Have you ever had a moment or season in life where you felt like God had forsaken you or turned his back on you? Maybe it was when you were young in your faith…or maybe it happened just yesterday. These moments typically happen when our backs are up against the wall and we can’t seem to find the way forward. They also tend to happen when we’re at our lowest, maybe experiencing some type of physical, relational, or spiritual pain.
One of our pastors tells the story of a young adult that came into his office several years ago with this cry for help: “Can I just be brutally honest? I feel like God is crapping on me!” Only, they were in such a raw state, they used a different word! In the pastor’s office! What they were declaring is that even though it is theologically impossible (because Romans 8:1 tells us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus), it FELT like God had it out for them. And if you’re honest, you’ve probably felt that before…that at worst, God has it out for us, or at best, that he has abandoned us.
Many of you know my love for Paul Tripp’s devotional New Morning Mercies which I’ve used for years and years. This past Thursday, which also happens to be our day to finalize the Sunday sermon, the devotion was absolutely on point with EXACTLY what we were trying to articulate in the sermon draft…listen to the following quote:
"I love that the Bible’s description of life in this fallen world is accurate and familiar. Psalm 90 is one of the most honest and descriptive psalms. How’s this for honesty? ‘The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away (v. 10). Here’s what the psalmist is saying: “Your life will be short and will be marked by difficulty.” Not very good news is it? But it’s true. You live in a fallen world that itself groans, waiting for redemption. You live with flawed people who think, say, and do wrong things. You live in a place where corruption, immorality, injustice, pollution, and disease still live and do their ugly work. You live in an environment that does not function according to God’s original design. Every day is marked by little troubles, and big trouble will enter your door as well. In all this, you are tempted to feel alone, forsaken, poor, and unable. In all this, you are tempted to wonder whether God exists, let alone if he hears or cares."
Turn with me this morning to Matthew 27 for our final message in our series called Red Letter Prayers. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve learned a lot over these past few weeks about HOW Jesus prays and also the CONTENT of his prayers. I’ve been both ENCOURAGED to sculpt my prayers as Jesus prays and also CHALLENGED by the fact that I don’t always pray in these ways as I should. Today’s prayer is quite possibly Jesus’ most emphatic (and maybe even controversial) prayer.
Matthew 27:45-51
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
This moment is what one might call the Mount Everest of our Christian faith. Let me help set the stage – the Jewish nation recognized their time based on their schedule of prayers. And so they started the “first hour” of their day at 6 AM…so the “ninth hour” translates to about 3 PM. In Mark 15:25, we learn that Jesus has been on the cross since the “third hour” (9 AM) meaning that Jesus has now been hanging on the cross for nearly six hours…and is moments away from death. He’s been humiliated, abandoned, and beaten severely. He’s gasping for air and so his prayers are brief. And so much of the Christian storyline that we believe and talk about, hinges on this very moment…THIS very prayer. And so this morning, I want to invite you into this moment of Jesus uttering his very last prayer.
Now before we get too far, I want to give a little disclaimer this morning as we approach the text. First, there is only one teaching point in today's sermon. But let not your hearts be troubled, you won’t be getting out early! And secondly, we are going to save the majority of the application for the end of the message…as opposed to how we normally weave application into each point. So we’re going to be a little heavy on theology on the front end before we get to application. So let’s work hard here early while we anticipate all the applicational dessert at the end of the message…much like a good meal. And the reason we want to spend a few extra minutes digging deep theologically is that if your theology is off, then your application will be off too. So if you have your big boy and big girls pants on today, on the count of three, let’s shout, “Bring it on!”
I want to first start with the idea of atonement. This is a very Christiany word that you probably don’t use in everyday life. The dictionary defines atonement in the following way: Atonement is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other expression of feelings of remorse.
But what is so incredible about the atonement of Jesus Christ is the person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing is not the one guilty of the wrongdoing. That’s the gospel folks…it was a SUBSTITUTIONARY atonement. That’s why 2 Corinthians 5:21 says: "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (NKJV). The NLT words it this way: "For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." And while I understand that it is not a literal translation, I love the wording on the Living Bible paraphrase: "For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us!"
But no matter which wording you like the best, all of them point us to this reality…
1. JESUS WAS FORSAKEN SO WE NEVER HAVE TO BE – vs. 46
In this passage, make no mistake about what is happening. God is abandoning (or deserting) Jesus in a very relational manner. This does NOT mean that God the Father and God and Son are no longer one…and this is NOT about an eternal separation. But in a very real sense, God has abandoned his Son on the cross on that day.
Several years ago there was some research that came out that stated that most American’s view of God is much closer to Santa Clause than the actual God of the Bible. There is a HUGE appetite for a God of love and mercy, and a God of grace…but there is very LITTLE appetite for a God of holiness, justice, or wrath. We love the 8lb, 6oz Baby Jesus, but we are uneasy with the guy flipping over tables in the temple. I heard someone once say that when we only focus on the cute and cuddly Jesus, we have knocked all the teeth out of the Lion of Judah. And because the popular view of God in culture is an unbalanced view of who God is, there is a temptation to ask, “How could God have abandoned Jesus?”
So let’s take a bit of a deeper look to see what is really going on and let’s categorize these truths in three ways (to make it easy to remember). Predestination. Prophecy. Proper. Now, quick note, just know that anytime you see something alliterated, you know it wasn’t original to me…I have a big zero in the creativity category.
Let’s start with PREDESTINATION. Now, there’s a funny explanation that says if you DO believe in predestination you are Presbyterian. If you do NOT believe in it, you are Pentecostal. And if the whole conversation makes you nervous, you are Baptist. But let’s be clear – it’s a word that is in the Bible…and it is the understanding that there is a predetermined plan by God.
It’s important to realize that as we look at God forsaking Jesus, this was not a knee-jerk reaction. God didn’t get to a point in history and begin to ponder how he was going to save people. Even all the way back in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve sinned, God did not say, “I didn’t see that one coming.” No, God, in his sovereignty, in his foreknowledge, knew exactly what the plan would be EVEN before the world ever existed. His plan was ALWAYS for Jesus to be the ONLY way to provide salvation for humanity…and he knew that it would come at a great cost. And so this prayer is an expression of the agony Jesus is now facing.
Listen to Acts 4:27-28: "For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place."
Luke, the writer of Acts, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is mentioning some very specific names and people groups that were gathered against Jesus to accuse him and eventually kill him. It was Herod and Pilate who had a hand in Jesus’ death sentence. It was the mob of ruthless Gentiles who wanted Jesus to die. It was some of the Israelites who were asking for Jesus to be hung. And while all of this is historical fact, who had predestined for this to take occur in the first place? Luke tells us that it was GOD’S hand and GOD’S plan. God had predestined for ALL of this to happen in very specific ways.
But not only was it PREDESTINED for Jesus to die this way, it was also PROPHESIED. In the Old Testament, prophecy refers to foretelling or predicting (as opposed to the New Testament where prophesy means to proclaim truth). So when we take about the atoning death of Jesus, we are referring to prophecy as a prediction. And in the Bible there are hundreds of prophecies about Jesus from multiple authors across many different time periods. In fact, conservative scholars say that there are at least 300 prophecies in the OT that Jesus fulfilled while on earth…many of them dealing directly with his actual death. And keep in mind that ALL of them came to pass…which is simply astounding.
For example – let’s look quickly at Psalm 22. Donald Whitney, SBC professor and author, writes of Psalm 22 that it contains more details about the physical aspects of the crucifixion than all four Gospels combined. Look at the prophecy in Psalm 22:14-16: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; 15 my strength is dried up [like baked clay], and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet."
Isn’t this exactly what happened in Jesus’ last moments prior to death?
• When they pierced Jesus’ side, water came pouring out as the Psalm indicates (John 19:34-35)
• Jesus’ bones were out of joint…often a person’s body was twisted in order to hang them on a cross
• It says his “tongue would stick to his jaw” meaning he would be agonizingly thirsty (John 19:28: “I thirst”)
• Verse 16 says “for dogs encompass me” meaning he would be surrounded by people who would mock and scorn him (Matthew 27)
And so over and over in Scripture, over hundreds, if not thousands of years, the writers of the Bible, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, predicted that VERY specific things would happen…things that we can now go back in history and prove that actually took place.
But not only was his atoning death predestined, not only was his death an act of fulfilled prophecy, it was also PROPER. And by proper, we don’t mean that it was appropriate for an innocent man to die. What we mean is that it was FITTING that Jesus would did on the cross. Hebrews 2:10: "For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering."
The author of Hebrews is saying that was fitting that God would perfect (verb) the author and founder of our salvation (who is Jesus) through what? How would God make him perfect? Through suffering. The way God planned for Jesus to die was not through old age, was not from a natural disaster, and not by cancer… it was through suffering. Just like a lamb had to be slain in the OT to atone for sin, Jesus (the perfect Lamb of God) had to be slain or slaughtered for the sins of the world. There was absolutely no other way for this to take place, except through suffering. This had to be the way.
But even though we have made a pretty clear Biblically that the atonement was predestined, predicted, and proper, there still remains a hard question to wrestle with in the text. Look at the end of verse 46: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” If Jesus, as God in the flesh, knows what the predetermined, prophesied, and proper plan of God was this moment, is it not odd that Jesus seems to be questioning the Father in this prayer? “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Here’s the simple truth – Jesus’ cry on the cross was a cry of physical agony, spiritual anguish, and relational alienation (Daniel Akin). Jesus is in pain like no one has ever faced. He is experiencing the wrath of God in this moment…and that certainly comes with some spiritual anguish. Jesus was bearing the full weight of the sins of humanity on himself. There are no other examples or metaphors to describe the magnitude of his suffering. Jesus is doing what Galatians 3:13 says: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us."
But let me be clear – Jesus is NOT questioning God in this moment…rather, he is CRYING OUT to God in the worst moment of his life. It is the moment when God’s divine fury towards sin has been placed on Jesus. And while this is playing out, do not gloss over this observation from the text. In the very worst moment of his life, Jesus is quoting Scripture. I think it’s fascinating that Jesus, with his last words, is not only FULFILLING Scripture, but he’s QUOTING Scripture. Jesus’ words: “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” are the exact words of Psalm 22:1, the Scripture we looked at just a minute ago. And so may that be said of us – that in the most trying times of our lives, when we are squeezed by life’s trials, that what oozes out of us is the Word of God like it did with the Word made flesh – Jesus Christ.
And so church, do not miss the magnitude of this moment. This is no arbitrary death. This is not just a man dying a couple thousand years ago in some obscure location. This is the lynchpin of all of human history. This is the story of redemption. This is God giving up his Son, causing him to suffer, causing him to experience separation, placing on Jesus the sins of the world, and having HIS Son put to death…ALL so that we could be declared righteous AND so that we could one day exist in God’s presence. To restate the point, this is Jesus being forsaken so that you and I would never have to be.
I hope this stirs your affections for Jesus more than ever before. And here’s why…because no one will ever love you like this. Listen to Romans 5: "7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” Does it get any better than that? The answer is no, it does not. And so here’s my challenge to you this morning…quit looking for love in all the wrong places, and you who are weary come home (for those of you that are astute, that was a little country song reference to Johnny Lee with a twist of George Beverly Shea…maybe that can become a new hymn medley, Amen?).
Well, as we stated at the beginning, that was a lot of theology…let’s call that the meat of potatoes of the theology of the atonement that is played out in the final prayer of Jesus. Now raise your hand if you like dessert. Good, cause I’m about to serve some up. Now that we have answered the WHAT regarding the atonement, let’s take a couple of minutes to answer SO WHAT. Here’s how the theology of the atonement makes a real difference in the real life that you are living:
• You don’t have to perform
Jesus perfectly performed the task God required because you could not. Your standing before God was not based on something you did, it is based on what Jesus did. The message of the law was “DO” the message of the gospel is “DONE.” Both your standing and your sure footing before God is based on Jesus’ performance, not yours. Is it just me, or is that good news?
• You don’t have to be perfect
Now, if you are wondering this morning, “How good to you have to be to get to heaven?” let me be clear, the answer is “perfect.” That’s the bad news. Listen, even the cutest baby in the nursery this morning is nothing more than a little sinner (I know that’s hard to believe but just ask some of these exhausted parents this morning). The Bible says that “ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God…For there is NONE righteous, no not one.” That’s the bad news – perfection is required but not possible. But the good news is in the verse that we already shared earlier, “For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us!”
When we repent of our sins and place our faith in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins, his righteousness is imputed, or credited, to our account. We don’t have to be perfect because Jesus was on your behalf.
• You don’t have to give in to despair
Quickly look at verse 51 again. Matthew 27:51: "And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom." What this means in simple terms is that because of Jesus’ agonizing, predestined, prophecy-fulfilling death on the cross, we now have direct access to God, never to be forsaken again. And that doesn’t just have benefits in the afterlife of eternity…this truth is life changing TODAY.
Let me wrap up this morning quoting from the same devotional that we read at the beginning: "If you are God’s child, you are not alone. Glorious grace has connected you to the One whose power and love don’t shift with the times. Grace has connected you and me to the One who is the ultimate dwelling place, the ultimate place to which we can run. This means that I am never left just to my own resources. I am never left to figure out and deal with life on my own. As God’s child, I must never see myself as poor or forsaken. I must never buy into the lie that I have no recourse or hope. I must never think that my life is ruled by my difficulty. I must never give way to despondency or despair. Grace has opened the door of hope and refuge to me by connecting me to One who is eternal and who rules all the circumstances and relationships that would cause me to feel alone.”
Church, grace has a name…and it’s Jesus – the one who was forsaken so that you would never have to be. And if you do not know him personally, I can’t think of a better day to meet him.
