***
The faces that Moses had begged to see – was forbidden to see – was slapped bloody (Exodus 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth’s rebellion now twisted around his own brow...
“On your back with you!”
One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier’s heart continue pumping as he readies the prisoner’s wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier’s life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breathe to is lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do “all things hold together (Colossians 1:17) The victim wills that the soldier live on – he grants the warriors continued existence. The man swings.
As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm – the sensations it would be capable of. The designs prove flawless – the nerves perform exquisitely. “Up you go!” They lift the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can scarcely breathe.
But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an earthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being – the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his Father’s eye turns brown with rot.
His Father! He must face his Father like this!
From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shrivelling remnant of a man hanging on the cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognise these eyes.
“Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped – murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten – fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk- you, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end! Splitting families, raoing virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp – buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves – relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?”
Of course the Son is innocent. He is blameless itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.
The Father watches as his heart’s treasure, the mirror image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah’s stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.
“Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!”
But heaven stop its ears. The Son has stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.
The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it. The Spirit enabled it. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The Rescue was accomplished.
Taken from Boy Meets Girls by Joshua Harris
Originated from When God Weeps by Steven Estes and Joni Eareckson Tada
***
Always thought that the bloody scene on the cross is something that couldn’t be more familiar about. Of how the most innocent blameless man being hung there for dying for our sins, of how each nail was pierced into his flesh nailing to it sins that we commit, of how every drop of blood that dripped wash and wipe away with it the ugly and gruesome of our past, of how a Father chose to turn away when His most beloved and precious Son cries out to Him.
Yet im reminded. I could have never know it enough. I could have never picture it perfectly of every pain He had gone through for me. I could have never figured out who am i to deserve such grace when i am supposed to pay the price for my own sins, He paid it for me.
Why the Cross?
Because sinners have no other hope...
Why the Cross?
Because it is the unassailable proof that we can be forgiven...
Just as im asking wondering why should i deserve such ocean depth of love and forgiveness, i heard Him whispered,
“It’s not what you have done, it’s what my Son has done for you.”
How wide
How deep
How great
Is Your love for me
I would never stop to be amazed by You...
