Seven Ways to Say I Love You
Matthew 27:16, Luke 23:34, 23:43, 23:46, John 19:26-27, 19:28, 19:30
Introduction: How many of you have ever heard the following: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height, My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight…and thought it was William Shakespeare? The truth is that this is a poem written many years after his death by Elizabeth Barrett Browning as a declaration of her love for her husband Robert Browning. Let me read this little sonnet in its entirety:
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
My point in using this poem is to set up what I believe is the greatest declarations of love ever heard by the ears of mortal man. I speak of the seven statements by the Lord Jesus from the cross beginning at 9 Am Friday morning on the day of his execution and ending at 3 Pm that same afternoon when He died. It should be noted that these seven declarations or statements are those of a dying man and have the force of law behind them. In our system of law they would be considered “dying declarations” and would have to be given the greatest consideration. Let’s look at what Jesus said at 9 AM when he was being crucified:
I. I pardon you
Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
ILL - One of the great preachers of the early part of the twentieth century, Dr. F B Meyer, says that "in uttering this first cry from the Cross, our Lord entered that work of intercession which he ever lives to continue on our behalf. He thinks, not of himself, but of others; he is occupied, not with his own pain, but with their sins. He makes no threat but instead offers a tender prayer of pleading intercession." When was that prayer answered? Seven weeks after this, on the day of Pentecost, three thousand of these people, whom Peter described as the murderers of Christ repented and believed; and, in the days that followed, thousands more, including a great number of the priests. That was the answer to this intercession, and it has continued down the centuries for we too, are the fruits of his prayer, "Father, forgive them."
II. I promise you
If the first declaration is about forgiving us collectively then the second is about forgiving us individually. Our Lord’s promise to a dying man is a further statement of his love. This man was a thief and perhaps even a murderer but Jesus gives His word to him that when death came he would be with Jesus in “paradise”. All of us are going to face death eventually and if there is anything in life that demands certainty it is what’s going to happen to us when we die. The Second Word narrows its focus to one single needy sinner. God not only sees the whole world but he sees it made up of individuals. On that fateful day in the history of the world, it happened that there were two thieves who were crucified alongside Jesus.
III. I will provide for you
"Greater love has no one than this that one lays down his life for his friends" (15:13). "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (3:16).
IV. I will take your punishment
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" (Matt. 27:46).
All the sin of the world, the awful legacy of the fall of mankind was laid upon Jesus. "He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor 5:21).
V. I will feel your pain
Jesus was crucified at 9 o’clock in the morning, and He spent the first three hours on the cross in the sunlight. He likely hadn't had anything to drink at that point for more than 12 hours. "I thirst." In the original text, it is one word with just four letters. It is the only statement in which our Lord referred to His body and His physical suffering.
ILL - one of my kids recently said as he drank from a water bottle, "This tastes old." I said, it is -- 6,000 years ago God created it and it has been liquid, solid, and gas, sometimes salty, sometimes stinky. It has been drank before, processed, flushed, and purified and recycled, and now we pay up to $4 for a little bottle of what God created for free. They choose soda now instead, but news flash, it has water in it! He who created all water was able to walk on top of it and turn it into wine at will. He's God, and yet He is thirsty! "I thirst" (John 19:28).
The prophetic 22nd Psalm which anticipated our Lord’s passion speaks graphically of his condition, "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth" (14, 15) This Fifth Word from the Cross serves to tell us that Jesus suffered because He loves us.
VI. I paid your debt
“It is finished” literally means paid in full! John 19:30 This Sixth Word from the Cross consists of one single word in the Greek - "Finished, accomplished." God told the serpent in the Garden of Eden that he would "put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel" (Gen 3:15). He didn’t say "I am finished" but rather "It is finished." It was a shout of victory over sin, death and hell.
"It is finished." The Word tells us there is nothing left for man to do but to enter into the results of Christ’s finished work. The Greek word for “finished” was used in business life of the time to indicate that a debt had been paid. It’s like the message of a rubber stamp bearing the words ‘Payment received’ when stamped across a bill.
VII. I give you peace
One of two prayers will be prayed by everyone as they enter into the door of death. Either a person will be crying out “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.” Or a person will have the promise of this blessed prayer, “Father, into thy hands I will commend my spirit.” Christ had fulfilled the law. He had just cried loudly, “It is finished.” Now Christ was once again reunited with his Father. He could pray “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Note that Christ had nothing left to give. The only thing that Christ had left to give his Father was his spirit.
Jerry Depoy Thoughts from our “Seven Last Sayings of Christ” Candle Lighting Service
"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46). The First Word from the Cross begins with Jesus addressing His Father - "Father forgive" and now it begins the last. God, the Father, had accepted the sin offering made by Jesus, as would soon be demonstrated by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus had come from his Father and to his Father he would return, but first he had to die physically. These words tell us that his life didn’t just ebb away - in fact Jesus had previously said that no one could take his life "but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father" (John 10:18). And so it was that Jesus consciously gave his life. He laid it upon the altar, just as the burnt offering of the Old Testament which had spoken of the greater sacrifice to come.
The Seventh Word from the Cross is in fact a quotation from Psalm 31 (v.5). It was composed by David when, in some great trouble, he put his trust in his God. Jesus could identify himself with David’s affliction and anguish of soul, having been treated with utter contempt by his enemies and deserted by his friends. Like David he could still say "but I trust in you, 0 Lord, I say ’You are my God’, my times are in your hands" (14, 15).
The Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of our faith. The prophet Zechariah looked forward to the coming of Jesus when he said, "on that day a fountain will be opened to the House of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity" (13:1). Have you been to the Cross? The Cross meant death for Jesus but, praise God, it is the place where life is ministered to us through His death and it says I love you!
Gleanings from Three Crosses at Calvary - Sermon shared by Owen Bourgaize
