Each year on Good Friday here at St. Luke’s, our Chancel Choir gives a magnificent performance of Dubois’ sacred cantata, “The Seven Last Words of Christ,”… a moving musical presentation of the seven sayings of Christ while He was being crucified on Good Friday. How many of those seven last words can; you remember? 

• First, He prays for His executioners – “Father forgive them, they know not what they do."
• Second, He says to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise." 
• Third, He provides for the care of His mother through the disciple John as He says, “Woman, behold your son,” and to John He says, “Behold your mother”; meaning, “Mother, from this point forward John will be like a son to you… John will take care of you.” 
• Fourth, there is the lament from Psalm 22, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” 
• Fifth, there is the cry, “I thirst!”
• Sixth, there is the prayerful, “Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.”
• Seventh, there is the triumphant shout, “It is finished.” 

Now, of those seven words from the cross, at least three of them are prayers… three of them are addressed to God… “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and “Father into thy hands I commit my spirit.” 

Let’s take a quick look at each one of these Cross Prayers, because in them we find the crux of the Christian Gospel.

I. FIRST OF ALL… “FATHER, FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.”   

As Jesus utters this prayer, time stands still… because this is one of the greatest moments in all of human history, one of the highest mountain peaks in all of the Bible. It is the picture of unconditional love. It is the portrait of amazing grace. It is the measuring stick by which we gauge our forgiveness of others. 

Listen! If you ever wonder, “Should I forgive that person who has wronged me or hurt me? If that question, “Should I forgive? Ever comes into your mind… just remember the image of Jesus hanging there… nailed to a cross totally innocent… and saying, “Father, forgive them.” 

Joe Smith was his name. He was a 16-year-old high school freshman. He was a remarkable person – kind and compassionate and committed to Christ. His Christian faith was radiant and winsome. He could “light up a room” with his warm smile. Everybody loved Joe Smith. But then tragedy struck. It was the end of the spring semester. The high school yearbook had come out. It was Joe’s first yearbook. He was a freshman and he was so proud and excited. Joe was in the cafeteria signing people’s yearbooks and having them sign his. It was a happy moment. However, when Joe came out of the cafeteria, one of his classmates, a guy named Tim, tried to snatch the yearbook out of Joe’s hands. 

Tim couldn’t afford to buy a yearbook, so he tried to take Joe’s. Joe was a very non-combative person, but it was his first yearbook and he wouldn’t let go. Tim lost control, doubled up his fist, and swung as hard as he could. When Joe saw the punch coming and tried to dodge, Tim’s first slammed right into Joe’s esophagus… collapsing it… and Joe went down unconscious. They rushed Joe to the hospital for emergency surgery, but it was too late. Joe Smith died on the operating table. It just didn’t seem possible… 16 years old… and so quickly gone, because of a high school yearbook that cost $8.00. 

That night, friends and relatives gathered in shock and grief at the Smith home. There was a knock at the front door. Joe’s parents went to answer it. A man was standing there with a note that read: “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I’m so sorry my son killed your son. I’m blind. My husband deserted me. And I’m trying to raise eight children alone. I didn’t have $8.00 for a yearbook. Please forgive.” (Signed) Tim’s mother.” 

Tim was arrested. When he went to court, his mother could not afford a lawyer to defend her child. And do you know what happened? Joe’s parents hired an attorney to represent Tim. When Tim was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and sent to the youth detention center, it was the Smiths who visited him; it was the Smiths who took Tim’s mother to visit her child. It was the Smiths who called him on the phone and wrote him letters of encouragement. And when Tim was finally released, the Smiths were there to pick him up and take him home to his mother. 

That’s an amazing story about the incredible spirit of forgiveness. Let me ask you something. Can you forgive like that? Do you have that spirit of forgiveness in you? You know where the Smiths got that spirit, don’t you? They got it from Jesus Christ! They got it from Holy Week! They got it from Good Friday! They got it from the One who was nailed to a cross and said, “Father, forgive them.” It’s hard to forgive like that, but it’s also great because it is so Christ-like. That’s the first prayer of Christ on the cross… “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 

II. THE SECOND CROSS PRAYER IS… “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?"   

At first glance, many folks read this and wish it weren’t in the Bible… because it sounds so unlike Jesus. Yet, here it is. So what are we to make of it? A closer look reveals that there is something very precious here. Let’s see if we can find it.

Over the years, there have been three classic interpretations that scholars have attached to this poignant verse. The first interpretation is that Jesus is quoting the 22nd Psalm to affirm that he is the Messiah foretold by the Old Testament. You see, the 22nd Psalm (which was well-known to the people of that time) begins with these exact words: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”… And then interestingly, even though the Psalm was written hundreds of years before Good Friday, it describes amazingly the precise events of that infamous day. Listen to these words from the 22nd Psalm: 

“I am scorned by men and despised…All who seek me, mock at me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads… I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint… A company of evildoers surround me… They have pierced my hands and feet. They divide my garments among them and for my robe they cast lots.” 

Isn’t that amazing? What an accurate description of the crucifixion that is, written hundreds of years before. And then the 22nd Psalm bursts into praise: “All the ends of the earth shall remember this and turn to the Lord… And future generations will be told about the Lord and proclaim his deliverance to people yet unborn.” 

So it may well be that Jesus was recalling the 22nd Psalm on the cross as a picture of what He, Himself, was going through, and as a living out of the Old Testament prophecy, and as a song of trust and confidence… knowing full well that though the 22nd Psalm began in lament, it ended in triumph and praise. 

A second interpretation is that Jesus in His anguish is finding strength by quoting the 22nd Psalm. One scholar said that though this is an attractive interpretation, he didn’t believe that a person in such agony would be quoting scripture. The scholar who said that must not be a pastor, and he must not have gone through much agony because I have found that when we are in pain, that’s when we quote scripture the most. Time after time, I have walked into hospital rooms and found people quoting the 23rd Psalm or the Lord’s Prayer or the Beatitudes. 

It is also interesting to note that in every prayer we have that Jesus prayed, he always calls God Father except here, which probably means he was quoting another man’s prayer, namely, the 22nd Psalm. 

A third interpretation of this haunting verse is that this prayer came at the precise moment when all the sins of the world were laid on Jesus -- at the precise moment when He became the sacrificial lamb to save us from our sins -- at the precise moment when He who knew no sin bore our sins. You know, we could make a good case for this interpretation, because biblically, sin does mean “separation from God.” And the Bible does say, “By his stripes we are healed.” 

One day a man decided to take a short cut across a muddy field, but he slipped and fell into a deep pit. He tried his best to get out with his own strength, but he couldn’t make it. So he began to cry out for someone to save him. 

• A pop psychologist passed by and said, “I feel your pain. I empathize with your life down there in the pit.”
• A TV talk show host came by and said, “When you get out - if you get out – you can come and be on my show.” 
• A religious fanatic happened along and said, “You must have sinned a great sin because only bad people fall into pits.” 
• A news reporter rushed up to him and said, “Could I have an exclusive story on your experience in the pit?” 
• A lawyer came out from town and wanted to represent the man in a law suit. 
• An IRS agent came to see if he had paid his taxes on the pit. 
• A neurotic came along and said, “You think your pit is bad; you should see mine." 
• An optimist said, “Things could be worse.” 
• A pessimist said, “Things will get worse!” 

Then another person came along. He saw the man’s dilemma… and his heart went out to him. He reached down with both hands and with strength and grace, pulled the man up and out of the pit. The rescued man thanked the kind stranger and then ran into town to tell everyone what had happened, how he had been saved. “How did you get out?” they asked. “A man reached down and pulled me out,” he said. “Who was the man?” they asked. “It was Jesus,” he replied. “How do you know that? They questioned. “I knew it,” he said, “because He had nail prints in His hands.” 

You see, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to salvation. We don’t have to chase every new fad that comes along. All we have to do is take hold of those nail-scarred hands. 

III. THE THIRD CROSS PRAYER IS… “FATHER, INTO THY HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” 

Did you know that this was not the first time Jesus had prayed this prayer, “Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.” He had likely prayed it hundreds of times as a child… because, you see, this was the bedtime prayer taught to little children during Biblical times. It was the first century version of “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” “Father, I’m about to go to sleep, so into Thy hands I commit my spirit. I’m going to sleep now, Father. I know you are here to watch over me.” 

It was the prayer of total and complete trust. It was the prayer of total and complete confidence. It was the prayer Jesus prayed on the cross just before He breathed His last. And it is the prayer you and I can pray daily because we know that we can trust God, because we know that God has the power to turn the agony of Good Friday into the ecstasy of Easter Sunday; that God has the power to resurrect; that God has the power to take the cross (the emblem of suffering and shame) and turn it into the greatest symbol of victory this world has ever known. We can pray that prayer because as the gospel hymn writer put it, We know not what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.