The Painted Door Church - Chicago
The Psalter of Jesus: Abandoned to Death // Psalm 22
Feb 12, 2017
Pastor Mark Bergin
Our God is a consuming fire. He is dangerous, fearless, fully alive. And he
will stop at nothing to make persons of that same cloth. Look at the heroes
of our faith: Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses,
Rahab. Who among them lived in quiet safety? None. They were murdered,
displaced, mocked, threatened, and abandoned. They died in faith, having
not yet laid hold of the promises they hoped for. Yet in death, they
escaped exile in this world that they might enter the city God had prepared
for them. This is the life of faith, experiencing the abandonment and
alienation of this world in hope for a new world to come. We are consumed
in fire here that we might live in fire there. Jesus cried from the cross,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." And this author and finisher of
our faith now cries those same words through us. Our head has broken
through. Surely, his body will follow.