ST JOHN’S CATHEDRAL OBAN
GOOD FRIDAY 2013
A sermon by murdoch mackenzie
Luke 23:46 ‘Then Jesus crying with a loud voice, said: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” As we have just heard St John adds: ‘And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.’ (John 19:30)
You may remember the story of the young French soldier in hospital in Geneva. He was very ill and nothing would tempt his appetite. He wrote to his 70 year old father in far-away Brittany and told him he was going to die. The old man made the pilgrimage to Geneva and tried to persuade him not to die but to take something to eat. He fancied nothing. Then from his knapsack the old man took out a common loaf of rye bread, the kind so familiar to the peasants of Brittany. ‘Here my son, take this, it was made by your mother.’ With tears in his eyes the young man reached out his hands. ‘Give it me, father, I’m hungry. It’s good, so good, the bread from home.’
Many things in life are uncertain. But there is nothing uncertain about death. It comes to each of us. And the question is: ‘Are we ready for it?’ In 1789 Benjamin Franklin wrote to Jean-Baptiste Leroy "'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." During the American Civil War there was a battle at Cold Harbour where many of General Grant’s men fell. One soldier wrote in his bloodstained diary: ‘ June 3rd. Cold Harbour. I died today.’ What an experience to write about in your diary !
And Jesus also knew he was about to die. And he died with a prayer on his lips, the words of Psalm 31 and verse 5 : ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit.’ This was the prayer that every Jewish mother taught her children to say last thing at night. The Jewish equivalent of: ‘This night I lay me down to sleep and pray the Lord my soul to keep.’
But Jesus made it even more meaningful because as St Luke mentions, he added the word ‘Father’. Even on the cross Jesus died like a child falling asleep in his Father’s arms. He had come from the Father and was going to the Father. There was no longer any cry of desolation here. His last words were like his first words: ‘Father forgive’ ‘Father into your hands.’
Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. The word ‘bowed’ actually means ‘laid down’. It was a deliberate act reminding us that he once said: ‘ The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’ (John 10:11) He had also said: ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests. But the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’ And the Greek word ‘klino’ used here for ‘to lay’ his head, is the same word used by St John when he wrote ‘ he laid down his head and gave up his spirit.’ It’s the word from which we derive our word ‘recline’.
You see at the end of the day the Son of man had somewhere to lay his head. It was a cross. The cross of Calvary. There he reclined. But that was not all. He had somewhere else – the hands of God. Like the young French soldier he knew he had come home. ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’
And the Roman centurion and the crowd standing by, were deeply moved. His death had done what the other parts of his life had not done. It had broken the hardest hearts. The centurion gasped and said: ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’ Or as recorded by Mark ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’ Already Jesus’ saying was coming true: ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ (John 12:32) The magnet of the cross had begun its work, even as he breathed his last. And to God’s Name be the praise and the glory.
AMEN
Murdoch MacKenzie
You may remember the story of the young French soldier in hospital in Geneva. He was very ill and nothing would tempt his appetite. He wrote to his 70 year old father in far-away Brittany and told him he was going to die. The old man made the pilgrimage to Geneva and tried to persuade him not to die but to take something to eat. He fancied nothing. Then from his knapsack the old man took out a common loaf of rye bread, the kind so familiar to the peasants of Brittany. ‘Here my son, take this, it was made by your mother.’ With tears in his eyes the young man reached out his hands. ‘Give it me, father, I’m hungry. It’s good, so good, the bread from home.’
Many things in life are uncertain. But there is nothing uncertain about death. It comes to each of us. And the question is: ‘Are we ready for it?’ In 1789 Benjamin Franklin wrote to Jean-Baptiste Leroy "'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." During the American Civil War there was a battle at Cold Harbour where many of General Grant’s men fell. One soldier wrote in his bloodstained diary: ‘ June 3rd. Cold Harbour. I died today.’ What an experience to write about in your diary !
And Jesus also knew he was about to die. And he died with a prayer on his lips, the words of Psalm 31 and verse 5 : ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit.’ This was the prayer that every Jewish mother taught her children to say last thing at night. The Jewish equivalent of: ‘This night I lay me down to sleep and pray the Lord my soul to keep.’
But Jesus made it even more meaningful because as St Luke mentions, he added the word ‘Father’. Even on the cross Jesus died like a child falling asleep in his Father’s arms. He had come from the Father and was going to the Father. There was no longer any cry of desolation here. His last words were like his first words: ‘Father forgive’ ‘Father into your hands.’
Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. The word ‘bowed’ actually means ‘laid down’. It was a deliberate act reminding us that he once said: ‘ The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’ (John 10:11) He had also said: ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests. But the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’ And the Greek word ‘klino’ used here for ‘to lay’ his head, is the same word used by St John when he wrote ‘ he laid down his head and gave up his spirit.’ It’s the word from which we derive our word ‘recline’.
You see at the end of the day the Son of man had somewhere to lay his head. It was a cross. The cross of Calvary. There he reclined. But that was not all. He had somewhere else – the hands of God. Like the young French soldier he knew he had come home. ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’
And the Roman centurion and the crowd standing by, were deeply moved. His death had done what the other parts of his life had not done. It had broken the hardest hearts. The centurion gasped and said: ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’ Or as recorded by Mark ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’ Already Jesus’ saying was coming true: ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ (John 12:32) The magnet of the cross had begun its work, even as he breathed his last. And to God’s Name be the praise and the glory.
AMEN
Murdoch MacKenzie
