Last words are always important. There is a whole category called “famous last words,” and no one’s last words in all of human history are more famous than those of Jesus.
In the Christian tradition you will often hear the phrase “the seven last words of Christ.” This actually refers to the seven last sentences or phrases Jesus uttered from the cross. Numerous classical music compositions are based on these words, so great an influence have they had over the centuries on the celebration of Holy Week, and especially Good Friday.
So what were these famous seven last sentences of Jesus?
The first is in the earliest Gospel, Mark, as well as in Matthew. Jesus quotes the opening line of Psalm 22, spoken in Aramaic: Eloi, Eloi, Lema Sabachtani? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46). Jesus was not the first nor the last person to feel abandoned when being unjustly executed. According to these two gospels, these are the only words Jesus spoke from the cross.
In Luke’s gospel, however, we have several sentences attributed to Jesus at the crucifixion: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34) is spoken by Jesus on behalf of the very people who were crucifying him. A little later in Luke’s portrayal, Jesus addresses the so-called penitent thief hanging on a cross beside him. The bandit had asked to be remembered when Jesus comes into his kingdom, to which Jesus replied “Truly, I say to you—today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42–43; Paradise was a Jewish metaphor for the highest level of heaven). At the very end, Jesus says to God, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
The Johannine portrayal of Jesus’ last words is different still. First there is the interchange between Jesus and two people standing below the cross—his mother and the Beloved Disciple—to whom Jesus says “Woman, here is your son” and “Here is your mother” (John 19:26–27). Not only was it legal to make a last will and testament from the cross, but Jesus entrusts his mother not to his brothers and sisters, but rather to his most beloved disciple. This comports with the earlier saying of Jesus (from Mark’s gospel) that his mother, brothers and sisters are whoever does God’s will (Mark 3:31–35). After this, Jesus is reported to have said “I thirst” (John 19:28), which is seen as a fulfillment of Psalm 69:21—“They gave me gall for food, and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” This is sometimes compared and contrasted with the beginning of the account in Matthew 27:34, but these passages are talking about two different drinks. In Matthew the beverage is a drink with a narcotic in it, meant to dull the pain but at the same time prolong the agony of crucifixion, and when Jesus tastes it, he refuses it. In John 19:28 the drink is a jar of wine vinegar, which was the Gatorade of its day, used by soldiers in the heat to slake their thirst. Although the allusion from Psalms does not sound positive, in this case Jesus readily drinks when it is offered to him on a sponge soaked with it. Finally, in the Fourth Gospel, after Jesus drank this wine vinegar, he said “It is completed [or finished]” (John 19:30), meaning he had completed his life’s work and could now commend his spirit to God.
Last words are always important. There is a whole category called “famous last words,” and no one’s last words in all of human history are more famous than those of Jesus. In the Christian tradition you will often hear the phrase “the seven last words of Christ.” This actually refers to the seven last sentences or phrases Jesus uttered from the cross. Numerous classical music compositions are based on these words, so great an influence have they had over the centuries on the celebration of Holy Week, and especially Good Friday. So what were these famous seven last sentences […]
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