"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

When the Lord died on the cross, He spoke seven times during those awful hours. The first and last of these begin with the word, "Father." The first is our text, the last: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). The middle statement of the seven changes to, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).

Jesus was, clearly, in fellowship with His Father at both the beginning and end of the crucifixion, but not in the middle. Had there ever been a time in eternity past when the Father did not communicate with the Son? The answer is, of course, emphatically, "No!" In fact, our Lord alluded to this before the tomb of Lazarus: "And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always" (John 11:41-42). The Father always heard the Son. The Son could always communicate with the Father.

Yet during those three hours of darkness, Christ lost all contact with the Father. Prayer was impossible; fellowship was shattered; the speaking voice of the Father was silent. Something that had never occurred in the past had now happened. Christ was forsaken of God! "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not" (Psalm 22:1-2).

Sin was the problem! Not His, but ours. "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." Christ was willing to endure it all, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21). Christ paid an awful price for our sin. Those without Christ should consider well the message of the cross and flee to the only Savior of mankind, receiving Him as their Lord and Savior. NPS