Grossly Misinterpreted

Grossly Misinterpreted

 

 

 

 

My whole life, I’ve heard the message of the cross presented from pulpits and platforms, mostly by well-meaning preachers and teachers, as a moment in time when a good Father abandoned His Son.

You’re likely familiar with it, too. It often sounded like, “The Father looked away. He turned His face. He could not look upon sin.” If you Google the phrase, “God turned His face,” you’ll find endless books and teachings on God’s abandoning, sin-counting, cruel, and punishing nature.

My wife, Karen, as a children’s pastor, paid especially close attention to our children’s curriculum and constantly searched for a children’s Bible that she didn’t have to redact. In one of the best Bibles she found, she still had to black out the grossly misinterpreted interaction between a Father and His beloved Son.

“’Papa,’ Jesus cried frantically, searching the sky. ‘Papa? Where are you? Don’t leave me!’…Nothing happened. Just a horrible, endless silence. Papa turned away from His Boy…”

Do you wonder why we have a Deconstruction movement today? I think it’s partly because many Christians have been forced to build their faith upon the shaky foundation of an oscillating “Papa who turned away from His Boy.”

We have been taught, and then passed along to our kids in their formative years, a “good” God with kindness in one hand and a Skill Saw in the other. We read “Papa turned away from His Boy” to our kids and then wonder why they don’t trust God later in life.

It’s pretty simple. You can’t trust a Father who turns His back on His Son in His most desperate hour of need, but this teaching is woven into our Western Evangelical approach to God. A “Papa who turned away from His Boy” is preached from pulpits, taught in our Sunday schools, found in our discipleship books, and has infiltrated our worship songs.

“The Father looked away” is a lyrical trope employed by many sincere worship songwriters. The song How Deep the Father’s Love contradicts its title with the unsettling lyric, “How great the pain of searing loss—the Father turns His face away.” Apparently, though the Father’s love is deep, it’s not quite deep enough to stay with His Son in His most desperate hour. And that’s a trust-compromising problem.

In the song, God of Calvary, “The sky went dark, the Angels wept,” and “the Father looked away.”

No, He didn’t!

The idea that “Papa turned away from His Boy” is heretical bullshit!

He does not oscillate; nothing separates us from His love…

This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
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ORDER NOW! Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. FollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… Hope

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