Dear Christian friends:

Luke 23:46, "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice He said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit"

"Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1)

We need to keep this definition of faith in mind as we tonight consider Jesus' sixth word from the cross.

This marvelous word which Jesus uttered in His thirst and Godforsakeness. Hear this cry of the dying Savior, wonder and continue to marvel until you are healed by it once and for all, for it is:


This cry is made inspite of the fact that there is no visible basis for it. The dying Man on the cross cries, "Father."

He speaks of One who watches over Him and provides for Him with a Father's love. He speaks of One who belongs to Him and is merciful as fathers are merciful to their children. He addresses God the Almighty and Holy One, the Lord over all that happens, over joy and sorrow, life and death as Father.

But He sees and feels nothing of God's love and fatherly affection, nothing of His care and mercy. He feels and sees only the terror of being forsake by God and experiences nothing but the terrible judgment of God. He calls the angry God, "Father," and in effect He is calling destruction, providence, and forsakenness mercy.

His cry continues: "I commend." Commending is more than asking and hoping; commending means entrusting and delivering. He not only desired something from God; but at the same time regards His desire as fulfilled. His cry is not a prayer like our uncertain calling and hoping; but a prayer of anticipating fulfillment.

He accomplished that for which He asks. Jesus in effect prays: "God, accept My soul, and at the same time delivers it to Him. This prayer is the surest communion and consent of the Father and Son.

But there seems to be no communication whatever going on. Jesus feels only that God has broken all relations with Him. He feels only that He has nothing in common with God. "Reproach has broken my heart, And I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none. For my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." (Psalm 69:20-22) He is fully experiencing the fact that one cannot commend anything to the angry God, but can only suffer under Him.

And as Jesus commends His Spirit into God's "hands," He speaks of hands opening above Him to bless Him. He speaks of God extending His hands in Fatherly goodness to take Him and draw Him to His heart.

But in reality He feels only that God has completely turned away. God is far away. He has withdrawn His hand from His Son, and His Son stands there under God's judgment.

Continue marveling and wondering as Jesus, forsaken by God, calls, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." In all His experiences on the cross, physical and spiritual, in all that He sees and suffers, there is nothing to encourage Him to speak such a prayer.

What then is the meaning of this cry? Notice Jesus is actually using the words from Psalm 31:5 with which to shape His prayer. He is relying on God's Word and promises not on what He feels, sees and experiences. The meaning of this trusting cry is that Jesus believes. It is the cry of faith!

Here Jesus shows us the way of faith. We need to follow Him in believing.

What would His believing cry mean if we were to speak it? When God is far away, He is close to us. When God's judgment casts us down, God is gracious. When our prayers seem unanswered, God hears us. When our sin seems endless, we are holy. Collapse is no longer collapse , but building. Failure is no longer failure, but success.

When everything crashes down upon us and nothing is left, then God's nearness is greatest. When we can see no way out, then God has already prepared His way for us.

Martin Luther was good at this. He writes: "To proclaim and believe the Gospel of the cross means this: "Cross is glory; death, life; sin, righteousness; curse, blessing; our lost condition, salvation. When God makes alive, He does it by slaying; when He justifies, He does it by making guilty; when He leads us into heaven, He does it by leading us to hell."

If we believed as Jesus believed here on the cross we would be firm as granite. Then nothing could hurt us any longer, nothing could sadden us, nothing could separate us from God's love in all heaven and earth; then we would be inseparably united with God.

We would not base our relationship with God on what we are seeing and experiencing around us at the moment, whether it it be good or bad. God would always be present, not only now and then, off and on. God Himself would be with us always; in good days and in bad, in sickness and in health, in poverty or wealth, while living and while dying.

Paul had this granite-like faith. He could say:

"For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s." (Romans 14:7-8)

And the really important thing is that we be the Lord's. If we were not His, then it would be presumptuous and foolish on our part to call God, "Father." If we by ourselves were to attempt what Jesus did, we would only reach the height of sin, but not God. And though we called "Father" a thousand times, again and again commended ourselves to Him, He would not receive us into His hands.

There was only One who could call the distant holy God, "Father," and that One was Jesus Christ. Only One could ask of God and be heard, Jesus of Nazareth, God's eternal Son. There is no faith except the faith of Jesus Christ. No faith leads to God unless it is the faith of this crucified Lord.

Faith saves us only if it is at the same time the faith of Jesus Christ. We must believe in Him alone could leap to God because He had never committed a sin. Only in the faith of the God-forsaken Son of God is the world overcome. Only by His innocent death has the wall between God and the sinner been removed.

But if we believe in Christ, then that which we see and experience, sin, evil, Satan, death and hell, has been judged by God, overcome, and the whole God is there for us. That is why Jesus could say to His fearful disciples on the evening before He was crucified:

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

If we believe in Christ then no boldness of faith is too great, and no contempt of unpleasant experiences is too daring. That is why St. Paul is perfectly correct when he laughs and mocks death, saying:

"Hey, death, where is your sting? Hey, grave, where is your victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:55)

Paul knew that Jesus by His cross had removed the sting of death, and had gotten the victory over the grave.

If we believe in Christ, then our sin is no longer sin, but righteousness; trouble is a blessing; war is peace; and death is life. (Luther) If we believe in Christ, then God is our Father extending His hands to us. Then our prayers are heard, and we cannot pray too trustingly and confidently.

Then we can receive even while we pray, and thank God for receiving what we ask for even while we are still asking, although we have not yet received it. For the believer in Christ no prayer is too bold, because when Jesus cried out: "Father into Thy hands I commend My spirit, "He gathered all the souls of believers in a bundle and delivered them to God with His own." (Calvin)

This prayer of faith is now our prayer. Let us pray it often, especially in the day of trouble and in the hour of our death.

Amen.