Devotion for Holy Week 2007

You would think that I would have my devotion for Holy Week written on time - but I have been struggling with what to write because I have been thinking about the gospel lessons this past Sunday (the Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday reading found in Luke 22:14-23:56 or 23:1-49). These lessons remind me of what life is supposed to be all about.

These are gospel lessons that have become familiar to me over the years - which might be why I have had such a difficulty in finding the right words to express how I felt reading it. I have heard it for most of my life - the story of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection - sometimes with interest and sometimes with wondering “When’s the Easter egg hunt?” Now I see the beauty in it because I am reminded by it about so many things.

As Jesus is dying on the cross he exclaims, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” a true statement of love for his Father. This phrase now has a huge meaning in my life. It may come as a shock to some, but yes, even as a Pastor I find myself at times struggling to keep my actions, thoughts, and feelings in line with the way that Jesus taught and lived his own life. I fall away from God too often in the course of evenone week.

But this phrase that Jesus spoke to his Father in heaven as he was dying is a completely perfect example of the importance of giving one’s own life to God today. I constantly fall due to sin, and have to find a way to get back up, usually by reaching out for the out-stretched hand of God. And through accepting that hand, I also give myself back to God.

As I was listening to the Passion narrative being read on Sunday, I was reminded how important it is to continuously give and re-give my life back to God when I slip away. Yeah, sometimes I feel like the criminal who was hanging on the cross next to Jesus who tells Jesus to rescue them. If God is all powerful, then why doesn’t God help more often. But then I realize that I am like the other criminal, recognizing the Christ for who he is; I admit my sin, and humbly ask Jesus to remember me. And he does - each and every time.

During Lent we speak of dying and rising again with Christ. No, we do not actually die when we commend our spirits to God, but we do symbolically and metaphorically die when we get rid of everything that is not of God - and sometimes for me that can be a lot

By offering myself back to God when I fail, when I lose the power to do God’s will, and when I sin against God, neighbor and/or myself - I again offer God my spirit to lead me into a deeper spiritual relationship with him.

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:44-46)