The Horror of the Cross — Seeing the Cross Through the Eyes of JesusSample

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)

As we continue to consider what it was that caused Jesus to become so despondent as He moved towards His final hours, I believe there was a reality He was facing that was truly overwhelming.

Looking into the future and the sacrifice He would become, Jesus knew He would experience the full wrath of the Father… the One from whom He had only ever experienced love. Perfect love.

Imagine the thought of knowing in just hours that the Father who had loved you perfectly throughout eternity, would turn the full measure of His wrath on you. A crushing wrath that Jesus did not deserve, but that you and I deserved.

The words of Isaiah give insight into just how deeply Jesus would suffer at the hands of the Father…

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God,stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

Later in the same passage Isaiah simply says,

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…. (v. 10a)

This is one reason why Jesus shuddered at the thought of being made sin. Because to destroy the power of sin the Father must crush it. The only remedy was the shedding of blood.

As Paul says in Romans 3:25, “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood”, because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22)

This helps us begin to understand more fully the moment that is captured in Matthew 27:46:

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

The eternal love and intimacy between God the Father and God the Son shattered in that moment as Jesus felt the full weight of the Father’s wrath.

You can see why Jesus pled with the Father to remove this cup from Him. Why His soul was overwhelmed in sorrow to the point of death. And why He literally threw Himself to the ground in prayer seeking any way but this.

Yet, in spite of the horror before Him, Jesus stepped into the Father’s will because of the depth of love He has for you and me. I love how John states it so simply in I John 3:16:

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

Oh, how deep that love truly is for you.

Reflection: Spend some time right now worshipping Jesus for His willingness to take on your sins, bearing the crushing wrath of the Father to bring you peace with God.