This morning, we bring our Lenten journey to a close. We have examined and reflected on some of the last words from the cross. Jesus actually spoke Seven Last Words from the cross...we have considered just four.

So far, we have heard our Lord share these words: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," "Today you will be with me in Paradise." He commits he care of his mother to John. Then we heard and considered that powerful cry from the cross, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me." Then the words "I thirst," and "It is finished."

Now, the final words "and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, `Father, into thy hands I place my spirit!' And having said this, He gave up his spirit." These are the last words Jesus spoke from the cross...technically known as the "seventh word."

The sixth word from the cross was "It is finished." After Jesus had spoken the Sixth Word and before he spoke the Seventh Word, Luke tells us that the veil in the Temple was ripped from bottom to top. In the Temple there was a place called the Holy of Holies. This was the meeting place between a Holy God and a sinful people. The veil prevented just anyone from entering the Holy Residence of God. It was symbolic of the veil that had become between God and man when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. But, once a year the High Priest was required by Jewish law to enter this place, and he would do so with awe and trembling to make the sacrifice for the sins of the people. This was the Great Day of Atonement. However, even with him there were certain precautions. He would enter with a rope tied to his ankle just in case he might have a heart attack while in the holy of holies. This way he could be pulled out eliminating the need for someone to go in and rescue him. So holy was the presence of God that it was impossible to even rescue a High Priest in need.

However, when Jesus cried out, "It is finished," he changed all of that. He open the way to God. He is the way, the only way to God. The veil was no longer necessary. Jesus Christ would now be the Great High Priest, the only mediator between God and His people. Jesus death on the cross has made it possible for the veil to be removed, for the sin that had separated all of humanity from God was now paid for. With his work on earth complete, Jesus made it possible for God to be with us every step of the way.

C.H. Spurgeon once asked the question in connection with this, "How can God be just and yet justify me with all my guilt?" He eventually came to see that substitutionary atonement was the answer. He said, "I believe that the doctrine of Jesus paying for my sins is one of the surest proofs of the inspiration of Scripture, for who would or could have thought of the just Ruler dying for the unjust rebel?"

When the work of redemption was complete, Jesus cried out with a loud voice "Father, into your hands, I place my spirit!" This wasn’t a mere whimper. All were to hear this declaration for it had divine significance, and yet it was so human.

Dr. William Barclay writes, "Jesus died with a prayer on his lips. `Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' That is Psalm 31:5 with one word added, and that word is Father. That verse was the prayer every Jewish mother taught her child to say last thing at night. Just as we were taught, maybe, to say, `This night I lay me down to sleep,' so the Jewish mother taught her child to say, before the threatening dark came down, `Into thy hands I commit my spirit.' Jesus made it even more meaningful, for he began it with the word Father. Even on a cross Jesus died like a child falling asleep in his father's arms."

Back in the early sixties Dr. Karl Barth came to America to lecture at several Universities. Barth was a theological writer, and teacher who had once stood up to Hitler. He was subsequently exiled by Hitler from his teaching position in Germany, and sent back to his native Switzerland.

One of his engagements took place at the University of Chicago The crowds jammed in to hear him speak on various subjects related to the Christian faith. After the event was over a somewhat belligerent reporter asked him this question. "Dr. Barth, what is the single, most important discovery you have made in your years of theological work?" After a pause for pondering, the great intellectual Professor of Zurich said: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." We never outgrow this simple message, do we. Jesus loves us!

Jesus never spoke large words. He did not engage in a philosophical debate. I doubt that he would even be interested in "Church Dogmatics". He most always got his massage across in story form. . .parables. Amazing isn't it, that the last word from the cross were the words of the first prayer he ever learned? This little prayer is what gave great comfort to his soul in his last moments. "Father, in your hands I place my spirit."

O, these last words are a testimony to what life is about for the believer. We begin life with God, and we complete our earthly journey with God, when we go to Glory. All this is all made possible by Him who uttered just that simple prayer that day we call Good Friday.

Let’s take a closer look at the dying moments of Jesus. The first thing to consider is the fact that Jesus himself decided when the work of the cross was done. It is a known fact that death on a cross could take several days. With Jesus it was only hours. This was no ordinary crucifixion. Jesus was not a criminal. Jesus was not a victim of circumstance. Jesus was the Son of God, who was in total control of all that was taking place. The soldiers and all of his enemies thought they had everything going their way, but O how wrong they were.

Why? Why do we see Jesus hanging on a cross? For what earthly reason? Perhaps we should ask "For what earthly reasons?" for we are the reasons; you and I. I believe the entire purpose of the cross is based on forgiveness. The first words Jesus said from the cross has to do with forgiveness. "Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Can you imagine how hard it must be to forgive someone who is in the process of doing you serious harm? Yet Jesus does it! God does it! O the Pharisees, the Temple priests, Ciaphas, Pilate, and the soldiers that day were all guilty of crucifying an innocent man, and he forgave them. What are we guilty of? Will God forgive us?

Corrie Ten Boom shares this true story in her book, The Hiding Place. "It was a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former SS man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing centre at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there -- the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, (my sister) Betsie's pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. "How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein," he said. "To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!"

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself."

Forgiveness. What are we guilty of? It doesn’t matter. It was paid for on the cross, and when the work was done, Jesus placed his spirit in the hands of his Father, with a prayer. We may do the same for he is also our Father.

Now there is something else we should not overlook. Remember the words "My God My God why have you abandoned me?" Jesus indeed was abandoned by his Father God, but with these final words, "Father into your hands I place my spirit," the relationship was restored. God didn’t abandon his Son forever, and he will never abandon us! Allow me to illustrate with the testimony of a man who for 18 years begged on the streets for a living. One day he touched a man on the shoulder and said, "Hey, mister, can you give me a dime?" As soon as he saw the man's face he was shocked to see that it was his own father. He said, "Father, Father, do you know me?" Throwing his arms around him and with tears in his eyes, the father said, "Oh my son, at last I've found you! I've found you. You want a dime? Everything I have is yours."

Think of it. This man was a tramp, who had begged his own father for ten cents, when for 18 years he had been looking for him to give him all that he had.

What a wonderful illustration of the way God longs to treat us, if we will only let Him. "Father, into your hands I place my spirit." Can we be bold enough today to say to God, "Father into you hands I place my entire life?" If we can do that forgiveness is ours. God presence is ours in all things, and he will never leave us. The cross made it possible. Our salvation is sealed with that prayer. Thanks be to God.