What Does It Mean for the Father to Forsake the Son? (Part 1)
32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 38 Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”
41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 ”He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.Hours earlier we saw our Savior face down in agony in Gethsemane. We saw Jesus pleading in prayer, “Is there any no other way than drinking this cup?” We heard the silent “no” from heaven. “No, there is no other way.” Jesus had to drink the cup.
45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
But that was Gethsemane. Now the scene shifts to the Passover celebration in Jerusalem. The crowds of Jewish faithful make the pilgrimage to the holy city with songs and rejoicing. The entire city is festive—except one nearby place.
We leave the singing crowds of Jerusalem for Golgotha (v. 33), the place of the skull. We find Jesus on a hill called Calvary outside of Jerusalem. At Golgotha, we find Jesus drinking the cup.
It seems all the people were there when they crucified our Lord. The soldiers were there. Thieves were there (v. 38). The crowds were there (v. 39). The religious leaders were there (v. 41). God was there. God was there when they crucified our Lord.
God judged the entire land in that supernatural darkness (Exod. 10:21-23; Amos 8:9-10). But, God judged Jesus, too. We know this through the cry from the cross. Notice: it was a loud cry. This was no peaceful sleep in a quiet darkness. Jesus doesn’t ease into death with a smiling face ensconced in soft glowing light. He’s screaming. Can you hear Him? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Try saying it loudly. Try saying again–this time with anguish.
It’s not the “why” that attracts our attention today. The Father answered the “why” in Gethsemane. What interests us on this dark noonday is that word “forsaken.” Forsaken by the Father. What ever can that mean? One theologian calls this “one of the most impenetrable mysteries of the entire Gospel narratives.” It’s what angels desire to look into. And it’s for us to consider today.
What does it mean for Jesus to be forsaken on the cross? At least three things.
1. The Father allowed Jesus to suffer social abandonment.
The soldiers scoffed and mocked that day (vv. 27-31):
Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.The crowds mocked and reviled him (vv. 39-40). “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’”
The religious leaders scorned him. These were the teachers of Israel. These were the stewards of God’s word. These were the ones who should have known best of all. But instead, “the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him.” Spurgeon analyzed it well: They mocked Him as Savior: ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! They mocked Him as King: He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. They mocked His faith: He trusts in God. They mocked Him as Son: Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, “I am the Son of God”.’
There were the mocking thieves, too (v. 44). “In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.”
All rejected and mocked Jesus. But we don’t see how complete His social alienation was until we ask: “Where were his disciples and friends?” They all scattered and abandoned him, too. Only a few women stood and watched at some distance away (vv. 55-56). The Lord was socially outcast and cut off from every strata of society. Forsaken by the ones he came to save.
What we have to ask ourselves is this: If you or I were there at Golgotha, would we have responded to the stripped and beaten Galilean the same way? Our answer reveals why the Son was forsaken.
What Does It Mean for the Father to Forsake the Son? (Part 2)
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Can you feel the sense of emotional torture in the Savior’s cry? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It’s difficult to read those words, imagine that scene, and not shudder in horror. In we look long into that anguished cry, we glimpse something of what it means for the Father to forsake His Son. First, the Father allowed the Son to suffer social abandonment. But there’s more.
2. The Father Allowed Jesus to Suffer Emotional Desertion
Of course, the cry itself is a quote of Psalm 22:1. Psalm 22 is a psalm of David. It’s one of the Messianic psalms that clearly point beyond anything David ever experienced to the experience of Jesus the Messiah. The psalm is best read on Jesus’ lips.
Four contrasts in Ps. 22 give us a glimpse of the emotional intensity of Jesus’ cry. These contrasts are really gaps—gaps between Jesus’ expectation and God’s actions on that day. For forsakenness is not simply a matter of loneliness. Forsakenness involves loneliness, but extends to something deeper. Nor is forsakenness simply a matter of being let down. Forsakenness is that loneliness and let down that includes a sense of betrayal—at least the betrayal of unfulfilled expectations. The U.S. Marines pride themselves on “never leaving a man behind on the battle field.” To leave your troops and fellow soldiers stranded represents the greatest betrayal. That’s forsakenness. Or, imagine the groom dressed in his tuxedo awaiting his bride. While expecting to see her dressed in white, slowly sauntering down the aisle, he learns that she left him at the altar. That’s forsakenness. An expectation, a longing, a hope… knifed in the back. Forsakenness is to be cast off, abandoned, deserted, left, spurned, ditched, marooned, walked out on, jilted, spurned. Forsakenness carries all the emotional thrust of that image of a knife in the back or a punch in the gut.
Consider the four contrasts in Psalm 22 as an illustration of the emotional forsakenness Jesus felt on the cross. We may experience these things in our human trials; but Christ Jesus, the perfect man and perfect God, experienced these things in a degree we cannot imagine.
First, feelings of emotional desertion come if prayers go unanswered when we clearly know God rules. Psalm 22:2-3—”O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.” God is the ruler of all things. He sits enthroned. He is high and lifted up. We could translate verse 2 as “enthroned on the praises of Israel.” Yet, this ruling God does not answer the incessant cries and prayers of the one who trusts in Him. We have the sense that the righteous prayers of righteous men ought to be answered by a righteous God. If God does not grant such a man his prayers, then we feel a gap, a sense of forsakenness. The more righteous the man and the prayer the more forsaken the feeling. Have you ever had that feeling? Yet, beloved, there was never a man more righteous than Jesus. Never was there a deeper forsakenness caused by unanswered prayers offered to a ruling God than that forsaken feeling Jesus felt on Calvary’s cross. “My God, my God, how could you not answer my cry when you rule all things?”
Second, feelings of emotional desertion come when the righteous are forsaken while sinners are delivered. When we see God deliver others yet leave us mocked and persecuted, it heightens our sense of emotional abandonment. In Psalm 22:4-5, Jesus calls to mind God’s deliverance of Israel:
In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
Remember: This is sinful, backsliding, stiff-neck Israel who repeatedly turned from God to idols. Yet, YHWH repeatedly delivered them and rewarded their trust. Verses 6-8 contrasts backsliding Israel with righteous Jesus’ treatment.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by men and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
8 ”He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
Psalm 22 was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, but it’s like reading Matthew 27 verbatim. How could God deliver a sinful people like Israel and leave the perfect Son of God to suffer the mockery of men He made? For that matter, how could God deliver a sinful people like us and leave the perfect Son of God to suffer abandoned? The gap heightens Jesus’ emotional desertion. “My God, my God, how could you abandon me to insults when you’ve delivered sinners and backsliders?”
Third, when faithfulness is repaid with abandonment feelings of emotional desertion increase. We see this in Psalm 22:9-11.
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
When we consider the years of our trust in God and obedience to Him only to be left alone with no one to help in our time of need, then the sense of emotional betrayal grows more intense. Jesus was miraculously conceived by the Virgin Mary. He lived to do the Father’s will. The only trouble the Lord ever gave His parents came at age 12 when he stayed in the temple too long teaching the religious leaders. From birth Jesus served the Father. But now, in trouble on the cross, the Lord cries with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And there was no one there to help. The feeling of abandonment after a life of perfect obedience and trust left the Son of God overwhelmed with emotion. “My God, my God, how could you leave me alone after doing all you asked?”
Fourth, the feelings of desertion rise when our enemies are close but our God seems far off. We see this in Psalm 22:12-21. Listen for the hints and prophecies pointing to our Lord.
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions tearing their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.
19 But you, O LORD, be not far off;
O my Strength, come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver my life from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
Bulls, lions, dogs, and wild oxen surrounded the Lord on that day. Men turned to beasts by their sin and blindness. The Savior feels his heart melting, His bones dislodged, his strength dried up, his hands and feet pierced, stripped naked and gawked at while his clothes were divided. Isn’t it amazing how Calvary shows up so clearly in psalms written centuries before Jesus came and the gospels were penned? It’s how partly how we know these things are true.
There is the Creator of the world hanging powerless, looking to the Father to be His strength. But the Father stands far off—farther away than the women who were there (Matt. 27:55-56). Yahweh, who was His strength, withdrew just when Jesus’ heart melted and failed. Can you imagine a greater sense of abandonment, of being left by God? “My God, my God, where are you when I’m scared and weak?”
Psalm 22 helps us understand what is happening emotionally to our Lord in those final moments on the cross, when He lets go with that wailing question, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Not only was the Savior socially abandoned by the men He came to save, He was also emotionally deserted by the Father in whom He trusted.
Once again we hear the scream: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Once again we ask ourselves, What can this mean?
It means the Father allowed the Son to suffer social abandonment. It means the Father allowed the Son to suffer emotional desertion. And, yet, it means more.
3. The Father Allowed the Son to Suffer Spiritual Wrath
This is the deepest, darkest part of Jesus’ suffering. Social abandonment was horrible but came from outside. Emotional desertion was painful but only inside Jesus. This spiritual forsakenness, spiritual wrath from the Father, occurs deep down in the very godhead itself. We dare not speculate lest we blaspheme. But something was torn in the very fabric of the relationship between Father and Son.
To get a sense of this, we must remember what the relationship between Father and Son had been from eternity past. The opening words of the apostle John’s Gospel tell us. John 1:1-2—”In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” For all eternity, Jesus lived with the Father. And not just with the Father. The Greek word pros, translated “with”, can have the sense of “to” or “toward.” In other words, the Word, Jesus, was with God, turned toward Him in face-to-face fellowship. That’s all the Lord Jesus had ever known—the loving, approving, shining face of His Father.
And to be turned face-to-face with God the Father is the Bible’s idea of the highest possible or imaginable blessing and happiness. This is why God teaches Moses to bless the Israelites in Numbers 6:24-26—
24 “The LORD bless you
and keep you;
25 the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
26 the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”
To see the face of God became the highest aspiration and hope among the holy and righteous. I Chronicles 16:10-11 exhorts the faithful with these words—”Glory in His name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice; Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.” The psalms repeatedly include that last exhortation—”Seek His face always!” That became the highest and happiest ambition of man.
And conversely, having the Lord turn His face away became the deepest fear and dread. So David brings together that high and holy aspiration with that deep and fearful dread when he writes in Psalm 27:8-9—”My heart says of you, ‘Seek His face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O my Savior.”
The words of Psalm 27 could have easily been spoken by our Incarnate Lord at Golgotha. For in His earthly life and ministry, the Lord Jesus continually sought the Father’s face. He sought to live in a way that earned the Father’s approval and favor. And He did–perfectly.
But on that dark mid-day on Golgotha, when the sun refused to shine, the unimaginable and indescribable happened. That beautiful, shining, loving face of the Father withdrew into the dark, frowning, punishing face of wrath. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). The Son of God himself “bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). He became accursed for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree” (Gal. 3:13). And when our sins were laid upon Him, then Jesus felt the full horrible truth of Habbakuk 1:13—that God the Father’s “eyes are too pure to look on evil; He cannot tolerate wrong.”
At 3 o’clock that dark Friday afternoon, the Father turned His face away and the ancient, eternal fellowship between Father and Son was broken as divine wrath rained down like a million Soddoms and Gomorrah’s. In the terror and agony of it all, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“[T]his was his chief conflict, and harder than all the other tortures…. For not only did he offer his body as the price of our reconciliation with God, but in his soul also he endured the punishments due to us. … Nothing is more dreadful than to feel that God, whose wrath is worse than all deaths, is the Judge. … [H]e maintained a struggle with the sorrows of death, as if an offended God had thrown him into a whirlpool of afflictions.”[1]
In Jerusalem that day hung a picture of Hell as the Son of God was cut off socially from everyone, deserted emotionally on the cross, and separated spiritually from the eternal Father with whom He had always lived face-to-face. That’s hell.
Sinner, that’s our place! That’s the horror that awaits everyone who dies in their sin not repenting from sin and trusting in Jesus alone to save them from the wrath of God and for the worship of God. It’s not pretty. It’s dark and horrifying and unimaginable. Even the God-man cried out and died!
Here’s what we must remember and treasure: Jesus willingly suffers this so sinners may escape it. Jesus’ abandonment means the sinners adoption. He takes our place on the cross so we can take His place in the kingdom. Because He was abandoned socially, we may be children in the household of God. Because He was deserted emotionally, we become whole again—renewed in the image of God. Because He suffered spiritual separation, we may be spiritually united to Him through faith so that we will never be separated from God’s love. Because He was forsaken, we are forgiven. Now He says to us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
It is finished! Sinner, our salvation has been completed. We need only to turn from sin and trust in Jesus.
And if you need evidence to sustain your trust, remember this: The Father went back for the body. He raised Jesus from the grave alive and ruling in glory. Three days later the Father reclaimed a resurrected and living Son! Jesus was not finally forsaken and neither is anyone who trusts in Him.
Can you feel the sense of emotional torture in the Savior’s cry? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It’s difficult to read those words, imagine that scene, and not shudder in horror. In we look long into that anguished cry, we glimpse something of what it means for the Father to forsake His Son. First, the Father allowed the Son to suffer social abandonment. But there’s more.
2. The Father Allowed Jesus to Suffer Emotional Desertion
Of course, the cry itself is a quote of Psalm 22:1. Psalm 22 is a psalm of David. It’s one of the Messianic psalms that clearly point beyond anything David ever experienced to the experience of Jesus the Messiah. The psalm is best read on Jesus’ lips.
Four contrasts in Ps. 22 give us a glimpse of the emotional intensity of Jesus’ cry. These contrasts are really gaps—gaps between Jesus’ expectation and God’s actions on that day. For forsakenness is not simply a matter of loneliness. Forsakenness involves loneliness, but extends to something deeper. Nor is forsakenness simply a matter of being let down. Forsakenness is that loneliness and let down that includes a sense of betrayal—at least the betrayal of unfulfilled expectations. The U.S. Marines pride themselves on “never leaving a man behind on the battle field.” To leave your troops and fellow soldiers stranded represents the greatest betrayal. That’s forsakenness. Or, imagine the groom dressed in his tuxedo awaiting his bride. While expecting to see her dressed in white, slowly sauntering down the aisle, he learns that she left him at the altar. That’s forsakenness. An expectation, a longing, a hope… knifed in the back. Forsakenness is to be cast off, abandoned, deserted, left, spurned, ditched, marooned, walked out on, jilted, spurned. Forsakenness carries all the emotional thrust of that image of a knife in the back or a punch in the gut.
Consider the four contrasts in Psalm 22 as an illustration of the emotional forsakenness Jesus felt on the cross. We may experience these things in our human trials; but Christ Jesus, the perfect man and perfect God, experienced these things in a degree we cannot imagine.
First, feelings of emotional desertion come if prayers go unanswered when we clearly know God rules. Psalm 22:2-3—”O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.” God is the ruler of all things. He sits enthroned. He is high and lifted up. We could translate verse 2 as “enthroned on the praises of Israel.” Yet, this ruling God does not answer the incessant cries and prayers of the one who trusts in Him. We have the sense that the righteous prayers of righteous men ought to be answered by a righteous God. If God does not grant such a man his prayers, then we feel a gap, a sense of forsakenness. The more righteous the man and the prayer the more forsaken the feeling. Have you ever had that feeling? Yet, beloved, there was never a man more righteous than Jesus. Never was there a deeper forsakenness caused by unanswered prayers offered to a ruling God than that forsaken feeling Jesus felt on Calvary’s cross. “My God, my God, how could you not answer my cry when you rule all things?”
Second, feelings of emotional desertion come when the righteous are forsaken while sinners are delivered. When we see God deliver others yet leave us mocked and persecuted, it heightens our sense of emotional abandonment. In Psalm 22:4-5, Jesus calls to mind God’s deliverance of Israel:
In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
Remember: This is sinful, backsliding, stiff-neck Israel who repeatedly turned from God to idols. Yet, YHWH repeatedly delivered them and rewarded their trust. Verses 6-8 contrasts backsliding Israel with righteous Jesus’ treatment.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by men and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
8 ”He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
Psalm 22 was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, but it’s like reading Matthew 27 verbatim. How could God deliver a sinful people like Israel and leave the perfect Son of God to suffer the mockery of men He made? For that matter, how could God deliver a sinful people like us and leave the perfect Son of God to suffer abandoned? The gap heightens Jesus’ emotional desertion. “My God, my God, how could you abandon me to insults when you’ve delivered sinners and backsliders?”
Third, when faithfulness is repaid with abandonment feelings of emotional desertion increase. We see this in Psalm 22:9-11.
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
When we consider the years of our trust in God and obedience to Him only to be left alone with no one to help in our time of need, then the sense of emotional betrayal grows more intense. Jesus was miraculously conceived by the Virgin Mary. He lived to do the Father’s will. The only trouble the Lord ever gave His parents came at age 12 when he stayed in the temple too long teaching the religious leaders. From birth Jesus served the Father. But now, in trouble on the cross, the Lord cries with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And there was no one there to help. The feeling of abandonment after a life of perfect obedience and trust left the Son of God overwhelmed with emotion. “My God, my God, how could you leave me alone after doing all you asked?”
Fourth, the feelings of desertion rise when our enemies are close but our God seems far off. We see this in Psalm 22:12-21. Listen for the hints and prophecies pointing to our Lord.
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions tearing their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.
19 But you, O LORD, be not far off;
O my Strength, come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver my life from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
Bulls, lions, dogs, and wild oxen surrounded the Lord on that day. Men turned to beasts by their sin and blindness. The Savior feels his heart melting, His bones dislodged, his strength dried up, his hands and feet pierced, stripped naked and gawked at while his clothes were divided. Isn’t it amazing how Calvary shows up so clearly in psalms written centuries before Jesus came and the gospels were penned? It’s how partly how we know these things are true.
There is the Creator of the world hanging powerless, looking to the Father to be His strength. But the Father stands far off—farther away than the women who were there (Matt. 27:55-56). Yahweh, who was His strength, withdrew just when Jesus’ heart melted and failed. Can you imagine a greater sense of abandonment, of being left by God? “My God, my God, where are you when I’m scared and weak?”
Psalm 22 helps us understand what is happening emotionally to our Lord in those final moments on the cross, when He lets go with that wailing question, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Not only was the Savior socially abandoned by the men He came to save, He was also emotionally deserted by the Father in whom He trusted.
What Does It Mean for the Father to Forsake the Son? (Part 3)
Once again we ask ourselves, What can this mean?
It means the Father allowed the Son to suffer social abandonment. It means the Father allowed the Son to suffer emotional desertion. And, yet, it means more.
3. The Father Allowed the Son to Suffer Spiritual Wrath
This is the deepest, darkest part of Jesus’ suffering. Social abandonment was horrible but came from outside. Emotional desertion was painful but only inside Jesus. This spiritual forsakenness, spiritual wrath from the Father, occurs deep down in the very godhead itself. We dare not speculate lest we blaspheme. But something was torn in the very fabric of the relationship between Father and Son.
To get a sense of this, we must remember what the relationship between Father and Son had been from eternity past. The opening words of the apostle John’s Gospel tell us. John 1:1-2—”In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” For all eternity, Jesus lived with the Father. And not just with the Father. The Greek word pros, translated “with”, can have the sense of “to” or “toward.” In other words, the Word, Jesus, was with God, turned toward Him in face-to-face fellowship. That’s all the Lord Jesus had ever known—the loving, approving, shining face of His Father.
And to be turned face-to-face with God the Father is the Bible’s idea of the highest possible or imaginable blessing and happiness. This is why God teaches Moses to bless the Israelites in Numbers 6:24-26—
24 “The LORD bless you
and keep you;
25 the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
26 the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”
To see the face of God became the highest aspiration and hope among the holy and righteous. I Chronicles 16:10-11 exhorts the faithful with these words—”Glory in His name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice; Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.” The psalms repeatedly include that last exhortation—”Seek His face always!” That became the highest and happiest ambition of man.
And conversely, having the Lord turn His face away became the deepest fear and dread. So David brings together that high and holy aspiration with that deep and fearful dread when he writes in Psalm 27:8-9—”My heart says of you, ‘Seek His face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O my Savior.”
The words of Psalm 27 could have easily been spoken by our Incarnate Lord at Golgotha. For in His earthly life and ministry, the Lord Jesus continually sought the Father’s face. He sought to live in a way that earned the Father’s approval and favor. And He did–perfectly.
But on that dark mid-day on Golgotha, when the sun refused to shine, the unimaginable and indescribable happened. That beautiful, shining, loving face of the Father withdrew into the dark, frowning, punishing face of wrath. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). The Son of God himself “bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). He became accursed for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree” (Gal. 3:13). And when our sins were laid upon Him, then Jesus felt the full horrible truth of Habbakuk 1:13—that God the Father’s “eyes are too pure to look on evil; He cannot tolerate wrong.”
At 3 o’clock that dark Friday afternoon, the Father turned His face away and the ancient, eternal fellowship between Father and Son was broken as divine wrath rained down like a million Soddoms and Gomorrah’s. In the terror and agony of it all, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“[T]his was his chief conflict, and harder than all the other tortures…. For not only did he offer his body as the price of our reconciliation with God, but in his soul also he endured the punishments due to us. … Nothing is more dreadful than to feel that God, whose wrath is worse than all deaths, is the Judge. … [H]e maintained a struggle with the sorrows of death, as if an offended God had thrown him into a whirlpool of afflictions.”[1]
In Jerusalem that day hung a picture of Hell as the Son of God was cut off socially from everyone, deserted emotionally on the cross, and separated spiritually from the eternal Father with whom He had always lived face-to-face. That’s hell.
Sinner, that’s our place! That’s the horror that awaits everyone who dies in their sin not repenting from sin and trusting in Jesus alone to save them from the wrath of God and for the worship of God. It’s not pretty. It’s dark and horrifying and unimaginable. Even the God-man cried out and died!
Here’s what we must remember and treasure: Jesus willingly suffers this so sinners may escape it. Jesus’ abandonment means the sinners adoption. He takes our place on the cross so we can take His place in the kingdom. Because He was abandoned socially, we may be children in the household of God. Because He was deserted emotionally, we become whole again—renewed in the image of God. Because He suffered spiritual separation, we may be spiritually united to Him through faith so that we will never be separated from God’s love. Because He was forsaken, we are forgiven. Now He says to us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
It is finished! Sinner, our salvation has been completed. We need only to turn from sin and trust in Jesus.
And if you need evidence to sustain your trust, remember this: The Father went back for the body. He raised Jesus from the grave alive and ruling in glory. Three days later the Father reclaimed a resurrected and living Son! Jesus was not finally forsaken and neither is anyone who trusts in Him.
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