Month: April 2022

On Forsaken

Psalm 22:1-5, 22-24 NIV 1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?  Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?  2 My God, I cry out by day, but You do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.  3 Yet You are enthroned as the Holy One; You are the one Israel praises.  4 In You our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and You delivered them.  5 To You they cried out and were saved; in You they trusted and were not put to shame…22 I will declare Your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise You.  23 You who fear the Lord, praise Him!  All you descendants of Jacob, honor Him!  Revere Him, all you descendants of Israel!  24 For He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

Matthew 27:45-46 NIV  45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness(B) came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[a] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

Observation

I have heard many speculations about what these words of Jesus on the Cross mean.  These words cannot mean that God turned away or separated Himself from Jesus because a holy God cannot look on sin because He looks on sin and sinners every day.  “24 For He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.”  If God cannot look on sin, how did Satan, the embodiment of evil, stand in God’s presence when they discussed Job (Job 2:1-2 NKJV).  What the Word does tell us that God cannot look favorably upon sin.  If “forsaken” means that the rest of the Trinity has severed relationship with Jesus, then the Cross was meaningless because Jesus was just a man at that point and unable to pay the price.  The Word tells us that Jesus was fully man and fully God (Colossians 2:8-10 NIV).  That never changed.  “Forsaken” in the psalms generally means that God has allowed one to fall into the control of the enemy.  This certainly fits here.

The most astounding part of this redemptive sacrifice is that God, in the person of His Son Who was fully God and fully Man, put Himself on the Cross to pay the required price and suffer the wrath for the sake of all sinners to have the choice to be rescued, restored, redeemed.  Jesus endured unspeakable anguish and agony as He absorbed God’s judgmental wrath (in God’s presence) so that we would never have to absorb the wrath we deserve in His presence.  This mystery of the triune God – 3 persons in one – must mean that the Father and the Holy Spirit participated in this sacrifice, fully present with Jesus on the Cross and in the Resurrection to come. 

Impact on Me

I still had questions as to why Jesus cried out that He was forsaken.  I have learned that Psalm 22, 23 and 24 are called the “Shepherd Psalms” and are memorized by Jewish boys for their Bar Mitzvah.  When Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1, it was like me saying, “Our Father in heaven, holy is Your name….”  I know what follows those words; you probably do, too!  The religious leaders certainly knew what Jesus meant.  I started reading the 3 psalms together as one piece and found that they are about God’s care for His creatures and Jesus’ victory, not defeat or abandonment.  This just reminded me about the critical importance of context, of seeking to understand cultural customs and idioms, those unspoken you-understood phrases and actions that are foreign to me but fully understood by those of Jesus’ time.

I came to understand that God, Who is Love and the Creator of us all, Who promised to never leave or forsake us, poured out His wrath upon Himself so that I can avoid His wrath and choose grace by embracing Christ as Savior.  This is the most remarkable offer and would be too good to be true if God was not the One making it.  I don’t know why the Cross was the price but I am grateful that my God was willing to pay it.   

Prayer

Lord God Almighty, Father, Son and Spirit, I bow to Your plan and purpose for my life even when the circumstances seem to scream “DEFEAT!”  I know that You are not the author of war, famine, pain, sickness and all the other evils of this world AND I know that You are working all things together for good regardless of what I think.  I would not have put Jesus on the Cross as a way to salvation and victory, and yet it is the pivot point of history, providing me with a choice between life and death when the only choice before was death.  Search me and know me, guide me and lead me in righteousness.  I submit to Your plan.   In Jesus’ name, make it so.

On Who Would Have Thought

Isaiah 53:1-12 MSG  Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?  Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.  There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.  He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.  One look at him and people turned away.  We looked down on him, thought he was scum. 

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.  We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.  But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!  He took the punishment, and that made us whole.  Through his bruises we get healed. 

We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.  We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.  And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.

7-9 He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word.  Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence.  Justice miscarried, and he was led off—and did anyone really know what was happening? 

He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people.  They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true.

10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain.  The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.  And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.  Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as he himself carries the burden of their sins.  Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—the best of everything, the highest honors—Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Observation

“Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?…it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!  He took the punishment, and that made us whole.  Through his bruises we get healed…He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people…Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true.  Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain.  The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.”

 The popular image of Messiah in Jesus’ time was a warrior king who would set His people free from the oppression of Roman rule.   This chapter was obviously ignored and/or misunderstood.  How often do we do the same thing?  We look for scripture passages that reinforce our fix for the  circumstances we deem need to be changed, telling God how we think He should move in a situation, and ignore the ones we don’t understand, don’t fit our plan or might be taxing emotionally or physically.   I am sure the followers of Jesus would not have understood or agreed with the Savior-On-A-Cross plan as a way to salvation and deliverance.  Because their insight, like ours, is limited (temporal, short-sighted by eternal standards), they (and we) often forget that God has an eternal perspective and a plan that is not shaken or adjusted or challenged by circumstances or what people might think.  

Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross was the pivot point of history.  How difficult it must have been for His disciples to be faced with the enigma of a crucified Savior, something so incongruous, so mutually exclusive.  Yet, this was and continues to be God’s one and only plan carried out to perfection.

Impact on Me

Good Friday, the day we commemorate the sacrifice in this chapter of Isaiah, is such a holy day for me.  I am so grateful, forever grateful, that God made a way to restore the relationship He established in the Garden of Eden through paying a price none of us could pay.  I am overwhelmed by the love, the undeserved grace and mercy available because of Jesus’ willingness to suffer and die for all those who embrace this sacrifice! 

It is so astounding to me that God’s plan made Jesus the sacrifice – the innocent dying for the guilty.  My mind cannot fathom the depth of that kind of mercy.  Then, to add to the staggering nature of His grace, He adopts me as His child rather than holding me as His servant until I could pay the price of my freedom.  All for free because Jesus took the redemption price on Him, on Him.  Will I be asked to sacrifice, to change, to leave my sin habits behind, to walk by faith into unknown places with unknown consequences, YES, but I will also know that Jesus goes with me always.

I know that you cannot separate the Crucifixion from the Resurrection, the crucified from the risen Savior, because both are key to God’s plan to redeem, restore and reconcile humankind to Him.  However, if you are looking for me, go to the Cross.  I want to embrace the Cross in such a way that I become bloody so that when I hug someone else, they become bloody, too.  I want them to be changed and redeemed, forever grateful as am I.

Prayer

Father God, You are so merciful, so wise, so loving, so gracious.   How many times I have questioned Your ways, Your response in desperate and destructive situations, Your seeming slowness to respond!  Forgive me for thinking that I can fix anyone or any situation without getting in sync with Your plan first.  Help me to understand and surrender to Your will and Your purpose for me so that You can use me as an instrument of redemption.  Thank You for the Cross and the Resurrection.  May I always be grateful and respond in kind with Your mercy and love.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

On Forgiving My Enemy

Matthew 5:43-48 MSG  43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.  48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Luke 23:34 MSG  Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Observation

The Word of God was given to us not for what it would mean to us (trying to rationalize through human experience), but, rather, for what it would mean for us in revealing the Lord’s perspective.  In other words, His words are not to be interpreted from my “humanly possible” perspective, but, rather, to give me insight into His “nothing is impossible” one.  These passages are a perfect example of how God’s perspective challenges me to be less human and more supernatural – trusting in Him and allowing the Holy Spirit freedom to make me more like Jesus so I function as He intends in the Body of Christ. 

So, returning love to those who hurt, attack, despise and use you (or someone you care for) seems impossible from a human standpoint.  It is incredibly difficult to look past the face and actions of an enemy to see the chains that bind him or her.   But Jesus did just that on the Cross.  “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.”  Jesus said this about the man who drive the nails in His hands, the man who held the whip, Pontius Pilate, the religious leaders, those who yelled, “Crucify!” and all of us who were yet to come. 

Loving our enemies does not mean submitting to physical abuse or enabling them to avoid the consequences of their actions.  “When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves.”  Loving them requires us to forgive them and pray for their healing and deliverance – a nearly impossible feat without choosing to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s perspective in our most human moments and choosing in His strength to journey in that direction.  The road may seem long, steep and treacherous, but it is worth the taking.

Impact on Me

I confess that there are people that I find hard to forgive because of the wounds they have created by word and deed.  I have rationalized wishing harm on someone who hurt me (or others for whom I care dearly) and clothed it in my mind as justice.  I am sure there are people that feel the same toward me.  We are none of us without fault.  But, if we want to be more like Jesus, then we need to see others through God’s perspective.  “He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. “

So, I want to learn to look past the visible or invisible wound to me and attempt to see the soul, gaining compassion for those so wounded that they would choose to attack or harm another – verbally or physically.  I want to be to others as Jesus has been to me – so gracious and generous when I did not deserve it.  “Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”  I have not yet arrived at this place, but I sincerely want to go there.

Prayer

Good, gracious, generous, loving God, how easily I forget the undeserved grace I received when I am wounded by another.   How difficult it is for me to forgive those who make themselves my enemy and spitefully use me, but You say this forgiving, this grace and mercy, makes me more like Jesus, more effective in His Body, more beneficial to Your kingdom.  So, I ask You to search me and find those ungracious and stingy thoughts, those wounds that need to be healed, so I may allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in me so I can fulfill Your will and purpose in my life.  Make it so, in Jeus’ name.