We nailed the Son of God to a tree, you and I. It was our ugliest moment–left to our own devices, unfettered by conscious, the blackness in our hearts is revealed to what we would do to the Creator with some wood and hardware. He was denied, rejected, tortured, tried, mocked, exposed, abandoned. And yet–if that’s not enough–the sin heaped on his mind and body was nothing compared to that moment on the tree when Jesus went through hell. Not flames and brimstone, but the wrath of God as the obedient, perfect, loving, holy Son–exposed in his moment of greatest pain–experienced the Father turning his back on his Son as if he did not know him. And in the moment where God gave the Son the rejection that you and I deserve, Jesus cries out in dereliction, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The sound of his scream is the culmination of every private pain that you endure, every death experienced, every rejection felt that reveals the fear that God has abandoned us–even when we have abandoned him. Jesus cries out for me the question I want to ask God at times but am quietly afraid to ask when life hurts because I have abandoned God in my heart. And in the fatal rejection, Jesus Christ stands in solidarity with my shame and my pain. Because the Father turned his back Jesus, I can know that God has not left me to my own devices and the cold. God gave his Son what I deserve so that I can experience God telling me, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hallelujah.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 6th, 2007 at 9:26 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.