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Cruel Crucifixion
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significance of those words, and he took Mary to his home, where
he cared for her for the rest of her life.
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While carrying the awful weight of the guilt of the world, Jesus
was deprived of His Father’s presence. That terrible deprivation in
His time of ultimate anguish pierced His heart with a sadness that no
human being can comprehend. The pain of the separation from His
Father eclipsed even His extraordinary physical pain. During those
lonely hours Jesus feared that sin was so offensive to His Father
that They would be separated forever. In the end that sense of the
Father’s intense anger over the sins of the world that Jesus carried
as our Substitute broke His heart. In this experience Jesus felt the
same anguish every unrepentant sinner will feel at the end of time
when God’s mercy has been withdrawn from the world.
Even the sun refused to witness this tragic scene. At midday
darkness enveloped the cross for about three hours. In the eerie
darkness lightning occasionally flashed, illuminating the cross and
the Crucified. In these strange and unexplained demonstrations
of nature, religious leaders, executioners, and the milling crowd
imagined that their time of punishment for what they had done had
come. Then about 3:00 they heard Jesus cry out, “My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46
.
Visualize the scene. The sinless Son of God hangs, dying, on
a cross. His back is shredded from being lashed twice. His hands
that had continuously reached out to bless others are nailed to the
wooden bars. His feet that had walked tirelessly on missions of
love are also nailed. His royal brow is punctured by the thorns that
form a mocking crown. And He suffers it all without the sustaining
presence of His Father. Never forget that it is for you that Jesus
agreed to bear this unbelievable burden of guilt! He died to open the
gates of Paradise for you!
Late on that blood-soaked Friday afternoon a voice is heard from
the central cross. In perfect clarity that all at Calvary could hear,
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Jesus announced, “It is finished.”
John 19:30
. He added, “Father,
into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
Luke 23:46
, NKJV. At that
moment a strong light circled the cross, and Jesus’ face shone as
bright as the sun. Then His head dropped ... and He died
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