The Seven Truths Matthew 28:16-20
Our reading says we are supposed to teach others what Jesus taught us. Great; what did Jesus teach us?
People have spent life times studying scripture, picking apart the original Greek to find root words and nuances in the Gospels all in an effort to see what Jesus teaches us. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this but the reality is most of us don’t have the time nor inclination to first study Greek and then try to pick apart an original language Bible. So is there a way to get an understanding of what Jesus is teaching us? I think so and I believe we can do this by looking at the seven things Jesus says while on the cross; what I call the seven truths.
Luke 23:24, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
These are the first words Jesus speaks from the cross and they are a direct example of what Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:39, “…you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” and what he says in Matthew 5:44, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Jesus is scourged and nailed to a cross. He is in indescribable pain. One’s natural reaction would be to hate those putting you through such agony. It would be understandable to spit out curses at your persecutors. Jesus is showing us in the most direct way the extent of what he means in those verses in Matthew’s Gospel. From the cross Jesus love overflows as his prayer is an intersession with God to save his killer’s soul.
The movie “Alone Yet Not Alone” depicts an event from our colonial period. An Indian raid captured several women. They were brought hundreds of miles through wilderness. In the village of their captors one of the women was chosen as an example so the others would not try to escape. She was beaten and as they were about to burn her alive she told her captors, “I forgive you, I pray God forgives you.”
More recently, several years ago when the Taliban was beheading Christians, one of the missionaries told his tormentor that he forgave him and that he would ask God in heaven to save his immortal soul. As I worked on this I saw how it exposes my shortcomings and sin, I can curse at someone who cuts me off in traffic, what would I do in one of these situations?
But more than just a demonstration of what we should do we can see Jesus prayer on the cross as a prayer for all mankind. Jesus is verbalizing the great truth that God forgives us despite all we do. We do things against men and God many times without even realizing it, and God forgives us despite our lack of awareness over our actions.
Luke 23:43, “And he said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”
Scripture never tells us what this man next to Jesus did that was so bad he was being crucified, but despite his great sin Jesus forgives him. What a great and powerful truth is in Jesus response to this man. By his faith he is forgiven and he will enter heaven; and not in some distant future but that very day.
You’ve heard me talk of David Burkowitz; Son of Sam. He murdered several people and is in jail for the rest of his life. He believes in this truth of forgiveness. He gave his life to Christ and will enter heaven. Karla Faye Tucker killed a man with an ice pick while on drugs and she was sentenced to the death penalty in Texas. While in prison she also was led by the Holy Spirit, she saw this truth and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. At her execution she told her executioner that she loved him and she was praising Jesus as they injected her and her life ended.
John 19:26-27, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved…he said to his mother ‘Woman, behold your son.’ And to the disciple he said, ‘Behold your mother.’”
Matthew 12:48-50, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers? And stretching his hands out toward his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and brothers! For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’” The third truth Jesus tells us from the cross is that we are all family. As followers of Christ we are told in Romans 8:16, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
From this exchange with Mary and John, Jesus shows us he is concerned for us. He knows our needs, our cares and our grief’s. From the cross Jesus establishes a new relationship for his followers. As followers of Christ we are intimately related to each other. We are in as close a relationship with other Christians as a mother and child; a brother and sister.
John 19:27 goes on to say, “From that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” As relations we are responsible for each other; responsible to pray for each other, but also responsible in a real, helpful, physical way. We give money to missions but Jesus tells us it is our strength, our comfort, our love, our compassion; these are what we are responsible to give to one another.
Matthew 27:46, “…my God, my God why have you forsaken me?”
Is this a crisis of Jesus faith? No, it’s a declaration of fact. Jesus is forsaken by God so I don’t have to be. As the sin of the world was placed on Jesus, the Holy Father turned away and in so doing put on Jesus the full extent of his wrath and punishment. Jesus was declaring what was happening at that moment on the cross, and because this did happen none of us who accept Christ ever have to worry about God punishing us or turning away from us.
John 19:28, “I thirst.”
There is a temptation here to interpret these simple words in a deeply spiritual manor. Is Jesus referring to Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those that hunger and thirst, for they shall be satisfied.” Could he be referring to what he will say in Revelations 22:17, “…let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” Both of these are possible but I think it’s more visceral than that
Jesus is God; he is paying the punishment for our sins and in the midst of this deeply spiritual event Jesus is expressing that God is not just concerned with our spiritual being, he is intimately aware of and concerned for our physical being.
Jesus is God, he could have endured the cross with little to no discomfort, yet he endured the cross suffering the worst of what we would because he intimately knows us and our frailties’. Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Through his thirst on the cross Jesus tells us he knows all our needs, our desires, our failings and short comings, our temptations and lack of faith.
John 19:30, “It is finished.”
It is finished; the debt owed to God for our sins is totally and forever paid for by Jesus. Colossians 2:14,”By canceling the record of debt that stood against us… (our debt) he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” I Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
Through our faith in the cross God sees us as righteous. All our sins; past, present and future have all been punished on the body of Christ. And as a just and Holy God, he cannot hold us accountable for what was already paid for. All of God’s anger over sin has been exhausted for all time on Jesus; salvation is ours because Jesus work for all eternity truly is finished.
Luke 23:46,“…Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”
This is important because as we know Jesus is fully man and fully God. As God he could have removed himself from the cross. He chose not to, he intentionally chose to give up his hold on life. The humanity of Jesus at this moment demonstrates that each of us has a choice to make. Do we accept Christ and follow God to the end, even if the end is hard? Do we entrust our life; both our daily needs and our eternal salvation solely on God and his provision?
Psalm 31:3, “For you are my rock and my fortress…” Psalm 31:5, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” We are to make the same decision Jesus made on the cross; to give God the Father everything and to place our trust in him completely.
We know the whole Bible is the word of God and you should never stop reading and studying its contents. But to remind ourselves of what Jesus ministry’s messages to us are we should need to look at the seven truths of the cross.
One, we are to love others absolutely, no matter what they do to us.
Two, God forgives us everything; nothing is beyond his ability to redeem.
Three, we are family; we belong to each other and we are responsible for each other.
Four, Jesus took all of God’s punishment for sin, we never have to worry about God’s punishing us.
Five, God understands our physical needs, our temptations and our failings; and despite these Christ died so we can be saved.
Six, Jesus exhausted God’s anger at sin for all eternity.
Seven, salvation is offered to everyone but we must choose to follow God, we must choose to accept Jesus and to give our lives to him.
May the seven truths of the cross bless your lives,
Amen.