“Why Hast Thou Forsaken”
Matthew 27: 45-46
In this series, we’ve been looking at the last seven utterances of Jesus on the cross. Today, we have the darkest of Jesus’ sayings. Charles Spurgeon called it “the midnight of the day.” It was the darkest hour for Jesus personally as he was separated from his mother and family, his disciples and now for the first time in his life, he felt separated from the Father and there is a darkness in Jesus’ soul as his cry pierces the air, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This saying is unique for two reasons. First, of the seven sayings of Jesus, it is the only one recorded by more than one Gospel writer. Second, it is unique because this is the only time that Jesus asks the question, “Why?” His other statements as we have learned reveal that Jesus is in control and still remembers his mission to forgive sins and reunite people with the Father. He even remembers his responsibility as the oldest son to provide for his mother. But then we get to this statement. There are five things we learn today.
First is the example to follow. “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” 1 Peter 2:21 Jesus is our example. His life was an example for the disciples to follow and for us to live, serve and even die for God. One of the first things we learn is that Jesus puts others first. Despite all of the pain and agony he was experiencing, he asked for forgiveness for the crowd, promised everlasting forgiveness to the thief by his side, and spoke to John about caring for his mother. Even as he is dying, Jesus puts others first. Do you remember when the mother of James and John asked Jesus to put her boys at the seats to his left and right? Those were the seats of prestige, authority and power. Jesus looked at her and talked about whether they could drink of that cup, referring to his journey to the cross. Then he began to talk about if we are truly servants of God, we should not want to be first in the kingdom but last. Jesus teaches us that leadership is servanthood. And then he says, “For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” When you see Jesus throughout the Gospels, he exemplifies that to follow Him means putting the needs of others ahead of our own, no matter how tired or overwhelmed he might be, even if it means going to the cross.
Contrast Jesus’ nature to our own. Our first concern is about us, is it? How long does it take us after birth to express that? Babies demand things from the beginning: food, love and a clean diaper. And one of the first things a child learns is to say, “Mine!” We learn to protect our turf and belongings early in life and we continue to do so until the day we die. We look out for #1 and place our needs, our dreams, and our desires above others. How different is Jesus’ concern expressed on the cross from our own. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, lived in London and pastored a church. He would go into the slums and pick up poor people who were spiritually, physically, and financially down and out and bring them to church. The problem was that the church members didn’t want those people to come. Many times they would comment that the poor can’t carry their own weight by giving to the church. They gave William Booth a hard time and their opposition got so bad that they forced him to leave the church. He then went out and founded the Salvation Army. In the latter part of his life, there was a world-wide convention of the Salvation Army but he had spent all of his life and what he had on others thus he could not afford to go. So in his absence, he sent a telegram which read:
“Others, Lord, yes others, let this my motto be.
Let me live for others Lord that I might like thee be.”
In our Scripture today, we see the most human side of Jesus in the Gospels. It’s an emotion we know intimately because each of us has been caught in circumstances where we have felt forsaken by God, times when we have cried out, “Why God?” So why does Jesus cry out these words? When Adam and Eve lived in the Garden, we know that before their sin, they had close relationship with God, who would come down and take afternoon walks with them. Can you imagine what that must have been like, walking with God and talking face to face with him every day? When Adam and Eve knowingly disobeyed God, a huge gap was created in their relationship. God sought them out and they were found hiding from God and their actions. As a result, they were driven from the Garden and punished. But the worst thing wasn’t that Adam was now going to die or have to work with his hands to survive. The worst thing was that there was now a distance between he and God. No longer would there be afternoon walks or long talks face to face. How they must have missed that and yearned for it to be restored. To have known God and then to be cut off, what an empty feeling that must have given them!
Now think of Jesus for just a moment, who had spent eternity with the Father in heaven. He left the Father and the communion he had with him to walk this earth, live our life and fulfill God’s will. And for 33 years of his life, he had communion with God here on earth. But then he hangs on the cross carrying the sins of the world. He never sinned, never knew the shame and guilt of sin and never knew what it was like to displease and disappoint the Father. We all know what it’s like to have a close relationship with somebody and you do something that’s out of character and the relationship gets hurt. With someone you really love, the last thing you want to do is hurt them or break the relationship. You live to please the other person and to make them happy. And that was Jesus’ intent as well, for when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed, “Not my will be done, but thine.”
Throughout his ministry, he knew the presence of God. And when they took him to be interrogated by Pilate, God was there with him. When they stripped and whipped him, God was there with him. When they put the nails through his hands, God was there with him. But when he was hung on the cross, carrying the sins of the world, it is then that separation between Jesus and God occurs. Why? Because God is a holy God and cannot be stained or touched by that which is unholy. This understanding of holiness and purity goes back to the time of the Temple and the Holy of Holies, when no unclean person could enter the Temple because their presence would defile God and the Temple. And as Jesus walked the journey to the cross, God was there every step of the way. But now that he carries the sins of the world? God cannot draw near. Think for just a moment what this experience must have been like for the Father. To have been in the presence of His Son for all eternity, walk with him every step of the way in his ministry and see him resist and overcome every temptation. And then to see Jesus marred and covered by sin, he couldn’t draw near and had to turn his back on the unsightly presence of sin of his Son.
The journey to the cross and Jesus’ mission is not complete in the scourging. It’s not complete in the pain. It’s not complete in His suffering. The journey is not complete until Jesus takes on the sins of the world and that results in a break in relationship. The hour becomes dark as God turns his back on His son. Jesus looks around and the disciples are nowhere to be found. He can handle that. He’s been forsaken before. He can handle the pain, the persecution and the taunts from the crowd. But when God has to turn his back and darkness falls upon the earth, that darkness invades the soul of Jesus. And for the first time in eternity, he is separated from the Father. He is all alone. And Jesus now understands what happened to Adam and Eve in the Garden. God is not there and there is separation and intense loneliness, a complete void of darkness in his soul beyond anything Jesus had ever experienced. But there’s hope.
Because the second thing we learn from Jesus is that our faith will hold us in our darkest hour. Even though Jesus senses he has been forsaken, what does he do? He cried out to the Father. When the world has turned against him, when it seems that Satan may have gotten the upper hand, when he feels the pain of unimaginable loneliness and separation from the Father, he still reaches out to God. Rather than push God away and blame him for what he is going through, Jesus shows us that no matter what we face or are experiencing, we should always hold onto our faith and turn to the Father. This we know, because of Jesus’ death on the cross, there is always grace available and God is always waiting for us to turn to Him.
The third thing we learn from Jesus is the path we are to follow. Two thousand years ago, God sent his son, born of a woman, who left heaven to walk this earth to accomplish a mission and reach a particular destination. He wasn’t sent into the world to condemn it but to save it. For Jesus said, “I have come to seek and save the lost.” He gave an illustration of that when he told the story of the Good Shepherd and the lost sheep. There were 99 safe sheep in the fold but one strayed and got lost. And Luke says the Good Shepherd kept looking for the sheep until it was found. The path of Jesus took him to saint and sinner alike, Jewish and Gentile territory, the Sea of Galilee to Gethsemane, all in search of the lost. He eventually ended up in Jerusalem where they were celebrating the Passover. Tens of thousands of sheep were sacrificed but the Paschal Lamb, Jesus, made his way to the cross to die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. And we who follow Jesus are called to that same path. For Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
We serve a God whose will is to save the world. And no matter how many voices shout out against the change which is needed to reach His children, no matter how many people talk bad about the church, its mission or its members and no matter how many stumbling blocks may be put in our way, we serve a God whose plan of salvation cannot be defeated. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will stop God’s plan from being accomplished because you and I serve a God who cannot be defeated. The victory on the cross has already been won. Death and evil have been defeated. The question is, “Are you going to deny yourself and do whatever it takes to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ and reach the lost?”
Fourth is the seriousness of our sin. Jesus’ cry upon the cross teaches us that God takes sin very seriously. If God turned his back on his son as Jesus carried the sins of the world, if sin would be so unsightly that God could not bear to look at his own son, do you really think God would take your sin lightly? Do you think God would look at us and say, “Well, boys will be boys.” Jesus’ cry on the cross is a call for us to consider our own sin and take it just as seriously as the Father. A holy and just God cannot continue to look at his children who repeatedly sin, pursue their own desires and do wrong without there being a penalty to pay. If we walk in the light as He is light, then we will know close communion with the Father. But if we walk in the darkness and continually sin, there will be consequences to our actions and we will know the separation from God Jesus, Adam and Eve knew in their own lives. God takes your sin so seriously that he sent his only son to die on the cross as a sacrifice for your sins. Today may we claim our own sin, seek his grace and then repent and turn from them. Amen.
