7^th April 2015

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Good Friday 2015

Lessons - Genesis 22:1-19; Isaiah 53:3-7,9,12b; Mark 15:14-39

     Jesus cried out to his Father, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mark 15:34)

The bond between fathers and sons is crucial to healthy upbringing and mature adulthood. In Judaism, fathers are duty bound to teach sons their religious obligations. They are bound together in love for and commitment to God. The bond is so special that it is used in the Old Testament as an analogy for the relationship between God (as Father) and Israel (as son). In the New Testament, Jesus exhibits the closest affinity with his Father (John, Mark).

The father rejoices at the return of his prodigal son (Luke 15:11ff). Freedom from 'fear', says Paul, comes from addressing God affectionately as 'Father' (Romans 8:15). 

So it comes as a shock to find two terrifying stories about fathers and sons in the Bible. Abraham and God are prepared to let their sons, Isaac and Jesus, die, thus apparently joining the ranks of absent, abusive or murderous fathers who have destroyed their sons' lives! It is abhorrent! 

In the story of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22) there is an echo of Canaanite religion where children were sometimes sacrificed to the gods. But that is not the point of this story. It has been passed down and put into the story of Abraham's calling to leave the security of 'his father's house' and head off to an unknown destination, trusting that he would become the 'father of a great nation' (12:1-3). When Sarah is barren, the promise seems to have been irreparably broken (16:1ff) until the unexpected birth of Isaac (21:1ff).

Then, just when God's future plans seemed assured, Abraham is told to 'take his only son, whom he loves and offer him as a sacrifice to God ' (22:2). All would now be lost. 

Losing a son is always grievous. But a ritualistic death commanded by God would be even more grievous. Not only would Abraham lose his 'beloved son' but God would have contradicted God. Faith would be shattered and hope extinguished! 

Abraham faces a severe test of faith. In our age, which nurtures self-esteem, the idea that parents should rigorously test their children's mettle is offensive. We must pander to their every mood and smooth the bumps in their lives. In Scripture, however, God 'tests' Israel's faith in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:11) and allows Jesus to be 'tested' in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13). Testing faith is necessary! If we never know what it is to be God-forsaken, we will never know the freedom of being humbled, forgiven and restored to life.  

In contrast with soap operas that focus on feelings, nothing is said about Abraham's and Isaac's emotions.  The action builds slowly and dramatically to the chilling climax. Words are few. There is no outward display of anguish; no wild joy at the end. The focus is not on psychological reactions but on whether faith in the promise has a future! This is a radical test of Abraham's faith along a God-forsaken road. Does he trust God's promise enough to sacrifice the son who is dearest to him? Can he trust such a god at all? 

There is no escaping the horror of the story. God's command is abhorrent!

Perhaps, though, it can be partly explained if we assume that a story which originated in rituals of child-sacrifice has been reshaped by its inclusion in a very different religious tradition where the emphasis is on sacrificial faith that wholeheartedly responds to the demands of God gracious calling to bless all nations. The fact that God severely tests Abraham's faith, but does not permit him to sacrifice his son, seems to support this view. 

This chilling encounter between God and Abraham does follow the general pattern of despair and hope that is characteristic of Biblical faith. When all is lost and God is silent and the future is bleak, hope is restored through those - like Moses, Job and the Suffering Servant - whose faith in God is sorely tested as they go through 'the dark night of the soul / the valley of the shadow of death'.  

However, it does stand out from the rest. 'Nothing, apart from the crucifixion, leads us so deeply into the dark night of faith' (J Scullion).

Nothing better prepares us to be faithful disciples of the crucified-risen Jesus. For, whilst it is muted in the Abraham-Isaac story, we cannot help hearing echoes of their God-forsaken cries in the cry of the crucified Jesus: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mark 15:34) 

This horrific event in which the 'Son of God' cries out to his 'heavenly Father' is even more unfathomable! It comes at the end of a period of severe testing, betrayal, denial, rejection, ridicule and flogging unlike any suffered by other faithful people.  Unlike Isaac, whom the 'Father of Israel'

spared from death at 'father Abraham's' hand, the 'Father of Jesus,' as Paul says, 'did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all.' (Romans  8:32) Unlike Isaac, for whom a 'sacrificial lamb' is substituted as a fitting offering to God (22:13; Isaiah 53:7), Christ is the 'Lamb of God' who sacrificed his life in obedience to his 'Father' (John 1:29). 

What are we to make of a relationship that permits this agony and brutal death? How can God (as Father) ignore the cries of dereliction from Jesus (his only Son)?  It looks like a case of 'divine child abuse' (J Spong) where the Father inflicts unjust suffering on the Son and the Son's cry goes unheard. 

That this is not the case can be seen when this God-forsaken event and the God-forsaken event which preceded and foreshadowed it, are understood in the context of God's fatherly love for Israel, Jesus and the nations. The Gospel speaks of the Father's 'beloved Son' (e.g. Mark 1:11) and of the unity of love that exists between Father and Son (e.g. John 17:26). 

Therefore, in view of the Father's love for Israel and Jesus, we must say that God the Father suffers and grieves with God the Son in the sacrificial work of 'so loving the world' (John 3:16). The unity of Father and Son is foreshadowed in a detail of the Abraham-Isaac story that is easy to miss.

With tensions high and the sacrifice imminent, Isaac speaks fondly of Abraham as 'my father' and Abraham speaks fondly of Isaac as 'my son' (22:7).  

Whatever lies ahead they are as one.  Even though Abraham had bound Isaac on the altar and picked up the knife to kill him (vv 9-11), 'they arose and went together back to Beersheba' (v19). Throughout the ordeal, nothing is said.

But it is as clear as it is astonishing that they remain united in trusting God's promise. 

These Father-and-Son stories would be unrelentingly grim if not for the fact that beyond 'the dark night of the soul' - when God is silent, the world seems abandoned, and we are gripped by fear - hope is restored. Hope is found on the far side of God's costly, self-giving love. Isaac on the altar is given back to Abraham.  The 'Son of God' nailed to the cross is raised from the dead. The promise of a future is realised in the midst of and on the far side of severe suffering and grief when faith in God's good purposes is sorely tested. 

These stories should continue to disturb us! Faith in God is not a passport to an easy life. We are called to 'lose our lives for Christ's sake in order to find fullness of life' (see Mark  8:34ff). We should expect that our faith will be severely tested, not least because the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, calls us to stand firm in a God-forsaken world when we, too, experience the deafening silence of God.

We should welcome tests of faith because they jolt us back to reality and expose our deluded faith in our power to shape the future. They open us up to the Father of grace whose costly love for all has been supremely demonstrated in the crucified-and-risen Jesus, who truly was 'the Son of God' (Mark 15:39).

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Rev Dr Max Champion is Minister in St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia.

Dr Champion is a member of the Council of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.