I Commit My Spirit

Before breathing his last, Jesus cried out “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” This is recorded in Luke 23. Again, this is Jesus quoting scripture. Here, he is quoting Psalm 31. In everything that Jesus did, he was fulfilling the word of God. Of course there is something else we can take from his last words. In his dying moments he is willingly giving up his spirit to God the Father. It may seem like he has no other choice is inevitable, but that can not be further from the truth. At any moment, Jesus could have used his divine nature and perform a miracle. In this moment, he shows absolute faith in God the Father. Jesus has the power to save himself, but he had absolute faith that his Father would not forsake him.

In the world today we like to rely on ourselves. We like to think no one else will be there to look out for us. We believe that we are alone in this world. Often times even when we are offered help, we would rather do things by ourselves. We are afraid to look like we cannot do something. We do not want to look weak in this cutthroat world. There are also times that the world seems to be out to get us. There are times in our lives when nothing seems to be going right and there is nowhere that we can turn to. What I am trying to say is this world seems to be lonely and dark at times.

We do not need to feel this way though. We can always turn to our Father in heaven. At his weakest, Jesus was able to turn to his Father and we should be able to heed that example. No matter how bad things were on the cross, no matter how hopeless things seemed Jesus was able to still turn to God the Father. In the same way, no matter how dark our lives may get we can always commit ourselves to the Father. After all, Jesus was being crucified on behalf of us. If the Father would not forsake the Son who was dying for us, we can have assurance that the Father would never forsake us.

As we finish out the Lenten season, we can learn a lot when we look to the cross. We need to listen to these last words of Jesus and apply them to our lives. We as Christians should try to live as Jesus died.