These words have two aspects, and the first of these is towards our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
I. In the one week of the year in which we commemorate His Cross and Passion, it ought to be the foremost thought of each of us how we can honour Him in the appreciation of what He did and suffered in working out our salvation. When we hear Him say at last, "It is finished,"the warfare is accomplished, the victory won, atonement made, heaven opened for all who believe; when, finally, turning His latest thought of all to God, known, loved, and trusted in, we hear Him cry, amidst all the horror and darkness and anguish, "Father, into Thy hands 1 commend My spirit;"we shall feel that here, in the utterance of the mind that was in Christ, we have indeed the rightful Owner of our lives and of our hearts; we shall cry out to Him, with the energy of all that is in us, no longer faithless, but believing, "My Lord and my God."
II. The words before us have an aspect also towards ourselves. We know not the time nor the manner, but the fact of our own death is the one certain thing for all of us. The wise man, the tolerably sensible man, feels that a necessity is laid upon him of making provision for that end. There is only one thought, one utterance, which can be a satisfactory aid to ourselves, then, and it is here to-night in our view. In this one thing, we must not only learn from, but actually make our own, the Master's word. The very words of Christ Himself have been the dying words of thousands of His saints. "Blessed are they," wrote the great reformer, "who die not only for the Lord as martyrs, not only in the Lord as all believers, but likewise with the Lord, as breathing forth their lives in these words, 'Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.'" These were his last words, and of many of his fellow-reformers and fellow-witnesses in all lands. That they may be ours, in form and substance, they must be the meditation of the life.
C. J. Vaughan, Words from the Cross,p. 85.
I. Observe that this verse represents to us one of the two main aspects of the Passion of our Lord one, and one only. There is in a city in France a curiously wrought crucifix, which conveys to the spectator a totally different impression according as he looks at it. On one side it expresses anguish and grief; on the other, profound calm and submission. What is there represented to the sight is represented to the mind in the different speeches from the Cross. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" is one; "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit," is the other. Both belong to our Saviour's humanity, both are needed to convey to the world the full import of our Saviour's mission.
II. "Father." That is the word which our Saviour adds to the prayer of the Psalmist. In Him He confided, and we with Him may safely confide also. It is this which gives to our resignation the rational understanding and affectionate character which alone befit the religion of reasonable human beings. We are subject, we submit ourselves not to a blind fate which crushes us, not to an angry demon which needs to be appeased, not to an abstract doctrine which we cannot understand; but to One who rules us, guides us, chastises us for our good.
III. Take the next phrase: "Into Thy hands." This is doubtless a figure of speech, to speak of the hands of God; yet a figure now very expressive. The everlasting arms are beneath and around us. Theseare the hands into which we surrender ourselves: these are the hands at whose call we move.
IV. "I commend." That is, not only in a general sense, not only as giving back my trust, but, "I trust, I make over as a deposit, to Him the gift which He will keep for me." In that great act of self-sacrifice, Christ our Lord of His own free will laid down His life; He was not merely waiting for God's call, He went forth to meet Him.
V. And what is it that we give? It is "my spirit;" not mere life only, not mere soul only, but the best part of our life, the best part of our soul, our spirit. The present life may be dark and stormy. There are many trials of the spirit of man, yet there is one sure remedy, and that is to trust the Father of spirits with the spirits that He has made.
A. P. Stanley, Penny Pulpit,new series, No. 449.
I. The confidence here expressed by Jesus in reference to the Father was not a confidence at all grounded on His consciousness of the Father's love and favour. There was no appeal made to that. It was grounded on the Infinite perfections of the Father's righteousness and justice, and on the merits of the question. Christ claimed this of the Father. He rested upon the merit of His own work. He had done the work, and now He claimed the firstfruits in the way of recompense.
II. Was this confidence justified? What followed in the case of Christ? We know what became of His spirit, for He said Himself to the thief on the Cross, "Today thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." It is clear then, at all events, Christ being true, that His spirit went to Paradise. His body rested in peace until the third day. Then the Father commanded the angels to roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre; the angels rolled it away and the prisoner came forth. All power was given to Him. He was made Head over all things to the Church.
III. Look next at the parallel with regard to our own experience. Christ's confidence is to be ours. The perfect work of Jesus Christ, on which He stood before His Father, is the work on which we stand before our Father. If at this moment we were dying, we have the same reason for saying, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit," as Jesus Christ Himself had. It is not robbery of Christ to say that. Stand upon that truth in life and death, and you will stand upon it in eternity.
C. Molyneux, Penny Pulpit,new series, Nos. 395-6.
References: Luke 23:46. Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 163; G. Macdonald, Unspoken Sermons,p. 180; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,3rd series, p. 36; Ibid.,4th series, p. 40; T. M. Herbert, Sketches of Sermons,p. 207. Luke 23:46-49. D. Davies, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvii., p. 342.Luke 23:48. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xv., No. 860. Luke 23:49. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 211; J. Vaughan, Sermons,13th series, p. 117. Luke 23:50. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. v., p. 459. Luke 23:51. E. White, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvi., p. 11.Luke 23:55. J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week,pp. 205, 215.Luke 23:56. G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines of Sermons,p. 258; G. Dawson, The Authentic Gospels,p. 275; R. S. Candlish, Scripture Characters and Miscellanies,p. 75.Luke 23 F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom,p. 343.Luke 24:1-8. Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 302.Luke 24:2. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xii., p. 208.