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For me, one of the most confounding and fascinating facets of the humanity of Jesus is His being both a son and the Son. Perhaps it is because I am one, I have two and so much of my knowing of the Father has come through my own experience as a father. The gravity and glory of this deeply good Friday center on the Father and his Son, and nothing should distract from that. But what if there were another ancient story that didn’t distract but drew you in even deeper? It’s another father and son story. I’d like to tell it again this year just as I did last year, because I believe it amplifies today’s gravity and glory.

The price and penalty had to be paid, and there was only ever One who could and would. The miracle of Jesus’ birth was not only that God became man, but that He had done so for the purpose that laid before Him today. Repeatedly, Jesus told those closest that it was coming. He would die. There was no other way. The moment sin entered the world by our action, there was no other answer for its defeat. God could never contradict His nature, and He could never allow a single soul into His presence unless it was as perfect as He. Sin broke the perfect communion He had with us in the garden, and there would never again be a created being who would measure up. And so, God chose to do what He never could or would require of another in order to save us.

There was one ask that came perilously close, however. It was of a father who was convinced he would never be one. A man who God chose to work through in His plan to rescue the world, and whose family was at the center of that plan. There was one major problem. This promised father of many was not yet even the father of one. Through nothing short of a miracle, and despite his own tragic choices to “help” God’s promise along, God gave Abraham a son. This appeared to be God’s test of His chosen one, but Abraham would soon find out the test was yet to come. Soon God would visit Abraham with an unthinkable ask.

Take your son, your only son — yes, Isaac, whom you love so much — and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.
Genesis 22:2 (NLT)

And what do you suppose the Bible says about Abraham’s reaction to this unthinkable ask?

The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about.
Genesis 22:3 (NLT)

Abraham got up early.

There is another startling statement in this harrowing and thrilling story that so clearly points to Jesus and His great sacrifice on this day. After Abraham put the wood on his son’s shoulders and they began walking together toward the mountain, Isaac asked his father a question. “We have the fire and wood,” Isaac asked, “but where is the sheep for the offering?”

From the place of unshakable faith and unwavering trust that got Abraham up early the day after the ask, he answered his son …

“God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.
Genesis 22:8 (NLT)

There was no hesitation in the father’s response to the son. “God will,” Abraham answered. His trust in God was certain, no matter what it would require.

We know the ending to this story. As the son lay fully bound on the wood of the altar of sacrifice with Abraham’s knife raised high, God called out to Abraham from heaven and commanded him to stop. Abraham had done as God asked and withheld nothing from Him. Then God did what Abraham trusted God would … He provided a sheep in the form of a ram caught in a nearby thicket.

God provided a ram on that day and the perfect Lamb on this one. But this time He would not spare a son in order to save. This time He gave his only Son in order to save. There was no other way. In completing the plan of redemption, God placed the wood on the shoulders of his Son and did not withhold anything in order to save us. Oh, how He loves you and me.