(Today’s audio reading on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6aoLlFAZoChOknXlAJt9h4)
Then he bowed his head and released his spirit. (John 19:30)
The cross meant a bowed head for Jesus. Actually, it feels more like a drooped, or hanging head. Can’t hold it up from the weight of the moment, the configuration of body on the cross, the extended arms, nailed feet, impending suffocation, inability to get comfortable.
What happens when we can’t keep our head up? It just collapses around our chest. Like when we drop off to sleep, unaware. But here Jesus is fighting, fighting to breathe, fighting to stay upright. Luke says, “and he breathed his last” (Luke 23:46). Did he give one final pull upwards for air, and then it was over, and he drooped, never to raise his head again? John records (in 19:30) that after he bowed his head, “he released his spirit.” Earthly life, over.
When I think of the bowed head, I think of prayer. “Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes.” It would go too far to suggest that the bowed head was a prayer position for Jesus. But I do wonder: how did prayer fit into this? So, as I consider the bowed head, I think of him trying to cope with the physical torture and pain, and also I think of a prayer position assumed by millions of his followers throughout history. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we knew he was praying silently throughout his time on those killing sticks.
Listening to birds sing outside my window this morning, I wondered:
“Jesus, when you were on the cross,
Did the Father send birds to sing to cheer you up?
A reminder that 2 sparrows are sold for a pittance of money, and yet your Father knows when one “falls to the earth”?
Was this a reminder of how much more you mean to him than sparrows?
Did the singing and sounds of the sparrows drown out the noise of the mockers and the tormenters?
Was it a heavenly Bose sound system that let you hear the birds and be refreshed?
“Or did you get any glimpse from the cross at the lilies of the field?
And were reminded how Solomon was not clothed like one of these?
And so, won’t your Heavenly Father clothe and care for you, even more?
Was there any way, in the midst of the torture and pain that you could look up and see the clouds and heavens,
And get a vision of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of glory?”
Again, Jesus was going through all of this for me, for us. Somehow, we all were on his mind, in his heart. Even as he bowed his head and prepared to release his spirit.
“Father, we bow our heads before you in reverence, and thank you for the sacrificial death of Jesus, our Savior.”
Freddy Boswell 