Happy Endings

If the Bible is a love letter to us, there are times when it seems like there is no possibility of a happy ending.  Just when it seems like the world is flocking to Jesus on Palm Sunday, things change in a heartbeat and we land at this painful question.

“My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?”

There is no record of any comments Jesus made while being mocked…or whipped…or forced down the road carrying His cross…not even when the nails were pounded into His hands and feet.  Not even then.  

But the moment He felt apart from His Father, that’s when the pain became too much for Him to silently bear.  It’s the ultimate despair.  I have heard it said that hell is the absence of God.  Well, then, Jesus at that moment, must have been looking hell in the face.  

In the Word, there are many recordings of how Jesus, even though walking the human experience, was in constant communication with His Father.  He stayed close, prayed often, sought guidance and comfort.  But on the cross, well, God HAD to look away.  At that moment, Jesus bore the sin of the world.  Think about that for a second.  Think about all that you see in our world today that is dark, evil, void of love.  Add to that what we see in ourselves that does not meet God’s standard.  That’s a lot of sin.  And Jesus took it all on.  So when God looked upon Jesus in that moment, He saw our sin.  He HAD to look away, HAD to allow Jesus to carry our sins to the grave.  

The Godhead is a marvelous mystery.  God, three in one.  How foreign and gut-wrenching it must have been for Jesus to feel God’s absence.  In my own history, I have experienced a dear friendship end on poor terms.  I couldn’t speak of it for months without involuntarily shaking from the inside out, such was the effect of that loss of friendship and love in my life.  I cannot imagine what it was like for Jesus, even for an instant, to be separated from the Godhead, our sin the wedge.  What an act of love for us, that God, three in one, would choose that for our sakes.

Painful for God, but absolutely amazing news for us! 

AND that’s not all!

Jesus carried all our darkness to the grave and HE LEFT IT THERE!  When Jesus rose again, it was glorious!  No smudge of sin, no whiff of wrongdoing, simply glorious!  What a powerful God we love and serve!  God - Father, Son, Spirit - reunited, never to be separated again, seated together ruling over it all.  

God’s grace, our hope.

Oh I do love a happy ending!