Talking Out Of Turn

My introduction to the Lord’s Supper, this morning in church:

“Truly, this man was the Son of God!”

And yet, this man who was truly declared to be the Son of God, by the man charged with overseeing His death, was nailed to the cross for six hours when He called out to His Father with the eternal question: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Three hours of torture pass, and then darkness.

Three hours of darkness pass, and then this question.

A few moments of derision and scorn pass, and then the Son commits His Spirit to His Father and volunteers His life.

Why did the Son of God demand such an answer from His Father?

Was it just to fulfill prophecy? No. Prophecy is not performance art. Christ didn’t have a checklist of things to do for the sake of fulfilling prophecy; prophecy is God’s declaring the end from the beginning and demonstrating that His ends are accomplished, through both natural and supernatural means, to the praise of His glory.

Had God the Father truly forsaken His one-and-only Son? Did God wash His hands of Jesus after seeing what ignominy and defeat He suffered there? No. To forsake someone is to leave them on their own, to walk away from obligations, from a relationship. But God ordained Christ’s death, and accomplished His salvation through it! God “did not leave His Holy One to suffer decay,” according to the Psalmist. God raised Him up on the third day. God did not forsake His Son.

Did Christ lose His hope in God? Did Jesus forget that He was God’s Son for an agonizing moment? No. “Whatever is not done in faith is sin,” according to Romans. If Christ lost faith, then He sinned, and God would no longer use Him to save His people, or exalt Him to the highest place, the place that was His by both inheritance and accomplishment.

John 10:17,18 says,

“For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

Clearly He did only His Father’s will in laying down His life. His Father ordained it. The work of the cross was Jesus’ life’s work. In no way could that cause His Father to forsake Him.

Perhaps the question we must ask is, “who would the Father forsake?”

And the answer is, the one who does not love God. The one who does not obey His commandments. The one who does not believe. This is the one who is forsaken by the Father, because the Father can have no regard for sin.

Christ loved God, obeyed His commandments, and believed. Only if He exchanged His place with another could He say that God had forsaken Him.

Only if Christ took the place of the disobedient, unbelieving God-hater on that cross, could God turn His face away from His one-and-only Son.

And Christ exchanged His perfect love, faith, and righteousness on that day with everyone who was, or would be, given faith.

He took their punishment. The very creation itself darkened in shame on that day when God-haters went scot-free for only believing in the one man who had ever loved God with His whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.

In that moment, Christ looked into the face of His Holy Father, and tore the veil between justice and mercy, between God’s wrath and God’s love, with His insistent question.

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

And God the Father looked, and saw that somebody had taken the place of the God-haters. Somebody He loved was there, being forsaken for their sakes.

And when God the Father turned with His infinite love to His Son, that love was extended to all those who believed in Him.

Everybody found in Christ was beloved along with Him. He died, they partook of His death, and they were not forsaken. And in that moment we all, at the cross, looked to heaven, and looked into the face of our Holy Father, for the first time. And we now know Who He is.

The soldier says,

“Truly, this man was the Son of God!”

Rom. 8:15-19 says,

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”

The revealing has begun, but it is not complete. If you have believed in Jesus’ death as the sole means by which you may address God as Father, then you have already partaken of that death, and we invite you to partake of it now, with us. If you have not, or if you have doubts, then I encourage you to abstain, because whatever is not of faith is sin. But the invitation to His death goes out to you now. Come to the table of mercy. Drink His blood, and receive eternal life. Eat His flesh, and be strong in the strength of your Lord.