Father, Into Your Hands / Padre En Tus Manos

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” - The last words of Jesus on the Cross. Were they simply an expression of relief? - A cry of deliverance? Was Jesus simply saying that the horrendous ordeal He had endured is now, at last, over and that he was ready to let go of this earthly life? After all, when intense pain and agony have been inflicted mercilessly, its ceasing is a blessing - even when its ceasing ends with death. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” - death has come.

“Padre, - ¡en tus manos encomiendo mi espíritu!” – las últimas palabras de Jesús sobre la Cruz. ¿Estaba expresando alivio? Fue un grito de liberación? ¿Estaba Jesús simplemente diciendo que el horror que había vivido en pasadas horas ya había pasado y que estaba listo para desligarse de su vida terrenal? Después de todo – el dolor intenso, el sufrimiento y la agonía – el morir puede verse como una bendición. “Padre, en tus manos encomiendo mi espíritu” – la muerte ha llegado.

Muerte. El Viernes Santo la tratamos desde muy cerca. Estamos parados al pie de la Cruz. Experimentamos la realidad de la muerte – su muerte. Consideramos las heridas enormes causadas por el chasquear de la correa y las espinas y los golpes. La sangre corre. Los gritos de agonía y dolor salen de Jesús. Sus coyunturas y tendones son estiradas hasta punto de romperse. Sus pulmones ansían por aire.

Death. On Good Friday we deal with death up close. We stand at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. We experience the reality of death - his death. We get to consider the gaping wounds caused by the cracking of the whip and the thorns and the blows. Blood flows freely. Screams of agony and pain come from Jesus. His sinews are pulled and stretched to the point of breaking. His lungs burn for breath.

And why? He had done nothing deserving of death. He was an innocent man. In this ordeal He had been abandoned by his friends. He had been unjustly tried. He had been found innocent by Pilate, but yet, there hangs the man – whipped, beaten and bloodied - nailed to the cross. Even our heavenly Father turned from Him as He hung on the cross and became sin for us.

Y - ¿por qué? No había hecho nada que merece muerte. Era inocente. En esta prueba había sido abandonado por sus amigos. Su juicio fue injusto. Fue hallado inocente por Pilato – y sin embargo, sobre la cruz cuelga el hombre – latigado, golpeado, sangrando – clavado sobre la cruz. Hasta es desamparado por el Padre Celestial mientras Jesús cuelga sobre la cruz y toma nuestro pecado sobre Él.

Pecado. Cae sobre Jesús. Fue su voluntad tomar nuestro pecado. Él – quien no conoció pecado – se hizo pecador por nosotros. Nuestro Señor inocente fue convertido en una criatura vil. Sobre Él cayeron los pecados de los fariseos hipócritas; de los cambiadores de dinero en el templo; de la mujer pescada en adulterio; de Pedro cuando lo nego; tus pecados y mis pecados. El voluntariamente tomo los pecados de toda la gente que a vivido y que jamás vivirá – allí, mientras colgaba en la Cruz – forzado a probar la muerte. Eso fue el precio. Y Jesús lo pago.

Sin. It was heaped upon Jesus. He bore the sin willingly. He, Who knew no sin, became sin for us. Those sins placed upon our innocent Lord were real. The innocent Lord became a vile creature. Upon Him were heaped the sins of the hypocritical Pharisees, the moneychangers from the temple, the woman caught in adultery, Peter’s sin when he denied Him, your sins and my sins. He willingly took on the sins of all people who ever lived and who will ever live– there as He hung on a cross and was forced to taste death. That was the price. And Jesus paid the cost.

The cost of sin. Hear the words: “But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) Hear the words: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” See, beloved, what sin costs? The price is not cheap. Our sin – those little white lies and those slights so cavalierly spoken and done to others; The murders and the adulteries; – See, there, on the cross is the price for them. “The soul who sins is the one who will die…” (Ezekiel 18:20) Jesus, the innocent, has borne the full burden - He became sin for us. And He paid the cost. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23a) And today we see it.