Forsaken by God?
Seven Last Words from the Cross Part 4 * Matthew 27:45-46
Have you ever been in a God-forsaken place? Maybe it was a TDY trip to the middle of nowhere. Worse yet, maybe it was a PCS! And the word “permanent” in permanent change of station becomes a curse. Or maybe your God-forsaken place turned out to be a diagnosis, for you or a loved one, something that turned your world upside down.
Today we look at Jesus who is truly in a God-forsaken place. We are in week 4 of the “Seven Last Words from the Cross.” Jesus made his fourth statement from the cross at around 3:00 pm. For the last three hours, the sky had turned unnaturally dark. We know it wasn’t a natural event, because the moon is always full at Passover. I believe God brought darkness to draw attention to the dark nature of events, as the Son of God was murdered by the very humans he had come to save. Satan seemed to win the day.
Jesus’ cry seemed to reinforce that thought. He said loudly, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” His question is puzzling, to say the least. If Jesus was the Son of God, and if he was talking to Father God, how could God forsake God? The great reformer Martin Luther once stared at these words for hours, then rose from his seat and exclaimed, “God forsaken by God! How can it be?”
How can it be indeed? I am going to offer some ideas, but I don’t want to appear to have all the answers. Something happened on that cross that day that is beyond our understanding. Some things are a mystery. We may not fully understand them this side of heaven. Yet what do we know? Let me suggest ...
Some considerations:
1. Jesus fulfilled prophecy
When Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he quoted directly from scripture, Psalm 22:1 to be exact. Many scholars believe he purposefully chose this psalm because of what it says about crucifixion. David wrote it some 1,000 years earlier, before there was any such thing as crucifixion. The Phoenicians first developed this barbaric means of execution hundreds of years after David, and later the Romans adopted it for their own. Yet, listen to these phrases from Psalm 22: “They pierce my hands and my feet...people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment” (Psalm 22:16-18). Does this sound familiar? All of this happened at the cross, where Jesus was nailed in the hands and feet, where people ridiculed him, where Roman soldiers gambled over his clothes. A second consideration is...
2. Jesus became our sin
Before the cross, Jesus the Son and God the Father were in perfect fellowship. Even though Jesus walked the earth and the Father resided in heaven, Jesus ensured his relationship with his Heavenly Father always came first. He modeled this for us. Listen to what he said earlier, in Matthew 11:27: “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Do you catch the closeness there? Jesus was tight with his Heavenly Father.
Yet, for the first time, Jesus does not pray to his Father. He prays to his God. “My God, my God...” There is some formalism here, some loss of intimacy.
Something happened on the cross. As Jesus approached death, he took on all the sins of those who would believe in him. He took on our punishment. Scholars call this a vicarious atonement or substitutionary atonement, the propitiation of God’s rightful wrath.
This week I read a story set in the wheat farms of the central United Stated around the turn of the last century. Sometimes locomotive sparks would start tremendous wheat fires that could burn for miles and miles. One farmer saw the fire coming his direction, so he quickly lit a back fire around his farm. When the raging fire came near, it met the fields that had already burned, and went out. The farmer had saved his buildings, although he had lost his crop. As he was out surveying the damage, he came across the body of one of his hens, lying right in the path of the fire. At first he thought the hen must have become confused. Then, with a stick, he flipped the charred body, only to find running out a dozen little chicks. That hen had given her life to protect her chicks.
Listen to how scripture describes Jesus giving his life for us:
Isaiah 53:6 “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him [that’s Jesus] the iniquity of us all.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Galatians 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse.”
1 Peter 2:24 (where Peter quotes from Isaiah 53): “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
This week I saw a quote that explains the difference between Karma and Christianity: “Karma: you get what you deserve. Christianity: Jesus gets what you deserve.” In the transaction of the cross, Jesus became sin and we became ... holy! Jesus was cursed; we were blessed. Jesus was sentenced for a crime he did not commit, so that we might be declared forgiven of all of our transgressions against a holy God. Jesus died so that we might live.
And one other thing happened at the cross:
3. God turned away
Jesus had good reason to ask if his God had forsaken him. God turned away. Habakkuk 1:13 tells us God’s eyes are too pure to look on evil, and all the evil of the human race was concentrated like a laser beam on Jesus that day: every lie, every word of gossip, every lustful thought and deed, every bit of hatred in the heart, every bit of laziness, all on Jesus. And God turned away. Somehow, for the first time ever, the Father looked away from the Son. There was a schism in the Holy Trinity.
Maybe you think, “Kerry, this is all interesting, but what does it mean for me?” Good question. Here are some ...
Implications for us:
1. Count the cost of your sin
When we are tempted, we need to remember how much sin costs. Sin is not free. Someone has to pay for it. If you have given your life over to God’s care, then our Lord Jesus paid the price. In the moment of temptation, Satan wants us to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of sin, so it is easy to overlook the harmful outcomes, let alone what it did to our Savior. Yet, if we will remember Calvary, it will help us to say no to temptation and say yes to Jesus, who really does have our best in mind. Count the cost of your sin, and #2,
2. Consider the love of your Savior
The cross is a big Valentine from heaven to each of us. 1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” If you ever doubt the love of God for you, remember the cross. Remember the moment Jesus allowed his relationship to his Heavenly Father to be severed. Even temporarily, it must have ripped his heart open. And Jesus willingly went to the cross out of loving obedience to his Father and loving concern for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son...” Lastly,
3. Commit to a life of gratitude
This is the proper response to such an overwhelming show of sacrificial love. Imagine if a war buddy took a bullet for you; you would be forever grateful. Jesus took our bullet; we owe him our very lives. Jesus said to his disciples, in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.” Jesus laid down his life for us, his friends.
Christians of all people should be the most grateful people on earth, because we have been bought at a price, and the price was the sacrifice of the one person who never sinned, who became sin on our behalf.
The Apostle Paul talks about living a life of gratitude, in service to our Lord, as he writes, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1). May we forever serve the one who served us on the cross. Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, thank you that you knew from the beginning of eternity we would need help with our sin, that we could not return to you otherwise. We don’t fully understand what happened on that cross. Yet, we know that you love us, that Jesus loves us, and that Jesus paid the price that day for all who would believe in him. Please helps someone believe today for the first time, to give you all their sin in exchange for all your forgiveness. Help us to live grateful lives, serving you as living sacrifices, for the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.
