A mother’s (and Father’s) love
A good number of us in church today will be mothers or fathers – and every single one of us will have had fathers and mothers, even if some of them are no longer with us. How many of us parents – if we had a young child – would give that child away… and give them away to strangers… strangers who would attack and kill the child? Wouldn’t you rather die yourself than allow that to happen?
And yet God the Father – who is perfectly loving, who knows everything and who can do anything he wants – gives up his own Son… to strangers… to kill him. What is going on? It doesn’t make sense! Something pretty serious must be happening for God to do that, don’t you think? And it is. Our sin – the way we have rebelled against God by deciding for ourselves what is right, over against what he says – is so serious that the only way God can forgive us is through his Son dying in our place.
A song we’re singing in the 10.00am service today puts it perfectly, speaking of what Jesus’ death cost his Father – and what it achieved for those who trust in him: “How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that he should give his only Son to make a wretch his treasure. How great the pain of searing loss – the Father turns his face away, as wounds which mar the Chosen One bring many sons to glory.”