Or is it only as a man that Jesus died? Was it only as a man that Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Was it only as a man while His God-side looked on, never leaving the security of being God - of being incapable of fragmentation, brokenness, forsakenness? How was it that He died? Our faith says: "true man, true God, both complete, yet indivisible. How was it that He died? As man and God? We’ve seen what it means for a man to die - we’re all too familiar with what that’s all about!

But what does it mean for God to die? To experience separation in Himself. To be divided. To be torn apart. Part dead, part alive. Part in heaven, and part in hell. Torn within, like a mighty rupture. To experience His own forsakenness.

And not simply to "taste" death, as if He were rolling it around on His tongue to see if it was bitter or sweet, and then spit it out. For, you see, God inhabits the realm of eternity. What He experiences in one moment, He experiences for all eternity. That’s how Paul can talk about Jesus Christ, "slain before the foundations of the world were laid." God claims, "I am. I was. I always am the eternally present. I am that I am."

We have stood at the foot of the cross for a long while now. And witnessed, and marveled, at what we have seen. Grace and love flow mingled down. Words of forgiveness and promise have embraced us, as He has stretched out His arms to us. There have been words of care and concern; cries of faith at the point of despair. And a cry of victory at the point of defeat. And now His mouth opens and once again - one last time - He speaks: "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit." And with a loud sigh, He breathes His last.

What does it mean for God to die. We know what it means for a man. And, as a man, we marvel at His incredible faith as, at the point of death, He rests His fate entirely in God’s hands, without a fight, without a struggle, willingly giving Himself over. He has complete control. "No one takes my life," He says. He is His own master. Even death cannot snatch His life from Him. Yet He freely gives it.

Yet all that has to do with His humanity. The question persists: "What does it mean for God to die?" Only the greatest force imaginable can force separation within the Godhead itself. Only an unfathomable might could tear apart for all eternity the immutable God. Jesus said, "No greater love hath a man than this, that he lay down his life for his brother." But what degree of love must it take for God to suffer fragmentation, brokenness - a contradiction in His very essence - to be torn asunder for all eternity for our sakes!

God is dying on a cross. For man, death is nothing new. A few hours and it is over. But for God, it means an unreconcilable fragmentation of His very essence. A fragmentation that is a wonderful gift of grace for us. For as He becomes broken and alienated in Himself, He also enters into our broken and alienated world and ties Himself to it. He fuses Himself to us, so that nothing can ever separate us from Him - no, not even sin and death itself. For He is there, too!

Paul says, "When we were farthest from Him, He sent Christ to die for us." At the point of our greatest alienation, our greatest brokenness, when we could not be farther from His presence - when we had entered fully into the realm of sin and death, there - precisely there - God himself became broken. He entered our life there. He fused His eternal life to ours, and pumped new life into our dead life.

What does it mean for God to die? It means that, when we were farthest from Him, He came and opened a door to us; He broke down the wall that separated us, He came to us where our sin had alienated us, and He bore our alienation, our separation, in Himself. It means He has fused His life to mine; He has sealed my fate to His. And, if Easter does come to Him - it shall also come to me.

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, so often we feel so very far from You. Our sinfulness separates us from You. That very fact of our humanity, in all its brokenness, our incompleteness, builds an impassable wall between You and us. No power in the universe could tear that wall of sin down. Only Your love and Your own brokenness could do it. Help us to trust the power of Your love then, to place our broken lives in Your hands, in the hope that we might also experience new life in You. So also, Father, into Thy hands we commend our spirits. Amen.