This time of year always brings to mind the real humanity of Jesus Christ as He approached and then endured His last Passover as a human being. It’s hard for me at times to fathom a great God who so loved His human creation that He wanted to experience every aspect of human life … especially as I myself experience some of the real frailties of the flesh, and see so many of my closest friends and relatives going through severe trials.
To think that a Being who was actually God would leave the throne of the universe, even for a brief 30+ years, to live in human flesh with all of its pain, temptation and frustration so that He could be of greater service to us is a bit beyond my grasp
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell (Col. 1:15-19)
These verses provide us with one of my personal favorite assessments of the real greatness of this Being …of how highly esteemed He was by His Father in heaven, and how much He was actually giving up to live a mortal life. Yet even He was required to come to a point where He was totally deserted by His closest friends, and left in the hands of the executioners to be tortured, shamed, and humiliated, and to suffer one of the most heinous forms of execution ever devised, and then … to feel the emotional emptiness of Matt 27:46, and separation from His father.
I’ve heard and read for years that the reason for Christ being forsaken was that the Father is so Holy that He can’t abide being in the presence of sin, so when the sins of the whole world were shouldered by His totally innocent Son, He had to temporarily turn His back on Him. I DO understand the reasoning behind that, but I’d like to bring up a scripture that points to a reason for this separation that is even more personal for each man and woman who has ever lived.
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb. 4:15-16)
This great Being, who sacrificed everything for human beings, also came to experience and identify with every major emotion and weakness that we have in the flesh. There isn’t a one of us who has not, or will not have this feeling of being forsaken as we reach our lowest points in life … even by God Himself.
It is the greatest comfort to realize that our High Priest and Savior has an intimate knowledge of ALL that we are experiencing in this fleshly form. Knowing that He, with His experiential knowledge of what we feel, can so readily sympathize with us, we CAN come boldly to the throne of grace, and obtain His mercy and help having His enduring promise that He will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5).
Baptism For Life 