Statements From the Cross

[Guest Mores]

It is clear that the Savior said seven things while on the cross.

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• He asks the Father to forgive us.
• Declares a repentant sinner will be with Him in Paradise.
• He charges a disciple to care for those in need.
• He feels the Atonement again.
• I thirst
• It is finished
• He commends His spirit to the Father.

I'm not the first to cover these.  And I've read some commentaries.  But I would tend to group them into five things rather than the seven that people talk about.  

Advocate: He is the advocate with the Father.  He asks the Father to forgive us our sins.

Judge: The Father has commited all judgment to the Son.

Duty:  He commands us all to serve others.

Payment:  He has the right to do and say all this because of the Atonement.

Eternal Life:  The result of the Atonement, His forgiveness, and our obedience to His commandments is Eternal life for Him and all who follow Him.

It is poetic that the few hours at end of his life are a summary of His entire ministry.  And it is a summary of how to fulfill our duty to Him.  We don't use the cross as a religious artifact.  But we can still ponder the import of what happened there.

Edited March 27, 2019 by Mores

[anatess2]

Just a thing of interest regarding the topic:

Las Siete Palabras is a yearly Catholic tradition in the Philippines that occur during Holy Week.  It is an event of reflection on the 7 statements of Jesus by 7 different people, usually prominent Catholic bishops, lay ministers, and even politicians and celebrities.  The event usually lasts for 4 hours!

So, my family, especially my dad (prominent lay person in the church) and my uncles (well-known politicians), usually get called upon almost every year to reflect on one of the 7 statements at certain events.  I wish I have collected these talks to put in the family legacy museum.  It would have been great to read them again.  My most vivid memory is when my uncle gave the talk for Consummatum Est (It is finished) over National Radio.  The line between the completion of Christ's Earthly Mission and the beginning of the work of the After-life left me with this feeling of hope and eternity... ah, it's hard to explain.

It would be awesome to have a Las Siete Palabras event through the lens of the Restore Gospel.  I haven't heard of one that the Latter-day Saints are sponsoring.

 

 

[wenglund]

I am deeply moved when Jesus moaned, "I thirst."

There are many layers of meaning in that simple statement, perhaps even as many as in the briefest passage of scripture, "Jesus wept."

During the final hours of Jesus' mortal life,  so much instructional and symbolic irony was conveyed when the source of living spiritual water declaring a need for physical water, and the world give him vinegar instead. 

It amazes me how so little a statement could say so much. I am surprised it was deleted from your shortened list.

Thanks, -Wade Enlgund-

Edited March 28, 2019 by wenglund

[Guest Scott]

32 minutes ago, wenglund said:

I am deeply moved when Jesus moaned, "I thirst."

There are many layers of meaning in that simple statement, perhaps even as many as in the briefest passage of scripture, "Jesus wept."

During the final hours of Jesus' mortal life,  so much instructional and symbolic irony was conveyed when the source of living spiritual water declaring a need for physical water, and the world give him vinegar instead. 

It amazes me how so little a statement could say so much. 

According to Biblical scholars, the vinegar is meant to be vinegar wine (a common drink for Roman soldiers and which was a sour wine and not really vinegar as we use the word today) mixed with gall which was a bitter drug used to dull pain.  His refusal of the  drink until declaring "it is finished" is important and significant because it shows that he refused any substance to dull pain until he was finished.  

Edited March 28, 2019 by Scott

[wenglund]

7 hours ago, Scott said:

According to Biblical scholars, the vinegar is meant to be vinegar wine (a common drink for Roman soldiers and which was a sour wine and not really vinegar as we use the word today) mixed with gall which was a bitter drug used to dull pain.  His refusal of the  drink until declaring "it is finished" is important and significant because it shows that he refused any substance to dull pain until he was finished.  

Perhaps. But, I don't see much difference between vinegar and sour wine in terms of quenching thirst, even with, or especially given the alleged bitter drug to dull pain.

Besides, James Talmage was of the belief that the cry for thirst came after Jesus knew all things had been accomplished. Talmage describes the situation thus:

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The period of faintness, the conception of utter forsakenness soon passed, and the natural cravings of the body reasserted themselves. The maddening thirst, which constituted one of the worst of the crucifixion agonies, wrung from the Savior’s lips His one recorded utterance expressive of physical suffering. “I thirst” He said. One of those who stood by, whether Roman or Jew, disciple or skeptic, we are not told, hastily saturated a sponge with vinegar, a vessel of which was at hand, and having fastened the sponge to the end of a reed, or stalk of hyssop, pressed it to the Lord’s fevered lips. Some others would have prevented this one act of human response, for they said: “Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.” John affirms that Christ uttered the exclamation, “I thirst,” only when He knew “that all things were now accomplished”; and the apostle saw in the incident a fulfilment of prophecy.^w (see Jesus th Christ, Chapt. 35, the section on The Crusifixion)

Thanks, -Wade Englund-