Luke 23:46 - Exposition

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said. This is better rendered, and Jesus cried with a loud voice and said. The cry with the loud voice is the solemn dismissal of his spirit when he commended it to his Father. The object of the receiving the refreshment of the vinegar—the sour wine ( John 19:30 )—was that his natural forces, weakened by the long suffering, should be restored sufficiently for him to render audible the last two sayings—the "It is finished!" of St. John, and the commending his soul to his Father, of St. Luke. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit . St. John ( John 19:30 ) has related now already Jesus had uttered the triumphal cry, τετέλεσται ! "It is finished!" This was his farewell to earth. St. Luke records the words which seem almost immediately to have followed the "It is finished!" This commending his spirit to his Father has been accurately termed his entrance.greeting to heaven. This placing his spirit as a trust in the Father's hands is, as Stier phrases it, an expression of the profoundest and most blessed repose after toil. "It is finished!" has already told us that the struggling and combat were sealed and closed for ever. Doctrinally it is a saying of vast importance; for it emphatically asserts that the soul will exist apart from the body in the hands of God. This at least is its proper home. The saying has been echoed on many a saintly death-bed. Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, in his great agony shows us the form of this blessed prayer we should properly use for ourselves at that supreme hour, when he asked the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit, and then fell asleep. Thus coming to the Son, we come through him to the Father. Huss, on his way to the stake, when his enemies were triumphantly giving over his soul to devils, said with no less theological accuracy than with sure, calm faith, "But I commit my spirit into thy hand, O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast redeemed it." And having said thus, he gave up the ghost . This setting his spirit free was his own voluntary act. He already told his disciples of his own independent power to lay down and take up his life ( John 10:17 , John 10:18 ). The great teachers of the early Church evidently lay stress on; his (see Tertullian, 'Apol.,' Luke 21:1-38 ). Augustine's words are striking: " Quis ita dormit quando voluerit, sicut Jesus mortuus est quando voluit? Quis ita vestem ponit quando voluerit, sieur se came exuit quando writ? Quis ita cum voluerit abit, quomodo tile cure voluit obiit? " and he ends with this practical conclusion: " Quanta speranda vel timenda potestas est judicantis, si apparuit tanta morientis?" "Under these circumstances," writes Dr. Westeott, "it may not be fitting to speculate on the physical cause of the Lord's death, but it h,s been argued that the symptoms agree with a rupture of the heart, such as might i.e. produced by intense mental agony."