Four MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME? (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46)
At the birth of the Incarnate Son of God there was brightness at midnight as the angels celebrated in holy song (Luke 1-2); at the death of the Incarnate Son of God, there was darkness at noon.
A great darkness descended and covered Calvary for three hours. At the end of this period, people heard the anguished cry of Jesus, the Messiah, the agonising prayer of the Son of Man to his Father in heaven.
The physical darkness of that time pointed to the evil darkness that Jesus had been facing since his arrest - "This is your hour and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53) he had said to those who would destroy him.
On the Cross the conflict between God and evil, between God and sin, between God and the devil and his hosts, between God and death, and between God and darkness was fought out in the body and soul of the new Adam, the Messiah, the Son of God Incarnate. And it had to reach a conclusion. There could be no draw, no treaty, no compromise, no co-existence and no cessation until it ended. One side had to win and the other had to be annihilated.
We can imagine Jesus as the God-Man feeling, in his divine nature, the horror and repulsion that the Holy One always knows in the presence of sin and evil, and we can imagine him, in his human nature as the Suffering Servant of God, feeling the divine wrath and displeasure that the sinful one must always know in the presence of the Holy One.
Here is the heart of the Cross where the righteous Man, the new Adam, is crucified and dies on behalf of the unrighteous, sinful race of Adam, and in suffering and dying he bears the weight and guilt of that sin and unrighteousness in his own pure soul and body.
Thus, as the Messiah, as the Representative, Substitute and Suffering Servant, experiencing the weight of sin, he cries out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1)
O generous love! That he who smote
In Man for man the foe,
The double agony in Man
For Man should undergo.
Because he who wins the battle is truly the God-Man [and thus has double agony], that which he has achieved in his human nature is given eternal and infinite value by the union with his divine nature; and so anyone, anywhere, at any time can call upon the name of the Lord and be saved -- saved that is by the precious blood of this one Person, made known in two natures, divine and human.
"O Lord Jesus Christ, who by thy most bitter passion hast tasted death for every man, and hast borne our sins in thine own body on the Tree: Grant us, we beseech thee, a broken and a contrite heart for all thy sorrows, and the loosing from our sins in thy precious blood; that we may live henceforth as those who have been bought with a price, and glory only in the cross. Amen."
Five I THIRST (John 19:28)
When Jesus is sure that the work he had come to do is accomplished, and that the will of the Father for the salvation of the world is done, he utters a cry, " I thirst." Naturally the soldiers took this as the cry of a suffering man with a parched throat and hastened to give him liquid! But Jesus was thirsty in a deeper way than in the physical sense. He was deeply immersed in the devotion of the true Israelite and was praying in words made familiar to us by the Psalms - e.g.,
"My soul is athirst for God, even for the living God" (42:2); "My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh also longeth after thee" (43:1).
Jesus longed for the fullness of communion with his Father. He thirsted for God the living God.
Yet even in the action of the soldiers in offering to him vinegar [rather than water] for his physical thirst there is symbolic truth declared. The reed/twig of hyssop used by them was used in Hebrew ritual cleansing (Leviticus 14:4,6; Numbers 19:18; Psalm 51:7) and it had been used to sprinkle the doors of the Jewish homes during the first Passover in Egypt.
Since Jesus is both the Lamb of God and the Door (John 10:7) the action of the soldiers reminds the reader that the redemption of the Passover is fulfilled with this sacrifice on Calvary of the true Paschal Lamb by whom people enter into the kingdom of God through his precious shed blood.
And even as the Incarnate Son of God thirsted for communion with the living God, his Father, so ought his disciples to do likewise.
"Blessed Lord, who on the Cross didst endure the thirst both of spiritual desire and of physical anguish; Satisfy the longings of our hearts, we humbly beseech thee, and sanctify our sufferings by thine own; for the love' s sake. Amen."
Six IT IS FINISHED (John 19:30)
Jesus did not die with the groans of a murdered man, nor with the resignation of a martyr. He died with the shout of a conqueror. He died knowing that he had completed the work that his Father had given him to do. His mission was now complete.
(Note that Psalm 22 from which Jesus took his cry of dereliction (verse1) "My God, My God..", actually has a theme of ultimate triumph of God's cause and ends with a note of victory for God's cause. Perhaps Jesus had this in mind when uttering this cry.)
From the Cross itself the Lord Jesus shouts his victory. Of course to every other eye a dying man on a cross looked like and was defeat. But God's ways are not our ways and here on the Cross God had not only the world but also the devil fooled!
We need to be clear that the victory of Jesus Christ was won on the Cross itself. What had been the instrument of his execution he made the symbol of his triumphant reign. On the Cross of Calvary, before sundown on Good Friday and before the actual dying of Jesus, the victory was complete. He had done all that the Father required for the reconciliation of the world to himself, for the redemption and salvation of mankind, for the forgiveness and remission of sins, for abundant life in the kingdom of heaven of the age to come and for communion and friendship with the Father through the Son and by the Holy Ghost.
Therefore Easter is the glorious sign and announcement that the victory has been won. And the church preaches the message of the Risen Lord Jesus who is also "Christ crucified."
"O Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the world: Grant that as thy sacrifice for our redemption was full, perfect, and sufficient, so nothing may be wanting in our service and sacrifice for thee as members of thy mystical body; for the honour and glory of thy great name. Amen."
Seven FATHER, INTO THY HANDS I COMMEND MY SPIRIT (Luke 23:46)
The first and last words from the Cross were addressed to the Father, to the "my Father" of the Lord Jesus. The first was a prayer for pardon and this is a prayer for peace. The drama of Calvary's cross begins with the making of forgiveness real and certain and it ends with a victory that is complete and a peace that is indestructible.
In this last word and prayer the Lord Jesus turned to the Psalms and used for himself the verse that millions of believers would use in the office of Compline (Psalm 31:5 - into thy hands I commend my spirit). We may even suggest that this was the going to sleep prayer he had learned on Mary's knees. But of course he adds to it the most important word, "Father" for he is the only Son of the Father.
And this prayer points to the act of Jesus, the voluntary act of Jesus, whereby he hands over his spirit to the Father. On the Cross in his final moment he declares that he is the Lord of life and the Lord of death who nevertheless is obedient to his Father as the Incarnate Son.
"O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who at the ninth hour of the day, with outstretched arms and bowed head, didst commend thy spirit to God thy Father, and by thy death unlock the gates of paradise: Mercifully grant that in the hour of our death our souls may come to the true paradise, which is Thyself; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen."
"Most bountiful and benign Lord God, we, thy humble servants, freely redeemed and justified by the passion, death, and resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ, having our full trust of salvation therein, most humbly desire thee so to strengthen our faith and illumine us with thy grace, that we may walk and live in thy favour; and after this life be partakers of thy glory in the everlasting kingdom of heaven; through the same Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen."
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
No comments:
Post a Comment