Luke 23:44–49 (ESV)
The Death of Jesus
44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple
was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now
when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home
beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.
In
the darkness, when the temple curtain is torn, Jesus commits His spirit into His Father’s hands. The centurion praises God, the crowds become remorseful, and Jesus’ followers observe from a distance. Jesus dies bearing the darkness of God’s
judgment on the world’s sins. Out of the darkness of judgment, Jesus ushers in the bright day of grace.
I pray: Grant, Lord, that on the Last Day, I, too, may entrust
my spirit into the hands of the Father. Amen.
Edward A. Engelbrecht, The Lutheran Study Bible (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 1770.