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“Father, Into Thy hands I commend my spirit”

“Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep;

If I should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

Do you remember your childhood and praying those words before you went to sleep?

Hebrew children were taught a different prayer. Each evening, as mother helped her child prepare for bed, she taught him to pray “into Thy hands I commend my sprit.” No doubt Mary taught it to her children so we should not be surprised that Jesus reverts to the prayer of His childhood as He takes His last breath.

The final prayer speaks of a presence and personal and relationship. Jesus approached death as he had done throughout His life….acknowledging His “Father”. In the four Gospels taken together Jesus refers to God as “Father” 184 times! Luke, who reported Jesus’ last word, also recorded his first. In the Temple at the age of twelve Jesus told his parents, “I must be in my Father’s house” (Luke 2:49). At the start of the Gospel and now at the conclusion Jesus was acknowledging the personal relationship he had with His Father. They enjoyed each other’s company. Jesus began in his Father’s house and ended in his Father’s hands.

The final prayer speaks of a protection He knew he could trust. When He prayed “into thy hands”, He understood the security within the Father’s hands. The Hebrew child prayed this when in danger. (Psalm 31:5) Those were the final words from Augustine; the final words of the Protestant reformer, John Hus, as he was being burned at the stake; the last words of Christopher Columbus before he died.

Commend is a banking term and means “to deposit,” or “commit” in confidence to another that which is precious. Jesus was acknowledging the absolute confidence he had in His Father and so committed the safety of His spirit into the Almighty’s trustworthy hands.

With that, in the simplest and most blessed, loving act of all, He was able to submit and yield to His Father.  Jesus died the way He lived… with total submission, ever conscious of His Father’s presence and incredibly confident in His Father’s protection.

I recall my Mom teaching me that early prayer and somehow even as a child it was meant to assure me that I could trust God….and it did! I no longer pray the words my mother taught me. However, I hear this final prayer from the Cross and somehow it too is meant to assure me that I can trust God – and it does!

Major Sandra Rice