Forsaken - The Great Separation
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When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
But Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last. Then the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom. When the centurion, who was standing opposite Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “This man really was God’s Son!”
Questions: Did God really forsake His only Son? Why would He forsake How own Son? What does it mean to forsake? Will God forsake me?
Why did God the Father forsake His only Son?
Could you desert your own child? Would you leave them in the lurch, abandoned to fend for themselves? For some this has been a reality. A mother or father dies, or both. This is tragic and a tradgedy. But when a mother or father makes the conscious choice to desert a child, this is worse. It can leave deep emotional scars eminating from I was not wanted to I was not good enough. The child goes through life wounded and wondering why he/she was abandoned.
We are told that real “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:7).
So, it is hard to wrap our mind around the fact that when we read that God the Father willing chose to desert His only Son, who had done nothing wrong, one’s mind has a hard time understanding this. We cry out why? Why? Why? Echoing Jesus’ cry, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Mk. 15:34).
In Jesus’ desertion, He cries out, “It is finished” (Jn. 19:22). What was finished? What needed to be finished? What was started?
So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is life-giving justification for everyone. For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
God forsook His Son, Jesus, so that man would be made righteous and free from condemnation, God’s wrath for sin.
For Jesus to be forsaken by God the Father meant:
1) God the Father had withdrawn His presense from His son. It was to leave a child abandoned and deserted. To have no knowing or having known one.
2) God the Father had withdrawn His deliverance. When a child gets into trouble, mom and/or dad come to the rescue to meet the need. Jesus’ need was always met, His Father always provided.
Praying in the Garden, Jesus’ Father assured Him of that He was there by speaking to Him (Jn. 12:27-29).
Facing the cup, God the Father sent an angel to strengthen Jesus for the ordeal ahead.
After having faced the Devil for 40 days and nights of temptation, God the Father sent administering angels to tend to Jesus (Mt. 4:1-11).
Now Jesus’ Father was not there. Jesus cries out in a nightmare and He receives no comfort, no words of peace, no arms to embrace Him…only emptiness. The jeering, mocking, scoffing and physical abuse continue ultimately to derision on the Cross “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One!…If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” (Lk 23:35; 37).
3) God the Father seperated Himself from His Son. The Son had to bear the curse of God, which was seperation from Him, His presense, His deliverance. The anxiety that Jesus would have gone through in having to be seperated from a perfect love, a perfect relationship, a perfect parent. God had never been divided, never been seperated, never experienced being abandoned, deserted, left for dead. It would be the equivalent of a parent releasing their hold on their childs hand, while there child hangs over a cliff because the law says so. Unfathnoble! No parent, in their right mind, could or would do such a thing, willingly.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written: Everyone who is hung on a tree is cursed. The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.
And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment — so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.
4) God delievered His Son into the hands of sin and death. Sin replaced holiness, death replaced life. God had never experienced death, except in men’s and women’s hearts, who turn and have turned away from Him. God’s very nature is life and holiness. He is life, He is holiness. God is not defined by them, He is what life is, He is what holiness is. All that was removed from Jesus and replaced with the deadness and impurity of men, of the Devil. All humanity was dead at this point, and would be if Jesus had not arisen because “Life was/is in Him, and that life was/is the light of men” (John 1:4). Meaning…when Jesus died all humanity died with Him, because life cannot live if the source is dead. A light bulb cannot light up a room if it’s power source is dead. All humanity died the day Jesus was crucified! Jesus experienced everything contrary to the nature of God.
Why did Jesus have to die?
Because Jesus was the only One who could seperate sin and death from man. In order to do so, Jesus needed to become like man, His creation, in living and dying, being fully human and fully God, imperfect and perfect, to meet the demands of His own righteousness and holiness.
Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the Devil — and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.
Jesus became sin so that we might become holy (2 Cor. 5:21). Because Jesus bore the sin of man, Jesus therefore had to bear the penalty of sin - seperation from a perfectly holy God. God the Father could only be satisfied with a perfect sacrifice for the sins of man and that man was His only Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of Man.
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; you have been healed by His wounds.
But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death.
Jesus’ cry, “It is finished” means it was complete, perfection was attained on the cross; the destination and purpose was accomplished. No further work needs to be done.
Jesus cry, or shout, was a shout of victory in the clutches of death. Jesus willfulling surrendered Himself and gave up His spirit, unto death, because the purpose set out for Him, by His Father was done, complete, in full. Death did not, nor has ever defeated Jesus. Death can never defeat God nor His followers. Death can only put them on temporary hold. For Jesus will conquer the grave in three days. Death could not handle the Spirit of Jesus! Life always conquerors death!
And thus we wait…three days…and the victory will come…has come. Amen.