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The Seven Last Words
It’s important to note that while the “Seven Last Words” vary from Gospel to Gospel, these phrases represent not only Jesus’s final thoughts on the cross—at least as recorded in the Gospels—but also what the original communities considered to be the most important sayings. So the Seven Last Words are important for understanding not only Jesus, but also the early church.
The person to whom we pray, the man we hope to follow, the one who is risen from the dead, understands us—because He lived a human life, and one that, particularly in His final week, was filled with suffering.
The Letter to the Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”
Jesus, we need to remember, was a fully human person; as such, He had a fully human sense of humor and even of fun. The Man of Sorrows was, more often, the Man of Joys.
We have a compassionate God, a sympathetic God, an empathetic God—a God who understands our lives because He experienced our lives.
Jesus Understands the Challenge of Forgiveness
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34
Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, often says about inmates on death row:
Anyone who is the victim of a crime or the relative or friend of a victim—particularly of a violent crime—should be forgiven for being angry. It’s human. But the reason we respond so powerfully to those other situations, where radical forgiveness is offered, is that they’re divine.
The only thing to do is forgive because it’s the only thing that can free both parties. It frees one person from the prison of resentment and from seeing the other as less than human. And it frees the other person in some way. We may not know how it will free the other person, and it may be in a way that we will never see, but it will.
Now consider that line, “They do not know what they are doing.” That’s a helpful insight. In the case of Jesus on the cross, most scholars believe that that phrase probably means, “They don’t know that they are doing this to God’s Son.”
Indeed, people who sin sometimes don’t seem to be thinking clearly. This insight may help you on your road to forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a gift you give the other person and yourself. Jesus knows this. And he not only tells us this several times in the Gospels, but he shows us this. He is teaching us even from the cross.
Jesus Understands Doubts About the Afterlife
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43
Believing in the afterlife is a significant problem for many people, even for some devout believers. And without a belief in the afterlife, fear of the unknown often takes over. None of us are completely free of doubt in the spiritual life.
So the first thing that should convince us of the promise of the afterlife is this: Jesus tells us. And, needless to say, Jesus is not a liar. This utterance from the cross, incidentally, is the only time that Jesus uses the word “paradise” in all of the Gospels.
On Easter Sunday, Jesus doesn’t simply tell us about eternal life; He shows us. Modern writers often say, “Show. Don’t tell.” That is, tell the story simply rather than over-explaining. St. Ignatius Loyola often said, “Love shows itself more readily in deeds than in words.” Or as we would say today, “Actions speak louder than words.” On Easter Sunday, at the Resurrection, Jesus shows us the future God has in store for us.
Encountering Jesus means encountering the reign of God. And after his Resurrection, encountering Jesus means encountering the fullness of what God has in store for us: eternal life.
Jesus Understands Feelings of Abandonment
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46
“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” What are we to make of these extraordinary words?
There are two main ways of understanding these mysterious words of Jesus. One, Jesus’s words are not an expression of abandonment but, paradoxically, an expression of hope in God. Although Psalm 22 begins “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and expresses the frustration of someone who feels abandoned by God, the second part of the psalm is a hymn of thanksgiving to God, who has heard the psalmist’s prayer: For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him. This is a frequent explanation of Jesus’s terrible cry from the cross. In short, Jesus was using that line from Psalm 22 to express his confidence in God.
Two, there is another possibility: Jesus really did feel abandoned. It is not unreasonable to imagine Jesus, in this grave hour, feeling as if the Father were absent. And remember, if He’s crying out to God, He’s still in relationship with God. Here we need to distinguish between a person’s believing that God is absent and feeling it. The latter is common in the spiritual life. You may have had this experience yourself: believing in God, but not feeling that God is close. The Gospel of Mark says that by this point all but one of the apostles have fled, whether out of terror, confusion, or shame. So Jesus almost certainly feels abandoned and experiences, perhaps not for the first time in his life, human loneliness. He is now nailed to the wood and suffering excruciating pain. So he could be forgiven for feeling abandoned.
The shift from the familiar Abba in the garden to the more formal Eloi on the cross is heartbreaking. Jesus’s feeling of distance, then, reveals itself not only in the scream and not only in the line of the psalm that he utters, but also in the word Eloi. Jesus does not despair. He is still in relationship with Abba—calling on him from the cross. In the midst of horrific physical pain, abandoned by all but a few of his friends, and facing his imminent death, when it would be almost impossible for anyone to think lucidly, He might have felt abandoned.
Therefore, Jesus understands not only our bodily suffering, but also our spiritual suffering in these feelings of abandonment. So when you struggle in the spiritual life, when you wonder where God is, when you pray in doubt and darkness, and even when you are close to despair, you are praying to someone who is fully human and fully divine, to someone who understands you fully.
Jesus Understands a Parent’s Love
“Woman, here is your son. . . . Here is your mother.” JOHN 19:26–27
Some people relate more to Jesus of Nazareth, others to Our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s both natural and okay—as long as we remember they’re the same person, that Jesus is always both fully human and fully divine.
What is Jesus doing in his last moments? He’s caring for Mary. Even helpless on the cross He is caring for her. Jesus understood both the love of a parent and love for a parent.
We don’t have to be strong to help other people. We don’t have to have money. We don’t have to have professional training. We don’t have to have academic degrees. We don’t even have to be healthy. We only have to love and want to help. In our helplessness we can always help. At the beginning of His life, Mary helped the helpless infant Jesus. At the end of His life, the helpless Jesus helped Mary.
Jesus Understands Self-Offering
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Luke 23:46
All along, there was one thing Jesus knew for sure: His governing desire was to do His Father’s will. At every step of the way, even if He may not have fully understood His vocation, Jesus is trying to carry out the Father’s will. And in the garden of Gethsemane He reaches the ultimate decision point. Gethsemane is one of the clearest windows into His humanity, for Jesus doesn’t immediately say, “Oh, yes, God, whatever you want.”
It is the greatest sacrifice the world has ever seen: body and soul He gives himself. Jesus gives Himself entirely. This is what we’re all called to do: give ourselves totally to God. What does it mean to give ourselves entirely to God?
First, it means holding nothing back from God. Second, giving ourselves entirely to God means surrendering to the future God has in store for us. We may not know what it is. We may not understand it. We may even fear it. But we are called to surrender ourselves to that future. As Jesus did.
The more we give of ourselves, the more we know who we are. The more we give of ourselves, the fuller lives we will lead. And so, into your hands, O God, we commend our spirits.
Jesus Understands Physical Pain
“I am thirsty.” John 19:28
Quite a few people have a difficult time accepting Jesus’s humanity, but Jesus was both fully human and fully divine.
Jesus had a body like ours. That means he ate like us, drank like us, and slept like us.
Crucifixion was one of the most agonizing ways to die. The Romans devised it precisely because it was. A person was nailed to the cross, usually through the wrists, and then set on a sort of small wooden seat fixed midway on the upright beam. Alternately, a small footrest was placed under the feet. That wasn’t for comfort. Rather, it was to prolong the agony. Victims of crucifixion died from either loss of blood or, more likely, asphyxiation, as the weight of the body compressed their rib cage and lungs. With this painful ability to support themselves, asphyxiation took longer. In the blazing hot sun of Judea, Jesus would have thirsted.
Jesus understands what you are going through physically.
The Risen Christ carries within Himself the experiences of His humanity, and that includes suffering. Remember that in one of his first appearances after the Resurrection He showed the disciples His wounds.
When we pray to God, we’re praying to someone who understands us because He went through what you are going through.
Jesus Understands Disappointment
“It is finished.” John 19:30
It would have been almost impossible for any human being (as Jesus was) whose body was involuntarily trying to avoid physical pain not to experience some form of panic. Recall that victims died from either loss of blood or asphyxiation. There was little need to explain this to the first readers of the Gospels. The Gospel of Mark simply says, “And they crucified him.”
Pontius Pilate’s inscription—“Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”—which Mark’s Gospel calls the “accusation” or “charge,” was affixed to the wooden cross as a warning to insurrectionists or anyone with messianic designs. It was a public spectacle calculated not only to warn but also to magnify the shame for the victim, who suffered an agonizing death. All were invited to watch and comment. The Gospel of Mark describes passersby openly scorning him.
We cannot underestimate the combined physical, emotional, and spiritual pain that Jesus experienced. But there is another suffering that we may overlook: the suffering of wondering whether His “work” would continue after His death.
Did Jesus, for example, know what was going to happen after the Crucifixion?
“It is completed.” In other words, “I have done the task that the Father has asked me to do.” Indeed, in the overall theology of the Gospel of John, Jesus’s total self-offering on the cross is the paradigm par excellence of God’s love.
Many of us who read those words may also hear in them a kind of resignation that echoes our own experiences, as in, “I have done all that I can do. I cannot do any more.” While we are entering into speculative territory, it’s worth considering the possibility that Jesus may have felt a sense of concern or even disappointment about what would happen after His death.
Now think of Jesus on the cross, knowing not only that He had done all He could for the Father, but perhaps wondering what would happen to His circle of followers after His death and whether His “project” would continue. Jesus may have wondered if His disciples would continue after His death. Accepting the possibility that His “project” might not endure must have been difficult.
Jesus knew that the twelve apostles sometimes responded not with faith but with doubt, not with humility but with pride. In fact, immediately after He predicts His own suffering, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, start to argue about who was going to be first in the reign of God. Jesus knew that they often responded not with courage but fear; after all, He had just watched them scatter in the garden.
All of us have seen things come to a sad end, seen a project fail. You poured your heart and soul into something you planned for, saved for, hoped for. You had such high hopes and now, apparently, it has come to naught. It’s a terrible feeling.
It’s reasonable to think that as Jesus hung on the cross—abandoned, bereft, and in pain—He may have wondered what was going to happen to his disciples after his death. Would they continue to strive to live as He did? Would they put into practice His words?
Conclusion: The Understanding Christ
Jesus’s preaching was meant to bring joy to those who followed Him. His words were, after all, good news. “Rejoice and be glad,” He says at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. Indeed, of His purpose He says, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”
On Good Friday, Jesus clearly felt abandoned by His friends and by the Father, experienced physical pain, and suffered disappointment.
How does Jesus’s suffering change us? Help us? What does it mean to have an understanding Christ?
- It helps us to feel less alone. Overall, the struggles you face about almost any part of your life are so private, so personal, and so unique, that even when you do explain them, you may feel that you’ve given someone the wrong impression. But there is one person who understands you fully: the Risen Christ.
- Knowing that Jesus understands you may help you speak to Jesus more openly in prayer.
- Knowing about Jesus’s suffering helps you to understand Jesus himself.
The Seven Last Words offer us a privileged access into Jesus’s life and therefore an entrée into who He is. They help to reveal Him to us more fully. Jesus, then, becomes someone whom we can understand better, as we would want to understand any friend. And He becomes someone with whom we can enter more deeply into relationship—which is what Jesus thirsts for.
