Holy Week - Good Friday

(Luke 23:44-46) The Seventh Word from the cross was: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.".

When Jesus was a child, every Hebrew child was taught to pray, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Mary certainly taught Jesus this prayer when he was still a toddler. Now the Son of God, climaxing his ministry on the cross, prays these words again. Jesus greets this phase of his life in the words of a prayer he learned from his mother: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."

When Jesus passed on, he did not speak some great, philosophical wisdom. When he left this world to enter Paradise, Jesus spoke a childhood prayer. The shadows have lengthened and the end has come, Jesus died. The Son is going home. "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."

Jesus was in the hands of sinful men. But now he would go to his Father. The Father who had forsaken him, forsook him no longer. The Father who punished him for our sins, finished punishing him. He does not die the death of a criminal. He went to hell for our sake, but his redemption work was finished. His Father condemned him no longer. In the end, the Father was there, and into his hands Jesus could commit his spirit. Learn of Jesus how to die; how to go to Paradise. By committing your spirit to the Father.

The most precious possession you have, is your eternal spirit. And, that spirit is secure only when it is in the hands of God.

On this Good Friday, I have to ask: Have you followed the example of Jesus? Have you committed your spirit into the Fathers hand.
On this Good Friday, for Christ sake, commit yourself into the Father’s hands - for this life, and for ever.