Seven Sayings of Jesus on the Cross – #7

Luke 23:46
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

From noon until 3pm there was “darkness over the whole land”. The Light of the world was being snuffed out. Creation itself was holding it’s collective breath, looking into the precipice as Jesus spent his final breath uttering his final words ”Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

It is in these deathly words where we find life. With these words Jesus gives us one final act of faithfulness and reliance upon his Father. With these words Jesus finally and fully lets go of the ownership and kingship of himself. He submits himself to the Father and fully gives himself to us. It is the completion of what he said in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before: “Thy will be done.”

In the most glorious way, Jesus gave up. And is inviting us to do the same.

Giving up on insisting on our own way, being our own kings and ruling our own lives. Giving up on building and flaunting our own personal righteousness. Giving up on controlling the universe around us. Giving up on fighting our Father. Giving up on trying to breath life into our old dead and decaying life. When Christ gave himself up to death, the barrier that kept us from the Father was torn in two, recreating us back into His Image:

Mark 15:37
And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.
38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

In this death we find new life, new creation (2 Cor 5:17). And this new life comes with it a glorious hope, promise and future:

1 Peter 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

In this death we find new life, new creation (2 Cor 5:17). And this new life comes with it a glorious hope, promise and future:

1 Peter 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

And so as we stand beneath this old rugged cross, let us hold in tension the agony and the beauty as we join with the centurion’s confession:

Mark 15:39
And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: