Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46)
The Word of Commital
It is the end, the very end, the end of the ordeal and Jesus alone on the cross, tortured, exhausted, abandoned by his friends, forsaken by God gasps for the last breath and gathers the strength for one final cry. Why would he choose to speak so close to the end? Why would he muster the last energy he had to cry out with a loud voice? Couldn’t God have heard his thoughts? A dedication made despite the pain, despite the mocking, despite the agony, despite the sense of horrible aloneness he felt. Jesus entrusts his spirit, his life, to God in faith, even at the point of his own abandonment when the good seems so very far away he proclaims his faith in God, the darkness cannot overcome it.
Scripture
For I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the foreign lands, and bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving them natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:24-29)
Reflection
We live in an age of profound anxiety. We are fearful about disease and illness, about our futures, about our children, about our jobs, about failure, about death. We suffer from a deep insecurity, a collapse of trust. This is strange because we are far more protected and safe than any previous generation of human history, at least in the West. We have better medicine, safer transport; we are more protected from the climate, have better social security. And yet we are more afraid. Take a moment to think of all that you most fear. For me might it be the shame of public humiliation? Or, a painful death? Or, seeing the early death of someone that you love? We can take every possible precaution to avoid these disasters. We can take out all the insurance policies in the world, live healthy lives, go to the gym, and never catch airplanes, have check ups and give up smoking. But what we most fear may still happen. Jesus invites us not to be afraid.
