Posted:11/16/07
Explore the Bible Series for November 25
On mission
• Matthew 27:35-37, 45-50; 28:5-10, 18-20
Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene
Do you have a favorite movie? If you’re like me, it’s hard to come up with just one. But if pressed on the matter, I would have to say that one of my all-time favorites is Citizen Kane.
Released in 1941, this film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won the award for best screenplay. The person who played the leading role also wrote, produced and directed the film—the 25-year-old cinematic prodigy Orson Welles.
The movie begins with the death of an elderly Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles. Kane, a newspaper tycoon and the wealthiest man on earth, has just died in his extravagant mansion called Xanadu. According to one of his attendants, the old man’s last dying word was “Rosebud.” I’m not going to tell you what Rosebud means, but I will tell you that the reporter assigned to this project spends the whole movie trying to discover that meaning. I encourage you, if you’ve never seen the movie, to see it. It has a profound and unexpected ending.
Are a person’s last words—a person’s dying words—the most important words that person says? Probably not. But very significant, nonetheless, especially to those left behind to remember the deceased.
In this lesson, we will take a look at Jesus’ dying words as recorded in Matthew, and incidentally, also in Mark’s account. In these two Gospels, Jesus utters only one sentence from the cross: “‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’—which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).
Do you remember these lines?
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
“Dear woman, here is your son … (and to his disciple) here is your mother” (John 19:26-27).
“I am thirsty” John (19:28).
“It is finished” John (19:30).
With all these memorable lines for Jesus to utter, why do Matthew and Mark have only “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In Luke and John, Jesus says much more while he is on the cross, but in Matthew and Mark, Jesus utters only one sentence—just one. So it must be important and significant, especially for those who remain after him, for those who remember him.
What would it feel like to spend your whole life dedicated to one thing and only one thing, to be ultimately at the end, enduring a humiliating death, mocked by those who hate you and misunderstood by those who loved you?
Have you ever been misunderstood? Perhaps these last dying words as recorded in Matthew and Mark were directed to the Jews around him—those closest to him (his disciples and followers) as well as those against him (the chief priests, officials, and scribes). Surely there was much more to say to them than just one sentence. Much more than even, perhaps, Luke and John have recorded. Maybe these words did say much more than what they meant on the surface. Perhaps they could have been an entire sermon. We know of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount; could “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” be called the Sermon on the Cross?
Finish these lines:
Take me out to the …
Oh, Beautiful, for …
I pledge allegiance to the flag …
Get your motor runnin’ …
ABC, it’s easy as …
Oh, Lord, it’s hard to be …
Holy, holy, holy, …
In the beginning …
Jesus loves me this I know …
The Lord is my shepherd …
Just as many of you would be able to finish most—if not all—these lines, Jesus’ last words would have called a famous Hebrew hymn to the mind of almost every Jewish person witnessing his crucifixion.
Many Christians have memorized Psalm 23, “The Lord Is My Shepherd.” Look at Psalm 22, however. What are the first lines there? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew and Mark are calling one of the psalms to mind by having Jesus say just one sentence on the cross, the opening sentence to Psalm 22. Notice the striking parallels between the psalmist’s problems and Jesus’.
“My God, my God why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest” (Psalm 22:1-2).
“I am scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. ‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say, ‘let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him” (Psalm 22:6-8).
“Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. … I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. … My mouth is like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. … Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me.” (Psalm 22:11-17).
“They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment” (Psalm 22:18).
Yet the psalmist, and Jesus for that matter, does not lose hope in God. Even though the one afflicted feels God has forsaken him, he continues to make his appeal to the Lord.
“But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me. … I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly of the Lord I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help” (Psalm 22:19-24).
If one reads Psalm 22 in conjunction with Matthew’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion and the subsequent Great Commission, one could suggest that Matthew’s ending fulfills the last sentences of Psalm 22 (vv. 30-31): “Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!”
As in Citizen Kane, the last words are very significant in understanding something about the person who uttered them. Jesus quoted verbatim from Psalm 22. His audience would have been very familiar with that psalm and most likely would have made some connections with it.
We can make this psalm our own as well; in reading it, studying it and memorizing it, we remember with the Roman centurion that he is the Son of God—the resurrected Lord! It is this good news, then, that God delivered his Son through death—along with the fact that God does not forsake those who are suffering—that gives reason for all to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
Discussion questions
• From this saying on the cross what can we learn from Jesus when we suffer or feel forsaken?
• Do you have favorite verses that you recall in times of difficulty?
• Why do you think that Matthew included just one saying from Jesus on the cross?
• Do you remember the dying words of a loved one that are particularly meaningful for you?
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