The unique loneliness of Christ on the Cross

Jesus isn’t the only person to have ever been martyred, but unlike other martyrs, as he faced his persecutors, He could not inwardly turn to God for strength because God had turned away from Him.

Sixth Week of Lent - March 9 – March 15

It is finished (John 19:30).

Our salvation is finished on the cross. Our actions can’t add to or subtract from what Jesus did there. Because of this, we have peace with God. And we can experience this peace by really believing that our salvation is a finished work.

There is a beautiful double meaning to these words because they could have been words of defeat, with Jesus at the end of his ministry, on the brink of death. “He’s finished,” is often a term used to describe a person vanquished. But this is the way of Christ, that apparent defeat is actually victory, that weakness is actually strength. At the moment when Jesus was “finished” here on earth, a crucified criminal, an apparently failed revolutionary, in fact, He was overthrowing the kingdom of darkness in an action of unspeakable power.

Blogging Lent:

I thirst (John 19:28).

The context of this is interesting, because the passage notes that once Jesus knew that everything was accomplished, he said “I thirst.” It’s the cruciform equivalent of a cold drink after a hard day’s work, and in this it reminds me of the Creation account: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2).

In the creation account, God worked to create the heavens and the earth. In the Gospels, Jesus worked to redeem human beings.

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).

I’ve heard this verse described two ways: 1) Jesus’ feeling of abandonment at his lowest point in perhaps his entire existence; 2) God had in fact “turned his back” on Jesus, because at that moment Jesus had “become sin” (2 Cor. 5:21) and was suffering the punishment for human beings’ sin---separation from God---which many Christians consider to be the defining aspect of Hell.

It seems that both of these are right, the first dealing more with Jesus’ human experience, the second dealing with the sotereological (theological study of salvation) nature of Jesus’ being on the cross, which, in fact, probably caused Jesus far more profound suffering than the already cruel, physical being nailed to a cross.

As for the first, Jesus’ example constantly dignifies humanity. In response to the atrocity of His being nailed to the cross, Jesus is not a stoic, trying to distance himself from suffering. He cries out in anguish at what is happening to Him. In this, God dignifies human suffering and outcry as an appropriate response to evil in the world.

As for the second aspect, Jesus’ separation from God, it makes me think of the hymn’s chorus “Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus.” It’s an unsearchable horror to consider separation from God, and when this happened to Jesus, the closest analogy I can think of is that it must have been to Him like losing his mind or soul. I’m speaking loosely, of course, but can you imagine that, God losing his soul? For anyone who has ever felt their soul in peril, there is nothing more terrifying. To consider that the Son of God underwent this is beyond comprehension, except to know it must have been the ultimate pain, terror, and horror. But, He did it, endured it, and He did so because of His love for us. He volunteered for this superlative pain so that we wouldn’t have to experience the same, because He knew that in his divinity, He could pay the penalty, endure God’s wrath, and that we could not. He did this for love for you and for me.

Blogging Lent

Woman, behold your son: behold your mother (John 19:26-27).

This saying of Jesus from the cross seems to emphasize his humanity, which also has the effect of validating our own.

On the brink of death, Jesus’ thought turn to who will care for his mother. He shows Himself to be a good son, and for a good son this is a natural concern. It’s interesting to compare this statement with another thing He said: "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his … mother … he cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:26. Hopefully the juxtaposition of these two verses shows conclusively that Jesus was prone to using hyperbolic figures of speech and didn’t hate his mother, and doesn’t expect others to hate theirs either.

Further, Jesus chose a specific person to care for her. This shows that Jesus and John possessed a unique relationship, as all humans possess unique relationships. In other words, it’s okay that you get along with one person particularly well, or select one person for a special job over another. Sometimes I think we take more abstract sayings of Jesus and think we need to overcome our humanity to become godly. In some cases this is obviously true, but Jesus’ caring for his mother on the cross and asking John to take care of her also shows God dignifying much of basic human experience.

Father forgive them...

Sometimes we wonder if we've finally sinned in such a way that God is just done with us, won't love us the same, won't bless us the same, won't be in relationship with us the same way ever again.

But it's hard to imagine that you could do anything worse than nailing Jesus to the Cross. And yet when that happened to Him, His heart was set on forgiveness of those committing the sin.


His lovingkindness endures forever; praise Him.

The grounds of forgiveness -

Can anyone give me a good answer to this question: On what grounds does God forgive sin?

I'm particularly curious as to how people were forgiven in the Old Testament, and before Christ's death. Evangelicals will often say that God only forgives us because of Christ's sacrifice. But then on what grounds is Christ able to teach his disciples "...if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you..."? Matt. 6:14.

One idea I've heard is that of forbearance - that God basically reserved judgment until Christ died, sort of so that Christ's sacrifice could be applied retroactively. Maybe, but this kind of strains the text of the Lord's prayer, and numerous places in the OT when it says that God forgives people their sins. (E.g. Psalm 130:3-4 "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.")

Response to Jeff regarding sin continued...

My understanding of individual sins, big and small, is that they are symptoms of a larger problem. That problem is that human beings have a sinful nature, which flows down to us from Adam and Eve, who ruptured humanity's relationship with God. And because we are all born into a family that is at emnity with God, we all initially begin in a state hostility with God. This hostile relationship leads human beings not accepting God's rightful authority over them, and consequently perpetually disobeying God.

Part of the point of the Sermon on the Mount was to say that the point isn't big sins or small sins (eating shrimp vs. murder), but rather that even those people who appear good on the surface are full of sinful thoughts and feelings, and this illustrates the way in which we are all out of line with God. This illustrates that we all have a sin nature, even if some of us hide it better than others. The point of the Sermon is that we are all far out of line with God's standard, perfection.

I do think Jeff pointed correctly to God's forgiveness as addressing our sins. However, I think it's important to note that forgiveness of our moral debt, our sin, requires that God take the loss. This is described in Psalm 130:8: "He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins." Christ is the fulfillment of this promise that God would redeem his people. So forgiveness is the answer, but Christ as savior, as sacrificial lamb on the cross, is the way that God accomplishes that forgiveness.