From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.  And about three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, "This man is calling for Elijah." At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink.  But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. (Matthew 17:45-50) (NRSV)

"From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over the land.  About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' "

"My God, my God why have you forsaken me?"  I have heard this cry before.  Of course there is a sense in which these words are unique to Jesus.  There is something in us that says, "this is a strange thing for Jesus to say."    Because we know Jesus Christ to be God in the flesh.  Scripture tells us that He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).  So how can God be forsaken of God - it is a great mystery.  So, there is a unique, mysterious quality about these words when spoken by Jesus.  

Indeed they point us to the fact that Jesus gave up everything for us.  We know that He willingly gave up His brow to the crown of thorns; He willingly gave up His cheeks to the plucking of His beard; He willingly gave up His back to the Roman whip, He willingly gave up His dignity to the mockery of the people; He willingly gave up His hands to the nails of the cross

But none of these physical sufferings compare - none of these indignities suffered in His body - can even come close to the suffering He was willing to endure in His soul, as He who had no sin was made sin for us.  He gave up the light of the heaven for the darkness of sin.  He gave up His close relationship with the Heavenly Father as He bore your sin and my sin on the cross.

In 2 Corinthians 5:21 we read these words,

"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

And it really is the text that interprets this passage in Matthew for us.  We need to realize that on that cross Jesus was a sin offering made on our behalf; this sin was real, the terror of sin is authentic.  He who had no sin was made sin for us.  He who experienced no sin before, He who had never committed a sin in his life, now had the sin of the world laid upon his heart and soul, so that in the darkness of that moment He cried out, "My God, My God why have you forsaken me?"

It is a dark moment in the history of the world as the Just One dies for the unjust and the innocent Lamb of God shed His blood for guilty sinners.  

God had done something similar, you will remembe,r when His people were enslaved by the Egyptians.  The second last plague He sent into Egypt was the plague of darkness.  For three days darkness covered the whole land of Egypt.  It was the last plague He sent before the plague of death, where the Israelites had to kill lambs and spread its blood over their doorposts as a sign so that death would not come to their homes.  Darkness for three days, lambs slain, and God's people escape death.  

All foreshadow what is happening here - darkness for three hours, the Lamb of God dies in our place, and all those who believe in Him escape death.  In those three hours of darkness, it's as though God were saying, "This is an hour of solemn judgment, far greater than the judgment I sent into Egypt."  Jesus bore the sin of the whole world in His heart and soul.  He gave up everything for us so that you and I might experience forgiveness and walk with God now and forever.  

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us and the light of heaven was not only banished from the earth it was banished from the Son of God Himself.  

My God, my God why have you forsaken me?  There is a sense that these words are unique to Jesus, for they point us to the fact that He gave up everything for us.  And so they call for a unique response from us.  

Surely, if up to this point you were able to come to the cross and see the Saviour of the world dying for you but leave unchanged, untouched, unfeeling, doing nothing except to shrug your shoulders as you leave the horrible scene saying, "So?", surely if you have been able to do that, you cannot do it now as you hear this fourth word from the cross, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" Because, here is the one who gave up everything for you, for the guilt of our sin, for all our greed, bigotry, for fear, slander, and indifference - for that - He gave up everything, he held nothing back, not even the glory of heaven's light.  

Surely now there is something within you that says this is a Saviour worth having; this is a Saviour worth living for; this is a Saviour worth bowing my knee and will to.  This is a Saviour worth following and obeying, for He gave up everything for me.  

OR perhaps you come to the cross not with indifference but with stinginess – tight-fistedness; willing to have Him as your Saviour but unwilling to let Him be Lord of your time and life?  Willing to give Him this much of your life, but not the whole?  Willing to ask Him to bless your children but unwilling to give them to Him?  Willing to ask Him to speak to you but unwilling to obey and follow His voice when He calls you to a task or a path of goodness?   Willing to endure worship on Sunday mornings but unwilling to worship God with your life throughout the week?  

Surely, as you come to the cross you see the uniqueness of this life and this death and as you hear these words you you feel that you must drop your clenched fists and open them, indeed even raising them as a sign of total surrender to Him who gave up everything for you.  

Let your steely resolve be melted by His generosity.  Don't allow yourself to hold anything back from Him, give yourself unreservedly to Him, asking that His will would be done in your life - for He gave up everything for you.  

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Because in that moment He took the sin of the world on Himself so that you and I might be made new before God.  

There is a sense where these words are unique to Jesus.  But I have heard these words of anguish and despair before.  

I heard them cried once in 1992 by a young father in my previous congregation.  Janet and I were at the hospital when he and his wife were told that their 8 month old first-born son was now dead.  I will never forget the cry of anguish and heartbreak that came from the depths of his soul after he heard the news.  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  

I have heard these words before.  I have heard them from them from a man who worked for the same company for 23 years but because of cutbacks and economic recession he was laid off.  At first he was confident that he could find other work, but as the weeks turned into months and the months into a year, he cried, out My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I have heard these words before.  I have heard them from a mother who prayed faithfully for her daughter and new son-in-law as she entered into a new life of marriage.  All went well for the young newlyweds for about 5 years but then something happened, an affair, anger, threats, separation, and then divorce.  My God, my God, said the praying mother, why have you forsaken me?   

I have heard these words of anguish and despair before and so have you.  We have heard them most recently in the community, in our high school community as news came on Wednesday that a much loved and admired teacher was killed in a car crash.  My God, my Godm why have you forsaken me?p>

They are words that Jesus utters, and they are unique, but in a sense also, they are words that are so familiar to us.  For we have not only heard them many of us have even cried them out when life has crashed down on us and that which we never wanted to happen, has happened.  

My God, my God why have you forsaken me?  They are words that we have heard, that we have uttered, and they are words that Jesus himself has cried.  

This is a great comfort to me; I hope it is to you.  Our God is a God who is acquainted with evil and grief and suffering.  The gods of other religions seem content to live on the other side of the sky, but not the God of the Bible.  

Again and again He came into the circle of the people in the Old Testament; and then in the fullness of time, He sent His son made in the image of man, to live totally and completely among us.  That son made no attempt to evade the horror and pain of life.  

In Hebrews 2:17 we read that Jesus was made like us in every way in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest.  The Son of God, the word made flesh, was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.  In him, God has drawn very close and understands from within the whole agony of life.  

This world is filled with tears, and as you look over the scrapbook of your life you might say that your life is filled with tears.  You have wept great tears and in your despair and in your agony you have called out to God, my God, my God, WHY?

In his book entitled, "Six Hours One Friday" Max Lucado tells of a seeing for the very first time the famous Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks the city of Rio de Janeiro.  It is a statue that is over ninety feet tall, its head alone is nine feet tall, the wingspan from fingertip to fingertip is sixty-three feet.  It is made with one thousand three hundred twenty tons of reinforced Brazilian tile.  It sits on a mountain a mile and one half above sea level.  

And Lucado tells of how he climbed the mountain to see the "Christ the Redeemer" statue.  Below him was the city of Rio, 7 million people swarming their way to work.  As Lucado looked at the statue through his telephoto lens he couldn't help but notice that the statue had no eyes, no pupils to suggest vision, no circles to suggest sight.  And Lucado remembers asking, "What kind of redeemer is this?  Blind?  Eyes fixated on the horizon, refusing to see the mass of people at its feet."

Then he allowed his camera lens to follow the features downward, past the strong nose, past the prominent chin, past the neck until his focus came to rest on the cloak of the statue and there on the cloak is a heart, a valentine's heart, a simple heart, a stone heart.  

Again Lucado asks, "What kind of redeemer is this?  Heart made of stone?  Held together not with passion and love, but by concrete and mortar.  What kind of redeemer is this with blind eyes and a stony heart?

And we can reply, can't we?  It is not the redeemer revealed to us by the Holy Spirit - it is not the redeemer who hung on the cross for your sin and my sin.  It is not the redeemer who suffered, loneliness and agony, and carried the penalty of your sin and my sin on the cross.  It is not the redeemer who cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  

For that is the true redeemer.  That is the redeemer who has eyes to see our pain and a heart that reaches out to us in compassion - understanding what it means to be broken and battered by the world.   That redeemer is one worth calling out to in your distress.  That redeemer is worthy to receive your tearful prayers because He understands and will never turn His back on you leaving you to your own devices.  

What do we receive when we call out to Him that cry of anguish, "My God, my God, why?" Do we receive a cold heaven, an unfeeling Saviour?  A God who does not know what it means to feel the pain of sorrow?  What kind of face meets us when we climb the stairs of prayer with tears of heartbreak pouring down our face?  Do we meet a face of indifference, unfeeling?  

No!  We meet a Saviour who comes and shows us His hands and says compassionately, "I have suffered too."

There are tears in this life, and there were tears on the face of Jesus Christ.  He weeps with sufferers still; with you who are suffering, and whose hearts may be broken and heavy and whose life is filled with darkness.  

He has suffered.  He too has uttered those words, "My God, My God, Why?"

He has suffered - there is comfort in this for us - but liste,n more than this, He is now on the other side of the cross, and He testifies to the power of God to overcome the world.  This is not the last word that He speaks from the cross, this is not the last word.

He has suffered, He understands, but more than this, He will lead you through those tears, He will guide you through those questions of why, why, and he will hold you tight during the whole ordeal.  He will not let you go.  

During this season of Lent, let us not forget that we live on the resurrection side of the cross.  The raising of Christ Jesus from the dead is not only the greatest deed of the Bible, it is our basis of hope in the midst of distress and tragedy and pain.  Here is what God can do with the events that the powers of evil thrust against Him.  He can bring us through, raise us even from death, and then turn that evil inside out and transform it into something good.  

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  They are words that are unique to Christ, but we have heard them before, and we will again hear them, but know this - our God understands and seeks to bring healing and transformation into each of our lives.

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - March 2002

---