It might be Citizen Kane’s fault that I find last words interesting. They can paint a picture. Like the old joke, “What are a red neck’s last words? Hold my beer and watch this.” It’s a good joke because you can see it! You know this guy, right? In just a few words you get a tiny movie of this guy’s life.   Martin Luther wrote his last words. His friends found them on a piece of paper by his bed. He wrote, “We are beggars. That is true.” That is how he understood our relationship with God, beggars with nothing to offer. “For Luther the good news of the gospel was that in Jesus Christ God had become a beggar too. God identified with us in our neediness” (T. George).   The poet and preacher John Donne wrote his own epitaph. The last line on his grave marker reads, “He lies here in the dust but beholds Him whose name is Rising.” Donne knew, and said very elegantly, that when we shuffle off this mortal coil our bodies return to the dust from which they were made.   Easter is Sunday. It is the high point of the Christian year. He has risen! But we must not skip over the rest of Holy Week. I hope you do not make it to Sunday without reflecting on the fact that God became a beggar like us, washed his disciple’s feet like a servant, and died a criminal’s death because of his great love. The world is not as it should be; death still operates among us; the curse of sin remains upon us. But because “a sinless savior died my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied, to look on him and pardon me.” We can be assured that the curse of sin and death will be broken because Jesus’ last words were, “It is finished.” Your soul has been purchased by his blood; all accounts have been settled. You can live knowing your last words on this earth will not be your last words because you will sing for eternity of the greatness of our King.