WHY DID JESUS SAY GOD AND NOT FATHER?

 

APRIL 20, 2022

Mark 15:34

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

WHY DID JESUS SAY GOD AND NOT FATHER? 

I have pondered, researched, prayed and asked others for the answer. 

Until today after sharing with Ben at Anytime Fitness who also has been to seminary and he didn’t have an answer that satisfied my searching heart either.  However, while walking on the treadmill, the Lord chose to open my mind and reveal the answer I needed to connect the dots and make absolute sense.

Why did Jesus ALWAYS refer to God as Father everywhere in Scripture except in this moment? 

He is quoting David from Psalm 22:1, but that doesn’t explain why He said it at this moment.

Knowing that Jesus is MAN and GOD, I kept thinking it has to do with Him being Man since He became man to have blood to sacrifice for Sin.      I always thought that it was because at the moment He was taking on the SIN of the world and SIN separates from God, so God couldn’t even look on Him.  Others have agreed and said the same thing.

On the Cross, He said:  “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”   Later He said:  “Father, into Your Hands I commend My spirit.”  So, why in this moment did He call Him, GOD?

My Aha revelation is this:

Jesus was the ONLY one who could have perfect blood because He was sinless.  And, the only one who could take on Sin and not be affected by it because He was God and totally Pure.

Therefore, at the moment Jesus took on the SIN of the world, God was not his Father!  For the first and only time, Jesus the Man knew SIN and needed GOD to redeem him.  When he said:  “It is finished!” the Sin debt had been paid, and mankind no longer has to be separated from God because of their sin…Jesus has paid our debt!  “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

JESUS BECAME SIN, BUT HIS BLOOD PAID THE PENALTY AND PUT SIN TO DEATH TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE!      

Further read:  Ephesians chapters 1-2; John 14:23       

WHAT MAKES GOOD FRIDAY GOOD?

 

Good Friday, April 2, 2021 

I spent time talking with the Lord about the remembrance of “Good” Friday and why do we call it Good Friday?  Jesus was arrested and tortured and persecuted the entire day ending it with His Body being put to rest in a tomb.

As I reflected on this day in history and the reality of how it relates to me, I went to the Scriptures to be refreshed in the details from the Last Supper of Jesus to His last breath!

The first thing I learned that I had not seen before is that Judas Iscariot began his scheme to try and make Jesus take a stand against the Romans and set up His Kingdom on Tuesday night after being reprimanded for rebuking Mary for anointing Jesus with expensive perfume (Matt. 26:13-16).  He left and went to the chief priests and scribes to betray Him and hand Him over to them.  It wasn’t until the Last Supper on Thursday evening that Jesus announced He had a betrayer and Satan entered Judas and Jesus told him to go and do quickly what he must do…and John 18 tells us we next see him appear where he knew Jesus would be in the Garden of Gethsemane with a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees (other Gospel writers say:  with a multitude with swords & staves).  You see, Judas thought Jesus would defend and defeat the army and become the King of the Jews.

Note:  Preconceived ideas can bring consuming shame!

Satan was very busy that day!  He had been working on Judas and entered him to try and force Jesus to fight to protect His disciples; Jesus said Satan had asked to sift Peter and caused him to deny knowing Jesus 3 times; and written between the lines of Scripture we see Satan come to Jesus while pleading with The Father about His will and how He was to redeem the world from the penalty of sin.  This was Satan’s attempt to try and tempt Jesus that He would fail as Man; Satan knew he couldn’t touch Him as Son of God.  (Matt.26:36-46) Jesus asked Peter, James & John to watch and pray to not fall into temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak…and they slept because their eyes were heavy.

 Mel Gibson did a great job of imaging this scene with Satan tempting Jesus as a beautiful woman and a slithering snake attacking Jesus as a Man.  The magnificent scene was when Genesis 3:15 came true with the serpent striking Jesus heel and Jesus crushing the head of the serpent.  Satan has been wounded and pending death…but I have learned that poisonous snakes are just as dangerous even with the head cut off.   Satan is not a serpent; he is a fallen angel and his destiny is predetermined and he knows he has been defeated…but he is not dead, and he is still full of venom.  Don’t let this frighten you because he didn’t stop JESUS FROM BEING THE SACRIFICIAL LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!  Mankind has been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb of God and everyone who BELIEVES in His Name and RECEIVES Him as Savior He gives the right to become Children of God.  (John 1:12-13)

A final observation that delights me as a woman of God are the women in Jesus life and where they were during all these scenes.  Luke 8:1-3; Luke 23:27, 55,24:1,9-10;   Matt. 27:55-56;  John 19:25(Mother of Jesus)  They were the first to see Jesus after He arose because they had come to care for His body out of their love and devotion.  Jesus stopped on His way to check in with The Father after completing His Father’s will to redeem the world to meet a woman seeking for Him with all her heart…Mary Magdalene.  Jesus gave her a mission and the first person to declare the Good News that He is Alive! John 20:11-18

Good Friday is Good because it is the day of the greatest expression of LOVE ever demonstrated!  Our Creator who created us to Love Him, took on flesh so that He could be the perfect blood sacrifice to pay our sin debt so that we could be freed and have a second chance to choice to live Happily Forever in a Love Relationship with Him!

It's a Good Friday when you believe and receive a New Life in Christ Jesus, our Redeemer!