Today is Good Friday on the church calendar, the day on which we specifically remember the crucifixion of Jesus. Scripture reports that while Jesus was hanging on Calvary’s cross, He spoke seven times. While each of the seven expressions can serve as the text of a complete sermon, I will include all seven in one morning devotion.
The First Word: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do,” Luke 23:32. Jesus is our loving, forgiving Savior. He prayed for His enemies. The prophet Isaiah foretold that He would do so, seven hundred years before He did. Isaiah wrote, “He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors,” Isaiah 53:12. He was also praying for you and me. He was suffering and dying for our sins.
The Second Word: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise,” Luke 23:43. This was spoken to one of the criminals who was crucified with Jesus. At first, he joined the mocking multitude at Calvary. But in the course of time, the Holy Spirit led him to believe in Jesus as his Savior. He pleaded with Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom,” Luke 23:42. Jesus assured him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise!” Luke 23:43.
The Third Word: “When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home,” John 19:26-27. While Jesus did not pray to or worship His mother, He loved her, and commended her into the care of a disciple, whom we assume was the apostle John.
The Fourth Word: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46. This cry from the cross was foretold by the psalmist a thousand years earlier. The psalmist wrote, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Psalm 22:1. This cry from the cross is beyond our comprehension! The Son of God was forsaken by God the Father! Jesus was enduring the pangs of hell to redeem us.
The Fifth Word: “I thirst!” John 19:28. The intense physical suffering is expressed in this fifth word. He was nailed to Calvary’s cross at about 9 o’clock in the morning, and He hung on the cross beyond 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The physical pain that He endured to redeem us from sin, death and hell is beyond our comprehension!
The Sixth Word: “It is finished!” John 19:30. Jesus had come into the world to redeem all people who had ever lived, who are living now, and who will live in the future. He bore the sins of all in His own body on the cross. He paid the price for the redemption of all. The apostle Peter wrote, “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold . . . But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot,” 1 Peter 1:18-19.
The Seventh Word: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” Luke 23:46. Having endured everything that was required by God for the redemption and salvation of all people, the Lord Jesus placed His soul into the hands of His heavenly Father. With faith in Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior, we can also commend our souls into the hands of God. We can say with the psalmist, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me,” Psalm 23:4.
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day; Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see. O Thou, who changest not, abide with me!
Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes, Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee; In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!