Words at the Cross – Part 8

‘And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost’, Luke 23. 46.

The first and the final sayings of Christ on the cross were addressed to His Father and are recorded only by Luke.

At the beginning of His public ministry, He prayed. Others who came to John’s baptism confessed their sins, but He had no sins to confess and instead He prayed, Luke 3. 21. This, the last saying of Christ on the cross, was a prayer to His Father. His ministry began and ended with prayer.

Psalm 31 verse 5

These last words spoken before He died are a quotation from Psalm 31 verse 5. He died with a quotation from scripture on His lips. The psalm was written by David who, although the anointed king, was persecuted and badly treated. How much more was Christ mistreated, rejected, despised, and crucified outside Jerusalem! We note the word the Lord added to the text and words which He omitted from it. David said, ‘into thine hand I commit my spirit’. The Lord Jesus prefaced the text with the word ‘Father’, expressing a relationship that David could not claim. David spoke of Jehovah as Shepherd but not as Father. Our Lord’s adoption and use of these words on the cross have endowed them with a special meaning far beyond David’s original intent.

How fitting is verse 1 of the Psalm, ‘In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust’. When the Lord was on the cross, His enemies said jeeringly, ‘He trusted in God’, Matt. 27. 43. The Lord Jesus committed His spirit to the care of His Father. The words which the Lord omitted when quoting the text were ‘Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth’. He had come to redeem others and had no need to be redeemed Himself.

When Stephen, the first recorded martyr, was being stoned he said, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’, Acts 7. 59. His life was taken from him. He was not given a choice.

Holy Ground

We stand on holy ground when we consider those sacred moments which immediately preceded the death of Christ at Calvary. John tells us of His penultimate cry from the cross, ‘It is finished’, John 19. 30. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each inform us that this cry was ‘with a loud voice’, Matt. 27. 50; Mark 15. 37; Luke 23. 46.

John’s account of the order of events is clear: He received the vinegar; He cried, ‘It is finished’, with a loud voice; then He said, ‘Father into thy hands I commend my spirit’. Then, He bowed His head and gave up the spirit. He was always in complete control of events: the bowing of His head was His last purposeful action prior to His death. His life on earth was a life of activity. He went about doing good. The last verse of John’s Gospel says, ‘And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written’, John 21. 25.

Of the countless actions of the Lord during His lifetime the most significant was the bowing of His head on the cross.

klino

‘When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost’, John 19. 30. The word klino which is translated ‘bowed’ here is rendered elsewhere in various ways which are rich in meaning when related to our text.

We will consider how it is translated in three other passages.

1. When seeking to dissuade would-be followers, who had not stopped to consider the cost of discipleship, the Lord Jesus said, ‘Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head’, Matt. 8. 20. The words ‘to lay’ are a translation of the word klino. The one for whom no room was found and who had on earth nowhere to lay His head, at last bowed His head upon His own breast and commended His spirit to His Father.

Here we are reminded of the circumstances of poverty into which the Lord Jesus was born and in which He lived, ‘for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich’, 2 Cor. 8. 9. When He bowed (klino) His head on the cross, His shame, His suffering, and His humiliation were forever past.

Soon, His body would be gently taken down from the tree by Joseph and Nicodemus. With a mixture of myrrh and aloes, they would prepare His body for burial, and lay it in the rock-hewn sepulchre donated by Joseph of Arimathaea. He was guarded by angels, one at His head and another at His feet, and the words of Isaiah were fulfilled, He was ‘with the rich in his death’, Isa. 53. 9.

2. Concerning the heroes of faith who turned to flight the armies of the aliens, Heb. 11. 34, the same word klino occurs. The words ‘turned to flight’ are a translation of klino.

When the Lord Jesus bowed His head on the cross it was a visible sign of a great victory won, enemies being put to flight, and every foe defeated. ‘And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it’, Col. 2. 15.

The believer enters into the good of the victory won at the cross, just as the children of Israel shared in David’s victory when Goliath was slain in the valley of Elah, 1 Sam. 17. Paul reminds us that ‘we are more than conquerors through him that loved us’, Rom. 8. 37.

‘How hast thou triumphed, and triumphed with glory,
Battled death’s forces, rolled back every wave!
Can we refrain then from telling the story?
How thou art victor o’er death and the grave?’

[H. d’Arcy Champney]

3. Another occurrence of klino is where it is rendered the day is ‘far spent’, Luke 24. 29. When the Lord bowed His head, it brought to an end His day of service on earth. What a day it was: from early boyhood, when His first recorded words were ‘I must be about my Father’s business’, Luke 2. 49, until at last He could testify to His Father, ‘I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do’, John 17. 4. He was the perfect servant of Jehovah. Every moment of every day was filled with busy service for God. He was the only servant who could truthfully say, ‘I do always those things that please him’, John 8. 29.

A voluntary death

The death of Christ was in every respect a voluntary death. In Leviticus chapter 1 verse 3, the offeror who brought a burnt offering was obliged to offer it ‘of his own voluntary will’. The Lord Jesus said, ‘I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again’, John 10. 17, 18. Death had no claim upon Him as it has over every other person.

We die because we cannot help it; God’s appointed time has come. How different was the death of Christ. The word used by Matthew is ‘Jesus … yielded up the ghost’, 27. 50. The word rendered ‘yielded up’ is ‘to send away’, as a king would dismiss someone from his presence. His death was not only voluntary, in that He allowed men to crucify Him, but voluntary in the absolute sense. He was in control until He bowed His head and breathed His last.

He did not die of exhaustion. He did not die from ‘natural causes’. He died of His own volition. Augustine, in the fourth century, said, ‘Not against His will did the Saviour’s spirit leave the flesh, but because He would, and when He would, and how He would’.¹Luthardt wrote, ‘As little as we can understand Jesus’ entrance into bodily life by way of natural law. So little can we his exit from it’.² There is mystery here beyond our understanding.

At the ninth hour, the darkness receded, and the light shone forth once more. The Lord Jesus suffered in the darkness, but as He died the light shone again.

How amazing that He who bears the name ‘the Prince of life’ died to bring life to others, Acts 3. 15! Samson’s greatest triumph was in his death, Judg. 16. 30. So it is with the Lord Jesus, when He bowed His head and dismissed His spirit, at that most precious moment atonement was made. His greatest victory was won.

Not Guilty

His death answered both of the charges brought by the Jews against Christ.

The first charge was blasphemy, John 19. 7. The Jews answered him, Pilate, ‘we have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God’. The Centurion, who stood nearer to the cross than anyone else, when he ‘saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God’,

Mark 15. 39. He was not guilty of blasphemy.

The second charge was insurrection, ‘the Jews cried out, saying … whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar’, John 19. 12. Pilate wrote a title and fixed it over His head on the cross, ‘This is Jesus the King of the Jews’; He was not guilty of insurrection, Matt. 27. 37.

It is remarkable that at the cross both of these charges were refuted, each from an unexpected source. Nathanael’s confession embraces both. He said, ‘Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel’, John 1. 49.

The bowing of His head as an act of worship

Abraham’s servant when he came to the home of Rebekah, ‘bowed down his head and worshipped the Lord’, Gen. 24. 26. The returning exiles with Nehemiah, ‘they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord’, Neh. 8. 6. When the Lord Jesus bowed His head on the cross it was the highest act of worship ever rendered to God on earth.

What do we learn concerning God in this final saying from the cross? He is the God to whom we can entrust every aspect of our lives. Peter wrote, ‘Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator’, 1 Pet. 4. 19. In words again from Psalm 31, may we be content to say, ‘My times are in thy hand’, v. 15.

Our times are in thy hand,
Father, we wish them there.
Our life, our soul, our all,
we leave Entirely to Thy care.

[William Freeman Lloyd]