A Good Friday Reflection - Father, Into Your Hands I Commend My Spirit

First, a preface - this reflection was written as a part of the Goffstown Clergy Association's "Seven Last Words of Christ Good Friday Service." I chose this text, based on Luke 23:46 and this reflection was done in the context of 6 other, amazing reflections by my clergy colleagues. Though we wrote them individually, God worked them together well, weaving similar themes through each reflection, tying them all together to the ultimate meaning of Good Friday - God's extravagant love for us. As I continue to reflect and meditate on the cross today, I offer this reflection to you. Live into these moments of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. We know that Easter is coming, but for now.... wait, reflect, and live into the story.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This afternoon, we’ve been taking a look at the seven sayings of Christ from the cross. Jesus’s final statement was a statement of trust “Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.” As Jesus hung on the cross and took his last breath, he spoke to send a clear message to the people around him – a message of hope, trust, and love for his people. Imagine what the disciples and followers of Jesus must have felt as the stood near the foot of the cross. Last night, I encouraged my congregation to live into the difficult moments in Holy Week. We know that Sunday is coming, but for right now, live into these moments – the confusion, the discomfort, the hurt, the grief. Imagine what it must have been like to watch their teacher, their King, their Messiah die. This wasn’t the way that it was supposed to be. Jesus was supposed to overturn the government, to make all things new, become the king of this new world. But Jesus was here, hanging on the cross, seemingly defeated and dying. How could this be? Did we get it all wrong?

Jesus final words from the cross have two purposes. The first is a proclamation of Christ’s obedience to God and the completeness of his actions. Father, into your hands I commend my sprit is a phrase of trust. It’s a phrase that says, God, take all of me, because I am yours. Everything I’ve ever done, everything I’ve ever said, and everything I am is yours. Father, into your hands, I commend my Spirit – take all of me – catch me in your hands – the work I’ve come to do is completed. This is it.

The second purpose in these words is a call to remembrance. The phrase “into your hands I commend my spirit” is a phrase from Psalm 31. In Jesus’ day, the Psalms were sung and they would have been known by the people standing near the cross. Much in the same way that we have familiar songs that are known to us. If I were to begin singing Amazing Grace right now, I’m willing to bet that most of you would be able to join me in singing. This is what Jesus did in his final moments from the cross. Though he didn’t have enough air to sing the words to the Psalm, struggling for his final breath, he spoke just enough to call his followers to remember the familiar words of Psalm 31. He reminded them of the song and in the song, the message of hope, trust, and love that one finds there.

Psalm 31, written by David around 1000 years before Jesus’s life on earth was the Psalm that Jesus chose as his message. It had been sung in the synagogues and would have been remembered even in the midst of the grief. It was familiar. The Psalm’s is clear and that’s what Jesus intended. Take time to read for yourself the words of Psalm 31 - the words that Christ called into the present with his final words on the cross. (And if you want a beautiful translation, read the words of the Psalm translated in the Book of Common Prayer which can be found here. To give you a summary, Psalm 31 begins with David taking refuge in God and calling on God to be a stronghold and castle to keep him safe. Then, David writes the familiar line “Into your hands I commend my spirit” God, I give you everything, in spite of the troubles I face, in spite of the enemies that mock me, in spite of the people trying to kill me, You are God and in you I trust. This paraphrase of the Psalm sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Kind of like the things that Jesus was experiencing. But Psalm 31 does not end there. Instead, it ends with the final line “Be strong and let your hearts take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.”

In Jesus’ final moments of life here on earth, as he struggled to breathe, hanging on the cross, this was the message that Jesus spoke. “Be strong and let your hearts take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.” “Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit” was both a trust in God and a reminder to his followers: Take courage in God. Be strong. Things didn’t work out the way that you thought they might, but I have a better plan. Hope. Trust me. And wait. With those few words, Jesus called into memory the familiar Psalm in the people who surrounded him. He gave them hope for another day. And in the confusion that ensued after his death, his final message remained – I am not finished yet. Wait. And so they did and so must we. Amen.