“Into thy hands….” Luke 23:46
Speaking to a crowd in Jerusalem, Jesus once said, “…I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up….”
Though fully human, Jesus is one with the Godhead. Hanging on the cross, Jesus knew exactly what He was choosing to do: the will of the Father. Jesus had a choice. Yet He chose the difficult road to relate to and connect with you and me in what is good (relationships) and true (God’s design and plan for humankind).
Our powerful Creator, God, any one of the Trinity, could have intervened in the day’s events. It was within Jesus’ power to choose not to be crucified. He could have summoned angels to His rescue. But understanding the necessity of His death, to live again in resurrected life, Jesus surrendered to God’s plan.
Jesus’ resurrection, the ultimate demonstration of God’s power, was His choice so that you and I may be confident of God’s plan and His ability to redeem you and me out of our own broken circumstances! Like Jesus, we also have choices to live according to the plan of our Creator, with Him and one another. Or to live isolated by choices commanded by personal experience and the isolation that results.
Jesus understood that God had a plan greater than one human life. And He chose to be the final and perfect sacrifice to restore eternal relationships with God, not only for Himself, but for you and me.
When Jesus said to the Father, “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit,” He gave up the earthen vessel He’d inhabited for 33 years. One with the Father and Holy Spirit, Jesus chose to submit His earthly body and experience to the Father’s plan to redeem His beloved creation. By God’s power, and His choice demonstrated in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, God offers you and me resurrected life.
Luke 23:44-49, John 10:17&18, John 11:49-53, Matthew 20:26-28
Pictured: Easter gatherings of amaZioni denominations can range in size from a small community house churches gathering in a community center, to mega denominations with 1000’s and hundreds of thousands. One Zionist church, the ZCC is estimated to have 2-3 million congregants.