Do you realize the Father’s eyes are on you? He delights over you and is wholly committed to bringing you into fullness of LIFE!

For that reason, the Father will never turn his face from you; he will not take his eyes off of you!

Still yet… There is a lingering idea in the church that has caused many to pull back, shrink in shame, and not step into the fullness of the Father’s smile over them—it’s the idea that the Father turned his face from his Son on the cross. I know that sounds a bit random, but let me explain…

Although this concept may be foreign to some of you, it’s not to many in the church. It has been around for decades and comes through an incomplete view of Psalm 22.

Although many who teach this definitely believe in the goodness of God, they still hold a view of Father’s response to Jesus that, in my opinion, needs to be questioned. Simply because if the Father looked away when Jesus became sin, this will eventually and inevitably communicate a deeper problem for us:

1. We will soon if not suddenly believe he exhibits the same response when we sin. If we think Jesus deflected the gaze of his Father by taking on sin, how much more will we carry an inward struggle and mindset in thinking that we deflect his gaze in our sin and weakness. Thus the cycle begins, and to counteract this deflection, we will then creates performance-centered (religious) systems to counteract and “win back” the gaze of the Father. Does this sound familiar? Do you see how this thing can be a real problem?

2. We will inevitably exhibit the same response to a dark world. What we believe to be true about God will play out though our lives, and where we are called to be light to the darkness, buying into the lie of what I call the “deflection theory” will cause us to turn our eyes away from sinners.

Although we’re in no way called to pursue darkness, we are called to pierce it with the light of His presence.

As I stated earlier, this view of Father looking away from Jesus comes from the first line of Psalm 22, where David (in his famous Messianic prophecy) says “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Most, if not all, believers will agree that Jesus acquainted himself with our weaknesses, our pain, our sin, and ultimately the lies (concerning the Father) that we had come to believe (see Hebrews 4:14-15; Isaiah 53:3-6). A deeper look into Psalm 22 reveals this truth:

“God, my God! Why would you abandon me now? Why do you remain distant, refusing to answer my tearful cries in the day and my desperate cries for your help in the night? I can’t stop sobbing. Where are you, my God?… But I am like a worm, crushed and bleeding crimson treated as less than human. I’ve been despised and scorned by everyone! Mocked by their jeers, despised with their sneers, as all the people poke fun at me, spitting their insults…So don’t leave me now, for trouble is all around me, and there’s no one to help me…Now I’m completely exhausted. Every joint of my body has been pulled apart. My courage has melted away. I’m so thirsty and parched. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. And now you lay me in the dust of death.” (Psalm 22:1-3, 6-7, 11, 14-15 TPT)

On the cross, Jesus experienced feelings of separation, abandonment, and alienation from God; he felt the weight of what we felt. However, as we read on, this feeling was just that—it was a feeling. It wasn’t the truth of what was actually happening. Although the Son of God experienced deep betrayal by those around him, he was never left alone by his Father (see John 16:32).

From this vantage point, we see that the cry of Jesus on the cross was him identifying with what humanity had been feeling the whole time. For this, we can say the central purpose of the incarnation is that the Father, in Christ, would enter into the deep abyss of our darkness and delusion in order to break its power and release the light of Their union (and our inclusion). Where we had bought into the lie of separation—thinking the Father had turned away—he meets us with his abiding presence. We can now confidently say, “He has not despised nor scorned the suffering of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him.” (Psalm 22:24)

KEEP READING: BREAKTHROUGH’S COMING

To understand that the Father never looked away, we must read on and look at the breakthrough passage of Psalm 22:24: “For He has not despised nor scorned the suffering of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him…when he cried to Him for help, He heard” (NASB). The Passion Translation says it this way:

"For he has not despised my cries of deep despair. He’s my first responder to my sufferings, and he didn’t look the other way when I was in pain. He was there all the time, listening to song of the afflicted” (TPT)

We must shed the idea that the Father turns away when He sees sin. If that were true we would have to ignore the Fathers beckoning call to Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:9). Secondly, we would need to question the actions and ministry of Jesus, where the sinless God-man came to track down the shame-filled, guilt-ridden sinner. It was in Christ that the Father came looking for and eagerly searching to find the weak, the broken, the battered, the oppressed, the sick, the rebel, the wrong, and the downtrodden. I can almost imagine Jesus coming in the spirit of his Father, saying “Where are you…who told you that?” (see Genesis 3:11).

The truth is, the Father never left the Son, nor did He turn His gaze away from Him. In the same regard, He has never turned away from us—but as the incarnation has proven, the Father has always been seeking the human race. Even if that meant climbing into our darkness, shame, and gross rebellion—this is the Father we know in Jesus.

Fun fact: Jesus walked over 3,100 miles during his ministry—that’s nearly 900 miles/year, 73 miles/month, 2.5 miles/day… It’s clear to see that Jesus did not avoid sinners, but “came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Christ pursued us in order to heal us, teach us, dine with us, cast demons from us, disciple us, lay hands on us. The Great Holy One did what the law forbade; he touched the unclean, as clearly seen in the cleansing of the lepers. 

As Jesus went about (forgiving and healing) he was taking on the sins and sicknesses of the world. In the words of Matthew, “…they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed…He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. This happened so that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled: “He Himself took our illnesses and carried away our diseases.” (Matthew 8:16-17 NASB)

HE DOESN’T LOOK ON SIN ‘FAVORABLY’

Although God does indeed look on sinners, he doesn’t sin nor does he look on “sin favorably” (Habakkuk 1:13 AMP). In other words, just because God looks on sin doesn’t mean he approves of it. It just proves he’s willing to jump right in the middle of our mess and fix it. He is committed to putting his hand to the plow of renovating the human heart—tearing down any wall that fosters shame, moving any mountain that promotes fear, and destroying any lie that tells you anything contrary to Who he is and how he sees you. The point isn’t that the sin finds his delight, but the person who is immature, lost and weak, does (see 2 Corinthians 5:19).

Song of Songs reveals that he is undone by the gaze of a weak, immature bride: “For you reach into my heart. With one flash of your eyes I am undone by your love, my beloved, my equal, my bride. You leave me breathless—I am overcome by merely a glance from your worshiping eyes, for you have stolen my heart. I am held hostage by your love and by the graces of righteousness shining upon you.” (Song of Songs 4:9 TPT)

Some translations say “you have ravished my heart.” This is the Hebrew word libabthini, which is taken from a Semitic root word that means “to tear bark off of a tree.” He is saying that your loving eyes of worship have uncovered his heart and laid it bare, making Him vulnerable to you. What a description of what happens to Jesus when he looks into your eyes. Your worship brings to Him such an ecstasy and delight that it becomes hard to even imagine. Yet God has placed inside of you the ability to ravish the heart of your King—not someday in heaven, but now, even when you feel incomplete and weak.” (TPT commentary on Song of Songs 4:9).   

Just because you don’t feel completely whole doesn’t mean you’re not completely his. Your emotions don’t change his fiery gaze over you.

Enjoy his eyes, he’s looking at you!

-RA