We just finished our Spring Celebration and celebrating an early Easter. Easter spotlights the Christian Cross and how central that one day is to our trust and faith in Jesus our Messiah (literally, deliver-preserver). That not just in an earthly sense but an eternal sense as well. What happened at the Cross is one of two or three cornerstones of our Faith. One of the descriptions that always intrigued me about Jesus’ crucifixion is the often quoted words of Jesus, ‘My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Thinking about that scripture, it’s always reminded me of a ‘two-sided coin’ nature of that quote.
Imagine its significance. Are those words the complete story of what really happened at that moment? How does the Son of God suggest such a thing of the Father God? Does Jesus do the unthinkable and question God! Did he literally think that of his Father? Did God abandon him? Knowing the heart of God and the heart of Jesus, I don’t think that’s actually all that was being described. I think there’s possibly more to the interpretation of Jesus’ words. Possibly, it was not what Jesus literally said at that moment that is to be prioritized, as much as what he was literally asking.
The crucifixion is the only place in the New Testament where Jesus (using the literal Greek word in the text: Eloi) is calling out to God, not calling out to His Father. Here, Jesus uses the ‘Creator’ reference of God. Jesus did not call with the personal, loving relationship reference to a Father, but to God who can do all things. We know that the ‘humanity’ of Jesus paid a great price for us, rather than his Son of God deity. We know from Scripture that Jesus became sin for us. On that cross, it wasn’t the Son of God crying out, it was Jesus who became flesh (man). Jesus ate fish, he slept, he cried and he showed natural human passion for the Message and people. For 33 years, hour by hour, moment by moment he was tempted to fail, tempted to be discouraged. According to the Psalm and Isaiah, he was aware, had to live with and knew the condemnation of the whole world. At the Cross, everything that we are, Jesus took upon himself; everything that we experience he experienced for us, he bore that Cross for us. Every thought of abandonment, loneliness, hopelessness and isolation we experience, he was experiencing. Every human emotion and every pain was his. Just as we feel abandoned sometimes, isolated and lonely on our journey, on the Cross Jesus displayed those same kinds of experiences.
Today there seems to be an increasing sense of isolation and helplessness present in our lives. I don’t know about you, but currently it’s hard for me to focus on ‘today’ because my mind is on so much of tomorrow. Christians, even though they have experienced the strongest witness to the Word of His Power because their lives have been changed, many times forget our Faith hats and sometimes put on fear. You can’t go to an internet news site without an overload of bad news. You can’t pick up a paper, listen to most talk-radio stations or pod-casts, without hearing of bullying, swearing, and corruption.
It’s easy to be distracted with what appears to be an ever increasing effort to demean people of Faith, in this country and around the world. We watch those things taking place, affecting us daily, while our elites’ wealth-leisure seems to insulate them from any consequences of their actions. If we’re not careful, we can be overwhelmed with feelings of being more alone, more isolated, and less hopeful. What I mean by ‘if not careful’ is: if we leave those feelings unchecked, leave them separated from Scripture, we can default to disappointment and fear. In today’s environment those feelings come easily and naturally. But, as believers, we have a remedy: Trust and Comfort in Christ.
In reality, what was happening at the Cross? Had God abandoned Jesus? I will give you this: Jesus could have naturally been displaying his humanity! Remember, at that moment Jesus became sin for us. He felt the weight of the world; he could have ‘felt’ like God had forsaken him just like we ‘feel’ God has forsaken us sometimes. However, in a scriptural sense we know exactly what was taking place while he was nailed to the Cross. Jesus was quoting Psalm 22. This Psalm is a prophetic cry of David about the crucifixion of the Messiah of God. It is an insightful, pre-cross picture of what actually went through the mind at Jesus’ death. The answer is in verse 24, ‘… (for God) has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither has He hid His face from him, but when he (Jesus) cried out He heard…’ At the Cross, those present at the Cross that day, with their ears heard something they had been very familiar with all their lives. Those Jewish people had read that scripture many times. Most would have had them memorized. The simple mention of the first verse in that Psalm would have triggered thoughts about the rest of that Psalm. (It would be much like at our concerts. An artist begins a song and after hearing the first few words the audience automatically begins remembering and singing the whole lyric.) What Jesus was quoting on the cross was not mere desperation, but a way of encouraging the followers present, His words igniting remembrances of the whole 22nd Psalm.
Where was God when Jesus was on that Cross? He was with Jesus, to comfort him, and miraculously at the same time, reconciling the world unto Himself! Did Jesus feel abandoned on the Cross? I think there’s a bit of yes and no in the answer. The 22nd Psalm scripture implies that Jesus was pointing those people gathered there to remember all of that Psalm. He could have quoted thousands of other Old Testament quotes but chose that one. Yes, if you read the whole Psalm you will find Jesus ‘felt’ like a worthless worm, the reproach of all men, and despised by all people. Those are true scriptures. The powerful political leaders (bulls, maybe even bullies) were present; the assembly of the wicked had surrounded him. In Jesus’ human mind, he was cut off, abandoned, isolated, maybe God had ‘left him behind.’ As believers we can feel like that as well. According to that Psalm, Jesus, who was the biggest believer of all, felt those things at that unique moment. Likewise, today we must bring to mind where is God at times of pressure in our lives? He was right there then, and He is right here now! The Psalm states: He hears us! He does not turn His face from us. It may seem like that emotionally, but ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’ was simply a question from the humanity of Jesus being killed and not all the facts. It was what Jesus said, it was a picture of the moment, but it was not the whole story. (Significantly, the next Psalm David wrote: the 23rd Psalm- ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…’)
I don’t know of any family, community, country and globally the whole world that’s not facing many of the characteristics mentioned above in the paragraphs in this letter. However, we can read scripture and hopefully believe, find Peace, and reinforce our Trust in God and how His-story ends. It amazes me that culturally and politically the world is trying to ‘cancel’ Christ. They’re doing that right in the middle of the Bible glowing like a neon sign describing a world stage that resembles exactly what Christ and his disciples prophesied over 2000 years ago. They are exact descriptions of the kingdoms of this world and the social issues of the world. The separation between human kingdoms and His Kingdom is much more obvious than ever before. The contrast is so obvious I think we can comfortably say that there will be no excuse for our choices; they are obvious choices. Choose you this day whom you will serve is demanded. Today, it should be becoming easier because of the clarity of our cultural and social experiences.
The C.S. Lewis quote in the book Mere Christianity still rings true today….’I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.’
Sometimes I get distracted because of so much suffering and injustice witnessed in families and worldwide. I can have a bad ‘human thinking’ day occasionally. But that’s tempered with the knowledge that Christ suffered all things and at the same time He trusted His Father. On the Cross Jesus could respond emotionally but always with a guardian posted on his heart. That guardian is that he knew The Father. That knowledge embraced him even as he died, and stepped off that cross and into that Father’s arms.
When asked the question of what work his followers should do, Jesus’ answer was we are to believe. To believe perhaps is not easy but it has been made easier by simple observation of the world. Have you ever thought about how consistent the message of the Bible is front to back? It’s a window into a big picture for us, a pattern for us. From the first pages of Genesis it’s: broken, healing, redemption. (Adam, Jesus, Resurrection) That’s the pattern repeated over and over in the Gospel. Even down to each of our Christian lives: we’re broken, we are healed by Christ Jesus, and we are raised to a new life. I think we will see that repeated again in the earth if we are here long enough. If time is short, and we aren’t here very much longer, we will see the final broken, healed and resurrection of a new heaven and earth. It’s simply God’s way.
I’m always reminded that just because we can find numerous ways to mess this life up, find ways to destroy people and the whole earth, the existence of terrible in the world doesn’t prove there is not God. Today, we’re seeing a new kind of crucifixion taking place-it’s ‘cancel’ Jesus from the world. The last time that happened physically to Jesus, it backfired on the ‘cancellers.’ I believe that will happen again. The first time, about the time they counted him out, He glorified His Name and created a new creation. No man, no culture, no world view is capable of stopping the 1-2-3 of the Gospel plan for man.