For
a more complete review of the last words of Jesus, log onto my YouTube series
here: https://youtu.be/fCcC5vBzElE
The last seven words (statements,
actually) of Jesus as He hung on Golgotha's cross are among the most
encouraging of all Scripture. Here is the last of the seven:
“Father,
into your hands I commit my spirit.”
(Luke
23:46)
Can the Father be trusted, even in
our darkest and most desperate moment? It’s an important question to articulate
aloud because doubts course through our minds anyway. And God hears those
questions in our thoughts as easily as He hears them from our lips.
Can He be trusted to do what is
right and good at all times and in all situations? Jesus answered the question
for Himself, for although God from God and Light from Light, Jesus was also at
the same time fully man – with all the emotions of any other person. He knew
fear, and hunger, and thirst, and grief, and loneliness, and anger . . .
And pain.
Jesus did not want to die. Three
times in the garden He pleaded with the Father, “If it is possible, let this
cup pass from Me.” But in the end, of course, He would do His Father’s
will.
Why would He do that? Many reasons,
certainly. But one floats now to the top of my mind – because He loved His
Father more than His own life. And His love for the Father brought confidence
in His goodness, His tenderness, and of His reciprocal love.
“Into Thy hands I commit My spirit.”
Good Friday is good because even as
the Father’s beloved Jesus carried that cross to Golgotha, God at the same time
demonstrated His love for you and for me in that while we mocked His Son,
cursed Him, shook our fist at Him in defiance – the Father watched His Son die
for us.
“Into Thy hands I commit my spirit.”
What darkness envelopes you today?
What sadness, or emptiness, or loneliness, or pain overshadows your soul?
And if not today, then wait a while. Life is full of such things as can tear
our soul to its very core. Jesus loved His Father so much that even in His
darkest moment He remained confident that the Father’s love was so deep and
abiding that nothing – not even death – could separate them. And so Jesus is
our preeminent example of what love for the Father can do for us in our dark
times. Love for God can generate hope, and hope will never disappoint because
God’s love will unfold in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us – a
love so deep and abiding that we will know, in the very core of our soul, that
nothing will separate us.
“Into Thy hands I commit my spirit.”
Can God be trusted? What do we
think? What will we do?
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