John 16:32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.
The Lord Jesus Christ is reminding his disciples that the hour for them to run from his side is fast approaching. Indeed in the hours leading up to the crucifixion the Savior will not be flanked by ardent friends but rather angry and blood thirsty enemies.
But in the midst of this admittedly awkward and troubling prophecy of the disciples departure we have the blessed description of the comfort that comes through the intimacy within the God-head. Jesus asserts that he will not be alone, for the Father is with him. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ will be with him.
It is a phrase like this that reveals so much about the union of the human and the divine in Jesus. The intimate, divine, and eternal fellowship within the Trinity serves to console Jesus the human as he moves toward his crucifixion. If there was ever anyone who walked the planet who had the ‘right’ if you will, to depend upon himself it was Jesus (for he is perfect).However, it is the very reason that he is perfect that we find him treasuring the abiding presence of his Father.
This posture of dependence by Jesus seems to be a reflex, it is his default posture. How much we have to learn from our Master. So often we find consolation in other things, people or actions rather than in the true source of consolation. And here we have the incarnation of perfection being consoled with the presence of his Father. Jesus valued the omnipresence of God and specifically the special presence of God, relationally with his beloved.
When we see how much Jesus valued this sacred relationship we begin to see how heavily loaded the cannon of wrath really was. What was the chief punishment of the cross? Was it the scourging? The shame? The abuse? The mocking? I don’t think so. What shredded the heart of the Savior, and truly made him yell in utter desperation and agony was the separation from the Father. Truly it was the prayerful consideration of this reality that caused Jesus to sweat drops of blood in the Garden, being in agony, even to the point of death. This was accented with a holy and righteous silence upon the Savior’s petition for the cup to be removed. God was forsaking his beloved Son.
When Jesus endured this wrath his heart being torn in two cried out with agony and anguish, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27.46) Read these verses in light of the premium that the Savior put on intimate fellowship with his Father.Read them in this light and marvel at the depths of his sacrifice for a sinner such as you and me.
