THE MESSAGE FROM THE CROSS AT CALVARY
CHRIST Jesus died on the Cross to redeem mankind, to save us from our sins because of his love for us. As recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Holy Bible, Jesus Christ was mocked, scorned, and tortured in the praetorium.
He carried his cross up to Calvary, was nailed to the Cross, and hung between two common criminals. He suffered an indescribable end, recalled by the Church on Good Friday of Holy Week.
As prophet Isaiah puts it “but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed,” Is. 53 v 5.
Christians may meditate on the Passion of Christ by reflecting on his Seven Messages on the Cross or by a devotion known as “The Way of the Cross.”
To help Christians deepen their devotion to the cross, the church propose the following during Lent retracing the Passion, Crucifixion, and Death of Jesus. The 14 Stations of the Cross are (1) Pilate condemns Jesus to death; (2) Jesus takes up his Cross; (3) He falls the first time; (4) Jesus meets his sorrowful mother Mary; (5) Simon helps carry the cross; (6) Veronica cleans his face; (7) He falls the second time; (8) Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem; (9) He falls the third time; (10) Jesus is stripped of his garments; (11) Jesus is nailed to the cross; (12) Jesus Christ dies on the cross; (13) Our Lord is taken down from the cross; (14) Christ is laid in the tomb.
Here are his Seven Messages, the last seven expressions of Jesus Christ on the Cross recorded in Scripture. THE FIRST MESSAGE
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Gospel of Luke 23:34 Jesus of Nazareth is looking down from the cross just after he was crucified between two criminals. He sees the soldiers who have mocked, scourged, and tortured him, and who have just nailed him to the cross. He probably remembers those who have sentenced him - Caiaphas and the high priests of the Sanhedrin. But is Jesus not also thinking of his Apostles and companions who have deserted him, to Peter who has denied him three times, that crowd, who only days before praised him on his entrance to Jerusalem, and then days later rejected him.
He was also thinking of us, who daily forget him in our lives? Does he react angrily? No! At the height of his physical suffering, his love prevails and He asks His Father to forgive! But it is by His very Sacrifice on the Cross that mankind is able to be forgiven!
Right up to his death, Jesus preaches forgiveness. He teaches forgiveness in the Lord's prayer: (Matthew 6:12). When asked by Peter, how many times should we forgive someone, Jesus answers seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22).
At the Last Supper, Jesus explains his crucifixion to his Apostles when he tells them to drink of the cup: "Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:27-28).
He forgives the paralytic at Capernaum (Mark 2:5), and the adulteress caught in the act and about to be stoned (John 8:1-11). And even following his Resurrection, his first act is to commission his disciples to forgive: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:22-23).
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” Is 53 v 6 “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as sheep before her shearers, is dumb, so He opened not his mouth” Is. 53 v 7 THE SECOND MESSAGE
"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." Gospel of Luke 23:43
It is not just the religious leaders and soldiers that mock Jesus, but even one of the criminals, but the other criminal on the right speaks up for Jesus, explaining the two criminals are receiving their just due, whereas "this man has done nothing wrong."
Then, turning to Jesus, he asks, "Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). What wonderful faith this repentant sinner has in Jesus - far more than the doubting Thomas, one of his own Apostles. Ignoring his own suffering, Jesus responds with love and mercy in His second message.
The second message again is about forgiveness, this time directed to a sinner. Just as the first message, this Biblical expression is found only in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus shows his Divinity by opening heaven for a repentant sinner - such generosity to a man that only asked to be remembered! This expression offers us hope for salvation, for if we turn our hearts and prayers to Him and accept his forgiveness, we will
also be with Jesus Christ at the end of our lives. THE THIRD MESSAGE
"Jesus said to his mother: "Woman, this is your son."
Then he said to the disciple: "This is your mother." Gospel of John 19:26-2
At the beginning of his ministry in Cana Jesus was with Mary and again now at the end of his mission at the foot of the Cross. The Lord refers to his mother as woman at the Wedding Feast of Cana (John 2:1-11) and in this passage, recalling the woman in Genesis 3:15, the first Messianic prophecy of the Redeemer, and anticipating the woman clothed with the sun in Revelation 12. What sorrow must fill Mary's heart! How she must have felt meeting her Son as he carried the Cross on the Via Dolorosa. "Behold I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5). And then she had to watch him being nailed to the Cross. Once again, a sword pierces Mary's soul: we are reminded of the prophecy of Simeon at the Presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:35).
The loved ones of Jesus are with Him. There are four at the foot of the cross, Mary his Mother, John, the disciple whom he loved, his mother's sister Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. He addresses his third message to his mother Mary and John, the only eyewitness of the Gospel writers.
Jesus again rises above the occasion as he cares for the ones that love him. The good son that He is, Jesus is concerned about looking after his mother. THE FOURTH MESSAGE
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 This was the only expression of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Both Gospels related that it was in the ninth hour, after 3 hours of darkness, that Jesus cried out this fourth word. The ninth hour was three o'clock in Judea. After the fourth message, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last" (Mark 15:37).
One is struck by the anguished tone of this expression in contrast to the first three messages of Jesus. This cry is from the painful heart of the human Jesus who must feel deserted by His Father and the Holy Spirit, not to mention his earthly companions the Apostles.
As if to emphasise his loneliness, Mark even has his loved ones "looking from afar," not close to him as in the Gospel of John. Jesus feels separated from his Father. He is now all alone, and he must face death by himself.
We too are all alone at the time of death! Jesus completely lives the human experience as we do, and by doing so, frees us from the clutches of sin.
His fourth message is the opening line of Psalm 22, and thus his cry from the Cross recalls the cry of Israel, and of all innocent persons who suffer. Psalm 22 of David makes a striking prophecy of the crucifixion of the Messiah at a time when crucifixion was not known to exist: "They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones" (22:16-17). The Psalm continues: "They divide my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots" (22:18).
Jesus who came to save us is crucified, and He realises the horror of what is happening and what He now is enduring. He is about to be engulfed in the raging sea of sin. Evil triumphs, as Jesus admits: "But this is your hour" (Luke 22:53). But it is only for a moment. The burden of all the sins of humanity for a moment overwhelm the humanity of our Saviour.
This was to occur if Jesus was to save us? It is in defeat of his humanity that the Divine plan of His Father will be completed. It is by His death that we are redeemed. "For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for all" (I Timothy 2:56).
"He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,
so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed." I Peter 2:24 THE FIFTH MESSAGE "I thirst." Gospel of John 19:28 The fifth message of Jesus is His only human expression of His physical suffering. Jesus is now in shock. The wounds inflicted upon him in the scourging, the crowning with thorns, losing blood on the three-hour walk through the city of Jerusalem to Golgotha, and the nailing upon the cross are now taking their toll. The Gospel of John first refers to thirst when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. After first asking for "a drink," he answers the woman, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.
The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life" (John 4:13-14). This passage implies there is more than just physical thirst.
Jesus also thirsts in a spiritual sense. He thirsts for love. He thirsts for the love of his Father, who has left him unaided during this dreadful hour when He must fulfill his mission all alone.
And he thirsts for the love and salvation of his people, the human race. Jesus practiced what he preached:
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no man than this, That he lay down his life for his friends."
John 15:12-13 THE SIXTH MESSAGE They put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth.
When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished;"
and he bowed his head and handed over the spirit.
Gospel of John 19:29-30 John recalls the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12 in this passage. Hyssop is a small plant that was used to sprinkle the blood of the Passover Lamb on the doorposts of the Hebrews (Exodus 12:22). John's Gospel related that it was the Day of Preparation, the day before the actual Sabbath Passover (Pesach in Hebrew, Pascha in Greek and Latin), that Jesus was sentenced to death (19:14) and sacrificed on the Cross (19:31). John continues in 19:33-34: "But when they came to Jesus and saw he was already dead, they did not break his legs," recalling the instruction in Exodus 12:46 concerning the Passover Lamb. He died at the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon), about the same time as the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the Temple.
Christ became the Paschal or Passover Lamb, as noted by St. Paul: "For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed" (First Corinthians 5:7). The innocent Lamb was slain for our sins, so that we might be forgiven. The sixth message is Jesus' recognition that his suffering is over and his task is completed. Jesus is obedient to the Father and gives his love for mankind by redeeming us with His death on the Cross.