Luke 23:46 Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

If you
look in the glossary of Luther's Catechism, you will find the word
faith.  Do you know how is it defined?  It says, "Trust: saving faith
is trust in the true God and in the salvation that Jesus won for us."
 I like that definition.  I like that definition for two reasons.
 First, it defines the simplicity of faith.  Faith is trust.  Second it
makes a distinction between the kinds of faith found in this world.
 There is a worldly kind of faith, trust in something or someone.  And
then there is saving faith, trust in the Lord-total, absolute trust in
what Jesus has done for you.
How is your trust doing lately?  I am
not talking about your trust in your bank or in your car or any other
worldly trust.  I am talking about your trust in God.  Has it been
shaken by health concerns?  Marital problems?  Loss of your job?
 Shakeups in the work force?  Fears of other kinds and so on?  Then
when you look at the seventh word Jesus spoke from his cross, you must
be in awe!  After all that he had been through, after he had endured
the agony of hell itself on the cross, at the very end when Jesus was
about to breathe his last, he spoke a word of trust.
That will be
our theme: HE SPOKE A WORD OF TRUST.  1st. Perfect trust in His
Heavenly Father.  2nd. Trust that is now ours by faith.
Over the
years, I recall watching people, especially dads, playing with their
child.   You've probably seen this too, maybe even done it.  Throwing
the child up in the air and catching him.  The child is laughing and so
is the dad.  It seems a fun thing to do, as long as the kid is caught!
 I'll bet the laughing would have stopped in a hurry, if Dad had
dropped the kid.    I'm pretty sure that would have ended the game.
 And the trust, because you see, that is a game of trust.
Now lets
turn our attention to Jesus.  In a way Jesus had just been dropped by
his heavenly Father.   From noon until 3:00 P.M., "darkness came over
all the land" (Mt 27:45).  That was the darkness of the Father's
judgment on his Son.  God had been forsaken by God.  The Father had
abandoned his Son to hell, more than that, the Father had deliberately
thrown his Son to hell!  How hard was that for Jesus to handle?
 Moments earlier, our Savior had cried out, "My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?"  On the cross, Jesus experienced the absolute anguish
that is hell.  He was, for the first time in all eternity, separated
from the perfect love that is God.  How do you think that felt?  It was
a horror for Jesus-in every way.
Of course, it had to be that way.
 Why?  Because on the cross, Jesus shouldered the sin that our human
race has pumped out like raw sewage!  Produced by you and me!  Day in.
 Day out.  "Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft,
false testimony, slander" (Mt 15:19).  It was all there on Jesus that
day.
So was our lack of trust.  You heard me.  Our lack of trust.
 Our misplaced trust.  Our money may have "In God we trust," but you
and I trust a whole lot better when we've got a wallet full of bills
that say that.  We trust better still when we've got a nice savings
account that says that.  We sleep better at night when we've salted
away a nice retirement nest egg that says that.  But let the nest egg
be lost in a pension scandal, let the savings account be nibbled away
by spiked energy costs, and let the wallet be filled with cobwebs
instead of cash-then trust in God comes a whole lot harder.  It's
replaced instead by worry, high blood pressure, ulcers, etc.
Our
lack of trust helped raise humanity's sin beyond flood stage.  However,
according to God's gracious plan, it all flowed directly to Golgotha,
to Jesus' cross.  There Jesus "offered for all time one sacrifice for
sins" (Heb 10:12).  Sin forced the Father to turn away from his Son.
 Your sins and mine caused Jesus to suffer the pain of hell itself on
the cross.
That work was now over.  It was finished.  Just one last
enemy needed to be destroyed-death (1 Co 15:26).  The Savior who had
authority to lay down his life did.  However, before he bowed his head
and breathed his last, he prayed one final time.  "Father, into your
hands I commit my spirit"  Never before and never since has there been
such perfect, innocent trust in God the Father!  Even though Jesus had
been forsaken by his Father, even though our Savior had been dropped
into the agonies of hell, yet Jesus didn't question his Father's plan
or purpose.  Not even for a second.  Jesus confidently placed his soul
into the Father's hands for safekeeping, and our Savior knew he would
not be disappointed!  Even in death, he clung to one of his Father's
prophetic promises: "Nor will you let your Holy One see decay" (Ps
16:10).
That's good news for us.  Very good news.  Why?  During his
ministry, Jesus had said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the
Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill
them" (Mt 5:17).  Even with his dying breath, Jesus was still
fulfilling that holy law.  But not for himself.  Everything Jesus said
and did on the cross, he did for us, in our place, as our substitute.
 He lived, suffered, and died without committing so much as a single
sin, so that "through the obedience of the one man the many will be
made righteous" (Ro 5:19).
Now Christ's perfect trust is ours by
faith.  When the Father looks at us believers, he sees Jesus, our
perfect substitute.  That means, dear friends, the wall of sin between
us and our holy God has been broken down.  We have access once again!
 Access to heaven above when we die and access to the heavenly Father
right now-all through God's grace poured out on us through Jesus!
What
a difference this faith perspective makes in our life!  Because of what
Jesus has done, we can trust that our heavenly Father will never drop
us.  He will never let us fall.
When the economy turns sour and
times are lean?  We trust as did the psalmist: "I was young and now I
am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children
begging bread" (Ps 37:25).
When life's problems pile up like
mountains and hem us in on every side?  We trust as did St. Paul: "No
temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is
faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But
when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can
stand up under it" (1 Co 10:13).
When the whole world seems against
us?  We trust our Savior's promise: "In this world you will have
trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33).
We
can trust what our Father has promised.  We can trust because of Jesus
on the cross.  The Apostle Paul put it this way, "He who did not spare
his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along
with him, graciously give us all things?" (Ro 8:32).  The Father has
given us his Son.  The Son has given us his life and through it-heaven!
 Do we really think our Lord would drop us before we get there?
One
of the greatest privileges that I have as a pastor is to be at the
deathbeds of believers.  It's humbling to see a courageous Christian
battling illness and doing it with the patience, courage, and
confidence that only God-given faith can bring.  It is comforting to
hear the childlike faith of a believer before death.  How precious it
is to hear from a Christian: "I am not afraid.  I know Jesus is my
Savior.  I am ready to go home."  And what a privilege it is to use
Jesus' last words from the cross to pray with that believer, "Father,
into your hands I commit my spirit."
When you and I come to the end
of this life, we will be able to make Jesus' dying prayer our own,
because Jesus Christ has taken away the sting of death!  We believe
that, we know that, and we trust that because this seventh word from
the cross wasn't our Savior's last word after all.  He who is the
Resurrection and the Life had more to say, more to do.  All to prove
that you and I can trust the Savior's promises-promises like: "I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though
he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die" (Jn
11:25,26).  Promises even as mind-boggling as this one: "Do not let
your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my
Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told
you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me
that you also may be where I am" (Jn 14:1-3).
"Father, into your
hands I commit my spirit."  Jesus spoke these words with confidence,
because he knew his Father's plan for him wasn't finished on this day.
 God's plan for his Son included Easter morning.
God's plan includes
you and me.  Be like that child tossed into the air by his father!
 Trust in your Savior and all he has said and done for you.  He won't
let you fall.  You have his word on it.  "My sheep listen to my voice;
I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they
shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand".   Amen.