[Based on an article by Donald MacLeod in The Monthly Record, March, 1982]

This title, and the contents, of a book by Jurgen Moltmann are worth pondering, even though ‘Moltmann could not satisfy Karl Barth as to his orthodoxy and can hardly expect, in the circumstances, to be endorsed by The Monthly Record (assuming he reads it).’

The sufferings the crucified God experienced were:

1. Physical

His body, like ours, was limited in its powers of endurance and highly sensitive to pain. He suffered hunger, thirst, weariness, exhaustion, whipping, and the torture of the cross itself.

‘These experiences were imprinted indelibly upon his memory, so that today not even the most excruciating pain is beyond the Saviour’s personal understanding.’

2. Emotional

Undoubtedly the Saviour knew many hours of joy and contentment: such was the inte­gration of his sinless personality. Yet he was ‘”The man of sorrows”. He was distressed by the spiritual hardness of those among whom he ministered, grieved by their opposition and pained by their misery…These dark emotions were intensified by the shadow of Calvary – a shadow which hung over him from the beginning of his ministry (Mk 2: 20)…. But the burden became particularly evident after Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi: “And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them; and they were amazed; anti as they followed, they were afraid.” These words speak of a solemn awesomeness in the demeanour of our Lord -one which filled the disciples with fear anti foreboding.’

These pent-up emotions erupt in Gethsemane. All of this reminds us that the Saviour can enter fully into our fear; and such fear is not necessarily something. to be ashamed. of.

3. Social

‘It was not easy to be isolated, to be condemned, to be deemed an embarrassment by his family and to have the multitude calling for his blood. The treatment he received from his immediate disciples was even more painful.  He died entirely bereft of support, encouragement or appreciation, knowing that those who were closest to him thought only that he was letting them down.’

4. Spiritual

(a) In his exposure to Satan and the powers of hell, beginning with the temptation, and culminating at Gethsemane and Calvary.

(b) In the severance of fellowship with nis Father indicated in the cry of dereliction.

‘He was clearly bereft of all that was fitted to comfort him: for example, the assurance of God’s love, the awareness of God’s help and the certainty of a triumphant outcome The inability to say “Abba!” suggests that at last the veil of (imputed) sin, ignominy and suffering was so impenetrable that his sonship was obscured even from himself: not in the sense that he doubted it but in the sense that it was not present as any consolation to his consciousness.’

‘The relationship between the Word being forsaken by God and the Word being with God is an intriguing one. From eternity there was communion between the Father and the Son. The face of the One was toward the other in an unclouded reciprocal love.

On the cross the One who had been with God is forsaken by God.  But the dereliction (being without God) is only an intermediate point on a road leading some­where else. The One who was with God came to be without God in order that we should be with God (1 Pet 3:18).  The Son of God does not return empty-handed from the far country. He brings with him “a multitude which no man can number” (Rev 7:9) born without God, deserving to remain without God, but now, through the Son’s forsakenness, brought so close to God that he can meticulously wipe away every tear from their eyes (Rev 7:17).