The Father Turned His Face Away?
3 Reflections
The cry of abandonment was not Jesus’ last word from the cross. An entire doctrine has been built on one statement: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46) — the Father turned His back on the Son because God can’t look on sin. We even sing about it on Sunday mornings. But Jesus was not making a statement about the Father’s position in that moment of His greatest need. When Jesus cried out, He was quoting the opening line of Psalm 22 — a psalm every Jew within earshot knew by heart, a psalm that describes the crucifixion in stunning detail centuries before it happened. And that psalm doesn’t end in abandonment. It resolves: “He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He cried to Him, He heard” (Psalm 22:24). Jesus had already told His disciples exactly how the cross would go: “you… will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32). Everyone forsook Him. The Father did not.
Where did the idea that God can’t look on sin come from? A misreading of Habakkuk 1:13 is the origin, “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil.” But read the rest of the verse. In the very next breath, Habakkuk asks God why He keeps doing the thing he believes God shouldn’t do: looking at wickedness. Habakkuk isn’t making a doctrinal statement; he’s a confused prophet processing out loud, asking why God’s actions don’t match his assumptions.
If the Father never left Jesus, He will never leave you. Then come the actual last words of Jesus on the cross: “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit” (Luke 23:46). Jesus entered the darkest moment any human has ever faced — bearing the sin of the world — and He died the way He lived, with “Father” on His lips. He didn’t die questioning the Father’s presence; He died committing Himself into the Father’s hands. How you answer the question “where was the Father when Jesus needed Him most?” means everything, because it’s the same question you’ll ask when you need Him most. If the Father never turned His back on the Son — not even for a moment — then you can be certain He’ll never turn His back on you: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
“He that made all things for love, by the same love keepeth them, and shall keep them without end.” - Julian of Norwich
2 Scriptures
“Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He shows sinners the way.”
— Psalm 25:8
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:19
1 Action
Ask yourself:
when I’m at my lowest, where do I picture the Father’s face? Turned toward me, or turned away?
If what you see is a turned back, take Jesus’ last words and pray them slowly as your own today: “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.” He never looked away from His Son. He isn’t looking away from you, either.
I write about this topic in my booklet The Abba Revealed in Christ -available on my website if you would like to study this further.
Grace and peace,
NEIL
