The Seventh Word
By Rev. Helen Harper, St Peter’s Episcopal Church, Niagara Falls, NY

“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Luke 44 verse 46 goes on to tell us “…having said this, he breathed his last.”  But, as we know, this would not be his last breath, because on the other side of Easter morning Jesus started breathing again! 

Good Friday is a dark day—the darkest day that anyone has ever seen, and the darkest day anyone will ever see again.  But, Jesus’ last words were a spear of light that shattered the darkness of this dark day.  Father, into your hands I commend my spirit, are not the words of a man who had suffered ultimate defeat.  These are the words of a man who was going home—who was putting his spirit into his beloved Father’s hands—a man who was getting ready to rejoin the Father in heaven where he had dwelled with the Father from before the beginning of time.

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.  Let us pray these words whenever we are troubled—whenever worry threatens to consume us. 

Let us pray these words whenever we are faced with problems that defy solutions.  When we are caught between a rock and a hard place, let us pray, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Let us pray these words whenever doubt casts a shadow across our faith—whenever we are tempted to wonder whether God exists–whenever we doubt that God loves us.  Let us pray, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

And whenever we pray Father, into your hands I commend my spirit and place ourselves in God’s hands, God will hold us, comfort us, strengthen us, lift us up and give us life.