"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46)
I think that, perhaps, this last saying of Jesus is the most human thing He said on the Cross. All His other words of forgiveness, salvation, giving, glory, love, and triumph could not have been said without His divinity. Sure, when Thomas was stoned to death, he also echoes Jesus’ first saying, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” But he said this with God’s Grace, which is bestowed upon us in infinite quantity. We just need to accept it.
When Jesus says these last words, He is reuniting Himself to God. He has completed all that He came to do. He has loved us, shown us God’s law, fulfilled the law and the prophets and now He has secured for us eternal life if we choose to accept His gift and all that it entails.
But remember that Christ never said it would be easy. Actually, He said we would be hated, we would have to take up our own crosses. In fact, of the 12 Apostles, I believe that John was the only one who was not martyred. Peter was crucified and legend says that He felt so unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord, so he requested to be crucified upside down!
Look at the lives of other saints that gave up their lives for the faith. What does it mean for these men and women throughout time that they believed this so strongly that they would die for it? What does it mean when Jesus says, “Into your hands I commend my Spirit?”
Yes, in one sense, He is declaring that His time on Earth has ended and He is returning to the Father. But this is so much more than that. Do not forget that Jesus was human too because His sacrifice could only be redeeming for us if He was human. He was true God and True Man. But here, as we saw in Gethsemane was the man.
Do you recall His agony in the Garden? When He cried, so anxious about His pending death, you could almost feel the dread deep within Him. He felt so alone, not even His disciples could stay awake with Him. He sweat blood!
In His agony, He cried out to God to take this cup from Him, but then He submitted to the Lord’s Will. He submitted as the first reflection tells us, because of His love for us.
So then in His last words give us insight as to Who He is as True Man and thus also gives us insight about ourselves.
These words are actually from Psalms 31. In this Psalms, the psalmist laments the evil in the world and speaks of God’s judgment upon them. But he also puts a strong emphasis on trusting God and ends with thanksgiving as He knows that our God is a Faithful God.
When Jesus says these last words, He is reuniting Himself to God. He has completed all that He came to do. He has loved us, shown us God’s law, fulfilled the law and the prophets and now He has secured for us eternal life if we choose to accept His gift and all that it entails.
But remember that Christ never said it would be easy. Actually, He said we would be hated, we would have to take up our own crosses. In fact, of the 12 Apostles, I believe that John was the only one who was not martyred. Peter was crucified and legend says that He felt so unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord, so he requested to be crucified upside down!
Look at the lives of other saints that gave up their lives for the faith. What does it mean for these men and women throughout time that they believed this so strongly that they would die for it? What does it mean when Jesus says, “Into your hands I commend my Spirit?”
Yes, in one sense, He is declaring that His time on Earth has ended and He is returning to the Father. But this is so much more than that. Do not forget that Jesus was human too because His sacrifice could only be redeeming for us if He was human. He was true God and True Man. But here, as we saw in Gethsemane was the man.
Do you recall His agony in the Garden? When He cried, so anxious about His pending death, you could almost feel the dread deep within Him. He felt so alone, not even His disciples could stay awake with Him. He sweat blood!
In His agony, He cried out to God to take this cup from Him, but then He submitted to the Lord’s Will. He submitted as the first reflection tells us, because of His love for us.
So then in His last words give us insight as to Who He is as True Man and thus also gives us insight about ourselves.
These words are actually from Psalms 31. In this Psalms, the psalmist laments the evil in the world and speaks of God’s judgment upon them. But he also puts a strong emphasis on trusting God and ends with thanksgiving as He knows that our God is a Faithful God.
In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.
For all my foes I am an object of reproach,
a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends;
they who see me abroad flee from me.
I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;
I am like a dish that is broken.
But my trust is in you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my God.
In your hands is my destiny; rescue me
from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.”
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your kindness.
Take courage and be stouthearted,
all you who hope in the LORD.
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.
For all my foes I am an object of reproach,
a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends;
they who see me abroad flee from me.
I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;
I am like a dish that is broken.
But my trust is in you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my God.
In your hands is my destiny; rescue me
from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.”
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your kindness.
Take courage and be stouthearted,
all you who hope in the LORD.
Jesus trusts the Father. His own humanity would be a hindrance to that trust just our humanity hinders us. How often do we try to trust God but then we don’t actually leave it in His hands? We try to control the situation so that our wills can be done, not His. But Jesus, in spite of His own human frailties, trusts God. He followed God, with Love in His heart for God and Neighbor, to Calvary where He was nailed to a cross and died for us.
His last words are a testament to His trust for God. “Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.” The beauty that this was said by Jesus, as Man, dying on the Cross is the fullness of obedience, trust and Love, and we can also trust as He trusts.
We do not have eternal life simply because Jesus died for us. No, it is something we must accept within ourselves by saying yes to Christ, allowing Him to love us and relieving His thirst with our love for Him. It is a choice we must make and this choice leads to actions.
Everything we say and do, think and feel is a reflection of this Choice. We either choose to be His disciples or we do not. We either love God and Neighbor or we do not. We either trust that God has a plan for us and will take care of us, or we do not.
“Always be prepared to give an explanation of the reason for your hope” (1 Peter). We are called to be witnesses to Christ’s love. Many Christians today use the word witness and expect that they can walk into another person’s life, proud and haughty, and convert or transform them. They can be forceful, arrogant and unloving. Not a true witness to Christ’s Love who meets the sinner wherever he or she is at.
But moreover, the Greek word for ‘witness’ is Martyr. And so we are called to be martyrs, as Christ died for love of us, so we, too, die for love of Him. To truly accept Christ as our Lord and Savior means that we accept death, whether it is at a ripe old age or in our youth, whether it is peaceful and serene or agonizing, whether it is a death surrounded by loved ones or death as a martyr of our faith, we accept it and we trust God through it.
But acceptance of our own mortality, however it may come, is not the whole picture. We don’t just say, “yeah, ok, I know I am going to die someday...” No, we accept death meaning that we accept God’s Will for our lives. We can do this by dying to ourselves, our desires and attachments to worldly possessions and living for Him. God will never fail us, He will never abandon us, even when it seems as though He has, He never will. If there is one thing in this world that you can say with absolute certainty, it is that God loves all of us, sinner and saint, and He wants us to be with Him always.
I heard once that original sin was not disobeying God; rather it was not trusting God. Look for a moment at Genesis 3:1-6:
His last words are a testament to His trust for God. “Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.” The beauty that this was said by Jesus, as Man, dying on the Cross is the fullness of obedience, trust and Love, and we can also trust as He trusts.
We do not have eternal life simply because Jesus died for us. No, it is something we must accept within ourselves by saying yes to Christ, allowing Him to love us and relieving His thirst with our love for Him. It is a choice we must make and this choice leads to actions.
Everything we say and do, think and feel is a reflection of this Choice. We either choose to be His disciples or we do not. We either love God and Neighbor or we do not. We either trust that God has a plan for us and will take care of us, or we do not.
“Always be prepared to give an explanation of the reason for your hope” (1 Peter). We are called to be witnesses to Christ’s love. Many Christians today use the word witness and expect that they can walk into another person’s life, proud and haughty, and convert or transform them. They can be forceful, arrogant and unloving. Not a true witness to Christ’s Love who meets the sinner wherever he or she is at.
But moreover, the Greek word for ‘witness’ is Martyr. And so we are called to be martyrs, as Christ died for love of us, so we, too, die for love of Him. To truly accept Christ as our Lord and Savior means that we accept death, whether it is at a ripe old age or in our youth, whether it is peaceful and serene or agonizing, whether it is a death surrounded by loved ones or death as a martyr of our faith, we accept it and we trust God through it.
But acceptance of our own mortality, however it may come, is not the whole picture. We don’t just say, “yeah, ok, I know I am going to die someday...” No, we accept death meaning that we accept God’s Will for our lives. We can do this by dying to ourselves, our desires and attachments to worldly possessions and living for Him. God will never fail us, He will never abandon us, even when it seems as though He has, He never will. If there is one thing in this world that you can say with absolute certainty, it is that God loves all of us, sinner and saint, and He wants us to be with Him always.
I heard once that original sin was not disobeying God; rather it was not trusting God. Look for a moment at Genesis 3:1-6:
“The serpent asked the woman, ‘Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’
The woman answered the serpent: ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'
But the serpent said to the woman: ’You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.’
The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.”
The woman answered the serpent: ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'
But the serpent said to the woman: ’You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.’
The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.”
So you see, the serpent had convinced the woman that God did not have the best intentions for her, that she could not trust Him. So then she looked at the fruit with untrusting eyes, seeing what she wanted and no longer placing her trust in God’s love for her.
Life is difficult. We are constantly bombarded with pain and suffering, if not our own, than someone else. We are constantly tempted by greed, lust, material possessions, etc. We live in a world where senseless things happen every day to good people; it is a world where many people say “Why God?” And they don’t understand.
Life is difficult. We are constantly bombarded with pain and suffering, if not our own, than someone else. We are constantly tempted by greed, lust, material possessions, etc. We live in a world where senseless things happen every day to good people; it is a world where many people say “Why God?” And they don’t understand.
“We know that all things work for good for those who love God”
(Romans 8:28).
(Romans 8:28).
Jesus does not call us to pick up our teddy bears and follow Him, He asks us to pick up our crosses which is just a splinter of the cross He carries for us.
No matter what cross He asks you to carry, trust that God gives you that cross for a purpose. Your suffering is for a reason beyond our comprehension today, but will be made clear tomorrow.Christ accepted His death and His final words were a testament to His Trust in the Father. We can join in Christ’s crucifixion by intrusting our spirits into His hands and then, we can have hope that we will also share in His resurrection.
No matter what cross He asks you to carry, trust that God gives you that cross for a purpose. Your suffering is for a reason beyond our comprehension today, but will be made clear tomorrow.Christ accepted His death and His final words were a testament to His Trust in the Father. We can join in Christ’s crucifixion by intrusting our spirits into His hands and then, we can have hope that we will also share in His resurrection.
Trust God and if things don’t work out, Trust Him more.
Thank You, Jesus, for becoming incarnate. You could have remained forever in the beauty and glory of your Father’s home but You freely chose instead briefly to visit with us, to live as a humble man, and above all to suffer Your Passion, taking upon Yourself the pain of all our sins, in agony on the Cross giving Your Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity to the Father to reconcile us with Him and open His kingdom for us. You bore all the pain, we got all the gain. What awesome love! What magnificent love! Thank you Jesus! Amen.
I want to thank everyone who has journeyed with me on the reflections of the Seven Last Sayings of Christ. It has been both a challenge as well as a blessing to find the time to reflect, mediditate and write about each saying. I feel like I have really grown in my faith and it is my sincerest hope that you have too. I love each of you for I know that God loves you. I ask Him to bless you at all times, to watch over you and your loved ones and to help you as you continue to grow in Faith.
Pax Christi,
Julia
I want to thank everyone who has journeyed with me on the reflections of the Seven Last Sayings of Christ. It has been both a challenge as well as a blessing to find the time to reflect, mediditate and write about each saying. I feel like I have really grown in my faith and it is my sincerest hope that you have too. I love each of you for I know that God loves you. I ask Him to bless you at all times, to watch over you and your loved ones and to help you as you continue to grow in Faith.
Pax Christi,
Julia
Amen sister God is good and faithful ..He leads us on the path of the Just even if we have a little faith as a mustard seed.. May God lead you continually on the path of the Just.Prov 4:18
ReplyDeleteMay He continue to bring you light(truth) via His word.