Verse 46
Luke next recorded Jesus’ death and, just before it, Jesus’ final prayer to His Father.
| Jesus’ Words on the Cross |
| Matthew | Mark | Luke | John | |
| "Father, forgive them." | Luke 23:34 | |||
| "Today you shall be with me in paradise." | Luke 23:43 | |||
| "Woman, behold your son," and "Behold, your mother." | John 19:26-27 | |||
| "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" | Matthew 27:46 | Mark 15:34 | ||
| "I thirst." | John 19:28 | |||
| "It is finished." | John 19:30 | |||
| "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." | Matthew 27:50 | Luke 23:46 |
In this prayer Jesus offered Himself to God as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Jesus voluntarily laid His life down; no one took it from Him (John 10:15-18; cf. John 15:13). His words were similar to those that many Jews used in prayer before they went to sleep at night (cf. Psalms 31:5). [Note: Liefeld, "Luke," p. 1045.] They expressed Jesus’ trust in God as well as His commitment to Him.
"How many thousands have pillowed their heads on them when going to rest! They were the last words of a Polycarp, a Bernard [of Clairvaux], Huss, Luther, and Melanchthon. And to us also they may be the fittest and the softest lullaby." [Note: Edersheim, 2:609-10.]
The strength with which Jesus cried out showed His physical strength but, more important, the significance of His declaration. Jesus sovereignly controlled His circumstances to the end of His life.
As God rested after six days of work on the creation (Genesis 2:1-3), so Jesus rested after six hours of work on the cross in which He made a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). [Note: Wiersbe, 1:277.]
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