It’s one of
those pictures that never leaves the recesses of your mind. The year was 1992.
The place was Barcelona, Spain. It was the 1992 Olympic summer games, and Derek
Redmond was set to win his first Olympic gold medal in the 400 meters. At the
time, he held the British record for the 400 meters. He had won gold medals in
the 4 x 400 meter relay in Germany in 1986 and Tokyo in 1991.
As the race
unfolded in Barcelona, he was leading the field. Being positioned in the fifth
lane he had made up the stagger on all the inside runners. He was looking fast
and strong. Then suddenly he hears a pop! It’s his right hamstring; it had
ripped nearly all the way through. Instead of racing toward the finish, he
collapsed on the track in pain.
However, he
didn’t stay on the track for long. Realizing where he was, Redmond got to his
feet and began limping toward the finish line. All around him people were
shouting for him to stop, but he didn’t stop. He kept hopping toward the finish
line.
But then,
out of nowhere, a man appeared on the track. Officials tried to stop this
intruder, but they couldn’t stop him. When he reached Redmond, Redmond
instinctively tried to push him away. But suddenly, he recognized who this
intruder was. It was his father. Derek’s dad had come out of the stands to help.
And as soon as Redmond realized it was his father, he said, “Dad, I want to
finish!” And with that, his dad put his arm under his left shoulder and helped
walk his son to the finish line.
If you check
the statistics of the Barcelona games you’ll find that Redmond was
disqualified, with the “DNF” (Did Not Finish”) label. But that’s only true if
you are looking at that race as a track and field purest. The truth is, Derek
Redmond did finish the race; and his dad helped him to do it.
Not so of
Jesus! By the time we get to the seventh word, we find that all of His work on
the cross is completed by One party – Jesus Christ alone.
Some call
the seventh word – the word of contentment. After more than six hours of agony
and forsakenness Jesus speaks His final word, “Father, into your hands I commit
my spirit.” No longer is His cry, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Instead of a woeful plea, He finishes with a contented pronouncement, “Father,
into your hands I commit my spirit”.
Think of it.
In those hours on the cross Jesus asks His Father to forgive our sin. He
promises salvation to a criminal. He establishes a new relationship between His
beloved disciple and His mother. He acknowledges the judgment and curse of God
upon Himself and its resulting thirst. He proclaims His absolute victory. And
now He deposits Himself into the hands of the One who had appointed Him to
fulfill all righteousness.
As we will
see on Sunday, this seventh word is as magnificently relevant to you and me as
every one of the other six words. When Jesus says, “Father, into your hands I
commit my spirit,” it’s not only a perfect word, it’s a powerful word that
gives us incomparable hope.
In
preparation for Sunday’s message, you may wish to consider the following:
1. Compare Luke
23:44-46 and John 10:27-30.
2. What
confidence can you derive from both texts?
3. What does
the seventh word say about those who are in Christ?
4. How does the
Son of God mirror His Father in His work?
5. What’s the
significance of the curtain in the Temple being torn in two? What does it mean?
6. Why does
Luke include this detail right before the seventh word?
7. What does
the use of the noun, “Father”, indicate?
8. Whose hands
had Jesus been in prior to the seventh word?
9. What does
“commit” mean?
10. Why does
Jesus commit His spirit into His Father’s hands?
See you
Sunday as we listen to what Jesus says and feast at His table.
