A Good Friday Reflection
In the 1959 version of the move Ben Hur, there’s a scene where Judah Ben Hur’s mother and sister are healed from leprosy at the exact moment that Jesus dies on the cross.
They had heard of Jesus’ power to heal from Esther, the daughter of the one time steward of the house of Hur. And, filled with hope, the three women had gone to find Jesus. Tragically, they arrived too late. He was already taken to be crucified.
Determined, they followed him to the cross, but he is beyond helping them. And as the three women come to terms with the situation, a storm begins to fall.
As the sky darkens, they seek shelter in a cave beneath the place of crucifixion. And there they huddle, terrified, as storm vents its fury.
As the rain falls and the lightning flashes, there is the sound of a mighty wind, and Jesus dies.
When the storm lifts, we discover that Judah’ mother and sister are healed.
Watching this scene, I can’t help but think of Moses’ experience in Exodus 33:18-23.
Here Moses, wanting an ever deeper experience and understanding of God, had asked God to reveal his glory. God granted Moses’ request, but with a curious twist. God would hide Moses in a cleft in the mountain and shield Moses as he passed by. “You shall see My back,” God tells Moses, “but My face shall not be seen.”
Whether the scene in Ben Hur is deliberately intended to parallel the experience of Moses I have no idea, but it certainly does a remarkable job of bringing out something important both in Moses’ experience and in the crucifixion of Christ: that even as he reveals himself to us, God remains in some sense hidden.
But why would this be so?
The key is, I think, found in Exodus 33:20: “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”
Here, I take the point to be that a full revelation of God’s glory would overwhelm us. Indeed, time-and-again where the bible speaks of God revealing his glory, those who witness it are overwhelmed.
My question? How can that experience ever give us a full understanding of the nature and character of God?
You see, what seems to be emphasised in such encounters is God’s incredible power and the fear that invokes in those who witness it.
Yet whilst God is, indeed, powerful beyond description, is fear really the appropriate response?
Here I don’t mean “reverence”—there is a reverential fear of God that the bible commends to us as a good and healthy response to God. I am, instead, speaking of the sort of fear one experiences in the presence of a mortal threat.
But is that truly how God wants to be known? As the one who invokes mortal terror? What of those divine qualities that work in the other direction? Qualities like grace, mercy, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, to name but a few? How are we to know this aspect of God’s character if we are overwhelmed by his glory?
I think it’s for this reason that God hides his face from Moses. And it’s for this reason that Christians hold that only in Jesus’ crucifixion do we find the true unveiling of God’s nature.
We find in that event, where God shares fully in the weaknesses, shame, and mortality of humanity, a God who is with us. Who is willing to step into human existence and be with us, side by side, as we walk life’s journey.
This Good Friday may you look upon the Cross of Christ and see this God—the crucified God—who hides his face so that we might not be overwhelmed but rather come to understand the depths of God’s mercy, kindness, and love.