“Father, into your hands I commend my
spirit.” According to the Gospel of Luke, these are the last words spoken by
Jesus before his death. Jesus speaks these words out loud, but unlike other
examples in scripture, he does not clarify who he is speaking these words for.
Did Jesus say these words for the benefit of those who are present, like he
does at the mouth of Lazarus’ tomb when he says “Father, I thank you that you
have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit
of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me,” or does
Jesus say it for his own sake, like in the Garden of Gethsemene, when he asks
God to “Take this cup from me”?
Because Jesus is both human and
divine, we can assume that he speaks both for our benefit and for his own
benefit. When he speaks these words as a human, he speaks them after suffering
for nearly 24 hours. The night before his death, Jesus is betrayed by a brother
and a disciple, he is brought before Pilot, he is brought before King Herod,
Jesus is then punished to 100 lashings, sentenced to death while a known
murderer walks free, forced to carry his cross, and then nailed to it. Jesus’
death did not just happen on Good Friday, but rather his death began the at the last supper and continued slowly
and with increasing pain every step of the way.
Finally, when the pain had become too
much for Jesus as a human to bear, he releases his spirit into the hands of
God. Jesus turns to his father, the one who sent him here to die, and he says
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” It is an endearing moment for
all of humanity to witness, a moment in which Jesus, the Son of God, who could
have been saved, chose to continue his suffering until death so that we would
be freed from the power of death. In this moment, Jesus bares his human side
more clearly than ever before; he submitted himself to death, just as we all
must do at some point in our lives.
Even in the intimate moment of Jesus,
fully human, handing himself over to God, we are filled with hope with these
words that are spoken for our sake as well. In his divinity, Jesus spoke out
loud so that we may fully understand that his dying on a cross was truly an act
of defiance. Everything that Jesus had done on earth thus far was in defiance
to the way that life had been lived up to that point. Jesus lived in a constant
defiance to the ways of the world.
The sermon on the mount of olives
defied all the things that people had been told before Jesus’ time. Jesus
healing people on the Sabbath was an act of defiance to the laws of the time.
Jesus ate dinner with the tax collectors and prostitutes in defiance of what
was expected of people who claimed to be holy. Jesus washed the disciples feet
in an act of defiance against what was expected of a king. Jesus did not fight
back when he was accused, choosing to be passive and loving, an act of defiance
in itself. Jesus was the king of the Jews, even the note above his head on the
cross said so, but Jesus did not die with the honor of a King, but the disgrace
of a common criminal. Fully divine, Jesus chose to die in disgrace in defiance
of what would be expected of someone who claimed to be a king.
But how is this final statement an
act of defiance as well? The word “commend” means to offer up for judgement or
approval, something that the world had already done when they judged Jesus to
be a criminal and a heretic and condemned him to death. But by saying “Father,
into your hands I commend my spirit,”
Jesus takes all the power of judgement away from the world and places it in
God’s hands. These words, spoken by Jesus in his divinity, are offered up to
strengthen the disciples as they were about to head into a more difficult time
without Jesus by their side. He proved to them that even though the world had
thrown literally everything it had at him, the world will never have the final
say, only God will have the final say.
In his humanity, Jesus is broken
physically, he has suffered for almost an entire day, his body is dying, and
Jesus’ spirit is ready to be taken into heaven by God. In his divinity, Jesus
knows that his spirit belongs to God, and that he is going home shortly. He
knows that the world doesn’t have a say in his true judgement, and even when
the world thinks it has a hold on God, Jesus says “Father, into your hands I
commend my spirit,” and everything is changed. Christ’s death marks the moment
in which the scriptures are fulfilled, the ransom is paid, and the penalty of
sin is no more. The act of grace is complete, the love that God has for the
world is restored, and the hope for all is shared, but we do not know that yet,
not for another three days.
for more information on the seven last words, click here
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