We last week referred the moving statement in a Lenten hymn that asks us to “learn of Jesus Christ to die.”
The gospels tell us that Jesus died, saying the following words: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." (Lk 23:46). Jesus again had fellowship with God the Father when he died. The Saviour was once more in peaceful, loving communion with the Father. He could once more speak to the Father, because the Father was no longer removed from him. We too call God our Father, once we are not anymore removed from him.
When we call God our Father, to die means to go from the hands of men, into the hands of God.
Jesus warned his disciples that he would fall into the hands of men. He said to his disciples, that (Mk 10:33-34) "... the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him ..." (Mk 8:31, 9:31). And, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said, (Matt 26:45-46) "... Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
On the first Easter Sunday the angels reminded us how (Lk 24:6-7) “... he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'"
Christ could have steered clear of being in the hands of cruel, hateful men. He could have called on legions of angels to defend him. But, out of love and in obedience to his Father, he freely gave his life, to save sinners. Jesus selflessly submitted and laid down his life to become the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
For twelve hours Jesus suffered at the hands of men, and then, when he died, he delivered himself from the hands of men into the hands of God, his Father. This means that Jesus will never again be at the mercy of the wicked! He committed himself into the hands of the Father, and he and the Father are one forever.
"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." In the Father's hands Jesus was raised from the dead. In the Father’s hands he was exalted to the highest place in heaven and on earth. In the Fathers hands he was given a Name above every other Name and “at his Name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:9-11).
When we are not removed from the Father anymore, we too pass from the hands of men to the hands of the Father at the last breath! We too are safe in the hands of God, and so are our loved ones that passed before us. In his hands we shall enjoy God’s glory and we shall on the Day of the Lord be raised and we shall reign with Jesus forever!
Death has no sting when at the last breath we commit ourselves into the hands of the Father. Even though we have little understanding of what all of this means literally and practically, we know that we shall live safely in the Father’s hands, and pass to him on the day we die: comforted and with much joy!
The Heidelberg Catechism asks in its Lord’s Day 1: What is your only comfort in life and in death?
And the answer remains so very important to all of us:
That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me, that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto him.
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