Sermon Central
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"My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
Contributed by Jonathan Kittrell on Jun 5, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: This is the fourth set of words Jesus utters from the cross. It is a pivotal phrase and is purposefully the fourth statement he made. While this utterance could call the relationship between God and Jesus into question, it actually melds it and shows how
My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
ETS: Jesus, God, cries out for His inner strength to endure
ESS: We must cry out to God in our struggles. We are never forsaken
OSS: Strength in midst of turmoil, sin.
WORD: Strength
Discuss humility of preaching.
READ SCRIPTURE
It was 1993–November–when the string of success began to come unraveled.
Grandfather’s stroke
Grader
Provisional entrance into doctoral program
While this story does not compare to the suffering that Jesus endured there upon that cross, it is a glimpse of suffering in my life.
It gives me reflection to live and endure through the struggles and tragedies of the future.
We need to set up a mental picture of what is happening here.
Well, we have been carrying this picture, I hope for the past week at least as we look at each of the statements of Jesus upon the cross.
1. Father, forgive them
2. Behold thy son, behold thy mother
3. Thou shalt be with me in paradise
4. My God, my god
5. I thirst
6. Into thy hands
7. It is finished
Three of these statements are prayers or cries toward Heaven
Even on the cross he cried out to God, His father,
“My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?”
What does this mean?
Has God abandoned His own son?
Has he left him there to die on His own?
Is this the type of God we serve? Where when the going gets tough that he forsakes us?
Was the sin that Jesus bore on the cross so much that even God could not bear it?
In layman’s terms, this passage opens up a whole can of worms.
To answer this question simply, God has not forsaken Jesus. He just cannot do this. This would be against the trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
John 10:30–I and the Father are one!!!
God could not possibly separate himself from His son. To be one is one. Jesus was God incarnate.
O.K., so what you are saying then is that God incarnate cried out, “Why has thou forsaken thee?”
Well, Yes.
How do I explain it? That is not easy.
Yes, Jesus did cry these words.
I believe it was the weight of the sin?
I believe it was not necessarily that he was saying to God that he was forsaken?
I believe it was that he was forsaken by those around me.
I believe it was His utter exhaustion from the past 18-24 hours
(More detail)
So, what did those words mean?
If Annas and Caiphas heard these words, they probably felt they were futile utterings of a human being who could not even save himself.
Pleas of mere babbling would mean Jesus lost touch w/ reality; that he lost control
To many today, our cries are in futility–they don’t seem to go anywhere.
To his friends, those who were still around, they could have meant more than mere utterings, but we must remember, His people were in turmoil–the disciples were in bewilderment. One disciple was dead and another, Paul, was dealing with the verbal forsakeness he had committed the night before.
We are not, and I do not begin to wonder, what these words meant to the thief on the cross who had trusted him just a short time before.
Scripture tells us that some thought he was crying to Elijah which makes sense since the Jewish people believed Elijah would return to help those in need. What more fitting than to cry out to Elijah in this time of need. But those words Eloi Eloi are not Elijah but God.
I believe that what Jesus cried out from the cross was a statement from the Psalter in Psalms 22. This, too, opens up a whole magnitude of issues we could discuss for hours.
Explain the way of Jewish prayers.
In the midst of being and feeling forsaken, he cried out this critical psalm to God. A familiar Jewish prayer.
Verses 6-8
14-15
16b-18
The rest goes on to talk about praise and strength
Esp. verse 31.
David did not feel forsaken by God in this passage; for the forsakeness was of his own sin
This is a prayer to God. In the midst of all this he didn’t scream at the people, he cried out to God. He spent much of his ministry in prayer. He would steal away to pray.
What did he do after the Last Supper and the time of his abduction. HE PRAYED.
Jesus had gone almost as far as he could go. He was willing to complete the task.
I do not believe that this fourth statement is merely the fourth statement because we are counting the sayings of Christ.
To coin Bro. Bob from his messages on The Beatitudes. Jesus’ fourth set of words are the fourth set because they were pivotal to the time on the cross.
