Meditations for Good Friday on the last words of Jesus on the cross
These readings and
meditations form a part of a Good Friday Service.
You may find this helpful in your own personal meditation on the cross.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
O holy God,
We dare to call today ‘good’.
What is good about Good Friday?
What is good about an innocent man nailed to a cross?
What is good about the darkness of war that persists today?
What is good about our devastation of the planet?
about people living in poverty and hunger,
about the fog of addiction, depression, disease and despair?
No, there is nothing good and desirable in these things.
Yet you, O God, are good.
When suffering reigns, yours is the first heart to break.
When despair lurks about, we remember that you were there first,
peering into the abyss and crying out, incredibly:
“Father, forgive them.”
When we feel forsaken, we remember that in your last moments,
you cared for your mother and your beloved disciple,
binding them to one another as a new family.
When we feel overcome by guilt, we remember that you spoke grace to a thief:
“Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Your love for us is boundless,
and ever-present,
and good.
Thank you.
What else can we say but thank you?
Father, as we now hear the words of love that
Jesus spoke seven times from the cross,
help us to understand
the mystery of your love,
and make us into a people who are ever more worthy of it.
Amen.
THE FIRST WORD
Luke 23:32-34
Two men, both criminals, were also led
out to be put to death with Jesus. When they came to the place called "The
Skull,"
they crucified Jesus there,
and the two criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.
Jesus said, "Forgive them, Father! They don't know what they are doing."
Meditation on the First Word
"They don’t know what they are doing"
They killed Jesus and they don’t know what they are doing!
Who are "they"?
It is so easy to blame others -
the crowd, Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas;
they all played their part and conspired against Jesus
or simply followed orders to maintain the peace
to keep Jesus' kingdom from infringing on theirs.
And yet were they the only ones responsible for the death of this innocent man?
Were they the only ones whose wickedness and sin nailed Jesus to the cross?
No, we are responsible for our Lord’s death.
Paul says, ”All
have turned away from God;
they have all gone wrong;
no one does what is right, not even one” (Rom 3:12).
Surely he should have raged at the sinners who nailed him to the cross.
Surely he should have raged at us for the evil we do,
the evil we do both knowing and unknowing.
Yet compassion is there in the first words that he utters.
He intercedes for us before the Father.
Full of compassion for every sinner who has lived in this world
and in his agony he prays for us,
"Forgive them, Father!”
Compassion
compels him to the cross.
Compassion brings incredible, unbelievable grace
to all who
participate in the killing of Christ:
Compassion cries out from the cross:
"Forgive them, Father! They don't know
what they are doing."
Lord Jesus Christ, wounded and crushed;
You gave your life that we might live.
Lord Jesus Christ who on the cross
Tune: Evan LH 68
cried out in agony,
“Forgive them, Father, all their sin,
they know not what they do”.
THE SECOND WORD
Luke 23:39-43
One of the criminals hanging there
beside him hurled insults: "So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving
yourself and us to!"
The other one, protested, "Don't you fear God, even when you are dying? We
deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”
And then he said, "Remember me, Jesus, when you come into your Kingdom!"
Jesus said to him, "I promise you that today you will be in
Meditation on The Second Word
How much are we like the first thief?
Full of anger and disappointment - because sin has such a grip on our lives and
causes all kinds of havoc wherever it can and there is nothing we can do to
escape it.
We want God to snap his fingers
and make right what we have made wrong.
How easy it is to cry "save us"
and to complain bitterly about God.
We want God to make things right in our lives and take away the pain that our
sin brings into our lives
and give us peace and wholeness.
Often we are far too reluctant to face up to the fact that our lives are
hopelessly enmeshed in sin?
And yet there is hope.
There is a cure for sin,
a cure that involves pain and suffering and dying.
God does not click his fingers and provide an easy solution to our sinfulness
but sends his Son to die in our place
and through his death he gives us life;
a new life that changes us now because of the overwhelming love that was shown
on the cross;
a new life that goes beyond this moment into eternity.
To the compassionate thief,
to the one who recognized his own sin,
to the one who turned to the man on the cross next to him and asked to be
remembered,
to him comfort and forgiveness was given.
"I promise you that today you will be in
Lord Jesus Christ, wounded and crushed;
You gave your life that we might live.
Lord Jesus Christ who on the cross
Tune: Evan LH 68
cried out in agony,
“Today you’ll be in Paradise
with me forever more”.
THE THIRD WORD
John 19:25-27
Standing close to Jesus' cross were his
mother,
his mother's sister,
Mary the wife of Clopas,
and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus saw his mother
standing there beside the disciple he loved,
he said to her, “Woman he is your son.”
And he said to this disciple, “She is your mother."
From that time the disciple took her to live in his home.
Meditation on the Third Word
Who can grasp the grief,
the grief of Mary watching her son’s terrible suffering,
the grief of Mary watching him die?
And who can grasp the grief of the son -
The son who must watch the pain on his mother’s face?
What gift can a man give his mother?
What can he offer when he is gone?
How can he help her?
Hold her?
Comfort her?
Honour her?
To Mary Jesus says, "Woman, here is your son"
Here is one whom I love.
He will love you and you will love him as a son.
Here is one who can hold you, comfort you, and honour you;
one who shares your grief
To the disciple Jesus says, "Here is your mother"
Here is one I love, for you to love, and to love you.
She is the one who taught me,
the one who fed me,
the one who wiped away my tears
the one who hugged me,
the one who grieves with you.
To us Jesus says, “Look, here is your mother … your son … your father … your
brother … your sister … your daughter … they need your love”.
Lord Jesus Christ, wounded and crushed;
You gave your life that we might live.
Lord Jesus Christ who on the cross
Tune: Evan LH 68
cried out in agony,
“This is your son who’ll care for you,
This is your mother dear.”
THE FOURTH WORD
Mark 15:33-34
At noon the whole country was covered
with darkness, which lasted for three hours.
At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout,
["Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means],
"My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Meditation on the Fourth Word
Of all the agony of that tortuous day
the ripping of flesh by the whips
the chafing of the thorns around his head
the convulsions of his tormented, dehydrated body
as it hung in the heat all the day
nothing reaches the depth of this anguished cry of desolation
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Jesus, who found his purpose and strength in the presence of God,
who was sustained by the closeness of his relationship with God
found himself totally alone on the cross.
Jesus, whose very being was God,
found himself utterly,
absolutely,
despairingly,
cut off from the rest of humanity
cut off from God
cut off from all hope and purpose
as he carried the weight of the world’s rebellion and sin.
He experienced the despair of the human condition
and the utter absence of God.
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
In these words is the central mystery of the crucifixion
which cannot be fully comprehended.
There is no despair so deep
or evil so overwhelming
or place so far removed from joy, light, and love
that God has not been there before us.
There is no place where God cannot meet us and bring us home.
Lord Jesus Christ, wounded and crushed;
You gave your life that we might live.
Lord Jesus Christ who on the cross
Tune: Evan LH 68
cried out in agony,
“God, why have you deserted me
in this my hour of need”.
THE FIFTH WORD
John 19:28
Jesus knew that by now everything had
been completed;
and in order to make the scripture come true,
he said, "I am thirsty."
Meditation on the Fifth Word
There is a kind of timelessness about hanging on a cross.
It is not a quiet death, over in an instant in one glorious moment of martyrdom.
A cross is as much an instrument of torture as it is a way to kill someone.
As the day wears on
seconds stretch into minutes, minutes stretch into hours
A body in so much agony and gradually becoming weaker
demands that substance which is so vital to life - water.
Water to moisten a parched mouth -
water to free a swollen tongue -
water to open a rasping throat that cannot gasp enough air -
water to keep hope alive.
God promises his people
streams in the desert,
mighty rivers in the dry land,
and living water to wash away every tear.
Here, at the end of it,
all those promises seem far away - distant.
And yet Jesus - forsaken by God
his throat parched,
his body crying out for moisture
reminds us that he is one of us as he says, “I thirst”.
We have a far greater thirst that needs to be quenched
a thirst for forgiveness, for closeness to our heavenly Father
and for eternal life.
Lord Jesus Christ, wounded and crushed;
You gave your life that we might live.
Lord Jesus Christ who on the cross
Tune: Evan LH 68
cried out in agony,
according to the prophet’s words,
“I’m thirsty, give me drink.”
THE SIXTH WORD
John 19:29-30
A jar of cheap wine was sitting there,
so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch,
and held it up to his lips.
When Jesus had tasted it, he said, "It is finished!"
Then he bowed his head and gave up his
spirit.
Meditation on the Sixth Word
What a sigh of relief!
After seemingly endless pain and gasping torment,
it is over at last.
The suffering is ended.
The ordeal is finished and nothing remains
but the blessed peace of the absence of all pain
even though its ceasing comes only with death.
But Jesus' cry is more than just welcoming the ending of pain
it is more than joy at the deliverance death brings.
He doesn’t merely say, "It is over" or “I can’t go on anymore”.
He says, "His work of salvation has been accomplished, fulfilled, achieved"
Jesus' cry isn't a cry of defeat and despair.
It is a cry of success and triumph - even at the moment of death.
He has endured to the end.
The battle has been won.
Satan, sin and death have been defeated.
Jesus' cry is a cry of relief to be sure
but it is also a cry of victory:
"The work I came to do is complete"
there is nothing more to add,
"It is finished".
Lord Jesus Christ, wounded and crushed;
You gave your life that we might live.
Lord Jesus Christ who on the cross
Tune: Evan LH 68
cried out in agony,
“It is finished, my work is done
to save humanity.
THE SEVENTH WORD
Luke 23:46
Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Father! In your hands I place my spirit!"
He said this and died.
Meditation on the Seventh Word
It is the end, the very end,
the end of the ordeal,
the end of the suffering,
and Jesus alone on the cross
tortured, exhausted, abandoned by his friends, forsaken by God,
gasps for a last breath and gathers the strength for one final cry.
Why would he choose to speak so close to the end?
Why would he muster his last bit of energy to cry out with a loud voice?
Couldn't God have heard his thoughts?
But God wasn't the only one intended to hear his last words.
He raised his voice
so that we too might hear this final commitment of his life to his Father’s
will.
In spite of the pain, the mocking, the agony, the sense of horrible aloneness he
felt,
Jesus was totally committed to accepting death for us.
He was so committed to the Father’s will that he willingly accepted suffering
and death confident in his Father’s care for him.
Jesus could have called upon thousands of angels to protect him,
but he trusted his father in heaven even if it meant giving up his life for
unworthy sinners.
Even as he hangs between life and death
and everything good seems so very far away
he proclaims his trust in his Father.
With no help but the Father in heaven,
no strength except that given to him from above,
no comfort except the love of the Father,
with complete trust he gives up his life.
"Father! In your hands I place my
spirit!"
Lord Jesus Christ, wounded and crushed;
You gave your life that we might live.
Lord Jesus Christ who on the cross
Tune: Evan LH 68
cried out in agony,
”Father! Into your hands I place
my spirit”, and he died.
© Pastor Vince Gerhardy
