Good Friday - A Most Terrifying Absence
Read: Mark 15:22-39
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi,lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have Youforsaken Me?" (Mk. 15:34)There He is, on the cross. It's the culmination of the mystery of the
Incarnation: for if it is beyond our comprehension that the Son of God became
flesh, both human and divine, then it is even more dumbfounding that the Son of
God allows Himself to be put to death by sinful man. But there He is, God
present and dying on the cross.
Yet, at the same time, there He isn't. As the Son hangs on the cross, present
there for your salvation, His Father turns His face away. Father and Son have
been in communion with each other from eternity, but that endless fellowship is
broken at the cross. While Jesus suffers physical death for you, this is the
greater death that He dies—He is separated from His Father in heaven, deprived
of His presence. Because His Father is absent, there is nothing there but death.
Because Jesus is forsaken by His Father at Calvary, that cross truly is His hell,
fully deprived of the Father's presence and grace.
That eternity of hell comes to an end for the Lord Jesus, however. Before
He breathes His last, it is finished, and He commends His spirit into His Father's
hands before the temple curtain is torn, top to bottom.
“It is finished,” that judgment for you and me. There's no more price to be
paid.
What great comfort when you are haunted by guilt. Whether it's a
conscience that revisits mistakes or the devil's whispers that some affliction is
God's revenge, you are likely to be tempted to believe sometimes that God is
angry with you. You will likely wonder at times if the Lord is punishing you for
some sin, and thus has abandoned you to the dust. At such times look to the
cross: see the Son present there for you, even as His Father forsakes Him.
Christ's death is sufficient for all of your sins.
Therefore, God the Father declares to you, “You can be certain that I am not
angry with you. Why? Because I took out all of my perfect, righteous anger on
My Son at the cross. I have no wrath left for your sins, because it was finished
there. Therefore, I use all things for your good. I have called you in Baptism to
be My beloved child. I give you life by My Word even as I feed you with My
Supper. I am not far away, and I have not forsaken you; to be angry with you
now, My beloved child, would be to forsake My Son and His Sacrifice again.
No, My wrath is spent, and you are forgiven.”
As you look to the cross for such relief, don't forget that temple curtain.
That thick veil, which walled off the Most Holy Place, was torn by God, top to
bottom. This testifies that the Sacrifice has been made, that there is no longer
need for a mediator between God and man, because Christ is our high priest.
However, it proclaims something else: God is no longer present in that Holy of
Holies. In this New Testament He is present with His people in His means of
grace. There He is, near you, for you; and will not forsake you.