April 13, 2017 – Maundy Thursday
Proclaimer: Rev. Dennis W. Foust, PhD
Sermon Series: Seven Words for Every Day
Homily: Entrusting Your Spirit
Scripture: Luke 23:46
Twice, from the cross, Jesus was heard to use the word, “Father.” Both phrases were prayers.
The first was a prayer of petition requesting forgiveness for those who were mocking him, cursing him and crucifying him. The second was a prayer of commitment and trust.
The Hebrews taught that life begins when you inhale your first breath, for breath is God’s Spirit. God makes you alive and you live moment by moment, breath by breath as The Living God breathes into you as Spirit, sustaining you as a living spirit.
As a child, you may have been taught a bedtime prayer, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep.’ If you use the Hebrew idea of breath as spirit, you may have learned the prayer in this way:
Now I lay me down to sleep;
I pray the Lord my spirit to keep.
If I should die before I wake;
I pray the Lord my spirit to take.
In the days of Jesus, children were taught Psalm 31 as a bedtime prayer which includes the phrase, “Into your hands I entrust my spirit.”
On the cross, Jesus gives us words for living every day. In this phrase, Jesus teaches you to trust in God as a faithful Father, even in your worst situations. Jesus died the way he lived – trusting in The Living God.
Like a child falling asleep in the arms of a faithful Father, Jesus prayed, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.”
