Scarborough Chinese Baptist ChurchLent 2013
Daily Devotional
for the sermon series
Seven Words from the Cross
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)
Week 7: March 25-31
Seven Words from the Cross A study of our Lord’s last words from the cross
This week we come to the last of our Lord’s statements from the cross, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Some commentators point out that these words are extraordinarily common. There’s no passion in these words, there’s no extreme revelation given here, they are common words. In fact, as we will see, these are words that many Jewish children were taught to pray just before they went to bed at night. These are common words.
And yet they are words that indicate intimacy, surrender, confidence, and trust. And in that sense these words are quite remarkable. Think of it. Here is Jesus hanging on the cross with all the sin of the world bearing down on him – offering himself as the sacrifice for all of our sin and in the midst of it he has a quiet confidence that God has not abandoned him. He commits his sin riddled spirit to God. He entrusts himself to God and to his will. It is a prayer of trust.
Imagine if the last word from the cross was the other prayer we studied a couple of weeks ago, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That would be a horrible note to end on wouldn’t it? But it’s not the last prayer that Jesus utters. Instead he speaks this prayer of confidence and trust – knowing that all will be well because he is doing his father’s will and his heavenly father is in charge.
Do you have this confidence? Do you have this peace in the midst of life, in the face of death? It’s not just a confidence that Jesus has because he is the Son of God. It’s a confidence that can belong to us all because we are, through faith in Christ, called God’s children.
I pray that as we complete our study of our Lord’s words from the cross you will be able to have this peace that passes all understanding. I pray that you will know that because God is trustworthy you can commit your spirit into his hands now and forever. I pray that you will discover that this prayer is not all that “common”.
Monday March 25
Our Lord’s humanity
Pray: Lord today help me to trust you as a child trusts its parent. May I know the joy of being free from worry because you are my heavenly father. May I know the confidence of knowing that you are in control of my life. May I know the peace that comes from knowing that you love me and hold me.
Read: Luke:23:44-49
1. The text describes two miracles. What is the first miracle that is described? I know I’ve asked before, but what do you think is its significance (see Amos 8:9-10)
2. What is the second miracle described in this text? (verse 45)
3. Read Exodus 26:31-35. This describes the curtain that was to be made for the tabernacle. Later, when the people of God became settled it was reproduced for the temple. What was the function of this curtain (Exodus 26:33)?
4. According to Leviticus 16:1-2 who lives behind the curtain in
the Most Holy Place?
5. What do you think is the significance of the miracle described
in Luke 23:45b? (See Hebrews 10:19-22)
6. Now that the curtain is torn in two Jesus prays, “Father, into
your hands I commit my spirit”. What truth does that
demonstrate to you?
Reflection and Prayer
Max Lucado writes this poem for us to reflect on:
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”
Were it a war – this would be the aftermath.
Were it a symphony – this would be the second between the final
note and the first applause.
Were it a journey – this would be the sight of home.
Were it a storm – this would be the sun, piercing the clouds.
But it wasn’t. It was a Messiah. And this was a sigh of joy.
“Father!” (The voice is hoarse.)
The voice that called forth the dead,
The voice that taught the willing,
The voice that called forth the dead,
The voice that taught the willing,
The voice that screamed at God, now says, “Father!”
The two are again one.
The abandoned is now found.
The schism is now bridged.
“Father.” He smiles weakly. “It’s over.”
Satan’s vultures have been scattered.
Hell’s demons have been jailed.
Death has been damned.
The sun is out,
The Son is out.
It’s over.
An angel sighs. A star wipes away a tear.
“Take me home.”
Yes, take him home. Take this prince to his king.
Take this son to his father. Take this pilgrim to his home (He deserves a rest.)
“Take me home”
Come ten thousand angels! Come and take this wounded troubadour to the cradle of his Father’s arms!
Farewell manger’s infant
Bless You holy ambassador
Go Home death slayer
Rest well sweet soldier
The battle is over.”1
Pray: Write a prayer to God based on your reflections.
Tuesday March 26
A prayer of confidence
Pray: “Grant me, O most merciful Jesus, your grace, that it may be with me, and labour with me, and abide with me even to the end. Give me grace ever to desire and to will what is most acceptable to you, and most pleasing in your sight.
Let your will be mine, and let my will ever follow yours, and fully accord with it.
Let there be between you and me but one will, so that I may love what you love, and abhor what you hate; and let me not be able to will anything which you do not will, nor dislike anything which you do will.”2
Read: Psalm 31
1. Describe the attitude of the psalmist in verses 1-5. What does
he ask for? Can you imagine Jesus praying this prayer in his
heart and giving voice to verse 5a?
2. How does the Psalmist describe his situation in verses 6-14?
3. Despite his circumstances what is the Psalmists attitude about God and what affirmations does he make about God? (verses 14-24).
Reflection and Prayer
Psalm 31:5 is a psalm that Jesus would have learned as a child. It is Jewish child’s bedtime prayer. They would have said before they were tucked into bed by a loving parent. The strange thing is – Jesus says this prayer while on the cross.
Howard Hageman writes that some think that at the cross “there is no evidence of a Father – the sun grown dark with mystery, the body aching, bleeding, and sore, the cause deserted even by those who had professed it. Does this look to you like the handiwork of a Father or the cruel joke of a fiend. And here certainly was no sign of the hand of God. Where would you trace it on that bleak and desolate hill crowned with three crosses? ... It was not there, you say. But you would be wrong! You know Jesus Christ well enough to know that he never made a statement of which he was not himself convinced. … If in the darkness and death of Calvary he was still convinced that his life was held in the grasp of the omnipotent hand, he said it because he believed it. He spoke it because he knew it.
For what are these hands of God that hold us? We seem to think that God keeps his hand behind his back, so to speak, never once interfering in the course of our lives or the direction of this world unless we happen to decide that he should. Then, in response to our demand we would like to see the heavens open and God’s hand reach down to pick us up out of the dark valley and set us down once again in the green pastures. After that, of course, we would like nothing better than for God to withdraw his hand and let alone until we think we need him again.
I doubt that our Lord ever thought that way about the hand of God. No the picture is quite another. In the darkness, confusion, mystery of our lives, the hand of God is something extended for us to grasp, for us to hold. Sometimes the path is rough. Sometimes the water is cold and deep. We may wonder why it should be that way. But it is that way and there is no better answer. Yet no matter how rough and dark the path, no matter how chill and deep the stream, there by your side, if you will reach out to grasp it, is the hand of the Almighty Love. And if there is anything in life and death of which you may be sure, it is this. That hand is always there and will always be there.”3
Pray: Write out a prayer to God based on your reflections.
Wednesday March 27
In whose hands are you?
Pray: O Lord your word assures us that you are our refuge and underneath us are your everlasting arms. (Deuteronomy 33:27) Help me to trust in that promise today. May I know that whatever happens to me today I cannot fall out of your arms of love. .
Read: Luke 23:44-49
1. Into whose hands does Jesus commit his spirit?
2. Do a study of “hands” (a metaphor for “embrace”, “clasp”) in scripture. Look up each verse and tell whose “hands” are involved.
John 10:39
Luke 1:66
Matthew 26:45
Luke 22:6
Luke 22:21
Reflection and Prayer
In today’s study we see that there were many who tried to lay their hands on Jesus. Many believed that when they crucified him they had succeeded. There was no way Jesus was going to escape from their hands. But Jesus, even in the face of death itself knew that he was secure in the hands of God. His enemies could not do what they will, he is not under their power, he is, as always in the hand of God.
This truth makes a huge difference in the way we live. If you know that you are safe in the hands of God nothing is able to assail you. If you know that you are safe in the hands of God nothing will frighten or discourage you. If you know you are safe in the hands of God death has no hold on you. If you know that you are safe in the hands of God not even Satan can snatch you away.
One of my favorite stories from Tony Evans involves his little granddaughter. One day he was in his back yard when his granddaughter came running toward him screaming. She was screaming because she was being chased by a dog. Thankfully she jumped into her grandfather’s arms before the dog was able to harm her. But the dog stopped just yards away from the two and kept barking and barking - and the granddaughter kept screaming and screaming. But then finally something happened. The little girl stopped screaming and looked at her grandfather, then she looked at the dog. Then she looked at her grandfather again. And this time, when she looked at the dog she stuck out her tongue and said, “Na,na,na,na,na.!”
And Tony Evans asks, “Where did my granddaughter get that courage to taunt that dog?” How could she be running one minute and sticking her tongue out the next minute? And he gives us this insight, “It was not because of who she was - it was
because of who she was with.”4 When his granddaughter realized that she was safe in his hands then that dog shrunk in size.
And that’s what happens when we place our lives in the hands of God - life’s problems shrink in size.
Have you placed your life in the hands of God? Have you declared your faith in Jesus Christ so that you know that no matter what life brings your way you will not be “shaken”?
Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.”
For your prayer time today – cast all your cares on him and invite him to sustain you. Give yourself completely to him and his loving arms will not let you “fall”.
Prayer:
Thursday March 28
A prayer of surrender
Pray: All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust him, in his presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all. All to thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
Read: Luke 23:44-49
1. It has been said that Jesus died as he lived. Consider the
following passages of Scripture and discover how Jesus lived.
Philippians 2:6-8
John 15:10
Luke 22:42
Hebrews 12:2
Reflection and Prayer
Our reflection today comes from Edward Schroeder:
“In handing over his life to his Father, Jesus shows that human life is stewardship. Life is not something we own, but a gift entrusted to us. And when the life is lived in stewardship (as caretaker of someone else’s property), then death is but the last event in this lifelong transaction.
Even our secular world can say life is a gift. But if that is true, then there is a Giver, some “big” hand from whom we received our lives. Our chronic sin is to deny our life as gift, to declare ourselves the owner, and then to “do what I want” with my own life. But we are not our own. No one is. Christians are not
their own twice over. As creature, our life itself is a gift of the creator. There is a second sense in which we are not our own. We “were bought with a price,” Jesus’ life and death, which is indeed “costly grace.” That makes us Christ’s own. Owning up to whose we are is the deep secret of who we are.
Jesus lived his life as his Father’s Son. That is who he was because that is whose he was. In dying he handed it all back to the original owner. That’s dying in faith. That makes his a “blessed” death. So is ours when we do our dying just like that. And by virtue of our second owner, we can.”5
Pray: Surrender yourself to God in prayer.
Friday March 29
A prayer of trust
Pray: Lord as we celebrate the cross today in worship help me to experience the wonder of the cross again. Help me to feel the grief of it and the power of your grace. May I know your love for me and respond with trust.
Read: Luke 23:44-49; Acts 7:54-60
1. The Acts passage is the end of a story in which a follower of