Good Friday: Jesus’ Last Words on the Cross

John 19:17-30 (BSB)

It is Good Friday. The solemn day we hold vigil to remember the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Does “good” capture what Jesus has done for us? Is “good” an adequate word?

Originally, in Old English, “good” was understood to mean holy or sacred, so this day was called Holy Friday, as it’s still called in other parts of the world. But I think the name Good Friday has stuck here in America because what Jesus did for us is good indeed. In the same way that Genesis 1:31 tells us, “And God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good,” we look at what Jesus has done for us by suffering and dying for our sins and say, “Yes, indeed. It was very good.”

Words are so important, don’t you agree? As we reflect on and worship the Lord for what He did for us on this Good Friday, I want us to look at the words He spoke while on the Cross.

None of the four Gospel accounts contains all seven of the statements Jesus spoke. To discover them all, we need to read all four, so we are going to read the most detailed account, which is written by John, but I will insert verses from the other three narratives where needed.

Let’s begin by reading the first seven verses of John 19:17-30 (BSB), which say:

17 Carrying His own cross, [Jesus] went out to The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.

18 There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle.

19 Pilate also had a notice posted on the cross. It read: 

JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

20 Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. 

21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but only that He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’”

22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided His garments into four parts, one for each soldier, with the tunic remaining. It was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 

Let’s pause, for we need to turn to Luke 23:34, which contains Jesus’ first words on the Cross. It says that as He was being nailed to the Cross, “Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up His garments by casting lots.”

Jesus, at the height of His pain and suffering, prayed to God the Father to forgive those who were torturing Him. He was not angry; He was resolved to do what He must do. And He did the very thing He taught us to do in His Sermon on the Mount: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Revealing His heart of love and mercy even while dying, Jesus modeled how we are to live, too.

Back to John’s account, verse 24 says:

24 So [the soldiers] said to one another, “Let us not tear it. Instead, let us cast lots to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill the Scripture: “They divided My garments among them, and cast lots for My clothing.” So that is what the soldiers did.

Pausing again, the second words Jesus spoke are seen as we continue in Luke 23:35-43. It says:

35 The people stood watching, and the rulers sneered at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”

36 The soldiers also mocked Him and came up to offer Him sour wine.

37 “If You are the King of the Jews,” they said, “save Yourself!”

38 Above Him was posted an inscription: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

39 One of the criminals who hung there heaped abuse on Him. “Are You not the Christ?” he said. “Save Yourself and us!”

40 But the other one rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same judgment? 

41 We are punished justly, for we are receiving what our actions deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 

42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!”

43 And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

In this exchange, Jesus reveals even more of the depth of His character. We see that even while He was in excruciating pain, He extended love and mercy to the repentant criminal. And in the criminal’s words, we see that all that is needed to receive God’s forgiveness is repentance and faith in Jesus.

Now back to John’s account, verses 25-27 include His third statement. It says:

25 Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother and her sister, as well as Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene.

26 When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, here is your son.” 

27 Then He said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” So from that hour, this disciple took her into his home.

You might wonder why Mary would not simply live with Jesus’ brothers. Most scholars agree that is because none of Jesus’ brothers became believers until after the resurrection. But some scholars—Charles Ellicott, for example—believe that John (who calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved) may have been the son of Mary’s sister, Salome, who was at the Cross. And so, he would have been Jesus’ cousin. We know John was the son of Zebedee, and Matthew’s account tells us that the mother of Zebedee’s children was at the cross, and Mark’s account tells us that Salome was there. So, by piecing all that information together, that is how we reach this conclusion.

Regardless of the literal family ties, Jesus entrusted His mother to John’s care. This again reveals to us even more of Jesus’ great love and mercy. Because even though He was near the brink of death, He was not thinking of Himself, but of those He loved, yet again modeling for us a compassion that was entirely selfless.

To find the fourth statement, let’s read Mark 15:33-36. It says:

33 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 

34 At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

35 When some of those standing nearby heard this, they said, “Behold, He is calling Elijah.”

36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine. He put it on a reed and held it up for Jesus to drink, saying, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to take Him down.”

At noon, an unnatural darkness covered everything. Even nature was testifying that this man was no ordinary man. The darkness seems to signify exactly what was happening. The Light of the World was being extinguished.

But why would Jesus cry out that God had forsaken Him? Jesus had always referred to God the Father as Father, never simply as God. Did you know that Jesus’ cry was a direct quote from Psalm 22:1, which says, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?”

The Benson Commentary says, “Some think Jesus on this occasion repeated the whole twenty-second Psalm…For by citing it, and thereby applying it to Himself, He signified that He was now accomplishing the things predicted therein concerning the Messiah.” We can’t know if Jesus recited the whole Psalm, but certainly by quoting the beginning of it, Jesus was affirming without doubt that He was the one this Psalm prophesied about. As verse 18 of that Psalm says, “They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”

But His cry that God had forsaken Him, also shows us that as agonizing as the crucifixion was, this moment when the sins of the whole world were laid upon Him was the cup that, upon anticipating it, caused Him to sweat drops of blood as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22:42 records Jesus saying, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” He willingly agreed to drink it, but perhaps this signifies the moment when, as Isaiah 53:6 words it, “the LORD laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” And so, He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Jesus experienced the full weight of separation from God the Father, and it was on account of our sin.

And yet, even in that cry, He was not thinking about Himself. He was pointing us toward hope. Because that same Psalm 22 also prophesies in verse 31 that, “They will come and proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn—all that He has done.” Which is exactly what we are doing today on this Good Friday and every time we share about our Savior Jesus the Christ and what He has done for us!

Now, back to our text in John 19, verses 28-29 contain the fifth statement. It says:

28 After this, knowing that everything had now been accomplished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”

29 A jar of sour wine was sitting there. So they soaked a sponge in the wine, put it on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted it to His mouth.

Just as Jesus quoting Psalm 22 is a fulfillment of Scripture, so too are Jesus’ words here. The Scripture that was fulfilled in this statement is Psalm 69:21, which says, “They poisoned my food with gall and gave me vinegar to quench my thirst.” By saying these words, Jesus again proved He was the foretold Messiah.

Then the sixth statement follows directly in John 19:30, which says:

30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished.” And bowing His head, He yielded up His spirit.

It was finished. Jesus had finished the work of the Cross. He paid the debt that was owed because of our sins. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He brought about the completion of His mission. He, perfectly innocent and sinless, died on the Cross, taking the punishment all of us deserve. He willingly surrendered Himself to the plan, drinking the cup of suffering He had agreed to take for us all.

Alexander MacLaren, in his commentary on this verse, says: “Having drained the cup, He held it up inverted when He said, ‘It is finished!’ and not a drop trickled down the edge. He drank it that we might never need to drink it; and so His dying voice proclaimed that ‘by one offering for sin for ever,’ He ‘obtained eternal redemption’ for us.”

Truly, it was finished. Jesus paid the full debt we owed. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

If we only read John’s Gospel account, we might think “It is finished” were Jesus’ last words, but they were not. This is why, as we’ve seen, it’s important to read all the Gospel accounts.

But before we get to Jesus’ last words, Luke 23:44-45 tells of one more important event. It says:

44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour.

45 The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn down the middle.

Jesus became the ultimate High Priest and final sacrifice for sin. Never again is there needed any further sacrifice for sin. When Jesus died, the temple curtain was literally torn in two. That signified that the system of animal sacrifice was over. It was finished for good. All that had been was no longer needed. That is how we know that people’s attempts to rebuild a new temple are foolish. The old covenant is over. That is why Jesus said in Luke 22:20, “In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.’” His death established the new covenant.

Jesus does not need to die again. His perfect sacrifice fulfills all the requirements of the Law. As Hebrews 9:26-28 explains:

26 Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

27 Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment, 

28 so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.”

This is why John the Baptist, prophesying in John 1:29, says, “The next day [he] saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’”

Jesus’ death on the Cross took away the sin of the world. Now, all who believe in Him may receive forgiveness.

But there is still one thing left to read. Then, Luke 23:46 tells us Jesus’ seventh and final statement on the Cross. It says:

46 Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.” And when He had said this, He breathed His last.

After hanging on the cross, Jesus finally gave up His own life. He was not helpless at the hands of those who crucified him—He alone had the authority to lay down His life. In Matthew 20:28, Jesus says, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

The crucifixion was Jesus’ plan from before creation—He is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world, as Revelation 13:8 tells us.  

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible explains, “The meaning here is, not that he was actually put to death ‘from the foundation of the world,’ but that the intention to give Him for a sacrifice was formed then, and that it was so certain that it might be spoken of as actually then occurring.”

After shedding His blood, taking away our sins, then Jesus willingly laid down His life and died. He surrendered Himself to the Father’s hands.

When we believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection, and repent and find forgiveness, we have one thing left to do, too. We must pick up our cross and die to ourselves. We must surrender our lives and say that same sentence: Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.

As 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. ‘By His stripes you are healed.’” We are to die to our right to live the way we would want, and instead, give our lives to the Father’s will, obeying Him. But when we look at what Jesus endured for us on the Cross, what else is there for us to say?

How can we not surrender our lives to Him after everything that He has done for us?

But we won’t commit our lives to Him unless we have realized who Jesus is.

The Gospel of Mark includes one last important statement. Mark 15:39 says:

39 When the centurion standing there in front of Jesus saw how He had breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Who do you conclude Jesus is? Was He simply a prophet? Or is He the Son of God? The words we use to describe Him reveal our faith—or our doubt.

Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world. He willingly bore our sins upon the Cross. If you have repented of your sins and received His forgiveness and mercy, trusting Him for your salvation, have you also surrendered your life to Him?

Let us do so again tonight as we worship Him and remember what He did for us.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we bow our hearts before You, for we are in awe of Your great love. Thank You for dying on the Cross so that we might become children of God. We love You and we surrender our lives to Your will. Help us to daily commit ourselves to follow Your ways. Amen.