We recently came off a sermon series at church called “CrossWords” which were essentially about the last words of Jesus on earth while he was on the cross. I am still amazed at how much truth and wisdom was shared from Jesus final words on the cross such as “I thirst”, “It is finished”, “Father forgive them…”, etc. One reminder from that series was the idea that when people are in their last days, what they say has more weight as they know their time is drawing to an end, more often, they choose their words carefully. This was not different for Jesus whose last words carried a deeper meaning and were meant to be digested rather than ingested quickly. In my study of the book of John this week, I came across some of Jesus’ last words or teachings to his disciples and many of them were centered around exhorting sinners to believe in Him as the light of the world, serving and loving one another and remaining in the faith. More than two thousand years later, these last teachings from Jesus still hold very true and are to be taken with the same intensity as was intended by Christ when he departed from this earth, especially given the current times we live in. My goal with this post is to delve in on some of those points Jesus thought were so important we know before He lived the earth to ascend to heaven.
The first point Jesus deemed important is the understanding of who he is and what he came to do on the earth. Multiple times throughout the New Testament, Jesus tells his audience that he is from God. Many times in the book of John he said “he came from the Father”. As a matter of fact, the Pharisees sought to kill him precisely because he called God his Father, making Himself equal with God (John 5:18). This truth, Jesus knew it was crucial his followers understood and believed because the enemy was ready to dismantle that through the Pharisees’ unbelief and pride. In John 12, Jesus has finally arrived at Jerusalem, the city where he will be going to die, the city he was longing to get to from the day he began his ministry. Jesus was finally close to fulfilling all prophecies under his name so he started to predict his death to the people and they were confused. The Pharisees even ask him what he meant because according to the law, “the Christ will remain forever” (John 12:34) which mean in the peoples’ minds, Jesus could not be the Christ because he was announcing his death. To that train of thought, Jesus responds that He is the light and that as the light, he will not be there forever, so they (the crowd) “must walk while they have the light on, before darkness overtakes them” (John 12:35). Jesus encourages his audience to put their trust in the light while they have it in order to become “sons of light” which means, a time will come when he, the light, would no longer be there. A time would come when it would not be possible anymore to have an encounter with the light of the world. There is a timespan to the mercy and compassion of God. From his last words or teaching, Jesus was reminding his disciples and his audience that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, He was reminding his audience that he was making it possible for them to become sons of light – those rescued from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God. This was an offer Jesus was about to make official as he was on his way to die on the cross. Essentially Jesus’ last words said “Believe in me, I am the Light; I am about to make it real for you. When I die, this will be your reality. All you need is to trust me”. This message is still valid today because a time will come and is fast approaching when you will not have this opportunity anymore. The Lord is truly patient with us, what grace!
The second point Jesus deemed important was serving and loving one another. Love and service describe the last interaction Jesus had with his disciples on the eve of his death, during their Passover celebration meal. During that time, Jesus stood up, got a cloth that he tied around his waist, with water that he poured in a basin, he began to wash the feet of his disciples. This was certainly not a common act, at least not in a master-servant relationship where the master is the one washing the servant’s feet. No wonder Peter had a hard time accepting such a service from Jesus Himself! Peter’s resistance teach us that it can be uncomfortable to have Jesus wash our feet while we just stand there watching and receiving the cleansing yet that is what we are to do. Jesus was the only one who could wash us of our sins yet he is our master and we are his servants. It takes humility to receive a gift that you know you can never repay. It takes humility to receive help when you are helpless. It takes humility to serve and take the position of the vulnerable when you are not. It takes dying to self to do what Christ did in that “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Elsewhere, Jesus told his disciples that to be first in his kingdom, one must be last (Mark 9:35). Humility is a quality that attracts the Lord, He loves that in His servants and rightfully so. He is a mighty God who is jealous and does not share His glory with anyone. James reminds us that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6) therefore let us remember that we are not God’s equal or mates, we are His creatures and servants. Our portion is simply to serve, to live a life of service pleasing to the Lord just as our master the Lord Jesus did throughout his life. Because of the way He served us, we also ought to serve one another in such a bold, deep way. The same goes with loving one another. Jesus expects and commands us to love one another deeply. In fact, that is the distinguishing mark that will tell the unbelieving world whether or not we are His disciples (John 13:35). These characteristics are directly derived from the Father and so when we engage in them, we are truly honouring Him and exalting His Name.
The third point Jesus deemed important to pass on before he died was centered around remaining in the faith. It’s quite evident that Jesus knew after his death, there would be persecution that arose, bringing many to flee for their lives, be sentenced to jail, become isolated, etc. Jesus tells his disciples that their faith in him have to be strong in order to withstand the flaming arrows of the enemy. Jesus exhorts us to trust in him and to trust in God (John 14:1). Later on in John, he tells his disciples to “remain in me and I will remain in you” because when they remain in him they bear much fruit (John 15:5). It’s incredible to think that Jesus was preparing the disciples for the times ahead when not only would he no longer be on the earth but his enemies would be taking over. He is a good leader with incredible foresight and control of the situation. Jesus’ words are still poignant and needed today. The best way to fight is to remain in Jesus, he is our source, our sustenance, he is the one who holds all things together, the one by whom and for whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16-17). To remain in Jesus is to know his words, to read his words, to sing his words, to meditate on his words, to believe his words, to obey his words. Yes, to ensure you are nourished by his words continuously, to eat his words like your life depended on it. Usually, a true test for us Christians is to see how we stand when we get the extremes of life: when life is good vs when life is not. When life is good and there is no struggle, we tend to rely on our own strength and we usually believe that our own efforts have made us who we are today. On the other hand, when life is not good, when we are persecuted for Christ or going through a difficulty, we just want to give up because we do not see the promises of God coming to pass or simply because we want to stop the pain. In both of these scenarios, Jesus encourages us to remain in the faith, to still trust Him because He is “the way, the truth and the life”.
If Jesus thought these were important truths he needed to remind us of before he went to die on the cross, I believe we still ought to treat them with high value today. When Jesus comes back to gather his bride and finally be united with her, we would no longer suffer, we would no longer cry, death would be no more, we would finally be living life to the fullest. However, we are not there yet, so we have to manage the transition phase we are in right now. I pray the Lord gives you strength to persevere and hold fast to the words of Christ. Amen!
A Word Aptly Spoken 