Luke 23:46 reads; And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus, He gave up the ghost.
These were the very last words Jesus spoke on the cross. It was the 6th hour, and it was dark. As Jesus hung there on that cross, His body badly beaten, His hands stretched wide and nailed, His feet nailed together, depending on that cross with a crown of thorns had been smashed on His head. A sign was posted on the cross that said King of the Jews.
The pain that Jesus felt on that cross was great. Isaiah 53:5 says He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes, we are healed.
We hear what happened to him bodily. In addition, Spiritually, Jesus carried the world's weight on His heart as He became sin for us. Jesus laid His body out as a slain lamb. All the sins of humanity were poured upon His head like the trash of a city is dumped into a landfill.
Like a sponge absorbs water, Jesus absorbed the filth that permeated us, past, present, and future, My sins, my secret sins, your sins, sins. Sins of the whole world; so putrid were our sins that Father God turned His back on God the Son as He bore the heavyweight of our wickedness. Jesus willingly sacrificed Himself so the Father could act out His vengeance and anger on Him on behalf of humankind, so that lost sinners could become the righteousness of God in Him.
Yet, the most unbearable of all was the abandonment that Jesus felt while hanging on the cross as He uttered the opening of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Until the cross, Jesus knew nothing of the Father's displeasure. He always existed within glorious favor and perfect love comprised of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Father is the eternal source and wellspring of the deity. His Beloved Son is the endless “going forth” of all that the Father is, the lasting Image, Word, and Radiance of the Father’s fullness. The Holy Spirit is the personal bond of union, the hypostatic love, the fullness of God breathed out in ecstatic affirmation, eternally and reciprocally flowing between Father and Son. This One True God—the perfection of joy and fellowship within Himself—is the starting point of all that follows. Boundless is His joy, boundless in His peace, boundless in His dynamism; God lacks nothing and creates out of the fullness and freedom of love. Love is an outpouring of oneself to communicate God to the other. It is from splendid power that the Triune God creates reality. Because we understand this, the most unbearable pain on the cross was, The father setting His eyes against the Son.
He who knew no sin had become sin for us.
Jesus had done the work, the will of His Father; the temple curtain had been ripped in two. The price of sin had been paid; bearing our sins was over. Jesus had drunk the cup of God’s wrath against sin. God was satisfied. Fellowship with the Father was reestablished. Christ had completed the work He had come to do, so He now turns His attention to himself, His Spirit. Father into thy hands, I commend my Spirit. This scripture is taken from Psalm 31:5, where David talked about his trust in God as his refuge and deliverer in times of trouble. Jesus personalized this verse by saying Father into thy hands, I commend my Spirit. Jesus didn’t say this whimpering but in a robust victorious voice. His last words were words of intimacy, trust, and surrender as He cried out to the Father, knowing that he was giving his Spirit into the loving hands of God, who would receive him with open arms.
Prayer and intimacy with the Father are everything to Jesus. Just as it should be with us today, it is not enough to hold positions in church and do outstanding work. We also need to have a relationship and intimacy with our Father God. We need to spend time in prayer with him as Jesus did.
Jesus' life shows us that No matter what we are facing, what we are going through, or how dark our situation may be, we need to trust that God will bring us through every trial. Let our pain draw us closer to God, not further away from His word. Let our difficulties draw us nearer to the cross. Remember that this light affliction is only for a season.
Finally, the Lord breathed out His human soul willingly; no one took His life; He laid it down freely. He dismissed His human spirit into God’s divine care, leaving His bruised, battered body – the tent where He tabernacled for a season into God’s hands.
God's hands are deep resources of Love, mercy, grace, holiness, righteousness, justice, power, and wisdom. As Christians, we should never outgrow the cross. We should never forget the death of Jesus and what that means to all that would believe. As we know, death is not the end because Jesus rose on the 3rd day with all power in His hands. Praise God.
Written by Joyce Thomas & Jasmine Thomas
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