Luke and John record for us the last words of Jesus spoken from the cross: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” and “It is finished!” With the former, Jesus expresses the comfort that all of His saints can now have at the time of their own death. No longer forsaken by the Father here at the end and having drunk the cup of God’s wrath to the dregs, Jesus now entrusts His spirit into His Father’s hands and departs in peace. And because of this, those who are in Him by faith can speak these same words when He comes to take them to their heavenly home. Because Jesus has reconciled us to the Father with His shed blood, making peace for us with God, we too may now commit our spirits into His hands when our final hour has come. Our sins can no longer separate us from the Father. Because He forsook His Son in our place, God will not forsake us, either now or at the time of our death. When we die, we go to be with the Lord in paradise, just as He promised the repentant thief who died there with Him on that day.
But that’s not all... Just as Jesus was also raised from the dead, so Christians, too, look forward to the resurrection of their own bodies and the life of the world to come. Many Christians, however, either forget about the resurrection all together or they simply don’t understand it. They’re satisfied with going to heaven when they die, and couldn’t care less what happens to their bodies. But Jesus does. He redeemed both our bodies and our spirits, not just a part of us. The whole you was baptized. And in that Baptism you were not only crucified with Christ but raised with Him as well. Through Baptism the Lord has given you new life in Him right now. But Baptism’s work will not be finished until you’ve been brought out of your grave on the Last Day. And it makes no difference whether you’ve been cremated or not. If God was able to form Adam out of dust in the first place, He will have no trouble gathering your ashes together and reforming them into the beautiful, glorified body that you will be given on the day when Jesus returns to this earth. There will be no naked spirits in heaven. Though our spirits are separated from our bodies at death and go to be with the Lord, on the Last Day we will all be clothed with the very same bodies that we have now, only they will be changed to be like our Lord’s glorified, resurrected body, bodies that will never grow old or decay, fit for eternity in a new creation.
In the meantime, we know from our Lord’s words of promise to us that we are safe in the Father’s hands even now. As He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” Both the Father and the Son have you in their hands, in which you are kept safe by the Holy Spirit as He works through His Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. When you die, then, you may confidently commit your spirit into the hands of the one who already holds you for Christ’s sake. You need not fear any evil, as David writes, for the Lord is with you. When you depart from this life, you will go to be with Him in the next, where you will see face to face the One who both died and rose again from the dead for your salvation.
This brings us to the Lord’s final words spoken from the cross: “It is finished!” What is finished? Christ’s work of salvation. With these words Jesus would have you know that your salvation is His work from beginning to end, that He has perfectly accomplished that work, and that there is nothing that you can add to that work. That work includes His life of perfect obedience to God’s commandments, His perfect fulfillment of the Scriptures, as well as His perfect once for all sacrifice for your sins on the cross. To say that there is still something you must do in order to be saved is to take away from Christ’s finished work. Even those who claim that you must receive Him, ask Him into your heart, or make Him the Lord of your life, take away from His glory and give it to themselves. The Scripture states that even the ability to repent and believe in Him is a gift and work of God, not yours. Jesus did not do 99% of the job, only to leave the 1% of believing in Him up to you. If that were the case, then ultimately you would become your own Savior. Jesus finished the work of your salvation on the cross. He now delivers that salvation to you through His Word, Baptism, and His Holy Supper. You certainly may reject this gift, but you cannot take any credit for receiving it. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Finally, with His words, “It is finished!”, Jesus assures us that His following descent into hell was not in order to suffer further. Jesus suffered the torments of hell - being forsaken by God - on the cross. His descent into hell was for the purpose of proclaiming Himself the victor over sin, death, hell, and the devil to those who had rejected Him, not so that they might have a second chance at believing in Him, but to show them just whom they had spurned. According to our Lutheran Confessions, Christ’s descent into hell “destroyed hell for all believers, and delivered them from the power of death and of the devil, from eternal condemnation and the jaws of hell.” Because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross, there is no need for the Christian to suffer for his own sins, whether in a place called Purgatory or in hell itself. The price of our redemption has been paid in full. We are completely safe in God’s hands because of our Lord’s all-sufficient work for us on the cross. And His resurrection is the Father’s confirmation that He accepts His Son’s work. By raising Jesus from the dead, the Father affixed His stamp of approval, His “Amen” to His Son’s statement “It is finished!” By raising Jesus from the dead, the Father gives you a sure sign that you are no longer in your sins, but that His Son’s blood has perfectly atoned for them once and for all.
These words, then, are spoken by our Lord for our comfort. That they are spoken from His cross tells us that it is on account of His work there that we can commit ourselves into God’s hands and trust that our Lord’s work has been perfectly accomplished for us. All that was necessary for our salvation Jesus has faithfully cared out. We are now simply on the receiving end of that work as He delivers it to us through the Word and Sacraments. Let us continue to live at the foot of His cross along with Mary, John, and all the saints, and listen to His words spoken to us there, that we might receive the comfort and peace with God that they are meant to give us in Him and for His sake. Amen.