Six hours have passed since the Crucifixion began. The soldiers, sensitive to every nuance of death on a cross, know the end is nigh for the peculiar criminal in the middle. He is going quickly now, but for those who love Him, every minute must seem an endless marathon of misery.

His back resembles raw meat. His face is ghastly, bruised and mangled, with rivulets of dried blood from the crown of thorns etched like furrows. Lacerated from the scourging, the wounds have bred ugly abscesses in the hours He has repeatedly rubbed against the stipe. His whole body shakes in the tremors of one succumbing to infection.

Watching Him now, it is as if time is suspended on Calvary. Almost in slow motion, He lifts Himself. Then with a force that shocks even the most disinterested bystanders, he screams: “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit!”

With this, He exhales all the air left in His lungs. His body collapses and in one final act of humility, Jesus the Christ bows His head, giving up His spirit. He is gone, completing the cycle for which all of creation has longed since Adam first sinned in the Garden of Eden. From the Father He came into the world, and now to the Father He returns.

This final exclamation is a mystery to all. There is no sound of defeat; these certainly are not words of despair. This is the cry of a conqueror and the voice of victory. No one knows quite what to make of it.

All of antiquity has led up to this, and all history will point back to it. To many it will seem a foolish thing that One claiming to be God’s Son should die in such way. But to those who will be washed in the healing streams of the blood shed on Golgotha’s hill, the war cry Jesus bellows as He embraces death—Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit—is the very power of God for salvation.

Respond

Can you imagine what it must have felt like to hear Jesus shout these final words? Consider the strength He felt, the complete sense of control He had over His own destiny. Even at the conclusion of such terrible suffering, even while His body shrieks with pain, He cries out with strength and power. Consider the joy He must have felt as He offered His spirit back to the Father from whom He had come. What an incredible reunion They must have had. Rejoice with the living God at this moment of victory.

Read these verses quietly:

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13–14 NASB)

Read them again aloud, placing your name in the passage, turning it into a prayer of praise (e.g., Oh, God, when I was dead in my vile sin, You made me alive together with You...) Write it out and commit to rejoicing throughout this day at the truth of it.

A Prayer

Oh, God, I hear Your victory cry and I want to shout too. My heart has wept with You, and now I rejoice in Your joy at going to Your Father. I see You leaving that cross, and there stained with Your life’s blood are my own sins—a certificate of debt I could never pay nailed to the wood with the spikes that once held You there. But You are gone; You have paid it all, and I wonder how I can ever express my praise.

Reprinted by permission. Contemplating the Cross: a Forty Day Pilgrimage of Prayer, Tricia McCary Rhodes, 2004, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved. Copying or using this material without written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited and in direct violation of copyright law.

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