Perhaps the most crucial statement of the New Testament is the recorded cry of dereliction: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" For us it is a sure sign of authenticity in the gospel accounts of Matthew and Mark: why would authors intent on leading their readers to belief in Jesus reveal words that would otherwise appear so damaging if those words were not in fact true? My contemplation of these words began as I pondered my own difficulty in knowing God. In fundamental ways it is easier to believe in God than to know him, easier to obey, perhaps, than to know him. Faith in God is a thing of infinite worth; intimate knowledge of God seems to come with great struggle.
And we see Jesus, one who knew God intimately, "always doing those things which pleased the Father," uttering those fateful words so mysterious. Yes, we know that "he became sin for us." And Christians have wondered at the meaning of that phrase for 2000 years. Did Jesus feel the displeasure of God? No. He could in no way feel displeasure from the God to whom he was completely obedient in all his thoughts and deeds. The question of Jesus reveals his sense of being abandoned.
It is too easy to say that God "turned his back on Jesus" at the moment of his becoming sin for us. It is truer to say, I think, that God abandoned Jesus to the consequences of his own earthly righteousness. If God is to rescue us from sin he cannot rescue his son from righteousness. God abandoned his own son to the historical consequences of a faithful, true and obedient life; men rose up and slew the righteous one and God must allow their evil intentions to be carried out to demonstrate the reality of human sin and the depth of divine love. God never ceased to love his son, but the son could not escape the reality into which he been born and the purpose of his coming.
For me, the cross exemplifies such an intimacy between Jesus and the Father that the abandonment is felt by both the son and the Father. The cross is not a picture of someone gritting his teeth and bearing agony until the bitter end, as a prisoner of war might. It is not a picture of someone going through the motions of a drama which has been written and who must play the lead part to the bitter end. It is not the picture of a martyr sacrificing himself for the good of all as the last act of a reformer's life. It is the picture of intimate love and a full revelation, even to Jesus, of the horrible conseqences of a life lived perfectly in love for the Father and in that respect the final and full revelation, even to Jesus, of the divine love of God, the God who is not willing to rescue his son from the evil world into which his son has so willingly and lovingly walked.
I can take some hope, I think, that the struggle I often feel to know God is perhaps a sure sign of my own realization of lost intimacy, surely a human condition from the Fall and also a personal experience. Had there been no God to know we would surely not miss the knowing. "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men." (Eccl. 3:11) "In the heart there is a God-shaped vacuum." (Pascal)
posted by bill rosser @ 9:23 PM
4 Comments:
the cross as a picture of God leaving His son to the historical consequences of a life lived in righteousness, the cross as a picture of the horrible consequences of a life lived for God---some insightful statements.
Interesting and extremely thought provoking, yet I fear that over analysis may be causing us to miss the point. Saying "it is too easy to say God 'turned His back' at the moment Jesus became sin" reveals a lack of understanding of what it means to be abandoned by God. If God was simply 'not willing to rescue His Son from the evil world into which His Son so willingly and lovingly walked' then what-God let Jesus die at the hands of sinful men? Disappointing-but surely that is not all there is to it! If all that happened was that Jesus lived an absolutely perfect life and suffered and died for it because God refused to rescue Him -then truly we have no hope. To say "that God abandoned Jesus to the consequences of His own earthly righteousness" implies that Jesus's perfect life led to His demise, which, even if true, demonstrates only the reality of human sin but does not begin to capture the depth and magnitude of the sacrifice on the cross. Until we catch a glimpse (and certainly I make no pretense of having done so) of the distinction between a holy God and sin we will never appreciate the concept of being abandoned by God. Make no mistake-in that mystical moment on the cross Christ was abandoned to hell-which is to what God forsook Him-and that is what demonstrates the depth of divine love.
Yes, God did allow Jesus to die at the hands of sinful men. And, no, of course that is not all there is to it. It has been written about for 2000 years and will continue because we "see through a glass darkly." I simply hope to make a contribution, however small. Thank you for your comment.
My comment, "it is too easy to say" had emphasis on the word "say." It is very easy to "say" that God turned his back. The meaning of the abandonment is, of course, the more difficult thing which we should ever strive to learn. My blogs of July 25, 26, Aug. 23, and Dec. 11, 13, 14 of 2006 comment on the historical aspect of the life of Christ resulting in his crucifixion. My intent is to rescue the cross from the all-too-often shallow interpretation that does not take into account Jesus' full submission to the Father in his earthly existence. Although "foreordained from the foundation of the world" Jesus was crucified by real human beings in an event resulting from their evil desires in conflict with the righteousness of Jesus. From that, God could not miraculously save his son if indeed we were to be saved. The kenosis of Jesus was not complete until he suffered the final humiliation of a life of righteousness lived in the midst of a sinful world. "He submitted himself unto death, even the death of a cross." God's miraculous rescue came afterward, when he raised Jesus from among the dead, the firstborn among many in a resurrection in which we all hope to share at that great day.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home