Leaving Home

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” – Matthew 27:46

David, in an intense foreshadowing of Jesus in this moment on the cross wrote, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?  Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?  O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; and in the night season, and am not silent.” (Ps 22:1-2).  These are the words of a son to his father.

For the first time in my life, I get a very small glimpse or sense of what this must have felt like for God the Father.  I am mindful that there is no comparison to what God must have had to endure in this moment being the embodiment of perfect love.  This weekend we took our son to college and … left him there.  While there is difficulty in knowing that he isn’t in our home now, at least for the majority of time, and it hurts just not having him around because we like him, the deepest difficulty for me is knowing that there will be a time when he is lonely, maybe depressed, needing encouragement, wanting guidance, hurt, disappointed, rejected, angry, sad, or any other part of life where it helps to be surrounded by those that love you and we won’t be near to him or able to provide support.

There is parental pain, and rightfully so for responsible parents, in not being able to provide for and support your children.  So it is in this mindset that I weight how God the Father could be in the heart of His One and only Son, not just hear His cry, but feel the depth of His pain in His heart, and allow Him to hang there lonely, hurt, disappointed, and rejected.  Reason would tell us that a God who loved His Son would not allow Him to do that and would Himself intervene to keep Him from suffering so.  But that is man’s logic and it is incomplete.  God, who is Himself perfect love, allowed Him to suffer so that perfect love could be provided to His Son and to all who have the gift of life.

Understanding the pain in loss required for perfect love is difficult.  God the Father had to endure the loss of communion with His only Son for a time so that perfect love could be provided.  Not nearly the same, but we as parents bear our children leaving to go into the world to become who they must become.  We do not want them to leave but we know it is what is best for them, us, and the hopefully for society in general.  God had to not intervene in that moment of separation from His Son so that He could intervene for man.  There will never be a greater show of power in all that exists than what was on display in that time that Jesus spoke those Words.  Not only was it the power of love to save man, but it was the power to hold back His own Hand.

“But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.  Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You delivered them.  They cried to You, and were delivered; they trusted in You, and were not ashamed.” – Ps 22:3-5

May we rest today in the absolute power of the love of God for us who was willing to hear and feel the cry of His only Son’s anguish and not act so that we might have a way to know Him and be saved from our iniquities.  May we rest in our work as parents to trust God for their protection and to provide people into their path to continue to show them Himself so they might grow in His presence.  We pray for our children and we pray for ourselves.  All our hope is in Jesus our Salvation and God our eternal Father forever.