This is the last of the seven sayings of Jesus from the cross.
A quote from Psalm 31:5, Jesus adds one word: Father. This was actually a
prayer every Jewish mother taught her child to say last thing at night: “Into
your hands I commit my spirit.”1 What a comforting and faith-filled
prayer to pray each night—and to make it personal and relational by
adding: “Father, into your hands . . . . ” From this final saying
of Jesus, let us consider several aspects of commitment, flowing out of Jesus’
life and ministry.
A Commitment from the Father to the Son
“All things have been committed to me by my Father”
(Luke 10:22).
The New American Standard Bible translation reads: “All
things have been handed over to Me by My Father.” When we commit something
to someone we are in effect telling them, “I trust you to carry out
my will.” What was and is God’s will?
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count
slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9, nkjv).
God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness.
He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because
He doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time
to change (2 Peter 3:9, tm).
How long has it been since you first realized that your life
had been damaged by evil? How long has it been since you first started the
journey of restored and transformed relationships, first with the God of the
universe and then with those in your life who have been hurt by your anger,
wounds and self-centered living? How long has it been since you received the
amazing gift of freedom to love and be loved, freedom to serve and be served,
freedom to be yourself without shame or guilt? Has it been a month? A year?
Many years?
Aren’t you glad God waited for you to make the decision
to repent and believe? Perhaps you’re hearing for the first time that
the offer of forgiveness of sins is still open. Though it’s true that
the wages of sin is death, the Good News is that the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord, and this gift is still available! (Romans 6:23).
As Peter wrote all those years ago, “God is restraining
himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want
anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change” (2
Peter 3:9, tm). Jesus knew when He said: “all things have been committed
to me by my Father,” that God would help Him accomplish everything that
had been committed to Him. That’s why the very last thing He could say
from the cross was, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” All
things committed to Jesus by His Father at the beginning of His ministry are
now handed back to the Father with faith and trust. Jesus had learned this
as a young child when His mother taught Him to pray this prayer each night.
When we pray this prayer, it is also as a faith statement—that
everything we have done during the day will be safely kept by Him who initially
entrusted us to do His will at the beginning of the day! This makes our work
during the day so much more than a job!
A Commitment of Jesus’ Disciples to Follow Him
Jesus used Peter’s boat as a platform or stage from which
to teach the multitudes who were pressing around Him, wanting to hear the
word of God. When Jesus stopped speaking, He told Peter to take the boat back
out on the lake and drop the nets for a catch. Something nudged Peter to go
against his knowledge and practice of fishing and do what Jesus was telling
him to do. The result? A most amazing catch of fish (Luke 5:8, 10).
Why does Jesus tell Peter, “Do not be afraid?” The
Greek word used here is phobeo, meaning “to cause to run away, terrify,
frighten.”2 Jesus is saying, “Peter, don’t let your astonishment
become a phobia—a superstition. From here on, you are going to have
a career change. Just as it was miraculous for you to catch fish after a night
of catching nothing, you will now be fishing in the realm where human need
is so great that from a human point of view, you’ll think you’ll
never catch anything.”
By faith, Peter and his business partners left everything and
followed Jesus. What a commitment! Could it be that they were able to make
this kind of commitment because of the prayer their mothers taught them to
pray every night: “Into your hands I commit”? There is no need
to fear if everything I do is committed into the good hands of God!
A Commitment Jesus Made to Mission
Luke succinctly describes Jesus’ mission, “For the
Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). In
the New Testament, the meaning of the word lost does not mean damned or doomed.
It simply means being in the wrong place.3 Isn’t this what it means
for a thing to be lost? It has simply got out of its own place and been misplaced.
When a lost thing is found, we return it to it’s proper place, a place
where we will find it from now on.
In this way, Jesus came to find lost people—those who
have wandered away from God and found themselves misplaced. When they are
found they once again take their rightful place as obedient children in the
household and family of God. Jesus gives His mission statement after His encounter
with Zacchaeus. Shunned and an outcast because of the career path he had chosen
to make himself wealthy; i.e., a tax collector, he was despised and hated
by everyone. Sadly, there was every reason to despise and hate him since he
had probably cheated people out of their hard earned finances. Nobody likes
a cheat or scam artist! He really was a lost/misplaced person.
Aren’t you glad that when you were misplaced, God sent
Jesus on a mission to find you and bring you back in a right relationship
with Him and His family!
How can we leave everything and follow Jesus? In some ways it’s
really quite simple: you have to be ready to host Jesus, just like Zacchaeus
did. When you say “yes” to hosting Jesus, you open up every area
of your life to Him. When you open your life to Jesus, change is on the way.
For Zacchaeus, change happened in the way he handled other people’s
money. What things have been transformed in your behavior since Jesus found
you?
(For the full manuscript
of this sermon go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons.”)
1. The Daily Study Bible Series, “The Gospel of Luke,” Revised
Edition, William Barclay, p. 288.
2. “Lexical aids to the New Testament,” Hebrew-Greek
Key Word Study Bible, NASB, p. 1885.
3. The Daily Study Bible Series, “The Gospel of Luke,”
p. 235
