"The Life of Prayer and the Crucifixion of Our Lord and the Seventh Word from the Cross: Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." Good Friday April 22, 2011 Luke 23:46
In Lent we have meditated on the Passion of our Lord. We have looked at the Catechism to learn to pray. We have examined the words of Christ from the cross. Our Lenten ponderings have brought us to Good Friday. Good Friday is always a day that is unlike any other even as it ought to be like every other. There is no day that is more solemn and yet no day that does not have at its heart what every day ought to have at its heart. Christ and Him crucified is at the heart of the Christian Church and the life of every Christian. This is because Christ and Him crucified is at the heart of God. Even as Lent has been a long journey toward Easter, all along we have had Easter in view. Even as we always preach Christ and Him crucified, the Christ we preach is the Christ who rose from the grave and lives forever. Maybe this is why this is the best day to learn how to pray. The life of a Christian is a life of prayer. It is a life of faith. It is immersed in repentance and faith and holy living. Where else do we learn these things than at the cross? Jesus spoke there these words: Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit. Almost half of Jesus’ words on the cross were prayers. These last words were a prayer. All has been accomplished. All is complete. I now commend to You My spirit. In one way we are taught to pray because our Lord taught us to pray. He gave us the prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer. But we also learn to pray from Him praying Himself. Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit. That was His prayer as breath left Him. As our Lord prays so we pray. We pray our Father to receive us. We commend to Him our spirit. We pray that that will be our prayer as our breath leaves us. But what about now? What about while we still draw breath? We pray He will receive us each day. Every breath we draw. Day in and day out. In our coming in and our going out. From this time forth and forevermore. Our Lord’s life was one entrusted to His Heavenly Father and we see that in His prayer in the Garden. Let not My will be done but Thine. We see it as His life comes to a close: into Your hands I commend My spirit. The Catechism suggests these words in the morning and evening prayers: For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Since in Baptism we have been united with Christ in His death and resurrection we can pray this prayer in all confidence. Father, I commend myself to You. I entrust my life to You. I am fully in Your care and grace. This is the life of prayer. It’s not so much praying as we usually think of it, with our folding of hands and closing our eyes. It’s more of a life lived, trusting in the care and grace of God the Father who received His only-begotten Son into His care as He drew His last breath. Father, into Your hands. To Jesus God was Father. He and His Father are one, of course. But there is that relationship there. That life in which He entrusted Himself to His Father. What an amazing thing that we can do the same thing! On this day we see ever so clearly why. Because Jesus was cut off from His Heavenly Father in the Great Exchange. He cut off so that we are reconciled with God. He stricken down so that we are lifted up and restored. But should we see this clearly only on this day? Shouldn’t we have this always before our eyes every day? With every breath we draw? Yes, and it is so because we are united with Christ. We are one with Him in Baptism in His death and resurrection. We commend ourselves to our Heavenly Father even as Christ did. What Christ accomplished on the cross is encapsulated in the Catechism. The Ten Commandments demand of us to live in accordance with God’s holy will. We have not done that but Christ has. On the cross we see He suffered for the sin we have committed against God’s perfect Law. The Law always drives us to repentance but also to the cross where our repentance is met in Jesus’ perfect sacrifice. He commended Himself to His Heavenly Father. When we come face to face with the Ten Commandments we see that that is all we can do as well. We commend ourselves to Him on account of Christ. The Creed simply and clearly shows who our God is. The Triune God who has revealed Himself to us in the Second Person of the Trinity, the One who suffered and was buried. This is the heart of the Creed and the heart of God. He did not die before commending Himself to His Heavenly Father. All has been accomplished. It because of this and Christ’s resurrection that we are able to live the holy lives God has called us to. The Lord’s Prayer is not just a prayer, it is the prayer of we who commend ourselves to our Heavenly Father. We pray not that our will would be done but His will be done. We know what His will is as we have looked upon the cross and have seen there the most glorious manifestation of His will. Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper create, nurture, and sustain us in our life of prayer, our life of faith. Baptism creates faith in us, Absolution nurtures it, and the Lord’s Supper sustains it. Commending ourselves to our Heavenly Father’s care is not something we do but something our Lord Himself brings about through these ways, what we usually call the Means of Grace. The Gospel is delivered to us in Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper by God Himself. We are commended to the care of our Heavenly Father through these means. The Cross is not just something that happened long ago. It is something that has efficacy for you today. What Christ accomplished on the cross He delivers to you in His Means of Grace. What Christ did in commending Himself into the hands of His Heavenly Father is what He brings about in You. That means now and even to eternity. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. 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