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Father, Forgive Them
Brian Mashburn
March 27, 2011
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Famous Last Words
There is song we sing that begins with the prayer, "Take us to the cross, Lord."
Imagine for a minute, what you would experience if God actually answered the prayer. Put on your 1st century garb and take a front row seat. What would it have been like?
There at Golgotha, would there be a pile of old, used crosses? Would the place stench of blood?
And when Jesus was paraded in, nailed to his cross thrown down by Simon the Cyrene, and then lifted up to die, would it have been bearable to watch? Would we quickly change our prayer to, out of pure shock, "Take us from the cross, Lord"?
Imagine getting to that point, Jesus just lifted up, as the minutes and hours start ticking away towards his death. Imagine having the stomach to witness it until its horrible end motivated by the desire to know, while he is there in those suffering hours, what will he say?
The Gospel writers each decided to record what they remembered (or researched) from that day. Matthew and Mark record only one phrase (the same one), Luke reports three others, and John, three more.
Seven statements from the cross. Famous. Last. Words.
As we approach Resurrection Sunday, lets use these weeks to be "taken to the cross" to do what we should do every day of our lives.
Listen to the words of Jesus.