“Father, Forgive Them, They Know Not What They Do”
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”
There was one righteous man on the hill of Calvary that one Friday, one man who believed the Father completely, and He was hung like a criminal between two thieves. All around Him milled a multitude of people who were either totally secure or were in total turmoil, both in their unbelief.
The Jewish officials who thought it well to sacrifice one Man for the sake of the nation, but who didn’t believe that Man was Christ our Passover, whose impending death would cover not only all of Judah but the nations of the world as well.
The Roman officials who happily declared Him King of the Jews, but didn’t believe that He will be Lord over them as well.
The Pharisees who wanted to break His bones so He wouldn’t corrupt the Sabbath, but didn’t believe that He is our Sabbath.
The scoffers who confessed that He saved others, but didn’t believe that He would not save Himself in order to accomplish just that mission.
The gamblers who coveted His beautiful robe, but did not believe that He would robe Himself in glory.
The thief who expected to goad Jesus into saving him, not believing he must confess his guilt and need first.
The mother and friends who mourned the losing of His life, but did not believe that He would take up His life again.
All the people of the world were represented by those gathered around the cross that day, and there was none righteous, not one. This most blessed and blind generation, the generation of the appointed time which could cling to the body of Christ — whether in love or hatred, they could physically take hold of His body — none of them believed.
And hanging from the nails that secured Him to the cross, Jesus prayed that the judgment for these sins would fall upon Himself. He desired the judgment of God for the sake of His people. He prayed to absorb the wrath of God in the stead of both those who loved Him and those who hated Him. He called out to His Father for mercy upon all the people, for mercy upon their unbelief, for only He truly believed in what He was doing.
Follow the trail set out by John:
“He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
“And God so loved the world (that he made) that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Since the Cross was established before the foundations of creation, before He began to make all the things that He made, Jesus was always acquainted with the idea of propitiation. As Paul wrote to the Romans, propitiation shows “(God’s) righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Propitiation is the legal transaction God made with Himself that declares Him to be holy and allows Him to be merciful.
In the book “Knowing God,” J.I. Packer draws this distinction: “Expiation is an action that has sin as its object; it denotes the covering, putting away or rubbing out of sin so that it no longer constitutes a barrier to friendly fellowship between man and God. Propitiation, however, in the Bible, denotes all that expiation means, and the pacifying of the wrath of God thereby.” Jesus was not just buying our forgiveness on the cross, He was bartering His holiness for it. I will give them my righteousness, Father, He said, if You will give me their filth.
So Jesus suffered the punishments of Hell on the cross, to satisfy the sin debt of His elect. He stood in the wrath of God; this most Beloved Son endured the seething hatred of His Beloved Father. And all about Him stood those who thought they could kill Him to get Him out of the way, and refused to believe. They openly confessed He had saved others, but they thought He had no hope for Himself. They were killing Him with their self-satisfied unbelief. If the Father was going to forgive anyone that day, someone was going to have to pay the price. For these people Jesus prayed loudly that the Father might lay the punishment for this profound unbelief upon Him.
After the completion of the first temple the Lord made a promise to Solomon: “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them.’ ”
What did the house of Israel do there at the foot of the cross, but forsake the commandments of God? All the law, the prophets and the Psalms were about Jesus of Nazareth. What were they doing, if not serving some god other than the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – Divine Trinity? What were they guilty of, if not abandoning the Lord, rejecting the Messiah of whom and through whom and to whom all their precious law and prophets witnessed? Were they not worthy to be cast out, a pariah and byword among the nations? For these, Jesus begged the Father that the declared curses for this vile, violent blasphemy be poured out upon His own head, a propitiation for His enemies.
Paul says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
Have mercy upon me, Lord, for the condemnation I brought upon You. Your name be blessed forever.
***
As Jesus declares in John’s Gospel, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” With this first statement from the Cross, recorded by Luke, He is mediating that mercy for the very people killing Him. When He said to Pilate, “You would have no authority against me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin,” He knew exactly the level of guilt He was paying for, for these and for all sin from the beginning to the end. As Peter noted in Acts 2, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” He set the people in a panic, “What can we do?” and the simple reply was believe in this crucified God-Man for forgiveness of sins.
Matthew records for us twice Jesus saying, “Learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” These words come from Hosea 6, and the context of the phrase is this: “‘Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.
“‘O Judah, what shall I do to you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and my judgments are as the light that goes forth. I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.”
What we are seeing play out before us tonight is both mercy and sacrifice, the true sacrifice that makes true mercy possible. He has torn us, and He will bind us up: By His stripes we are healed. On the third day He will raise us up. Here we have the treacherous act against the eternal covenant, the very act that seals the eternal covenant within the Godhead. This work allows Hosea to also say about his own children, “In that day … I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” As He exacts sacrifice, the Father upon the Son, God desires to reveal His mercy to us.
And God desires that we know Him. The ancient church expounded upon this doctrine in this way: the Son humbled Himself to allow Moses to see His glory and to talk with Him for us in receiving the law. The people were unable to withstand this as we read in Ex. 34, and Moses put on a veil. But the Son’s apostles, and we ourselves, can withstand it because He humbled Himself even more, becoming one of us to suffer for us. We cannot know the Godhead in its Triune essence; we can only survive and know the Godhead through the revelation of the Son – and no veil is can hide it.
To make this so God the Son, Son of God, Son of man has arrived at the Cross. He has been betrayed, abandoned, framed, blasphemed, humiliated, beaten, cursed, nailed to a tree and lifted up before all men. The real work has begun with a cry for mercy. Before the Sanhedrin, before Caiaphas and Annas, before Pilate, before Herod, before the Father, Jesus sought no mercy for Himself, but instead for those who were playing out their role set in place before the beginning, the ones to whom He cried, similar to Hosea, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”
Sacrifice and mercy. Righteousness and peace.
It was the fulfillment of His mission.
It was the fulfillment of all righteousness, according to His word to the Baptist.
It was the fulfillment of the Incarnation.
The fulfillment of Zerubbabel returning to Judah.
The fulfillment of David.
The fulfillment of Moses.
The fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The fulfillment of the lament and hope of Job.
The fulfillment of the redemption of Noah and his three sons.
The fulfillment of the remedy for Adam and his three sons.
The fulfillment of the physical demonstration of the spiritual truth of Christ crucified before the foundation of the world.
The fulfillment of God’s role as just, and the justifier.
*******
“Truly I Say to You, Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise”
It is by no accident that the second word of Christ followed the first. When Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them … ,” He proclaimed the universal mercy available for everyone who throughout time has declared trust in His sacrifice. In saying, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise,” He applied that mercy to a particular individual. His prayer to the Father was answered.
Mt. 27:38-44 reads, “Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!’ So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, “I am the Son of God.” ’ And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.” Of all those who heaped hatred and bile upon the crucified Christ, only one changed. Only one repented. Only one cried out for mercy, and not from his tormentors, nor from those whom he had injured with his theft. No, the robber sought mercy from a half-dead man nailed to a wooden frame.
At His trial, when Caiaphas demanded that Jesus defend Himself against false witnesses, Jesus remained silent. When Pilate gave Him opportunity to refute the charges made against Him, Jesus remained silent. When Herod offered his favor in exchange for a miracle, Jesus remained silent. When the crowd cried out for Barabbas, Jesus made no appeal. But when a guilty man sought mercy, Jesus spoke with complete authority — Jesus answered, “Yes.” He promised not only Paradise, but Paradise with Him. God’s sublime atonement was abundant at the cross even before the darkness fell and the earth shook and the temple veil rent in two; the crowd remained unmoved, that no one of us might take this grace for granted, but one man was saved, that no one of us need despair.
Not long before this scene, James and John had sought a favor from Jesus, that they might sit at His right and left hand in His kingdom. He replied by asking whether they thought they were able to drink of His cup. Well, John was there at the cross. He saw a man on Jesus’ right and His left, and they were drinking of His cup, if only at a human level. Indeed, John and James would eventually drink of this cup, but they would first also receive the promise, “You will be with Me in Paradise.” Even as the hell of the Father’s righteous wrath loomed before Him, Jesus offered Paradise.
***
Paradise. It’s a word that has teased mankind for millennia. For the Jew or Christian, it surely conjures up images of the Garden. For others it may mean a fictional place, like Shangri-La or Brigadoon. For some it may bring to mind Tahiti or Glacier National Park, sexual hedonism or a good book in front of a glowing fire.
Jesus of Nazareth was not in much of a position to be talking about paradise, much less making promises. Bloody, beaten, reviled, struggling for breath, nailed to a cross, we esteemed Him stricken by God. Here He is, dripping blood and sweat, ministering comfort to a man on another cross, maybe twenty feet away, screaming to be heard over the wind and crowd noise, saying it will be all right, better than he could know, for no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.
How did those two men get to this moment? Like most of life, it is an unfolding story, a winding path. Here is how Matthew and Luke recount the tale.
“Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
“One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
This one man is the only one of us that we know for sure is in Paradise. Christ’s promises do not fail and are never thwarted. But we have hope, and faith in that shared promise, and this is our assurance. But what of Paradise? What can we know of it?
Let’s turn back to some earlier words of Jesus:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Was the penitent thief not poor in spirit, mourning his sin and the turn his life had taken, meekly confessing and professing faith in Jesus. Was he not merciful to none other than Christ, renouncing his own taunts and defending Him in the face of sinners? He hungered and thirsted for righteousness, and more importantly, he saw beyond the circumstances and recognized the only source for purity of heart, and for righteousness. And with that he made peace, peace with Christ, peace in Christ, peace of Christ. With that he identified with Jesus, entered into the persecution Jesus was suffering. And Jesus in turn identified with him, not in suffering, but in bestowing a place in the Kingdom, where he would be comforted, satisfied, forgiven. There he would dwell, sharing in the Kingdom on Earth, seeing the most wonderful sovereign Lord God, his Father, for eternity in Paradise.
*******
“Woman, Behold Your Son … Behold Your Mother”
These statements from the Cross, “Woman, behold your son,” and “Behold your mother,” are unique among Jesus’ last words, but by no means unique in His mission. The saying is not a prayer nor a promise, it’s not a plea to a distant Father, it is not the begging need of a dying man, it is not a statement of fulfilled prophesy. It is a command. It is the head of a household addressing His mother; it is a rabbi and leader instructing a disciple. It is the Son of God, in full command of the situation, making a final exhortation.
Jesus looked upon the little group at the foot of His execution, a tiny remnant within the teeming crowd, and He responded with pity. Among the collection of faithful women tending to His death He saw His mother, suffering her own unbearable agony, as no doubt the words of Simeon rang in her ears from thirty-three years before, “a sword will pierce through your own soul also.” Jesus’ thoughts turned away from Himself, and toward her. As He prepared to face the wrath of His Father, His thoughts turned to the anguish of His mother. As He had done time and again for three years, He tended to the humanity of those who needed Him. He gave up His role as her first-born, and appointed to her a new eldest son, who would provide for her from his own home.
He also saw the disciple whom He loved – the only one of the apostles to return to witness His passion – whom He had just adopted as a de-facto brother. Perhaps their eyes met and John came to understand what it meant to be at Jesus’ right and at His left. John’s responsibility was only now beginning. His duty to love beyond his family, indeed to take on a whole new and different family, would begin with the blessed virgin. How blessed are you, John, to be given the care of the most blessed among all women.
So Jesus reminds the two of His new commandment, He uses them to illustrate what He had said only days before. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” A new nation He was about to make, a new family. Earlier He had asked, “’Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And stretching His hand out toward His disciples, He said, ‘Here are My mother and My brothers!’” In this one statement in the midst of His suffering, Jesus manifests His worldwide family, everyone who believes in the One whom the Father has sent.
In this brief moment in time and space, we can see a replay of the Garden. The only people in the world that matter at that moment were God, a man, and a woman. God instructs the man and woman to become a family. The man and woman go out, and with others they are fruitful and multiply, building a family of God’s new order. A people where there was no people, a nation where there was no nation. A family bound by faith, and the Holy Spirit.
So, take the hand of the one you came with tonight. Behold, your brother. Behold your sister. This is His commandment, that you love one another as He has loved you. For God is love, and in this the love of God toward us was manifested, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world. Love one another: It is His commandment, proclaimed with authority, even by a man nailed to a wooden cross.
*******
“My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?”
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
Hear the words of Jesus, “I and My Father are One.”
This most desperate cry from the Cross, “why have You forsaken me,” rightly belongs in my voice, and yours. We deserve abandonment by a holy God, we deserve the wages of our sin. But this pleading comes from the voice of Jesus, the Holy One of God. It is recorded in Scripture twice, first in Ps. 22 by a man after God’s own heart, and then by a man who was God. It is Him whom we focus upon tonight.
This pivotal moment in history is filled with contradiction. The conflict can begin to be seen in Gethsemane, when Jesus asks first that the Father’s will be bent, then accepts it without question. “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” Andrew Murray writes that this prayer too belongs on our lips, but Jesus speaks it in our stead, so His petition to be delivered might be rejected, and ours would not. Thus is the tearing apart in love of the Godhead which is one.
Prov. 17:15 tells us, “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.” What happened upon the Cross, if not the justification of the wicked, and the condemnation of the righteous? God imposes upon Himself the Cross, for which all the universe was created, the greatest injustice of history before Him. In some inexplicable stroke of mystery, God becomes abomination to Himself to glorify Himself and declare His holiness.
Jesus said Himself, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Jesus makes Himself the image even of His enemy, the totality of all the sin of the ages, and His own personal righteousness is abundantly able to overcome it. This deity who somehow made Himself like His creation, tears Himself apart to become sin itself.
Jesus says, “I am the Life.” This One who is Himself life casts Himself into the realm of death. How can this be? Who can hear this? Modern language is a mere human invention; it can only approximate our understanding. But how can we understand mystery? How can we approximate its meaning? What language shall I borrow? How do we even understand death? Indeed, we have become cynical toward it – it’s just a natural part of life. Only the Lord of life really understands death’s horrific atrocity, and He experienced it in ways language cannot express.
St. John the divine records this exchange just days before the night of the Passion: Jesus said, “ ‘Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name’ Then a voice came from Heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ ” At this moment divine love manifests itself in submission and grieving and promise.
Whatever happened at this most despairing moment upon the Cross must remain mystery to us. What the mechanics of this transaction were are far beyond our imagination. But this we can know: Whatever happened was by complete agreement between Father and Son and Spirit, bound by supernatural love for each other and for Their creation. “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” the psalmist wails. But Ps. 22 goes on: “You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.” Jesus took the words of despair from our mouths and lifted them to the Father, and the Father heard His Holy One. The Lamb who is worthy carries the burden for those who are not.
At this fleeting, scandalous, most beautiful moment upon Earth, truth and mercy met, righteousness and peace kissed.
*******
“I Thirst”
“They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” So says David in Psalm 69. If any enquire, “of whom speaks the psalmist this? of himself, or of some other man?” we would reply, “of himself, and of some other man.”
Indeed, this last injustice was ultimately visited upon the crucified Christ, for as St. John the Divine writes, “Jesus said, to fulfill the Scripture, ‘I thirst.’ A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.” And Jesus received the sour wine. It was the last physical act of life He performed, before letting go His life to death. The One who once promised living water, that we might never thirst, sought this most elemental need of life on Earth, and received only bitter vinegar. Arthur W. Pink calls this Jesus’ “suffering word,” and in fact it shows Jesus suffering the same torment as the rich man in hell, who asked that the beggar Lazarus might apply a mere drop of water to his condemned tongue. At this moment, physical suffering and spiritual suffering were bound tightly together, inseparable, in this One who is both perfect God and perfect man.
But there was yet more prophecy to be fulfilled here. The Jewish calendar of feasts began with the Passover. A day later the Feast of Unleavened Bread began. Two days after Passover, the Feast of Firstfruits began. The final sacrifice in this final feast of death and redemption was the drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. Many of the Jewish sacrifices were given as food to the temple workers, but a drink offering is a waste. Once wine is poured out upon the bloody altar or upon the ground, it cannot be reclaimed. It is gone. It is a symbol of utter death. “They gaped on me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water.”
In Phil. 2:17, Paul writes, “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.” Languishing in prison, Paul tells Timothy, “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.” The drink offering represents a foreboding of death, a life poured out.
Hear Isaiah: “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.” Jesus, just before He declared His work done, fulfilled the drink offering, pouring out His life, pouring out His soul. Just as the blood was applied to the mercy seat with hyssop, the bitter wine was applied to the Christ with hyssop. Just as the wine was poured out upon the altar, the blood and water poured from Jesus’ side, and the voice of our Savior’s blood cries out to the Father from the ground. It cries for mercy. He pours out his mercy upon transgressors everywhere. And at just the moment He gave us His blood for Eucharist to the eternal quenching of our parched souls, He Himself suffered thirst.
*******
“It Is Finished”
“It is finished.” This is no word of defeat, nor resignation, nor surrender. This short phrase is the full-throated shout of victory. The humility Christ took upon Himself in the Incarnation has reached its zenith. The focal hour of creation has arrived, and its fulfillment completed. Triumph’s voice roars across the heavenlies. Demons scream in anguish, for their time is short, and their foul leader receives a fatal wound to the head. Wonders sparkle across the crossroads of Heaven and Earth, which things the angels desire to look into.
It is finished: The Divine ordeal of the Cross was over, and our sins were cast as far from us as the east is from the west.
It is finished: The petition of Gethsemane was answered, with resounding rejection, so we could offer the same prayer and be delivered.
It is finished: The week of vain proclamation, betrayal and accusation, injustice, reviling and physical torture was complete.
It is finished: The goal of the Incarnation was accomplished, the time of the Christ’s humiliation over, the laying down of His glory ending with an exclamation point.
It is finished: The work of living the glory of the Father on Earth was done.
It is finished: The work of a life in perfect harmony with the law was complete.
It is finished: The sojourn of the God-Man, who had no place to lay His head even in His own creation, had arrived at its destination.
It is finished: The prophecies of the Suffering Servant were fulfilled, down to the next word, the last word, taken from Ps. 31.
It is finished: There is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sin-sick soul – our wounds are closed, our time of sickness is over, for just as Moses lifted up the bronze snake to alleviate the plague of serpents, Jesus was lifted up to heal the bite of the serpent in the Garden.
It is finished: The signs and types vanish, as the true Passover lamb is slain, to protect all those who believe from the specter of the angel of death. Why is this night unlike every other night? Because we were slaves, and we are slaves no more.
It is finished: The signs and types flourish in their consummation, and the living water that first flowed from the rock that Moses struck prepares to flow in fullness at the point of a soldier’s spear.
It is finished: The sacrifice begun by Abraham the father as he lifted his knife against Isaac the son is completed in its reality.
It is finished: The curse of the Tower of Babel, the judgment of arrogance, is lifted, as soon men from the nations of every tongue would take hold of the robe of a single Jew, saying, let us follow after you.
The curse of the Flood, the judgment of lawlessness, is finished, as soon the government will be placed upon His shoulders.
The curse of the Fall, the judgment of disobedience, is finished, as the Seed of the woman crushes the serpent’s head, though His heel is wounded by the nails.
The judgment of our sin is finished, as it is condemned and put to death.
The judgment of unbelief, of death itself, is finished, as the Christ prepares to use death to defeat death, and shows that the greatest work of Satan, the father of lies, death itself, is itself a lie, the greatest lie ever perpetrated in God’s creation. Death is a lie, and Life is the Truth.
The anguish of the Father beholding His beloved Son filthy with sin, so great that He cast aside His gaze, is finished.
It is finished, and the crucifixion that was established before the foundation of the world is demonstrated to all the world and to all the powers and principalities in the heavenlies.
The victory is complete and utter, the one casualty of war that matters has been counted, righteousness and peace have kissed. It is finished, and one thing yet remains.
*******
“Father, Into Your Hands I Commend My Spirit”
With these words Jesus commended His spirit to a loving Father, and committed His disciples to a reconciled God. After six hours upon the cross, after six words spoken from the cross, on the seventh hour He spoke a seventh word of rest, and rested from His completed work. This too is our rest, in the hand of the Almighty Father.
But what of those disciples, left alive in the darkness of promise? John had seen Jesus’ head droop lifeless, His eyes glazed in an empty stare. Mary saw the blood and water smeared around the rip in His side, poured out onto the dirt below. Mary Magdalene and the other faithful women saw his skin hanging off him in shreds, and heard the rattle of His spirit breathed out. They took charge of His gangling, clumsy mass of muscle and bone falling like a sack of potatoes from the cross. There’s nothing much more useless than a dead body. Yet He had told them time and again, He would rise from the dead.
His disciples now entered into a silent Sabbath. The one who brought them together and led them daily for three years was suddenly gone. One of their own group had turned traitor. All the forces that had opposed Jesus over that time had coalesced and triumphed in one horrid day. Certainly these disciples were to be the next targets. Saved perhaps only by the restrictions of the Sabbath, they concealed themselves in a room, watching the shadows creep slowly across the floor, jumping at every sound coming from outside the door. Who knows what the morning would bring? Didn’t He say that if the world hated Him, it would hate them as well? Yet He had also told them time and again, He would rise from the dead. But in the reality of this Sabbath, that was not a reasonable thing to believe.
Brothers and sisters of the communion of the saints, we tarry in our own silent Sabbath. It is right that we gather tonight in the closing hours of the Lenten season. Our time of fasting nears its end, but only as a physical shadow. In reality we will continue to fast the one thing we most desire, the presence of our Beloved. God wisely keeps each of us weak in some way, fasting some deep desire, reminding us of what we truly lack, the presence of our Beloved. “My Beloved put His hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me. I opened to my Beloved, but my Beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when He spoke. I sought Him, but found Him not; I called Him, but He gave no answer.”
Brothers and sisters of the communion of the saints, we have fasted for two thousand years. Take hold of your fasting, embrace it, cling to it, do not waver in your hope! The day comes when He will end your fast, for He has told us time and again, He will return! This too is not a reasonable thing to believe. Yet still we wait upon this silent hope, that He is the Promise made to the patriarchs. He is our Sabbath rest. We have nothing else to hold on to, except that He will come again, and until that day, beloved, believe that you wait within the mighty hands of a loving Father.
Craig Davis Archive 