MYY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FOSAKEN ME?
TEXT- MATTHEW 27:45-50
INTRODUCTION
I’m sure all of you remember the singing group, “Three Dog Night.” One is the loneliest number that you ever do
Two can be as bad as one
It’s the loneliest number since the number one
No, is the saddest experience you’ll ever know
Yes, it’s the saddest experience you’ll ever know
‘ cause one is the loneliest number you’ll ever do
One is the loneliest number, worse than two”
Do you know how the Psychologist define LONELINESS? Loneliness is a feeling of emptiness or hollowness inside you. You feel isolated or separated from the world, cut off from those you would like to have contact with.
I tried to think of the most current feeling of loneliness that a person might feel in the here and now.
He graduated from high school and he signed up to be a Marine. He went through a tough boot camp, and then he became a member of the Proud and the free. He was sent to Iraq and fought his way all the way to Baghdad. He was given leave and he went home to see his family and friends. They had a wonderful time, but he was re-assigned back to Iraq. He hated to go back but that was his duty and he was proud to do it.
He was sent to Fullugah to liberate that city. He met roll call that morning and like normal he received no mail from home. He felt dejected. I guess a way to say it was that he felt forsaken by his family and friends.
The mission sent his company into the heart of the city and the fighting was heavy. He was pinned down by sniper fire and he found cover between two brick walls. He would have to wait until they received reinforcements to get him out. There he was with bullets whizzing around his head not knowing if the next one would kill him. He might be there for hours if he made it alive that long. He felt isolated-forsaken.
Have you ever felt forsaken? Well, the case of this soldier is pretty bad, but the worst case of loneliness. The worst happened one day many years ago. Take your Bibles and read with me from Matthew 27:45-50
45- “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.
46- “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “ ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is, “ My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”
47- And some of those that were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.”
48- “Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave him a drink.
49- “But the rest of them said, “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.
SERMON
Now, for the last several weeks we have been studying the last seven statements that Jesus made on the cross. I guess to a casual reader of the Bible who reads about the crucifixion of Christ might get the idea that the events on GOLGOTHA lasted only an hour or so-perhaps less. But a closer examination of the Gospel writers’ accounts reveals that Jesus’ death took no less than six hours.
It began at nine o’clock in the morning on Friday when His hands and feet were nailed to the wooden beams. And then sometimes during the next three hours-between 9am until noon-He uttered His first three statements. I hope you remember from our previous sermon what they were.
“ Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
“ Today you will be with me in Paradise”
“ Woman behold your son” and to John, “ behold your mother.”
Well, not long after that third statement-at about noon-our text says that, “ darkness fell over the whole land,” and as it did an eerie silence surrounded the PLACE OF THE SKULL. Now, we need to understand that when John described this event he did not mean the sky was a little overcast, or that there was some kind of natural eclipse of the sun.
No, this was not some natural event that brought darkness to the earth that day. The sun was covered by a supernatural act of God, and this just didn’t affect Golgotha –the Bible says that DARKNESS fell over the whole land. You might say that MIDNIGHT came at MIDDAY. It was a deep darkness-darker than the darkest night. I personally believe this darkness was so dark that maybe you could not even see the hand in front of your face. I don’t believe that the stars or the moon were visible. It may have been like the light of the world had gone out. Maybe it was like in the beginning as described in Genesis when it said,
“ The earth was with out form and void and darkness was upon the face of the earth.”
The darkness lasted from noon till about 3:00 pm. Dr. R.G. LEE said: “ usually a day has but ONE noon, ONE sundown, ONE night. But there came a day when dreadful thing took place-dreadful happenings which made it a day whose darkness excelled ALL the darkness of all the dark days the world has ever known…a dread day with TWO nights.”
Now, this two night day should not have surprised the Jewish religious leaders because it had been foretold hundreds of years before by the Jewish prophet Amos, who wrote, “ And it shall come to pass in that day, sayeth the Lord God , that I will cause the SUN to go down at NOON and I will darken the earth on a clear day.” ( Amos 8:9)
Now, don’t you think when that darkness fell on that crowd that was jeering and mocking our Lord was stopped dead in their tracks. I don’t know about you but when I read the Gospel account of this event I get the idea that the people were kind of like “FROZEN IN TIME” and there was a sudden silence when nothing was heard for maybe three hours. They stood there terrified until Jesus finally uttered His FOURTH statement from the cross. Can you picture that in your mind?
They stood there and all they might of could heard was Jesus and the thieves-as they labored to breath, pushing themselves up and down –up and down-against the rough wood of their crosses. Can you picture that in your mind? There was three hours of darkness when no one spoke but they stood in total darkness and the only sound they could hear was these three men dying!
Then suddenly, at 3:00 pm out of the depths of that darkness came the anguished voice of the abandoned Son of God. Now most of the Biblical epic films show Jesus very weakly-barely struggling to get those words out but that is what the Bible says happened. No, God’s word tells us that Jesus’ 4th cry from the cross was a THUNDERING cry! Look at verse 46. Matthew says that “ Jesus cried out with a…LOUD voice..”
You see, the translation “cried out” comes from a combination of two words. One means “ to shout”, and it is prefixed with the word “UP”- so it meant, “to shout/scream up.” In the scriptures this combination of words is used to refer to a guttural scream-or a passionate, loud groan.
Do you remember the words of Psalms 22-a clear prophecy of this moment? Verses 1-2 say, “ My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? Far from My deliverance are the words of MY GROANING.”
C. S. Lewis described this picture of Jesus as, ASLAN, in his Chronicles of Narnia! Can you imagine the roar of a lion coming out of the darkness of the jungle, and if you can, then you get the picture that has been painted here. I mean, Jesus’ 4th statement from the cross was a cry that must have stirred the hearts of the men and cause the hair to stand up on the back of the necks of the soldiers! It truly was a “ A CRY OF ANGUISH.”
We should notice that this statement from the cross is first quoted exactly as Jesus would have said it in ARAMAIC: “ Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani.” Now why do you think that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to preserve Jesus’ original language here? Charles Swindoll suggest that it is because the original language of Jesus captures our attention and helps us to see just how deep Jesus’ anguish was at that moment-how intense of a response this really was.
If you think about it, you probably have seen some one from another country-perhaps someone you have worked with or have known in the past who knew English but when they got real emotional or sincere about something…he would slip back into his native tongue? Maybe God has preserved Jesus’ statement in His Native tongue, exactly as He said it so that as we read these words, we get a better understanding, of the true ISOLATION of His soul-so that we could understand better just how forsaken Jesus really was that day.
Well, what did that cry mean? What was Jesus saying when He said He was forsaken by God?
I Believe, of all the words from the cross these are the most difficult to understand. Well, if you feel baffled your not alone. The famous preacher of the past, Charles Spurgeon honestly admitted that he could not figure it out. It is said that Martin Luther, once vowed to wrestle with this text until he could explain it-no matter how long it took. He focused on it for days-going without food and sleep. Finally he stood to his feet and basically gave up-saying, “God forsaking God! Who can understand that?” Luther was a pretty good theologian for his time and he could not understand God leaving His on Son in the lurch.
I’m not sure we can understand HOW, but I do believe that we understand WHY. Let me point out two things about this cry.
IT WAS A CRY OF DESPARATE SEPARATION
You see, for the first time in all of eternity, Jesus was separated from-forsaken by-His Father. Now all of His life he knew what it was like to be forsaken. The members of His own family had forsook Him for a while. People in His own hometown turned against Him. His Nation rejected Him. As John put it, “ He came unto His own and His own received Him not.” In the 6th chapter of John he tells us of a time when many of Jesus’ followers, “turned and walked with Him no more.” Even His closest twelve disciples forsook Him in His hour of need and fled in Panic.
So, Jesus knew what it was like to be abandoned-forsaken.
You know, if you think about it, up to this point, Jesus had always had GOD. He would quite often slip away to the mountainside to pray. He would talk with God for hours in these impromptu retreats and God would talk to Him.
When others turned away-when others forsook Him, Jesus could go away to this to this tender, healing, reassuring fellowship with God. But now as He hung on that cross even this was gone. God had forsaken His Son. He had separated Himself from Jesus.
In the book titled Bevis, a story of a little boy who was looking through a large book on cold rainy day. He comes to an artist painting of the Crucifixion He stopped and looked then he stared to look very intently at the painting again. He started to turn the page and then stopped and turned back to the painting looking intently at the crosses, the people standing beneath them, and then at the spikes in the hands and feet, and the expression on the face of the man on the middle cross. Then Bevis set his jaw, and as he pressed down the other page he said, “ If God had been there, they would not have done that to you.” Well, Jesus’ own words of ANGUISH tells that in a real sense, GOD was not there for He had turned His face away from His own Son.
Some have read this text and said that they didn’t real believe that Jesus was forsaken by GOD-that Jesus only felt that way or He was only quoting Psalm22….that His experience on the cross INSPIRED Him to recite this verse He had learned as a child. Well, I don’t agree with their interpretation.
You see, Jesus GOD had inspired David to write this Psalm hundreds of years earlier. He inspired the Psalm not the other way around. Jesus was truly forsaken by His Father!
I really believe that one way that we can tell this is by the way that Jesus addresses His Father in this moment. Jesus spoke three times to His Father on the cross. Two of those times, Jesus called Him “Father”, but not this time. No, here He Jesus calls Him GOD. It is if you walk up to your Father and addresses Him as “MISTER” rather than “ dad” or “ Daddy.”
I believe there is a separation-an alienation here. GOD has forsaken-deserted-His Son. This word that we translate “forsaken” is the same word Paul used in 2Timothy 4:10 when he said, “ do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved the world, has deserted me.” It’s a word that means to be abandoned, to be neglected, to banished, to run away from-to be totally separated.
Now, why would this happen? Why would a loving GOD forsake His Son? David had said in Psalms 37:25, “I have never seen the RIGHTEOUS forsaken.” He did say that –but you see, for the first time in Jesus’ life, Jesus was not righteous. He was not pure and sinless. And this caused GOD to turn His back on Him. This made it impossible for our loving but Holy GOD to look at Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21- “God made Him –Jesus-who had no sin to be sin for us.” 1st Peter 2:24 puts it this way, “He himself-Jesus- bore our sins in His body on the tree.”
This what happen: all the sins of humanity have been gathered in one pile of evil and somehow that pile has been laid on Jesus Christ- all the lusting, all the idolatry, all the materialism, all the hatred, all the envying, murder, drunkenness, all the prejudice, every sinful thought, every sin of omission, ALL OF IT!
If you will try to imagine every sinful act that has ever been committed or ever will be- the terrible smell of it- a mass of filth so horrible-so revolting that you would have to turn your face to keep from smelling it so that it wouldn’t make you nauseated and your eyes water.
If, we can imagine that then we can get some idea of the revulsion that was in the holy heart of GOD that day. I mean on that day that one spot called Golgotha was the most hated spot in God’s universe. No wonder He looked away from His Son. The fact is GOD is Holy and a Holy God cannot tolerate sin- even if that sin is on His own Son. You see God, By His every nature, cannot dwell in the presence of sin.
It’s always been that way, even from the very beginning of mankind, when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden by eating the forbidden fruit. GOD put them out of the garden. They were banished. We need to understand that GOD and sin cannot dwell in the same place. It’s like trying to mix oil and water, or trying to push two magnets together at the same pole. They just want go together. God cannot intermingle with sin-anywhere.
We should understand that our sins will separate us from GOD, and if we will multiple that billions and billions of times we might get some feeling of why Jesus cried out in desperation,
“Where are you GOD I can’t feel your presence any longer!”
To fully understand we need to go back to the Old Testament and read Leviticus 16 to see what occurred there which was to be re-enacted at the cross. The instructions were given to Aaron and the Children of Israel as to how offer animal sacrifices for the sins of the people. There was 3 animals involved and verses 11-14 talk about a bull that was to offered for the sins of the High Priest and instructions were give as to how that sacrifice was to be done. Then there was also two goats, and one was to be sacrificed for the sins of the people and notice what the other goat was to become. The 2nd goat was called the SCAPEGOAT. Now in Leviticus 16:20-22 it explains it to us.
The High Priest placed his hands on top the goat’s head and said, “upon you I place all the sins of all the Children of Israel. All of the envy, adultery, all the lying, and all the lusting, all the sins is placed on you.” Then they took the goat out to the desert, far away so that he could not make his way back to camp. One man was appointed to take that SCAPEGOAT out there and release it.
What happen 1500 years before the cross showed us what would happen at Golgotha on that day. The Children of Israel did this for 1500 years to teach them what was happening that day. The Law was a tutor to give them an understanding of what was happening on the cross. God laid His hands on Jesus’ head and when he did all the sins of mankind was placed on Him.
He is the one, eternal SCAPEGOAT because for once and for all , all the sins of eternity were place on Him. As Jesus cried out, “ My God, My God why have you forsaken Me ?” Jesus was all alone-like that scapegoat out in a solitary place-separated from God for the first time in His life. Like what Apostle Paul said about a group of people in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, “They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord.” Well, that is what Jesus is experiencing here. He’s being shut out from His Father’s presence. That is why He cried out with a loud Shout, “ My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”
IT WAS ALSO A CRY OF SUBSTITUTION
2 Corinthians 5:14, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.”
In other words, this cry reminds us that Jesus was our substitute. He died in our place. We were the ones that deserved to be on that cross, but the one who didn’t deserve to be there WAS!
1 Corinthians 15:3, “For I delivered to you as of importance what I also received, that Christ for our sins according to the scriptures,”
And Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”--
There is a story of a mother who dropped an older and younger brother off at the movies. The movie was “The King of Kings”, and when it came to the crucifixion scene the younger brother was enthralled with it, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of it. He became so involved that he stood up in his seat and yelled, “noooo! stop it! Stop it! Noooo!” His big brother pulled him down in the seat and said, “shut up Mark before we all go to Hell.”
The older brother was right because Jesus suffered the hell of being cut from God so that we would not have to be. He was our substitute.
Isaiah 53 says, “ He was pierced for OUR transgressions. He was crushed for OUR iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we are healed.” You see, the truth is, on the cross Jesus did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. He was a pure offering- He had no sin-so He was able to carry ours.
Yes Christ did that. He offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, ONCE AND FOR ALL!
Never again would the Priest have to make sacrifices in the temple. Never again would it be necessary for BLOOD to be shed for the forgiveness of sins. Christ was God’s one, final, acceptable sacrifice. And having made that sacrifice, Christ opened the way for us to know God intimately. Jesus being forsaken by God meant that we would be accepted by God. God the Father forsook His Son, so that He would never have to forsake us.
When you think about it Jesus answered that question in one sentence, “ My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?” The Father forsook His Son so that he could accept His adopted sons and daughters. Because of the cross, the Hebrew writer said that God has told us in Hebrews 13:5, “ I will NEVER desert you, nor will I EVER forsake you.”
So Jesus was our substitute. He went through darkness so that we might have light. Jesus was cursed so that we might be blessed. He was condemned so that we be able to say, “ Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) He suffered hell for us so that we can enjoy Heaven with Him. He drank the cup of woe that I might drink the cup of joy. He was forsaken so that I might be forgiven.
The bottom line this morning is that Jesus spoke those words so that you wouldn’t have to. Jesus cried out, “ My God, My God why have You forsaken Me” so that those words would never have to be spoken by you and me. I really think the greatest thing about Christianity is that we will never be forsaken by God. We never are alone. He is always with us. We can all say what the Psalmist said in Psalms 139. Listen to these words:
Psalms 139
1-“ O lord you have searched me and know me.”
2-“ You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thoughts from a far.”
3-“ You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And intimately acquainted with all my ways.”
4-“ Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.”
5_ “You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid You hand upon me.”
6- “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I ca not attain it.”
7- “Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your Presence?”
8- “If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, BEHOLD You are there.”
9- “ IF I TAKE THE WINGS OF THE DAWN,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,”
10- “Even there Your hand will lead me,
Your right hand will lay hold of me.”
11- “If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
12 “Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.”
No matter where we go- even if we go to Iraq- God would be with us. He is indeed like the Psalmist said in Psalms 46, “ an EVER-PRESENCE help.” It all happened that day when Jesus was crucified on the Cross of Calvary.
INVITATION
