And Jesus, having cried with a loud voice, said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he expired.
The final words from the cross in Luke are not a cry of abandonment but an address to a Father. Luke alone records them. They raise two questions. What changed between the darkness and this moment? And how could a dying man still speak with full strength and place His own spirit where He chose?
From forsaking to communion
Earlier the other Gospels record a different cry: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" One writer links the change of address to the finish of the atoning work:
Then when all is over, when the great work of atonement is done, and the suffering reaches its furthest point... God hears the cry of the Sufferer, and the answer comes. Christ can say, "You have heard me." The resurrection proved to man that God had heard Christ and accepted the work. Still, Christ Himself knew He was heard and accepted the moment the atoning work was finished. So at once, we learn from the Gospels, the Lord spoke the language of perfect communion.
What the words are — and are not
These are not the words of the atonement itself. One writer marks what they are, and what they are not:
Here there is no cry to God as the forsaken One, when His soul became an offering for sin... Nor does He speak here as the Son, conscious of His own deity, declaring the work finished for which He had come. This is the ever perfect man, Christ Jesus, committing His spirit into His Father's keeping with unwavering confidence... The words here do not express His suffering as the forsaken One making atonement. They express the peaceful departure of His spirit, as man, into the hands of God the Father.
Borrowed from a psalm, changed by a word
The sentence is not new. Psalm 31:5 says, "Into your hand I commit my spirit." There the sufferer speaks to the LORD — Jehovah, in older translations. One writer notes the one word Jesus changed, and what it opens for believers:
The Lord did not hesitate to take its words for Himself at that moment (Luke 23:46). He only put "Father" in place of "Jehovah," as fitted Him. And now, risen from the dead, He gives us the right to do the same, in the faith of His redemption.
The loud voice
Luke notes that Jesus cried out loudly before speaking. One writer asks why that detail is recorded:
Jesus cried with a "loud voice." Why is that recorded? Why does the Spirit of God dwell on it here? To show that our Lord Jesus Christ kept the full, undiminished, unchanged strength of His manhood. He still had all His powers as a Man. He was not wasted, not worn out with suffering. What He had gone through had not weakened His strength in any way. In the full vigour of perfect humanity He cried with a "loud voice," and said, "Father."
A death no one else could die
Because His strength was unbroken, His death was not something that happened to Him. One writer sets this against a line from Ecclesiastes:
The wise man of the Old Testament has told us, "No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death" (Ecclesiastes 8:8). But here is One who had that power. He is able at one moment to lift up His voice with unimpaired strength, and the next moment to deliver up His spirit... Here is One who has full command over His spirit; He delivered it up to His Father, and so He laid down His life.
First word and last word
Luke also records the first words Jesus ever spoke. One writer sets the first beside the last:
His first word was "Father." His last word is "Father"; and between the two the darkness and tempest... Only Luke's gospel records this cry. Luke is also the Gospel that gives His first recorded words, "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" (Older translations read "about my Father's business," which is the sense that follows.) That business was finished now, not one bit of it left undone. In the serenity and calm of that knowledge He commends His spirit to His Father and bows His head in death.
Stephen's echo — and the difference
Stephen died with almost the same sentence, but not the same verb:
Jesus could say, and He alone could say it rightly, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."... He could lay down His life and take it up again, so He could speak this way to the Father. But the servant of the Lord could say, rightly and with blessing, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Summary
- Finished — Christ completed the atoning work before He spoke this word. That is why the address changes from "My God" to "Father."
- Father — The psalm gave the sentence. Jesus gave the name. Risen, He gives believers the right to use it too.
- Strength — The loud voice proves He did not die of exhaustion; He was in the full vigour of His manhood.
- Command — No one else has power over his own spirit in the day of death; He handed His up as His own act.
- Echo — Stephen could only ask to be received; Christ alone could commit. The dying believer borrows the confidence, not the authority.