Forsaken by God
Psalm
22:1-2
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so
far from my cries of anguish? 2 My God, I cry out by
day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no
rest.
Jesus entered
Jerusalem on Sunday morning riding a donkey amid shouts of “Hosanna in the
highest!” He is staggering out of Jerusalem on Friday morning, too weak to
carry His own cross, amid shouts of “Crucify Him!” On Sunday, Jesus had been
hailed as the “the Son of David” (Matthew 21:9), the Son of Israel’s greatest
king. On Friday, Jesus is mocked as a Jewish king with a sign above His cross
that reads, “The King of the Jews” (Matthew 27:37).
Jesus is led out to
Golgotha where He is crucified along with a criminal on either side of Him. A
Roman centurion and his band of soldiers stand guard over Him, but they did not
need to bother. Jesus’ friends are not mounting a rescue mission. They are
cowering behind locked doors. Jesus’ supporters are silent because they are
afraid of being accused of blasphemy or tried for treason. The crowds that were
so energetic on Sunday morning are strangely silent on Friday afternoon. The
Jewish leaders stand mocking and ridiculing Jesus, the crowds pass by the busy
street shaking their heads on their way into Jerusalem. Even the two criminals
at His side hurl insults.
Jesus feels it all. He
feels it emotionally. He feels it physically. Every movement scrapes the rough
wood on His torn back. Every action causes the nerve endings in His hands and
feet to scream with pain. Every breath is a struggle. Every attempt at speaking
is an ordeal.
He feels it
spiritually. Jesus is rejected by humanity. He is cursed by God, because God
has said, “Cursed is the man who hangs upon the tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23). He
is abused by His countrymen and abandoned by His disciples. The sheep have
scattered while the Shepherd endures the wolves’ attack.
Jesus is alone. Even
His heavenly Father has abandoned Him.
Jesus is enduring
great physical, emotional, and spiritual pain. The greatest pain that Jesus
feels, though, is the pain brought upon Him by His heavenly Father.
In the midst of His
suffering on the cross, Jesus cries out in Aramaic, “Eloi, Eloi, lema
sabachthani?” Matthew and Mark provide the translation: “My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).
During His hours upon
the cross, Jesus prays through the Psalms. When He comes to Psalm 22, He voices
David’s prayer out loud, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My
God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest”
(Psalm 22:1-2).
David
wrote Psalm 22 a thousand years before Christ. Through the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, the Son of God is speaking through the mouth and pen of David. The Son expresses
His feelings about enduring the unjust suffering at the hands of evil men and
the just abandonment of God toward the sinner.
These words of David are a
direct prophecy to what is happening to Christ at the very moment He is praying
these words. The scorning and mocking: “But
I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All
who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. ‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say,
‘let the Lord rescue him. Let him
deliver him, since he delights in him’” (Psalm 22:6-8).
The
physical agony of the crucifixion: “I am poured out like
water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has
melted within
me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to
the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death” (Psalm 22:14-15).
The enemies of Jesus gathered like vicious animals around the cross: “Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring
lions that
tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. … Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.
All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
(Psalm 22:12-13, 16-18).
In the deepest depth and
detail, Jesus fulfills this Psalm 22 prophecy.
With everything Jesus
endures during His crucifixion, the greatest anguish and fulfillment are in the
opening words of Jesus’ prayer: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” What
does it mean to be “forsaken?” It means to be isolated, abandoned,
deserted, and cast out. At the time that Jesus
cries out, He has been on the cross for three hours. He cries out in a loud
voice, expressing the depth of His agony. He could not feel His Father’s love
during those three hours.
Jesus is forsaken because,
while He is on the cross, Jesus has all the sins of mankind heaped upon Him. He
is feeling the venom of the serpent seep into His heel (Genesis 3:15). He is
drinking every drop from the cup of God’s wrath (Matthew 26:39). For the only
time in His life, Jesus cannot bear to call God His Father. Instead, He cries
out in agony and abandonment, “My God, my God,” for He has been forsaken. The
sins of humanity now separate the Son of God from the unity of the Trinity.
Though we cannot begin to
imagine how this can be, God the Son and God the Father are separated. God the
Father is in heaven, while God the Son is suffering the eternal horrors of hell
during these hours of separation. For hell is more than flames, fire, and
sulfur. It is separation from God. Hell is the one place in the cosmos where
God is not present. And that’s what Jesus is experiencing on the cross – the
hell of being separated from His Father.
You can hear the biting pain
in Jesus’ heart-wrenching prayer, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
God made Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). The
sinner must die, for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). The righteous
wrath of the Father would not allow sin to go without penalty. The scales of
justice had to be balanced. The Father looked upon His Son hanging on the cross
and saw nothing in Him but the world’s sin and guilt. The God who is a
“consuming fire” against sin (Hebrews 12:29) unleashed the full fury of His
wrath against His Son. Jesus was loaded with the sin of the world in order to
atone for it (John 1:29).
Why would God forsake His
only begotten Son? It makes no sense. If ever there was anyone God should not
forsake, it had to be Jesus. Jesus was always doing His Father’s business (Luke
2:49). He was constantly following His Father’s will (Matthew 12:50). Jesus
never once strayed from the path of perfection. God wanted everyone to how
exceptional His Son was, so on two separate occasions – at Jesus’ Baptism and
His Transfiguration – the Father spoke from heaven saying, “This is my Son,
whom I love. With him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; Mark 9:7).
But all of that pleasure
changed when Jesus went to the cross. The Father no longer looked upon His Son
with favor. Now, the Father looked upon His Son with disgust and horror. God is
appalled by sin. God is holy. Sin cannot dwell in God’s holy presence. And,
while Jesus was on the cross, all the sins of all people of all time were
transferred to Jesus. He became the greatest sinner this world has ever known.
God could not bear to look
upon His Son. An unearthly darkness covered the land while Jesus was covered
with humanity’s sin. God turns His back upon His Son. A shadow is cast over the
divine becoming contaminated with sin. The Son cries out. The Father will not
listen. He will not see. He will not act to save His Son.
That sounds so cruel. So
horrible.
Why would God turn His back
on His Son and abandon Him in the hour of His greatest need? God should forsake
the murderers. Desert the criminals. Turn His back on the perverts and abusers.
Abandon them, not the Son.
This is what you must
understand. You are the murderer, the criminal, the pervert, the abuser. If God
did not turn His back on His Son, He would have to turn His back on us. Because
of our sin, we should be cursed so that nothing ever goes right for us. We
should suffer the physical and emotional consequences of our actions. We should
endure the eternal punishment for our transgressions against God. We should be
deserted from God’s grace and isolated from His mercy. All of this should
happen to us because it was our sin that caused Jesus’ back to be torn open,
the nails to pierce His perfect skin, the crown of thorns to be pounded into
His skull. It was our sin that caused the sun to be blotted out that Friday
afternoon. It was our sin that caused the Son to be forsaken by the Father.
For with our sin, we killed
the very Son of God.
But that is the very reason
that Jesus was forsaken by His Father – so we would not have to be.
The wages of sin is death,
but Jesus died in your place.
He was numbered with the
transgressors so that you could be counted with the saints.
He was found guilty so that
you might be found innocent.
He was covered in the filth
of your sin so that you might be covered with His righteousness.
He was stripped of His
clothes so that you might wear your white baptismal gown.
He was despised and rejected
by His countrymen so that you might be accepted into God’s holy family.
He took your pain and
endured your suffering so you might enjoy a paradise without tears.
He was abandoned so that you
might be adopted.
He was pierced for your
transgressions. He was crushed for your iniquities. His punishment brought you
peace. And by His wounds you are healed.
He was stricken, smitten,
and afflicted, so that you could be redeemed, restored, and acquitted.
The road to the empty tomb must
first go past the bloody cross. You must see the horror of the Son of God
hanging dead on Golgotha’s cross in order to see the glory of that Son of God
rising from the dead at Easter dawn.
After meditating long upon
this fourth word of Jesus from the cross, Martin Luther exclaimed: “God was
forsaken by God! Who can understand it?” Though we cannot begin to mine the
depths of the horrors of hell Jesus felt by being forsaken by His Father, we
are content in knowing that Jesus paid the price. Because of Jesus, now we
don’t owe a single penny for our salvation.
“My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?” Why did Jesus scream those words?
So you’ll never have to.
He was forsaken so you would
be forgiven. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment