Telesthai" could be translated as "Finished!" Or "Done!" It is a cry of triumph, of completion, not of resignation or surrender. It is the cry of the runner finishing the marathon, it is the shout of the artist completing the work of art, it is the weary laugh of the mother who has given birth. "Finished!"
Jesus was crossing something off the list that his father gave him to do. He was beaten and bloody, he was torn and bruised, he was breathing his last ragged breaths, but he was triumphant. And he was in control.
Here is a key understanding to the whole Crucifixion event. Jesus wasn't killed, he gave up his life. Matthew, Mark and Luke all say "He breathed his last." He was the subject, not the object of that sentence. He was in control. He was the actor, not the reactor. John says it even more plainly - "He gave up his spirit." He handed over all that he was to the Father. For us.
Which brings us to the final Word. Luke's loud cry is wrapped around a different Word. "Into Your Hands" he shouts. This is the completion of the task that he was given. To return to all that he was before the incarnation. To reclaim his role in the Trinity, or to sit at the right hand of the Father. So, the seventh Word doesn't announce completion, it accomplishes it.
And shows us the way. Jesus' final Word from the cross not only shows us how to die, but it shows us how to live. In the hands of the Father.
Cross it off your list.
Shalom,
Derek
The best part about making a list is that you can often have a clear sense of direction. On the paper (or various electronic listmaking gadgets) you can see the goals ahead of you. You have an idea of what needs to be done and often the order in which they might be accomplished. A list can help keep you on task, can remind you of what you might have forgotten and can even be an incentive to getting down to the tasks at hand. They can a help to prioritizing, can set an agenda, and can even impress others with how much you intend to take on.
But there is one other function of a list the neglect of which would make all the above moot. A list you gives you the opportunity to cross stuff off. Whoo-hoo. There is a sense of completion, a sense of accomplishment when you are able to cross off an item. Tasks that sit there on the list sometimes can intimidate you, can threaten you or just plain worry you. But once you are able to cross them off, you are able to cheer over a job well done. Or a task completed anyway.
Doesn't it feel great to be able to cross off something? Even crossing off the easy jobs give you a sense that you are getting somewhere. But when you are able to cross off the hard ones, then you know a significant moment has come. Then you want to bask in the glory for a moment.
I have this tendency to want to dwell in that sense of accomplishment for a while, to reflect on that job well done mentality. I'd love to be able to just sit and think "Wasn't that wonderful?" Didn't I do a good job? Aren't I proud of myself for being able to cross this off my list?
But I can't. Usually, anyway. Because there is something else to do. Something else that waits to be accomplished, something else that sits there on the list waiting to be done. Somewhere else to go, someone else to call, another event to plan or attend. Something else to do. Like die, for instance.
OK, most of the time I don't put that on my list. But as we come here to the end of the Words from the Cross, we discover that Jesus is also in the process of completing the tasks at hand.
Again this week we have two Words, the sixth and seventh Words from the Cross. Which means we are nearly done. Listen:
John 19:30 When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
AND
Luke 23:46-49 Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, and said, "Certainly this man was innocent!" 48 And all the multitudes who assembled to see the sight, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance and saw these things.
We could have just chosen verse 46 from Luke 23, like we chose only one verse from John's 19th chapter. Of all of the words, these two are the most personal for Jesus. I'm not sure that the Centurion's comment adds much to our understanding of what was going on with Jesus. It does show us one response to his death that we might emulate, but it doesn't really help us hear the theological meaning of what Jesus said. Likewise with the other responses presented there in Luke's gospel. Those who were beating their breast might have been moved by what took place, might have been troubled and convicted by what they observed, just like us. Or they might have just been going through the motions, professional mourners doing their job, not really being touched, not really being challenged by what they say. And it is possible that many of us are like those women who followed and while we want to be present, we want to be connect to this man, to this death, we also want to keep some distance while we watch. To save our own skins perhaps, to keep a little cleaner, to invest a little of ourselves but not too much.
I shouldn't condemn those women, however, at least they were there. And even at a distance they couldn't help but be affected by what they saw.
But all of that is really beside the point here. Jesus' Words would have been just as important, just as rife with possibility if he had been completely alone on that skull like hill that Friday afternoon. That is what I mean by saying that these words were the most personal of all the words.
None of the seven Words appear in all four gospels. Most of them only appear in one. My God, My God appears in two - Matthew and Mark, but the rest only in one each.
Except, an argument could be made that the sixth Word, "It is Finished" appears in all four. Certainly not as written, not in those words, so don't go running for your gospel concordance. However, if you look at Matthew and Mark you will find the notation that just before he died, just before he gave up his spirit (and that difference is vitally important - as we'll see in a moment) he cried out in a loud voice.
Some folks interpret that cry as a last gasp of pain, as a surrender or collapse. But given what else we read, I doubt that very much. In Greek the sixth Word is not a phrase or a sentence, it is one Word: "telesthai." "Telesthai" could be translated as "Finished!" Or "Done!" It is a cry of triumph, of completion, not of resignation or surrender. It is the cry of the runner finishing the marathon, it is the shout of the artist completing the work of art, it is the weary laugh of the mother who has given birth. "Finished!"
Jesus was crossing something off the list that his father gave him to do. He was beaten and bloody, he was torn and bruised, he was breathing his last ragged breaths, but he was triumphant. And he was in control.
Here is a key understanding to the whole Crucifixion event. Jesus wasn't killed, he gave up his life. Matthew, Mark and Luke all say "He breathed his last." He was the subject, not the object of that sentence. He was in control. He was the actor, not the reactor. John says it even more plainly - "He gave up his spirit." He handed over all that he was to the Father. For us.
Which brings us to the final Word. Luke's loud cry is wrapped around a different Word. "Into Your Hands" he shouts. This is the completion of the task that he was given. To return to all that he was before the incarnation. To reclaim his role in the Trinity, or to sit at the right hand of the Father. So, the seventh Word doesn't announce completion, it accomplishes it.
And shows us the way. Jesus' final Word from the cross not only shows us how to die, but it shows us how to live. In the hands of the Father.
Cross it off your list.
Shalom,
Derek
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