q_sharon
03/31/10, 11:00 PM
THE SEVENTH WORD :prayer: Luke 23:46
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into
thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he
breathed his last.
* Meditation on the Seventh Word
It is the end, the very end
the end of the ordeal
the end of the suffering
and Jesus
alone on the cross
tortured
exhausted
abandoned by his friends
forsaken by God
gasps for a last breath
and gathers the strength for one final cry.
Why would he choose to speak
so close to the end?
Why would he muster the last energy he had
to cry out with a loud voice?
Couldn't God have heard his thoughts?
Unless God wasn't the only one intended to hear.
Unless his voice was pitched loud
so that we too might hear this final dedication of his soul.
A dedication made despite the pain,
despite the mocking,
despite the agony,
despite the sense of horrible aloneness he felt.
A dedication made to God
before the resurrection,
before the victory of the kingdom,
before any assurance other than that
which faith could bring.
Jesus entrusts his spirit -- his life --
and all that has given it meaning --
to God in faith,
even at the point of his own abandonment
when the good seems so very far away
he proclaims his faith in God,
the darkness cannot overcome it.
"Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit"
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into
thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he
breathed his last.
* Meditation on the Seventh Word
It is the end, the very end
the end of the ordeal
the end of the suffering
and Jesus
alone on the cross
tortured
exhausted
abandoned by his friends
forsaken by God
gasps for a last breath
and gathers the strength for one final cry.
Why would he choose to speak
so close to the end?
Why would he muster the last energy he had
to cry out with a loud voice?
Couldn't God have heard his thoughts?
Unless God wasn't the only one intended to hear.
Unless his voice was pitched loud
so that we too might hear this final dedication of his soul.
A dedication made despite the pain,
despite the mocking,
despite the agony,
despite the sense of horrible aloneness he felt.
A dedication made to God
before the resurrection,
before the victory of the kingdom,
before any assurance other than that
which faith could bring.
Jesus entrusts his spirit -- his life --
and all that has given it meaning --
to God in faith,
even at the point of his own abandonment
when the good seems so very far away
he proclaims his faith in God,
the darkness cannot overcome it.
"Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit"