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**Sermon Text: **Luke 23:44-46
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
It may not be the posture for prayer that many would expect. He cannot prostrate Himself with His face to the ground in the custom of the ancient Hebrews or modern day Muslims. He can bow His head and close His eyes. But He can’t fold His hands like we teach our children in chapel. You see, both of His hands are stretched out as far as they can reach. And they’re nailed to wooden beams. Yet, hanging there on the cross, Jesus prays, not in a silent whisper, but with a loud voice: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
Jesus prays the prayer He learned from the lips and laps of Mary and Joseph every night before He went to bed as a child. It was the bedtime prayer of the Old Testament, Psalm 31: “In You, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit, you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”
Now Jesus prays it in the very hour of His death: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit”.
Certainly more challenging, but similar to our own prayer: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Or Luther’s evening prayer many Lutherans throughout history have taught our children: “For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.”
That’s how children, including many of you, learned to pray before our society got the well-intentioned, but totally mistaken notion that we should try to cover up all evidence of death, especially from our children. In our process of censoring and sanitizing we’ve left many people unprepared to deal with death—their own or the death of their loved ones.
Psalm 31, and both prayers display a healthy awareness that there is evil out in the world that seeks to take body and soul, but also confess a firm trust in God’s grace and mercy. Each expresses a willingness to entrust everything—body and soul—to His loving hand, with an understanding that while death is not natural, there is something far more terrible than physical death.
Unlike our culture. Unlike you and me. Jesus does not avoid death. He does not run from it. He was born to die. He rehearsed for it every night when He went to bed and prayed, “Into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
What trust! Even as He slips into death. Even when it appears that the Evil One, Satan himself, has won! Satan’s taken his best shot at Jesus. Got one disciple to betray Him. Another to deny Him repeatedly. The rest to abandon Him. With all sin heaped on His shoulders, God the Father even leaves His beloved Son to suffer the damnation of hell as the sky turns to black and the sun and moon cover their eyes at such horror.
Satan had to be twitching his tail in glee! But even in that abandonment Jesus prays with trust: “My God, My God . . .”
After all, His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death blaze the way for your salvation. And the rescue of you from every evil of body and soul from the devil. And Jesus knows it. It is finished. He has done the job. Willingly. As the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He lays down His life as a ransom for many. All your sin belongs to Him. He took it. So your sin doesn’t belong to you. You can’t have it. Not when Jesus has taken it and answered for it. He is the once for all sacrifice that atones for sin. He leaves none out. All sin. Every sinner. You too.
With all His saving work accomplished for sinners Jesus prays with all boldness and confidence: “Father, into your hands I commit My spirit.” He will not be abandoned in the grave. Death cannot hold Him. In three days the Scriptures will be fulfilled. He will be raised from the dead. And then to the Father’s right hand in glory. Jesus knows the end game. For Him and for you.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
It may not be the posture for prayer that many would expect. He cannot prostrate Himself with His face to the ground in the custom of the ancient Hebrews or modern day Muslims. He can bow His head and close His eyes. But He can’t fold His hands like we teach our children in chapel. You see, both of His hands are stretched out as far as they can reach. And they’re nailed to wooden beams. Yet, hanging there on the cross, Jesus prays, not in a silent whisper, but with a loud voice: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
Jesus prays the prayer He learned from the lips and laps of Mary and Joseph every night before He went to bed as a child. It was the bedtime prayer of the Old Testament, Psalm 31: “In You, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit, you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”
Now Jesus prays it in the very hour of His death: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit”.
Certainly more challenging, but similar to our own prayer: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Or Luther’s evening prayer many Lutherans throughout history have taught our children: “For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.”
That’s how children, including many of you, learned to pray before our society got the well-intentioned, but totally mistaken notion that we should try to cover up all evidence of death, especially from our children. In our process of censoring and sanitizing we’ve left many people unprepared to deal with death—their own or the death of their loved ones.
Psalm 31, and both prayers display a healthy awareness that there is evil out in the world that seeks to take body and soul, but also confess a firm trust in God’s grace and mercy. Each expresses a willingness to entrust everything—body and soul—to His loving hand, with an understanding that while death is not natural, there is something far more terrible than physical death.
Unlike our culture. Unlike you and me. Jesus does not avoid death. He does not run from it. He was born to die. He rehearsed for it every night when He went to bed and prayed, “Into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
What trust! Even as He slips into death. Even when it appears that the Evil One, Satan himself, has won! Satan’s taken his best shot at Jesus. Got one disciple to betray Him. Another to deny Him repeatedly. The rest to abandon Him. With all sin heaped on His shoulders, God the Father even leaves His beloved Son to suffer the damnation of hell as the sky turns to black and the sun and moon cover their eyes at such horror.
Satan had to be twitching his tail in glee! But even in that abandonment Jesus prays with trust: “My God, My God . . .”
After all, His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death blaze the way for your salvation. And the rescue of you from every evil of body and soul from the devil. And Jesus knows it. It is finished. He has done the job. Willingly. As the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He lays down His life as a ransom for many. All your sin belongs to Him. He took it. So your sin doesn’t belong to you. You can’t have it. Not when Jesus has taken it and answered for it. He is the once for all sacrifice that atones for sin. He leaves none out. All sin. Every sinner. You too.
With all His saving work accomplished for sinners Jesus prays with all boldness and confidence: “Father, into your hands I commit My spirit.” He will not be abandoned in the grave. Death cannot hold Him. In three days the Scriptures will be fulfilled. He will be raised from the dead. And then to the Father’s right hand in glory. Jesus knows the end game. For Him and for you.