Jan 14:23

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19/11/2016 – My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? – Marian

19/11/2016 – My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? – Marian

 

We have the opportunity to be before the Face of God again to praise Him, to get to know Him and to learn God’s truth. And it’s very important that we are ready to make good use of this magnificence beyond all magnificences and this possibility beyond all possibilities today. God in His grace called us to Himself so that we could get to know Him and so that we could experience in our personal life how precious and important He is. How important is what He does and why He does it that nothing is meaningless with God. Every action He takes has a right plan according to which it happens.

I’d like to quote a passage from the Gospel of Matthew 27 and I’d like for us, during these three congregations that will take place, to be able to reflect on this, asking the Lord to introduce us more profoundly to it so that we could taste even more of it. Each of us has read it from the Bible. May God help us understand what we have read and what we are reading now.

I’m reading from the 45th verse:

“Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lema sabaktanei? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

Why do you think Jesus is saying these words? Some people may say that it was a prophecy, a kind of an indication because we read in the Psalm that He would pronounce these words. But why does He pronounce such words? Why does He say: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”Doesn’t He know why? He knew where He was going. He knew He was going to die because of our sins. So why does He pronounce such words? After all, He knew that sin separates us from God. And He bore our sins and died on the cross for them. What are these words for? What do you think? It was as if He didn’t know something, but He did know. Or maybe these words, that He pronounces on the cross, are our words. Because He was exactly calling from our position. He burdened Himself with our sins and, actually, it’s our calling. The calling of all humanity. People may not even realize, but their whole inside cry: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” It must be one of the most important questions since Jesus exclaims with a loud voice this very question just before His death. It means that for us humans it’s something to which a man must necessarily find an answer.

In John 11,41-42, we can read:

 “So they removed the stone. And Jesus raised His eyes, and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. But I knew that You always hear Me; nevertheless, because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.”

Therefore, there are certain statements of Jesus that were said because of the people who see and hear Him. When a man realizes why God abandoned him, then the man will want to find the answer how to return to this God. And if a person doesn’t have the question: “Why have You forsaken me?”, he or she won’t need to look for answers on how to return. How can we find our way back to God? As we read in 1 Peter, Jesus takes our sins upon Himself. Jesus bore our sins in His body and carried them to the cross. He just got into our place, but He got there as the one who had never committed a sin. And may God let us to understand as much as possible how important what He said there is both for me and you. You understand until the man has a specific question to God. You understand if the man asks God very mysteriously about something and if there is no specific question, there is no specific answer either. And the man reads something from the Bible, but he or she doesn’t really know why. How? Why did it happen? And then man balances between the world and a religious life without realizing either the question or the real answer.

Isaiah 59. Let’s read the first two verses:

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”

Look, it was our calling. Jesus has never sinned. He got into our position. It’s our sins that have separated us from God. This is our calling. And He puts this calling into human hearts along with faith. Do you remember when I told you when I went to the Way of the Cross and then the question had just appeared? It was the beginning. The question: “Why did Christ have to suffer for me?” And looking for the answer. God always asks a question. He gives us a question that we should ask God so that He could give us the answer. He begins and He finishes it off. His question, which He puts into our hearts, is so strong that we can only go in the direction of finding the answer. It’s only when we find the answer that we experience more and more what God really does in us and in the midst of us. God responds in a way worthy of God.

In Psalm 51 from the 5th verse we read:

“Behold, I was brought forth in guilt, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in secret You will make wisdom known to me. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; cleanse me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and wipe out all my guilty deeds. Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation…”

The calling of a man. The calling of the man who realizes that only God can do it. No one else can wash away his sins and no one else can renew His Spirit in him. And no one else but God can introduce him to eternal life. The man realizes who is at the centre of all his calling. His entire humanity begins to cry to God: “God, save me! You can do it.” You know, a man who has a holy pure question catches God in a pure way because God can do what this man needs right now. It’s not like that: “Lord, should I go shopping? Should I go to school? Should I go there or maybe over there?” This is the question of where I end up for eternity. The man is aware of the fact that there are two places: eternity with God and eternity without God. And this man begins to realize that he is in the wrong place and he needs to be in the other one to be saved for ever. Therefore, he begins to cry to God with all his heart: “God, cleanse my heart, I know my dirt, it exists since birth and it constantly grows bigger. Only You, God, can do something good with it. Only You can cleanse me and free me from all my sins. Only You, God. There is no one else. I know why You abandoned me. I know that only You can make it possible for me to return. God, only You. You are the only hope.”

Then, the man isn’t trying to achieve something different. The man sees only God and he also sees what awaits him without God. The man doesn’t try to convince God how much he can give Him because the man knows that he dies if God doesn’t take care of him. This is normal. Various things were happening in David’s life. You can see how this malicious sin broke him in front of God. After all, David had more sins, but this one sin turned out to be malicious and David made it out. Do you remember when God said: “David, you won’t be able to build the temple because you shed a lot of blood”? This very sin broke him. He saw his mean character, he saw that he was a blagger and that he was escaping the responsibility. And when he saw what he was like, then he also saw how bad he was. It was then that he realized how much he needed God to have a pure heart, a pure spirit and a new life. Sin is bad. It’s disgusting. However, it can sometimes be a break when the man comprehends what he really is. When the man has already met God and has experienced some amazing things with God, he’s very much affected by this issue when he sees it. Thus, David cried to God, he received and could teach the offenders: “You won’t save yourselves. There is a God who sends salvation. Only He can save the man from all his sins.

I’d like us to take a look at the Gospel of Luke 15. Jesus tells about the prodigal son. I’m reading from the 11th verse:

“And He said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that is coming to me.’ And so he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his estate in wild living. Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began doing without. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he longed to have his fill of the carob pods that the pigs were eating, and no one was giving him anything.”

Look, this man realizes that he needs food and no one can give him that food. And no one wants to give him that food. He wasn’t a thief. He didn’t want to steal anything. He expected someone to help him, but he didn’t get any help. When he squandered everything he had, he understood from whom only he could get help. My help is from the Lord. Penance is a way to change your thinking. In the beginning, the man looks for help from people, but when he comes to the point that no man is able to give him what God gives, then this man turns only to God. It’s not that he finds people worthless. He just knows he needs it from God.

“But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired laborers have more than enough bread, but I am dying here from hunger! I will set out and go to my father, and will say to him, (…)”

And then Jesus puts these words into the lips of this prodigal son:

“(…) Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired laborers.”

He set out and did it. What he thought, he did too.

“So he set out and came to his father. But when he was still a long way off, (…)”

Let’s pay attention to some things. The prodigal son leaves his father’s house. So how does the father leaves his son? The father also leaves his son, but he does it by staying at home. The father doesn’t follow his son to walk with him in his sins. The father stays at home, so they actually leave each other. The father doesn’t run after his son and the son leaves his father’s house. But it’s the father who’s waiting for his son to come back. The father doesn’t leave his son to stop thinking about him, to not bother his head about the son and to no longer care about him. The father cares about the son, but this son must come back to his father’s house. So why does the father leaves his son? For his own sake. So that the son would have a place to return. If the father followed his son, there would be no more house. There would be nowhere to go back to. The father has the son in his heart, but the son must go home. That’s why, we also return to the Father’s house. We have the Father’s house. The Father left us, but not like the prodigal son left house. Thinking about something, about some new experiences. The father leaves him to be always ready to receive him. And notice what the father does when his son comes back.

“But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

Jesus shows the father as the one waiting and watching for his son’s return. When this son or a daughter breaks down to come back to God. When will the things of this world make such a breakthrough in this man’s life that he will see he won’t find joy in the world? That everyone in the world sins. Everyone looks at joy in order to derive from someone else without being able to give it to others. The father kisses his son. The father doesn’t reproach. The father knows that this whole experience was useful for his son. The son is no longer proud. The son is broken. He already knows that he isn’t even worthy to be called his son. The position of a man: “I’m not worthy to be called a man. My heart was dehumanised. I pulled away from You, God. I began to behave like an animal towards You and You gave me Your Spirit so that I could belong to You, God!” Then God says: “You are still human. I’ve been waiting for you for so long. Not to accuse and blame you, but to greet you. So that you would have the place to come back to.” And the Father, after kissing His son, reacts to his words in the following way:

“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet’ (…)”

So we can see that the father was prepared that when his son comes back, he should be clothed in the sons’ robes again. How laudable is the father. And Jesus says exactly that: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” The Father doesn’t leave us in order to turn us out and doesn’t have to do with us anymore. The Father leaves us so that we could return to Him when God’s truth comes to us. He has already prepared a robe and a ring. Unction of His spirit and joy in heaven. Praise the Lord that it’s true. And this is what Jesus wanted to announce to all those standing before the cross and to us – in every generation. He was teaching us even on the cross and he was thinking about us there. He knew there would be consequences because of our sins. When this pure Lamb of God bears our sins, there will be consequences that He will be exactly like us, in the same position as we are towards the Father. But He knew that the Father didn’t abandon us to lose us. The Father abandoned us to save us. Thus, Jesus is certain He will rise from the dead on the third day. He knows why the Father did it and He is sure of what the Father will do in accepting Him.

Let’s take a look at the Gospel of Matthew 3,17. Here, we can see the statement that the Father announces from heaven about His Son:

This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

And in Matthew 17,5, we can read:

This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!

And then, as a consequence of bearing our sins, He leaves Him. We can see how the Son of God goes towards the cross, how precisely He fulfils the Father’s will. We can see how He comes to this central place where the most important battle for you and me takes place. How do you think people who know the question and the answer can live? Where will you always find them? You won’t find them anywhere else but with Jesus. Now, Christ is their life. They know that the Father is only well pleased with His Son and we can enter into eternity only with Him. Many things happen on earth, many words and thoughts try to attack us, but we need to be aware of the fact that if we let non-Christ thoughts appear more and more in our mind, then we will wander. We need to be of one thought and only this one thought allows us to reach into the depths of God’s heart and to learn more and more about who our God is. And how much what He does mean to us. Unfortunately, people reject it - just like Israel used to reject it. They neglected what was good in God’s eyes.

Hosea 8,1-4:

Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the Lord, because they have violated My covenant and rebelled against My Law. They cry out to Me, “My God, we of Israel know You!” Israel has rejected the good; the enemy will pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by Me; they have appointed officials, but I did not know it. With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves, so that they will be eliminated.”

They cry out to God: “We know you!” and they reject what God told them to do. Do you understand it? And this way, generation after generation, there are people who say: “We know God, God is in heaven” and reject His will, His words and giving us by Him to His Son. And they try to live on this earth in their own way, thinking that it’s possible to disdain God and have eternal life. In this way, many people, who had thought that God could be placed somewhere in their life and it would be fine, were led astray by the enemy of our soul. The man doesn’t understand that we have been separated from God, that we have forsaken God and He has forsaken us. The man thinks that nothing much has happened, so it’s enough to be better just a little bit and God will then be pleased. As we can see, He isn’t happy that someone is just a little bit better. His Son is His happiness. It wasn’t for nothing that God agreed to let the prodigal son leave the house. It wasn’t for nothing that God agreed to let the devil tempt Adam and Eve.

            With God, His direction and goal always lead up to something more beautiful and more wonderful. What was in paradise was very good, but it wasn’t good enough for God. And we come to Jesus who is perfect. So what would look like a great deviation, like an abandonment, God is able to reach people in such a way so that we could understand that through this experience and seeing how much we need God, we should clutch at His Son with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and strength belonging to Him and through the Son belonging to the Father.

Thus, when God acts, when God works, He comes to the point where we become more beautiful and more conscious of God. Moreover, we become more conscious of the war and choices between good and evil. God works in the right direction all the time. Nothing surprised Him and nothing could change His mind. So the fact that we, people, experience this decision making shows whether we understood lessons of Adam and Eve and our personal ones well; whether we understood lessons of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and our lesson in Him well.  Are we teachable learners who have understood why we need to separate and why we need to join? What to separate from and who to join? Do you understand? Many people have so confused mind that they aren’t able to accept God’s questions and to find answers to them. The devil fights persistently against Christian thinking. He bothers to keep people walking in the dark. Thus, let our thought be completely immersed in our Lord. And let us taste how good He is.

            Do you think God had taste in those slaughtered sacrifices, in those animals who had been killed and burned? Did God have taste in it? Was it satisfying to God that the man who sinned came with an animal, gave it and it was killed, and was God very happy about this sacrifice? Or not? So why did God make a decision that people should offer sacrifices to Him? Why Jesus cries out with these words on the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” When we take all these sacrifices that were offered to God, they referred to sins, didn’t they? And it was because of our sins that God has forsaken us and we have forsaken Him. Can something what refers to forsaking be pleasant? It was supposed to tell us, people: “What have you done? Why have you forsaken God since he does good to you? Why did you place Him between gods and try to make Him someone who cannot deal with your life? Then, you come and offer a sacrifice. You walk away and think that God is pleased.” God is upset. He looks at this sacrifice. And He didn’t mean that people would be satisfied: “we gave God a sacrifice, so He must be pleased now”. It was about people so that they would know: “what you have done by forsaking me”.

When we read Hebrews 10,1-3, we can read the following words (anyway, we will look at a fragment in the Old Testament later on to read about this issue):

“For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the form of those things itself, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually every year, make those who approach perfect. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.”

Then, these people can notice how much wrong they did towards God. Nowadays, it doesn’t have that price, does it? The man who has sinned, doesn’t have to take an animal, buy it, lead it and kill it, so sin doesn’t cost the man anything. You can sin, no problem. But does it cost anything? Sin separates us from God. This is the biggest cost of it. We need Jesus in order to come to God. Therefore, the man who sins slightly is a fool even worse than those people. They thought that these animals did a job. But we know that it was Jesus Christ who did the job. So we should run away from sin more than they do. They haven’t understood and haven’t known yet what we do already know. They thought that thousands of oxen and sheep would please God and He would be satisfied at that moment.

“For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

Thus, it wasn’t about taking away the sins of those sacrifices. They were to show them their sin.

“Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “You have not desired sacrifice and offering, but You have prepared a body for Me; You have not taken pleasure in whole burnt offerings and offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come...”

Do you see what was happening when those animals were offered? What was happening with God? If it hadn’t been for His Son, He wouldn’t even have looked at this earth at all.

“Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (It is written of Me in the scroll of the book) to do Your will, O God.’ After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and offerings for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law).”

Do you understand? God couldn’t really forsake us completely. It was only the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that made that God has forsaken us completely. Hence, darkness fell over the earth. God has completely forsaken us when Christ died on the cross. And it was only after He rose from the dead that there was justification. God brings us back to life in Christ by giving us a new humanity. God left the old humanity on the cross. The sacrifice indicated forsaking. Those sacrifices couldn’t perfectly point it out, but the sacrifice of Jesus could. Because it not only carries that a man can feel that this sacrifice purifies him, but it carries much more within itself. What else does the sacrifice of Jesus carry within itself? The fact that I can die. When an Israelite was going and was offering an ox, a goat or a sheep, he might think to himself: “God is receiving now, I am now free from it, I can walk away”. But he couldn’t stop being the sinner. God had to forsake something to begin something new. And this is the sacrifice of Jesus. All these sacrifices were indicating forsaking – that God would forsake the old humanity to begin the new humanity. It happened. We are no longer the old generation of people who can hope that God will look forgivingly at our disrespectful life that we will lead as we want. God left it. He has nothing to do with it. The sacrifice of Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. God won’t go back to that. People who stay on the other side are on the side of the tragedy. That’s why, Jesus said that whoever isn’t born of water and the spirit cannot even see the Kingdom of God, let alone enter it. The most accurate forsaking happened on the cross, but it wasn’t to lose and destroy us for good together with the dying Son, but to raise us up in the Son for good to eternity.

Praise the Lord. Let’s God’s truth penetrate you and me deeper and deeper because Jesus said that we would know the truth and the truth would set us free. It’s awareness that makes people different. Awareness of who I am and what I mean when I’m without Jesus, and who I am and what I mean when I’m with Jesus.

The Book of Amos 5. The language of God isn’t our language. When God speaks, He doesn’t do it the way we do it. And when God leads, He doesn’t do it how we do it. God says: “My roads are more important than yours. My words are more important than yours. My thoughts are more important than yours.” Thus, when we approach God, then we begin to understand, through the Holy Spirit, God’s way of thinking and acting. It’s not like ours. What we think: “God, you will definitely like it.” God says: “This is what I contemn, but I’m still accepting it because of you. You give me no pleasure in this at all.” 5th chapter, from the 18th verse:

“Woe to you who are longing for the day of the Lord, for what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you? It will be darkness and not light; as when a man flees from a lion and a bear confronts him, or he goes home, leans with his hand against the wall, and a snake bites him. Will the day of the Lord not be darkness instead of light, even gloom with no brightness in it? “I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your festive assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fattened oxen. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll out like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. “Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, house of Israel?”

Do you see it? God doesn’t have taste in it. He couldn’t even look at it anymore. They made their own protection out of it. They sinned and celebrated. They sinned and offered the sacrifices. And they made a kind of treat out of it. God says: “I hate it. It wasn’t for that. It was supposed to show what you did.” If you want to see what it smells like, take some old animal skin or whatever, put it on a fire and burn it with hairs and with everything. You will smell the scent of it. What will it be like for you? It will rather be the scent of moving away than approaching. God speaks in His own way to tell and show us something. And that’s why, we constantly need the Holy Spirit so that he would introduce us to the preciousness of this event and these mighty words of Jesus that He speaks from our place. Let’s not come back to the place that God has left. Never. At any price. Even if they paid us huge amounts of money. After all, it will all disappear. Let’s remain in the place that God has raised up. In the place of justification. In the place of giving us the opportunity to lead a new life.

Isaiah 1. Let’s get to know the Lord and learn what He says to us so that we, while enjoying Him, might experience it in ourselves: “Lord, only You are worthy of my life on earth. No one else. Only You, Lord. Thanks to You, people will be able to make use of the fact that I’m on earth. But only thanks to You. Not thanks to the fact that I am better, but because You are in control of me.” We read it from the 10th verse:

“Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!”

It wasn’t that God was speaking to Sodom and Gomorrah then, but He was speaking to Israel that entered into what was in Sodom and Gomorrah.

“What are your many sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle; and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courtyards? Do not go on bringing your worthless offerings, incense is an abomination to Me.
New moon and Sabbath, the proclamation of an assembly – I cannot endure wrongdoing and the festive assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me; I am tired of bearing them.”

That’s what God says. He gave it to indicate Jesus and they made a god out of it.

“So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; yes, even though you offer many prayers, I will not be listening. Your hands are covered with blood. “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, obtain justice for the orphan, plead for the widow’s case. “Come now, and let us debate your case,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall become as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

And now God says: “without these sacrifices and without these animals, I have the place of purification for you” – and this is Jesus Christ, His Son. Praise the Lord. Beloved of the Lord, we’ve received the most precious gift from God and now, this is very important how we will taste how good is the Lord and what we got from the Father of Him.

We can fight with each other so that the man would love Jesus and give his life for Jesus. You won’t give your life for Jesus unless there is a perfectly pure question in you and unless you find a perfectly pure answer. That’s why, there is a problem with people. They know, they read, but they can’t get to the truth. They didn’t answer a question that they don’t have. They believe something different is more important in life. But for those who got this question only God matters and He can give the answer to them. Thus, if you got the question to God: “God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from the voice of my cry?”, you will know what has separated you from God. And then you will hate what has separated you from Him, won’t you? Then you will love what connects you with God again. Hence the love for Jesus. Jesus can’t be loved just like that. Jesus is loved because He is the Lamb of God. You love Him because you have an open return to the Father in Him. He is the only way and no one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ. That’s true. That’s why, you can’t walk this way while looking back. It isn’t possible. Either you look at this wonderful Lamb of God and you have the joy of salvation only in Him, or you look anywhere and lose the joy of salvation and you lose eternity because the devil begins to revive his old nature. Let’s benefit from Jesus and from the purification that purifies beyond the snow – to a whiter state. This is Christ. The only one who can cleanse us and change our nature so that we would no longer wish to sin, but wish to belong endlessly to God. Everywhere and at every moment so that your biggest joy would be that you can live for His glory. Only this. Whatever you have, you have it so that it may serve to live for His glory and so as not to become entangled in anything from this earth. Always be a free man because Jesus gave us freedom.

The Book of Micah 6,6-8:

“With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take pleasure in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give Him my firstborn for my wrongdoings, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, mortal one, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

It became possible thanks to Jesus. God didn’t need those animals. He didn’t need that blood. He needed the sacrifice of His Son to separate from us completely. Do you understand it? The cross is separation. That’s why we have to every day take our cross of separation from the old humanity. A new life is only in the resurrection with Christ. Let’s follow Christ. May God help us to experience it while thinking about it. Only when God has separated us completely could He receive us. May God stay with us in this. May God’s word work in us in the power of His spirit. In the name of Jesus. Amen.