The Father Turns His Face Away?
Ever heard this?
"When Jesus was nailed to the cross, God laid on him all the sins of the world. Past, present, and future. When He had done this, the Father, who cannot look on sin, turned His face away from His Beloved Son. When Jesus felt his Father's gaze leave him, he cried out in anguish, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'"
Sound familiar? I didn't get it verbatim from any particular pastor, but it's an idea that's been passed down from generation to generation. But why, exactly? What's the Biblical support for it?
My thought is, there isn't really any support for it.
Oh, it might be true. It might make sense. But support? I don't think so. Logically, it makes sense. We *do* know the Lord laid all the iniquity of humanity on him, right? Yep:
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
And we know that in some sense, Christ *became* sin for us, right? Yep:
And we know God can't look on sin, right? Well, maybe:
And cannot look on wickedness.
On the face of it, I guess that's what this might say. The NASB renders this as "look on evil with favor," meaning God can't *approve* of sin. Duh, right?
In any case, let's take it as Gospel that all those verses add up to God looking away. At best, it's still an extrapolation at best, subject to interpretation of the relevant passages.
My main point? Jesus' cry of lament.
Psalm 22 is the point here, folks. Did Jesus just happen to spontaneously shout out the first line of a Psalm, out of context, with no other intention than to express his feeling of abandonment on the cross? Maybe. Possibly.
But what if he shouted it out as a witness to the Jews who were standing around? I mean, what does the rest of the Psalm say? Here are a few excerpts:
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?
There's the full line of verse 1. Textbook Psalm of lament.
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 'He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!'
Interesting, considering this verse from Matthew (from the crucifixion):
Mark's gospel actually uses the term "wagging their heads" of those who mocked him.
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.
This is probably the most telling passage, given that it's actually quoted by John as fulfilled by Christ (that's John 19:23-4 for those keeping score at home).
Point? Psalm 22 is a Messianic Psalm, and Jesus is bringing it up to make it clear who he is. He's denouncing the Jews as the "dogs" in the Psalm who have pierced him. He's pointing to that passage and letting them know, "THAT'S ME!!!"
There's no way his reference would have been lost on the Scribes and Pharisees. They would have gotten the message. Not that they believed it.
In summation, I'll state that I think the "God turned away" thing has merit, but ask someone to explain it from Scripture and you'll likely receive a blank stare. Our beliefs should be grounded in something other than "pastor said so". Seriously.
Okay, one more aside. In case anybody thinks the New Media has any authority to speak about religious matters, consider this debacle from the funeral of Pope John Paul II. A cantor came forward and started singing in Latin. Now, I'm no expert on the language, but I quickly ascertained that the words being sung were "The Lord is My Shepherd", known to most anybody as Psalm 23. Not so the news anchors, however, because some moron on the production team put up "Psalm 22" as the title.
Slight difference between "The Lord is my shepherd" and "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!", don't you think?
Most classic was Our Lady of the Liberal Bias (Katie Couric), chiming in with this nugget: "Ah, the familiar words of the 22nd Psalm." Yeah...familiar to whom, Ms. Bias?
In fairness, I should note that all the networks (including CNN and FOX) seemed to be playing from the same "Bible for Dummies" playbook, as all reproduced the error. My personal theory is that somebody at the Vatican pulled a fast one on them to make them look like the idiots they are. You can bet that EWTN and TBN didn't fall for it.
