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The Seven Sayings of Jesus on the Cross Alfred Edersheim 1825-1889. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
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The Seven Sayings of Jesus on the Cross Alfred Edersheim 1825-1889
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” In the moment of the deepest abasement of Christ's Human Nature, the Divine bursts forth most brightly. During the contest between the Kingdom of God and that of darkness, between the Christ and Satan, Jesus remembers Divine mercy, and prays for them who crucify Him; and thus does the Conquered truly conquer. The first and the last of His utterances begin with 'Father.' Not only martyrs have learned from Him to pray as He did, but everyone can rise to faith and fellowship with God as “the Father,” and can feel the unshaken confidence, if not the unbroken joy, of absolute trust.
“Amen, I say unto thee, today with Me shalt thou be in the Paradise.” The thief prayed, “Lord, remember me, when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom.” The penitent had spoken of the future; Christ spoke of “today.” The penitent had prayed about that Messianic Kingdom which was to come; Christ conveyed to him the promise that he would be there in the abode of the Blessed. Christ gave him this deepest, wisest, most gracious spiritual foundation-creed of the soul: the forgiveness of sins and the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.
He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son.” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother.” Once more we reverently mark His divine calm of utter self-forgetfulness and His human thoughtfulness for others. As they stood under the Cross, He committed His mother to the disciple whom He loved. Now at last all that concerned the earthward aspect of His mission was ended. He had made the last provision of love in regard to those nearest to Him. The human aspect of his work was done.
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” These words, cried with a loud voice in the extreme agony of soul, marked the climax and the end of this suffering of Christ, the withdrawal of God, and the felt loneliness of the Sufferer. Not only nature entered three hours' darkness; Jesus also entered into darkness: body, soul, and spirit. Into this fathomless depth of the mystery of His sufferings, we dare not, as indeed we cannot, enter. Yet the sacrificial, vicarious, expiatory, and redemptive character of His Death helps us to understand Christ's sense of God-forsakenness in the supreme moment of the cross. He died as the accursed representative sacrifice for man.
“I thirst.” Knowing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, the Sufferer emerged on the other side. The more terrible aspect of sin-bearing and God-forsakenness was past; the prevalence of the merely human aspect of the suffering seems the beginning of Rest, of the End. He could and did yield Himself to the mere physical wants of His body. By accepting the physical refreshment offered Him, the Lord indicated the completion of the work of His Passion, and immediately passed on to “taste death for every man.”
“It is finished.” The words awaken solemn thoughts.
“Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.” Jesus is back in conscious fellowship with his Father. His last cry, “with a loud voice,” was not like that of one dying. It was not Death which approached Christ, but Christ Death. Christ encountered Death not as conquered, but as The Conqueror. He “bowed the head, and gave up the Spirit,” the beginning of His triumph. These words are a matter for deepest thankfulness to the Church. Henceforth, His people have been able to speak them. They were the last words of a Polycarp, a Bernard, Huss, Luther, and Melanchthon. And to us also they may be the fittest and the softest lullaby. He spoke these words on our behalf, that we might speak them after Him.
