We've all experienced it: You’re watching a television show
and it goes to commercial, and the first commercial you see is that of starving
children in a 3rd world country.
They show children sitting on the ground, living in grass huts, and
rummaging through garbage trying to find something to eat. It breaks your heart. You think about giving money, but the thought
enters your mind: “If I knew they’d really get the money, I’d give.” You watch it for a few more seconds, and
then, after you've taken all you can withstand, you turn the channel – you just
can’t bear to see the misery.
Did God “Turn
The Channel” During The Crucifixion?
My question, especially as we near the Easter season, is
this: Did God react the same way when Jesus was on the cross? We've heard it said over and over again that
God “ couldn't bear to see His Son”, so He turned away. It’s the picture of a heartbroken God who can’t
bear to see what is happening to His Son.
Even Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
(Matthew 27:46). Did He turn away? Did He refuse to look at the cross? In what sense was Jesus forsaken by the
Father?
.
Well, in one sense, there is a divine mystery that one can
never fully understand or explain. Martin
Luther once studied Matthew 27:45-50 for a long time, even going into seclusion
and refusing to eat. After much study,
he came forth and said, “God forsaken by God – who can understand it.”
While there is a mystery surrounding that cry, we must
understand what it is not. It is not a
cry that marks the complete abandonment of God’s presence from the cross – that
He was so overwhelmed by the sight of His Son that he turned away.
God was very present when Jesus was dying on the cross. “In what sense was the Father present while
Jesus was on the cross?” one might ask.
The Father was present with Jesus on the cross in the same way He will
be present with unbelievers in Hell; He was present in judgment. People are of the opinion that God is not
present in Hell. They are wrong; Hell is
the undiluted, perfect exhibition of God’s wrath against sin. Those in Hell will forever experience the
holiness of God through His wrath that is poured out upon sin. In the same manner, Jesus, when He was on the
cross, experienced God’s wrath against sin.
The one who had heard the Father say, “This is my beloved Son, with whom
I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), now feels the hatred of God due sin and the
wrath of God upon sin.
We will never truly appreciate the price Jesus paid for our atonement
until we realize this hard, yet Biblical truth: What the Father did to Jesus
while He was on the cross was far worse than what the Roman soldiers did to
Jesus! Isaiah 53:4 says that the
Jehovah’s Servant (Jesus) was “smitten by God”; Isaiah 53:10-11 says, “Yet it
was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul
makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his
days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see
and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make
many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”
Those who know Christ should rejoice forevermore because God’s
wrath due our sin has been completely exhausted! It was completely poured out upon Jesus. My sins have already had God’s justice poured
out upon them. He cried, “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?” so that we may cling to the promise: “I will never
leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
