Introduction to the Seven Last Words
About six hundred years ago, someone had the idea to use what we call “The Last Seven Words of Christ” or “The Last Seven Words from the Cross” as the center of worship on Good Friday. These words are taken from the gospel accounts of the passion of Christ. They’re not single words, but statements. What binds them together is that they are all words spoken by Jesus during a time of prolonged suffering. Jesus is in pain when he speaks.
The service of Seven Last Words is a way to reflect on Jesus’ suffering, and perhaps, the suffering of the world around us. It may lead you to remember a time of your own suffering. No matter what you hear in these words, they are words spoken by the one who did not run from suffering, but accepted it, and tried to find connection to God in it. Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ,
As you hung on the cross, you spoke.
You spoke to God. You spoke to your mother. You spoke to a friend.
You spoke to another man, dying alongside you.
You asked for help.
As we walk this path with you, help us to open our hearts
To the immensity of the love poured out for us.
We pray in your holy name. Amen.
First Word Xavier Rivera
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
~ Luke 23:34
Candle one is extinguished.
Meditation
Beloved Jesus. His first words from the cross are a prayer for forgiveness for those very people who participated in his torture and death. It is hard for us to fathom the size of his heart, the depths of his compassion. In his suffering, he prays for those caught up in an evil system whose actions showed, not strength, but fear. He prays for those who cause him harm, who deliver him pain, because, even as he suffers, he can see their humanity, their frailty, their fear.
And so we can pray: Teach us, loving Lord, your way of compassion. In your words, show us your heart, that we may be bold and show you ours. Let your suffering remind us to look around us, to see and respond to the suffering in our world. We pray in your holy name. Amen.
Silence
Second Word Kathy Sullivan
Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
~ Luke 23:43
Candle two is extinguished.
Meditation
Compassionate Jesus. He is crucified between two men, described as criminals. Roman crucifixion was reserved for the most despised criminals—those found to be traitors to the Roman government, or disobedient slaves. Like Jesus, these two are being crucified because they are seen as threats to the government.
One of them complains to Jesus—if you are the Messiah, why can’t you save yourself, and save us? The other man lambastes the first, saying, have you no fear of God? We deserve our punishment. He’s done nothing wrong. Then, the repentant criminal speaks to Jesus, saying, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus responds: Believe me: Today you will be with me in paradise. Jesus sees in this man someone broken by the same system that is breaking him. I believe he sees it in both men. I believe he believes it of both men. There is no sorrow or pain or brokenness on earth that heaven cannot heal.
And so we can pray, Jesus, Mortal One, you went to the cross with a heart still able to find compassion for the broken ones around you. Help us, in our own brokenness, to find compassion, not only for your other broken children, but for ourselves. We pray in your holy name. Amen.
Silence
Anthem “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” Hal H. Hopson Choir
Third Word Channel Rivera
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”
~ John 19:26
Candle three is extinguished.
Meditation
Jesus the Son has a mother. Of course he does. He has a mother, standing by the cross, his witness from the moment of his birth until this, the final moments before his death. He has a mother whose heart is breaking, and whose tears are breaking his own heart as he watches, unable to reach out to her, to hold her, to comfort her.
One of the disciples is standing with her—the disciple whom Jesus loved. We don’t know who this disciple was, though an ancient tradition tells us it was John, the younger brother of James, one of the sons of Zebedee. A fisherman. In art throughout the centuries we see him depicted as the only one of Jesus’ inner circle without a beard, he is that young.
So Jesus does what seems to him the most natural thing in the world. He commends his mother and his dear friend into one another’s care.
And so we can pray, Jesus the Son, in your heartbreak you did what you could. You gave permission to your dear ones to care for one another, to be found family, chosen family to one another. Help us, loving Son of Mary, to cherish our own chosen families, and to care for one another through every grief and hardship. We pray in your holy name. Amen.
Silence
Fourth Word Mary
And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
~ Matthew 27:46
Candle four is extinguished.
Meditation
Human Jesus is now howling in pain. In his agony he calls out the first line of a psalm, Psalm 22, which we have just prayed together. My God, My God. My God, my God! Why? Why have you led me here, only to hide yourself from me? We must reckon with the fact that Jesus, on the cross, for at least a moment, finds himself utterly desolate. Empty, devoid even of the comfort of the One who has guided him from the beginning.
Crucifixion is as much psychological torture as it is physical. Every gospel tells of the taunts of the people who watch Jesus on the cross. Asking why he can’t save himself.
Offering him vinegar to drink. Spitting on him. Calling him “king” and making sure the crown he wears is another instrument of pain. Jesus, alike us in every way but sin, is the official claim of our faith. Imagine how you would bear up. How anyone would. We all have known some measure of suffering, and we can all recall how desperately we wanted that time to end, whether it was physical, mental, or spiritual.
And so we can pray: Jesus, Human like us, we weep at your suffering, as we wept with our own. Help us to know your presence in our weakness and suffering. We pray in your holy name. Amen.
Silence
Hymn # 599 PH “Jesus, Remember Me,” Jacques Berthier
©1981, Les Presses de Taizé, All rights reserved.
Fifth Word Brian Moore
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.”
~ John 19:29
Candle five is extinguished.
Meditation
Thirsty Jesus was parched near the end of his ordeal. Consider how long he has been in captivity. It began at least twelve hours earlier, when he was arrested in a garden. It continued as he was dragged before every conceivable tribunal. Pilate both had Jesus flogged—beaten with a whip—and condemned him to death. Jesus was made to carry the cross to the hill called “The Place of the “Skull.” By now he has been awake for at least thirty hours.
He is thirsty. We all know what it is like to be truly, deeply thirsty—following a long interval without water, or a long walk, or working in the garden, or after playing a hard game of soccer or football or tennis. Imagine the thirst of someone who has been in captivity, being tortured, hanging from a tree.
Psalm 69 tells the story of someone who, when they were thirsty, was offered vinegar to drink. That is what happens to Jesus now.
And so we can pray: Thirsty Jesus, be with all those who thirst, whether for cool, clear water, or for you. Quench our thirst for you, our Living Water. We pray in your holy name. Amen.
Silence
Sixth Word Peg Corwin
When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.”
~ John 19:30
Candle six is extinguished
Meditation
Dying Jesus’s words are coming together quickly now. These last three words are spoken when it won’t be long—just a minute or two—until he breathes no more. After taking a taste of the vinegar that had been soaked up with a sponge and offered to him on a stick, Jesus says, it is finished.
His call from God, who described him as “beloved Son” at his baptism, is finished.
His time of being tested in the wilderness is finished.
His days of walking the roads of Galilee and beyond are finished.
His days if healing those the sick are finished.
His days of casting out demons are finished.
His days of teaching and preaching are finished.
His storytelling days, the parables he spoke, are finished.
His days feeding multitudes of people are finished.
His days of working wonders are finished.
His time with his disciples is finished.
His time under arrest, being tortured and mocked, is finished.
Jesus, like every human being on earth, comes to his end of days.
It is finished.
Silence
* Hymn # 102 PH “Were You There?” Melva W. Costen
©1990, Melva Wilson Costen, All rights reserved.
Seventh Word Rev. Jeff Kellam
Then Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last.
~ Luke 23:46
Candle seven is extinguished.
Meditation
Holy Jesus cries out one last time, to speak to the God he had said he couldn’t find, couldn’t fathom, perhaps an hour before. Now Jesus commends himself into God’s care. God is the only one who can care for him now.
He breathes his last.
We can only see Jesus’ last words from the vantage point of those who still have words and breath left in us—for God, and only God, knows how long. In the end Jesus cries out for the one he has called Abba, Father, just any of us might call out for a beloved parent. We have all have lost beloveds, whether to their last breath or to distance, or to estrangement. In commending himself to God and breathing his last, Jesus moves into the realm of mystery and the unknown. Still, we may trust his own words from the cross: in his death he will be in paradise. The original meaning of “paradise” is a beautiful, royal garden.
And so we can pray: Holy Jesus, you commended yourself into the hands of your beloved Abba, and then you sighed your last sigh. May each of us, in our final hours, commend ourselves into God’s hands as well. May we find ourselves in that garden, where we will find you walking in the cool of an everlasting day. We pray in your holy name. Amen.