Did the Father Really Forsake the Son?
“The cry of dereliction is one of the deepest and most controversial verses in the Scriptures. What does it mean? And what happened to the Trinity at the cry?” - TGC
I’m still not convinced. I get that this is the way to maintain the integrity of the godhead, while claiming the Father really forsook and turned his face away from the Son. However, I don’t think we can justify the idea that the Father forsook the human nature of Christ. I think you forsake persons not natures. The author tries to explain by using the passage the Christ bore our sins in his body (1 Pet 2:24). But was it possible for Christ to bear the sins of the world w just his human nature?
If Christ identified himself with the psalmist in Ps 22, we really need to take into account the entire experience of the psalmist and note that God did not did not turn his face away (Psa 22:24) nor completely forsake the Psalmist or Jesus..he heard his cry!
@Andy. Your argument has weight.
My view might be different but compatible. I don’t think it’s necessary to take a cry of anguish literally—especially given that it is a quotation from Psalms, where pouring out emotion in non-literal ways is not only common, but vital to the beauty of it.
We shouldn’t analyze-away the emotional punch of that moment, or—unintentionally, I’m sure—rob it of it’s tragic beauty. It is not beautiful because it expresses deep and profound agony. But it is beautiful because of what it meant for Jesus, as human, to feel it, and Jesus as the God-in-the-flesh to feel it.
I do believe there was some kind of real disruption there, objectively, though I don’t see why it would have to be a literal forsaking. And I don’t think that should be our focus. Regardless, the feeling was real. Sometimes we are just supposed to feel.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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