In this post:

1. Did God the Father, grieve the death of His Son?
2. But God knew His Son would be resurrected
3. God knows our sorrow
4. Isaiah Fifty Three
5. More on the Fatherhood of God:

Some among the bereaved feel that, because Jesus rose from the dead, God the Father did not experience the grief one associates with child loss or that the death of His Son, Jesus, was easier for Him because of His foreknowledge of the Resurrection.

Did God the Father, grieve the death of His Son?

It humbles me to think that God the Father and God the Son were willing to endure the death and separation of the cross while Jesus was made sin for us. Made sin for us! In the darkness, while Jesus cried, ” My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” the anguish of the moment is beyond anything I can comprehend. It was an unprecedented break in a holy fellowship that had known no interruption for all eternity. This, so I could be reconciled to my Father God.

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2 Corinthians 5:21

I think of my worst moment of painful grieving and realize what the Godhead was experiencing during the crucifixion and death of Jesus was infinitely more painful. Yes, three days later (our time) Jesus was raised from the dead. But, for my Father God, the shame of sin and the grief of death were infinite orders of magnitude worse as experienced by an infinite, holy God, for this was the horror of eternal separation compressed into the time span of hours of sin-bearing agony on the cross. If sorrow was quantifiable matter, the pressure would be incalculable.

But God knew His Son would be resurrected

Yes, God knew His Son would be resurrected. God got His son back. I know my son will be resurrected. I will see him again. This  knowledge is a huge comfort to me but it  does not eliminate the pain of our current separation. And I do not think it negates the pain the Father felt as He watched His Son suffer and die as He bore my sin and yours on the tree. And, if that were not enough, there’s more.

God knows our sorrow

For the child of God, death is a victorious, joyous homecoming. But it is also a departure. For those of us who are still earth-bound, the curse of physical death and the suffering that often precedes it, is always a venue for tears. Our God has perfect knowledge and His emotions are never clouded by sin as ours sometimes are. I believe He is delighted to bring His children home where they belong. But, God is not without emotion. He sees and feels our sorrow. He is acquainted with our grief. God the Father has seen the death of countless of His children throughout the ages as well as the sorrow of those who grieve them. God has experienced child loss many millions of times.

The death of God’s Son, Jesus, did not come cheap. I do not believe my pain is greater than His simply because His Son was gone “just for the weekend.” That’s just how I see it.

†

Isaiah Fifty Three

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows Isaiah 53:4

More on the Fatherhood of God:

God Meant It Unto Good