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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
The First Word
And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:33 – 34a ESV)
Oh, in one sense the soldiers surely knew what they were doing. A crucifixion is a crucifixion, after all. And, though the soldiers did not realize that they were crucifying the Lord of glory, arguably they were just following orders, not that a “superior‑orders” defense excused them then any more than such a defense excused prominent Nazis at Nuremberg more recently (Wikipedia). Holy Scripture attributes the ignorance of those involved in the crucifixion to their neither recognizing nor understanding what was read in weekly Sabbath services, and, moreover, preachers such as Saints Peter and Paul essentially say that such ignorance was necessary in order for Jesus to be crucified (Acts 3:17; 13:27; 1 Corinthians 2:8). As Jesus was being crucified, He did what He Himself preached: He prayed for those who persecuted Him (Matthew 5:44). In His first “word” from the cross, Jesus prayed that God the Father would forgive them, for which forgiveness their repentance would need to come first. And, Jesus prays that God the Father would forgive us. When we who sin, whether out of ignorance or otherwise, confess our sinful natures and all of our sin, even those sins of which we might otherwise be ignorant, then we, too, are forgiven, by grace for Jesus’s sake. Like the former persecutor Saul turned St. Paul (1 Timothy 1:13), our lives are transformed, so that, like not only Jesus but also St. Stephen, when he was being martyred (Act 7:60), we pray for those who persecute us.
Collect for the First Word, and Hymn 447:1-3
The Second Word
And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:34b – 43 ESV)
A women’s Bible-study group that I know of recently discussed what happens to a believer’s soul upon death, whether it stayed with the body in the grave until the Last Day, or whether it was with the Lord immediately. Jesus’s second “word” from the cross, a word of very public yet individual absolution to the repentant thief on the cross, is one of the strongest passages in Holy Scripture that points to the believer’s soul’s being with the Lord immediately upon death. Normally, someone who repents and believes would be baptized and communed, but these were not normal circumstances. Yet still, Jesus’s crucifixion for the sins of the whole world, including that penitent thief, including you and me, opened the way again to the paradise from which our first parents were expelled (Genesis 3:22‑24). And, though our fullest appreciation of that paradise does await the Last Day, with its resurrection and glorification of our bodies, already upon death, our loved ones and we ourselves are in paradise, not some less-torturous part of hell, but heaven itself, with its unspeakable joys and ultimately its access to the tree of life (2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7). Although we now may experience indescribable pain, our souls can be at peace. For, in God’s time and way, we will so be with Christ, sharing the good things that He Himself will enjoy, and certainly even now, indescribable pain or not, we desire to so be with Christ, which is far better (Philippians 1:23).
Collect for the Second Word, and Hymn 447:4-6
The Third Word
But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (John 19:25 – 27 ESV)
We do not know just how quickly the Virgin Mary was taken to the home of the disciple whom Jesus loved, usually thought to be the apostle John, the brother of James and the son of Zebedee and Salóme, who perhaps herself was a sister of the Virgin Mary. At least one commentator speculates that John and his mother Salóme took his Aunt Mary from the foot of the cross before his cousin Jesus died and later returned alone to see the end (J. Wenham, Easter Enigma, 60-62). We usually say that no parent should have to experience the death of a child, whether inside or outside its mother’s womb. Surely the Virgin Mary’s seeing her Son, God in flesh of her own flesh, even be put on the cross in order to die was at least a part of the sword that Simeon prophesied would pierce Mary’s own soul (Luke 2:34-35). And, while in the agonizing throes of that crucifixion, Jesus as a faithful Son with His third “word” cares for His mother, as He had cared for the widow of Nain by raising her only son (Luke 7:12-15), as Elijah had done centuries earlier caring for the widow of Zarephath by raising her apparently only son (1 Kings 17:17-23). If not in quite the same way, God still cares for widows and orphans, such as by setting the solitary in families (Psalm 68:6 KJV), making new kinship ties by way of the water of Holy Baptism and the Blood of the Sacrament of the Altar, both equally thick as the bond between brothers and sisters in Christ. Thus do children of Eve, the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20), in a sense become children of Mary, whose womb one time was the “temple” of God, if she herself does not represent our mother the Church. As the family for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to suffer death upon the cross (the Collect of the Day), we reconcile whatever might come between us and live at peace with one another in God’s forgiveness of sins.
Collect for the Third Word, and Hymn 447:7-9
The Fourth Word
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” (Matthew 27:45 – 47 ESV)
Quoting Psalm 22 in Aramaic words that sound similar to “Elijah”, Jesus, perhaps with some degree of super‑human effort (so TLSB, ad loc Mark 15:34, p.1696), cried out in pain and loneliness seemingly resulting from the Christ’s separation from the Father Who had begotten Him, as if Jesus’s human nature overwhelmed His divine nature in such a way that He did not know why He had been forsaken. At Jesus’s speaking of the fourth “word” from the cross, the only “word” recorded by more than one of the Divinely‑inspired Gospel writers, we can ponder the mystery of the Blessed Trinity that for a time permitted both such a separation of Father from Son and the death of God Himself in the person of the man Jesus (compare Psalm 16:27, cited by Acts 2:27). We can so ponder the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, but we cannot satisfyingly probe that mystery too deeply. Perhaps more profitably we consider that Jesus was, as it were, cast into this outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12) and was forsaken by God His Father for us. We deserve to be in that outer darkness, and we would remain there, apart from the Holy Spirit’s illuminating us through God’s Word and Sacraments (Matthew 4:16, citing Isaiah 42:7; Luke 1:79), and so leading us to turn from our sin and receive God’s forgiveness through faith. So forgiven, as St. Paul was (2 Timothy 4:10, 16) and other Christians have been, we may be forsaken by other people, who themselves may forsake the communion of the Church (Hebrews 10:25), but, even though persecuted, like St. Paul was and other Christians were (2 Corinthians 4:9), as we are in Christ, we will not be left or forsaken by God (Joshua 1:5, cited by Hebrews 13:5).
Collect for the Fourth Word, and Hymn 447:10-12
The Fifth Word
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” (John 19:28 ESV)
There is an old saying, one that I too often fail to observe, “Be sure brain is in gear before engaging mouth”. (As to the saying’s origin, I could not even find speculation on the internet!) In the case of the fifth “word” from the cross, we can be sure that our Lord Jesus Christ’s brain’s being in gear led to His engaging His mouth. Jesus knew that all things were already essentially finished, though there was at least one Scripture yet to be fulfilled (Psalm 69:21), and so He said “I thirst”. In the context of St. John’s Gospel account, the statement functionally served not only to fulfill that Scripture but also to bring about Jesus’s receiving sour wine, a cheap beverage used by the Roman legionnaires. The sour wine hardly quenched Jesus’s crucifixion‑induced dehydration, but the sour wine seems to have made possible Jesus’s next “word” from the cross about all things’ being finished. At least in this lifetime, we lack the kind of knowledge that Jesus had, though we “know” that on our own we certainly fall far short of fulfilling the Scripture about us. Yet, if our brains are put in gear by the Holy Spirit, we are able not only to express but also to quench our thirst and hunger for righteousness (Matthew 5:6). The righteousness of God is available to us because of both the perfect life that Jesus lived for us and the death that Jesus died for us, in our place. Jesus Christ’s righteousness is most-concretely offered to us and we receive it in the Sacrament of the Altar. There, under the forms of bread and wine, Jesus’s flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink, and, as He Himself tells us, whoever feeds on His flesh and drinks His blood abides in Him and He in them, and, because of Him, they live forever (John 6:55-58). The Holy Spirit will seldom discourage us from receiving the Sacrament, for God’s Word suggests we receive it as often as we can (1 Corinthians 11:25).
Collect for the Fifth Word, and Hymn 447:13-15
The Sixth Word
A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” … (John 19:29 – 30a ESV)
The sixth “word” from the cross is a single word in the Greek of St. John’s Gospel account: τετέλεσται, it has been finished, our debt has been paid in full, by Jesus. If we think that we can pay our debt ourselves by the few works that we do that we think are good, we are fooling ourselves with our own overconfidence, overconfidence that can keep us from ever repenting of our sin. If we realize that we cannot pay our debt ourselves but nevertheless try and try and try, we also are fooling ourselves, and we are on a path that, when the truth finally hits home, can easily leave us in despair. Jesus alone can do all that is needed to redeem us from our sin and restore our right relationships with God, and, that work has been finished, by Jesus. Yet, just because Jesus has finished the work of redeeming us does not mean that we do nothing. The repentance God brings about in us should include at least a desire to change our sinful ways, even though in this lifetime that change will never be completely successful. The new life that God begins in us begins to keep His Commandments according to our vocations as children, siblings, spouses, parents, employers or employees, and whatever other vocations we might have. We at least try to do those good works as surely as an effect follows a cause. God’s redeeming us and declaring us holy leads to our being made holy to some extent in this lifetime. When, even with God’s help through His Word and Sacraments, we fail to achieve that holiness, as we will fail to achieve it, we live in the forgiveness of sins that, as part of God’s great love, Jesus won for us on the cross, and we find comfort, peace, and joy in that forgiveness of sins. For, as the Divinely‑inspired author of Hebrews put it, by his single offering Christ has perfected (or “finished”) for all time those who are still being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14)
Collect for the Sixth Word, and Hymn 447:16-18
The Seventh Word
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. (Luke 23:46 ESV)
Quoting yet another Psalm verse (Psalm 31:5), Jesus remained in control of His life and death until the very end. As He had said in describing Himself as the Good Shepherd, no one took His life from Him, but He laid it down of His own accord, in keeping with the charge and the authority that He received from His Father, and, after a Sabbath rest in the tomb, He would take His life back up again, too (John 10:18). Although arguably everything Jesus did He did not first and foremost as an example for us but to benefit us, in the case of His committing Himself to His Father He nevertheless still is a good example for us. And, again St. Stephen, when he was being martyred, is an example of someone who followed our Lord in this regard, calling out for Jesus to receive his spirit as they were stoning him (Acts 7:60). Yet, not everyone has the kind of opportunities Jesus and Stephen had, to commit their spirits to God right before their deaths, and not even Stephen was in control of the time and manner of his death as Jesus was in control of the time and manner of His death. So, not surprisingly, St. Peter writes that all those who suffer according to God’s will should entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good (1 Peter 4:19). And, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism’s Morning and Evening Prayers have us commend ourselves, that is, our bodies and souls, as well as all other things, into our Heavenly Father’s hands. His Holy Angel, perhaps the Son Himself, is with us, so that the evil foe may have no power over us. The Lord is our faithful God Who has redeemed us (Psalm 31:5), and, short of our prying ourselves out of His hands, no one can snatch us from them (John 10:28-29). On account of Jesus’s sacrificing Himself for us, when we breathe our last, we are free from every threat, and we are with the Lord for eternity.
Collect for the Seventh Word, and Hymn 447:19-21
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +