Today is a travel day. The conference closes and we fly home. I pray that the trip home will be easier on Sarah and Anna Marie than the trip out. They both had a difficult time. However, no matter how bad any of the moments of our life are, they cannot compare with what Jesus bore on the cross.
Last Seven Words of Jesus
Fourth phrase: “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
We can all feel the utter agony of that cry. It strikes a cord deep within our own souls. The author of Hebrews will later observe, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity.” Yes, even the Son of God experienced the fundamental pain of the human race, being separated from the ground of our being, of being separated from God. He who had known no sin, would, by accepting the will of his Father, “become sin on our behalf,” and, in becoming sin, in that singular moment, the Father would turn away from him.
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, made our sense of loneliness and alienation his own. For one moment in all the time of eternity, from everlasting to everlasting, the unbroken connection within the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is mysteriously broken, and the pain of sin enters the heart of God and the pain of His creation is shared.
Of all the mysteries of the Christian faith, including the deep mystery of the Trinity and the incarnation, this moment stands alone for me. God not only knew flesh, but he knew the pain and separation of sin. This extraordinary moment boggles the mind, sears the heart, and humbles the will.
For God so loved the world that gave His only begotten Son and in doing so accepted forever the consequences of that choice and made them His own.
Thank you, God. Thank you.
