Now the story moves towards the events of the passion and the crucifixion, which occupy so large a part of the gospel narratives. The beatings, the scourgings, and the cruelty of the cross with its humiliation and pain. And the even more painful separation from his Heavenly Father - the double horror: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34)
What did it mean, that cry? We can't know his mind. All we can do is give a particular emphasis from the way we see it. But Christians have always thought of this as the place where Jesus most closely identified himself with man. "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows," wrote the prophet Isaiah 700 years before. (Isaiah 53:4) A sense of separation from God? It's our common lot, the place where we most often are. But it was something Jesus had never known. And now he knows the pain of it to a depth we never could. It is love that is torn and bleeding; love that stretches out its arms in anguish to bridge the gap, the separation between us and God. Nothing else could. And not even the power of darkness could stand against it.
They say he bore our punishment, that the wrath of God was poured out on him. What does it all mean? And this cry of forsakenness. Forsaken by whom? Did he feel forsaken by a God of wrath or a God of love? Surely by a God of love. Or am I over-simplifying things? I know I am. But wasn't separation from God wrath enough?
YOU ARE READING
Behold The Man*
EspiritualThis is mainly a five part idiosyncratic reflection on the life of Jesus of Nazareth; someone whom many people with little time for religion still find attractive. It is mostly from a talk I gave in 1988 while visiting a church in Pennsylvania. Plea...
