Sunday, March 01, 2009

Seven Last Words from the Cross

We begin our Lenten series of teachings sitting at the foot of the cross. Being this close, we can hear the Last Seven Words of Jesus. This closeness is important, for the dying Jesus does not have the breathe to declare loud or long statements.


He undulates between cruel, painful torture and life-ending suffication. He purchases each next breathe with extreme torment. Yet He wishes to speak meaning into His execution so that we will not be blinded by the pain and shame. What happens here for the next 6 hours far exceeds the wooden beams, the thorny crown, the torn flesh, the slow, agonizing death.


Jesus speaks 7 times. We need the combined witness of all four Gospels to hear him for no one contains them all. Luke and John each give us 3 for a total of 6 while Matthew and Mark share the middle saying that makes up the seven.


In the course of our 2009 Lent/Spring Teaching we, at times, will combine sayings to keep the contextual cohesiveness. Each could be parsed and disected, but their power rests in the fact that our Savior spoke them while dying -- for the sins of the whole world.

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