First and Last Words of Jesus

I always enjoy the first and last of any writing; the first page of a good book...and certainly the last page. When we look at the sayings of Jesus, it is interesting to see His first words and His last.

His very first recorded words were recorded in Luke 2, where at the age of 12, He had gotten separated from His parents on a trip to Jerusalem. They looked for 3 days, then found Him in the temple conversing with a group of teachers. His mother said to Him, "Son, why have you done this to us?" He answered, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" That is a fascinating story and exchange.

The very last words of Jesus before He dies are: "It is finished." This is a very powerful statement that carries a lot of meaning with it. Rather than just His life being finished and the suffering that He endured being finished, it is likely a statement with much broader significance. Throughout time, in all of the buildup to this great event, considering all of the prophesies of the prophets that Jesus fulfilled, all of this comes down to this last moment on the cross when Jesus finally says, "It is finished." But we know that the story was not over at that point; in fact, it marked a great beginning where Jesus would triumph over death, walk on the earth for 40 days (Acts1:3), ascend to heaven, and following all of this, the apostles would be visited by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2), and the church would be established. So we see that there is great meaning to Jesus' last words on the cross.

This leaves us with a discussion of Jesus' last words before He leaves the earth. Perhaps we will discuss this next week in the blog entry then. These are powerful and meaningful as well. Hope you have a great and meaningful week yourself!