Victoria speaks: "Jesus' Last Words."

Victoria, a fresh psychology grad from NUS, is a full-time teacher in a secondary school. She enjoys cooking and that makes many of us in Campus very happy indeed!

Hi everyone!

Am now sitting on a bench at NTU waiting for some campus brothers and sisters to turn out before we do some evangelism. I am also meeting a friend for dinner after my project meeting as well. Thank you God for allowing me to be a student for a year again! It's AWESOME to be a student but also very GRATIFYING to be a single as well. Amen? Amen. haha, hope u all 'miss' my rambling to myself.

I will just like to share abt what I learnt from Jesus's last words in Luke 23. Today, my key verse was to meditate on verse 34. Have you ever wondered why Jesus said those last words? Why did he choose to phrase the words as it is? It was his last few moments and he only uttered words seven times (Luke only recorded 3 statements he said when he was on the cross). Taking my Literature lesson to heart, I wrote the verse in a HUGE font. It's something like this:


Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing

So what did I learn abt the meaning of this verse?
- Jesus was interceding on the people's behalf to ask God to forgive them
- The people were ignorant of that they were carrying out the prophecies written in OT. (Isaiah 53:3-12)
- Jesus did not say this prayer just once.


Then I asked myself the question: why did Jesus ask God to forgive the sins of the masses? In Matthew 9:2, he told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven. Why did he not do the same thing now?

Because he's taking the sins of the humans... he's becoming one of us. He's offering himself as a offering to atone for the sins of you and me. Imagine the mighty judge now being wrongly judged so that the wrong can walk free. Very unfair right? It made me think abt how I often catch myself complaining abt how life is so unfair... Jesus's death illustrates the need for us not to hunger for justice but to be merciful. There will always be injustices in the world but hope and mercy made life on earth more bearable.

The whole statement above is in present tense. The people were ignorant that they were killing the Lord. " While they didn't know, they should have known. The prophecies were numerous and very clear. His teachings were profound and filled with wisdom and authority. His miracles should have convinced them. His perfect life and love should have removed all doubt about His identity. There was no excuse for their ignorance." (quote from a website) I can replace 'them', 'they' with my name and it will be a prayer for mercy on my behalf. Before I was a Christian, I was ignorant of the meaning of Jesus's death on the cross for me. Til now, I am still ignorant of the ACTUAL hurt that I am causing God and Jesus everyday with my sins. As humans, we will never fully comprehend God's love for us. We have the Bible aka God's Word with us. Yet everyday, we struggle to love. We struggle to forgive. We struggle to put God in the first place. We get distracted. We get discouraged. We get burnt out. We feel that God has forsaken us when we are the ones who have forsaken him. God knows we are responsible for our sins and what will befall us BUT He still forgives us.

He doesn't just forgive once when we are baptized. It made me think abt my heart to love and forgive. In order to forgive us, Jesus paid a very very painful price. He gave up everything for us. So what's the meaning of forgiveness? The word "forgive" is borrowed from the world of commerce and banking. "It means to cancel a debt or to pardon a loan.To forgive is to cancel the debt of someone so that they never have to pay us back for what they've done to us. It's to give grace to someone who doesn't deserve it. If we choose to not forgive we can end up letting our anger and resentment metastasize into bitterness." (quote from website) So have I put down my bitterness? If Jesus laid down his life to forgive, can't we lay down our bitterness towards others? Can't we lay down our insecurities towards ourselves? Let's write down what we struggle to forgive and ask someone to help us. Let's be VULNERABLE so that we can grow to be even more Christ-like. :)


Love, Victoria