Pastoral Letter 112

Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,

Grace and peace to you all.

Last Sunday we celebrated Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to change the course of history. This week is known as the Passion/Holy Week, with Good Friday and then glorious Easter Sunday. Our church Sign Board Reads: “Jesus was Crucified! Sad News? Or ….”. On Sunday it will give the answer to this question. As we progress in this Holy week, we cannot but remember what happened then and how our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ went through such an ordeal for us. On Easter morning we will celebrate His resurrection with great joy.

We are glad that most of those who we missed for two weeks due to COVID infection, joined us and the rest hopefully will be with us for Good Friday and Easter Services.

If you will not be able to join us to our face-to-face service, you can worship with us at home. Please light a candle and follow the attached Order of Service.

Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love and let us know if any member of the congregation that you know of needs our help and prayers.

Here are some more prayer points for this week:

1. Pray for all those who are again suffering because of the devastating floods.
2. Pray for those who have lost loved ones, homes and property.
3. Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
4. Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
5. Pray for the coming week and the Good Friday and Easter Morning Services.
6. Pray for hope, that comes to us because of Easter and Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the dead.

Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.

Best Regards,

Krikor

MESSAGE

Final Words from the Cross

John 19:16-30

“Thank God It’s Friday”, is a common saying, but there is one Friday a year that is known as “Good Friday“. What’s so good about this particular Friday? Why it is called “Good Friday” when the prevailing mood is so much gloomy and sombre. It is hard to be joyous on the day that Jesus Christ died upon the cross. But something good came as a result. So, this Friday is the only truly “Good Friday”.

The Good Lord gave His good and perfect life for sinful humanity willingly going to the cross to die. His was no ordinary death. The death of Jesus Christ was the supreme sacrifice for all mankind! Through Christ’s death God’s mercy was manifested and His love was validated. Good Friday commemorates the day when the goodness of God was poured out on our behalf.

Good Friday also marks the end of an era! The old is out and the new is in. As a result of Christ’s death, we can now have freedom from bondage, the bondage as slaves of evil and sin. We also have the opportunity to start all over again with a clean slate as sons and daughters of the living God. Good Friday is in another words “independence day” for all humanity, a day of liberation from sin and death!

But to make the Friday “good”, a price had to be paid and Jesus paid that price on the cross. He was captured, tortured, bitten, humiliated and killed. He took all these upon Him, not because He deserved, but He did for us, to save us and to give us hope.

Isiah says:

“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we accounted him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5)

He did this for our sake and the Cross is the perfect symbol of His great love, the demonstration of an unexpected costly love.

So today, let us pause and ponder considering the final words of Jesus on the cross.

1. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

Even as He was nailed on the cross, Jesus chose to forgive the soldiers whose hand held Him down and pounded nails through His hands and feet. By forgiving and asking the Father to forgive those who killed Him, He was also forgiving us, as we add more nails every time we sin and do the things we shouldn’t do as His followers and believers. With our wrong doings we still add His pain and suffering today. But He forgives us and has forgiven. So, as we recall this, let us think and ask: Who do we need to forgive in our life today?

2. “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

Jesus has promised that He “goes to prepare a place for us.” What does it mean to us personally that when we die, we will be in Paradise? Is it re-joining family? Is it avoiding Hell? Consider the fact that all of us die, and yet because of Jesus, we will join Him and be with Him forever, if we believe in Him. We don’t have to do anything or pay for our transgressions and wrongdoings, because He has done everything for us. All we have to do is to believe, just as one of the two criminals did. He saw his only hope in Jesus, the One who was crucified with them, who had done nothing wrong, but only good.

3. Jesus said to his mother, “Dear woman, this is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” (John 19:26-27)

Jesu was a family man. He loved his parents and siblings. He also loved the people, considering them His sisters and brothers, without underestimating His immediate family. In particular He loved Mary and Joseph, His earthly parents. Mary gave birth to Jesus and Joseph became a loving father to Jesus and His sisters and brothers.

We love our parents. We try to protect them, but sometimes we feel powerless. Jesus could no longer take care of Mary, whom He loved. Let’s pray for our parents, if they have passed, let’s pray for others in our lives who need protection.

4. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46 and Mark 15:34)

One of the things about the cross is that no one can say “Jesus doesn’t understand”. He doesn’t understand what it means to live in this world. A world, where we see hate, neglect, pain, abandonment and suffering. Jesus felt abandoned by God. It seems that for a brief time He felt alone, when His suffering was unbearable in human terms. He was in much pain as He went through the ordeal that day, when He was brought to the Pharisees, dragged to Pilate and finally the horrible journey to the cross of Calvary, Via Dolorosa.

Do we feel that way at this point? Do we wonder if God is even listening? Feeling abandoned is normal when we expect God to act in certain ways. Let’ not suffer alone, Jesus chose this moment, when He was most vulnerable to tell God about His pain. We can too.

5. “I am thirsty.” (John 19:28)

Jesus hungered. Jesus experienced thirst. Jesus was fully human and felt the fullness of the pain inflicted upon Him. He also thirsted for His Father, who could not die with Him. As fully human, Jesus needed to eat and drink. On many occasions, as we read in the Scriptures, He asked for food and water, simply because His physical body required those two basic needs. So, it shouldn’t be strange, when He said from the cross that He was thirsty.

What are we thirsting for? Is it a physical thirst or a spiritual thirst?

6. “It is finished.” (John 19:30)

When Jesus had received the wine vinegar, He said: “It is finished;” and He bowed his head and handed over the spirit.

Those three words, “It is finished” come from one Greek word “tetelestai” meaning that it is over, it is complete. The word is unfamiliar to us, but it was used by various people in everyday life in those days. A servant would use it when reporting to his or her master: “I have completed the work assigned to me. When a priest examined an animal sacrifice and found it faultless, this word would apply.” Racers would shout this word at the end of a race! The long path for Jesus was over, and He was proclaiming victory at the finish line. How are we living our life today so that at the end we too can claim victory?

The word also means, “It is finished, it stands finished, and it always will be finished!” These words specify not the end of Jesus’ life, but the completion of His task. The verb is perfect tense. “It is finished!” The purpose of His hour has been completed, and the consequences of His work are enduring. What then do we learn about the completion of our redemption?

What does Jesus’ death mean? No more sacrifices, no more sin bearing, no more curse for the believer.

“It is finished!” “The entire work of redemption has been brought to completion.” But it is a new start a fresh start for us, a possibility of a new start.

Yes, “It is finished” in the sense that Jesus our Lord accomplished His task, but it is not the end. On the contrary it is a new beginning, and this new beginning is sealed by His resurrection which we will celebrate on Easter morning.

7. Jesus cried out in a loud voice: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)

This is actually from Psalm 31:5. The full verse is: “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.”

Where before He had cried out that God had abandoned Him, with these final words He proclaimed the redemption and faithfulness in God. The resurrection was yet to come. But with His last breath He placed His very being in the hands of the Father.

It is total surrender to the Father and His will. He came from the Father, and He went back to the Father. He came and went back where He belonged.

Yes, Jesus died on the cross, He gave His last breath. But it was not the end. It seemed to be, because His breathless body was brought down from the cross and placed in a tomb. He stayed there three days, but on the third day He rose again.

His final words from the cross, were His last expression of love and commitment. Without these seven words or sentences from the cross and the Cross itself, His work would not have been fully done. He came with the intention to do this. The cross of Calvary was and still is the climax at the end of His earthly journey. This was Climax 1 on the Friday, as there was going to be another climax, Climax 2 on the following Sunday Morning, which was the turn of events and the start of a new beginning.

Yes, Jesus died that day uttering these seven final words to conclude and finish the work He had come to do. And He did. Thanks be to God.

Amen!