Christ Forsaken

Consider the scene: a son, having been ever-obedient to his father and in the most intimate of relationships with him, is asked by his father to give up his very life.  Moreover, the father tells his son that in giving up his life for a specific taks of his father's he will be scorned by man, be beaten, and murdered in a horrific and painful death.  Add to this, then, that in the moment of sacrifice the father tells his son that the son will become totally separated from his father for that moment in time as a result of the task the father has set for him.

This is the radical nature of Christ.  Having been in perfect divine-community with the Father for all eternity passed, He was disavowed from His Father at the moment of His greatest passion on the cross.  Jesus' physical suffering paled in comparison to His spiritual agony at being separated from His Holy Father for the first and only time in all of eternity.  As Jesus cried out in utter anguish, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?"

The moment cannot be overstated for the profound tragedy of what happened: Jesus, the very radiance of the glory of God the Father, was sacrificed upon the cross as the sin of mankind was concentrated in His body and atoned for in His death.  And, as He breathed His last breath, He was separated from the Father.

In truth, because the Holy Lord God cannot be in the presence of sin, when Jesus took on the whole weight on mankind's sin focused in His flesh, God had to turn away from His own Son in judgment.  This is the apex of love, which God has lavished upon us.  Having punished Jesus for the sin that was so rightfully due each of us, God made a way for our sin to be paid for and for us to enter into His divine presence.  The truest love of all was then God denying Himself in punishing His Son so as to glorify Himself at Christ's exaltation (resurrection).

Now, upon confession and belief in the work of Christ Jesus, we can take part in the wonderful love of God through His Son because Jesus took the sin of all mankind in our stay.  Let us then praise God for the perfect sacrifice He has made in destroying His Son!