Friday March 21st, 2008

"GOOD FRIDAY"

“MY GOD, WHY”

Matthew 27:45-50

When Abraham Lincoln’s body was taken from Washington to Illinois for burial, it passed through Albany , NY . As the bier passed down the main street before a huge mournful crowd, a black woman stood on the curb and lifted her little son high on her shoulders to see above the crowd. She was heard to say, “Take a long look honey, that man died for you.” Today, I point to Golgotha and ask you to take a long look, remembering that a man named Jesus Christ died for you and me!

After  hours of suffering on a cruel cross, Jesus cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Can you imagine a more heart-rending question? The son screaming to the Father, Why?

Martin Luther sat in his study for hours contemplating this profound text. He did not eat but sat like a man in a deep trance. Finally, he said, “God forsaken of God! Who can understand that!” No wonder Spurgeon called this the “saddest cry from the cross”.

Matthew and Mark alone record this utterance. Some believe that John had gone at that moment to comfort Jesus’ mother who was heartbroken at seeing her son die such a death. The first 3 sayings of the cross were spoken in the sunlight. During that time, Jesus spoke a word of forgiveness to the soldiers, a word of salvation to a dying thief and word of concern to John about care for his mother, Mary. But the last four sayings were spoken in the darkness in which midnight came at midday.

Isaac Watts wrote it so well in song:

Well might the son in darkness hide, and shout his glories in, when Christ, the Mighty Maker died, for man the Creature’s sin.

This pervasive, supernatural darkness starting at high noon, certainly gets our attention. It was not an eclipse of the sun, for at that time, the moon was farthest away from the sun. Nor was it a black Sirocco. Such darkness the world had not witnessed since that primeval day when “darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Gen. 1:2,4). The description, “darkness over all the land,” reminds me of the plaque of “thick darkness” that came on Egypt described as a “darkness which could be felt.” Amazing it is that as the one who said he was the “Light of the World” died on the cross, the land was covered in pervasive darkness!

I believe Jesus suffered hard cosmic and theological consequences. Jesus’ death affected nature. Nature, bore witness to the magnitude of Golgotha . Hear his cry “My God, My God” said twice in intensity. Jesus began by saying, Father, forgive, and died saying “Father into thy hands, I commit my spirit. In the midst of suffering, he could only say, “My God.”

And the crowd thought Jesus was calling for Elijah, the prophet to proceed the promised Messiah. But actually, this was the Messiah on the cross; Jesus no doubt knew Psalms 22 and in desperate moments he found refuge in scripture learned in boyhood. We use prayers and quotes at critical moments in life learned in childhood. But Jesus knew Psalms 22 ended in victory, not defeat. So Jesus says “My God” indicating his faith and confidence in God even in suffering! God did not turn his back on Jesus! God was never nearer than at Golgotha as Jesus drank the cup in faithful obedience to the Father’s will. God was there! Paul would later say, “God was in Christ’s reconciling. the world to himself” (2 Cor 5:19). A distressed Father broke into the Pastor’s study after learning his son had been killed in WWII and demanded; “Where was God when my son was killed?” The Pastor replied, “In the same place where he was when his own son was killed.”

                I say, it’s okay to cry out in anguish and heartbreak, “O God, help me!” The early Christians called it the “Jesus prayer!” Say it in faith when times are tough and the cancer pain is real, and death is near! That’s faith in the storm!

But the question is Why? And the answer is complex and difficult.

v  Was it because God did not love him? No! Jesus said, “My Father loves me because I lay down my life that I might take it again.” (John 10:17)

v  Was it his horror at the sight of suffering? No! Jesus said, “Me” not “mankind”

v  Was it due to physical weakness? It is true that the preceding 24 hours were hours of trial and torture, with beatings, and mockery. There was not only physical but spiritual agony. But weak as was his body, his spirit was still strong. No delusion or illusion here!

v  Was it to fulfill an Old Testament prophecy? Certainly we look backward from the cross to see the fulfillment of the Messianic Psalms and the suffering passages like Isaiah 53:6 which says “All we like sheep had gone astray, we turned each to his own way but the lord hath laid on him, the iniquity of us all.” But the meaning is much deeper than validating predictive prophecy.

v  Then the answer must be bound up with the humanity of Jesus. Great is the mystery of the divine-human nature of Jesus. For many, Jesus could be either a God or a man but not both. In the first century, the Docetic Gnostics taught that Jesus just seemed to be human. And Cerinthius said that deity came on Jesus at Baptism and left him on the cross. But folks, the Gospels present Jesus as both God as if he were not man, and man as if he were not God. Jesus as the early church would later say, “Was truly God of very God and man of very man”.

Here is vividly portrayed the real human Jesus, the son of Man. And the “why” reveals that there is no way out, only through! Yes, Jesus now is becoming the lamb that was slain for the salvation of the world. And his humanity cries out but his will and determination to drink the cup of sin is strong and resilient!

But who among us has not cried out about a cruel and helpless situation. Dr. Kubler-Ross, in her monumental work On Death and Dying details the dying process as stages – 1^st “No, not me” followed by “Why me” and then, “yes, me but” as we seek to bargain with God. But there is no bargaining here – So we can sing...

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, All my gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride, See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did ever such love and sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown.

“Why God Why” in such moments we have cried out to a seemingly brassy heaven! But in this horrible moment Jesus did not relinquish his faith. And in our baptisms of fire; we can safely “trust and obey,” while leaving our questions in the lap of God.

“Forsaken” is the heart breaking word for me! Jesus Forsaken! “Forsaken” the word means “leave in the lurch” to let one “wither in the wind!” This suggests the separation because of sin! Here we enter the holy of holies of Christ’s suffering. Jesus knew rejection in life – People, Nazareth his hometown rejected him as did his Nation. “He came unto his own and his own received him not!” The disciples forsook him and fled in fear and Peter even denied knowing him. Yet God had never forsook him. With Luther we agree that is too deep to fathom, but we know that in those crucial moments, Jesus paid the sin debt we owed! Jesus became the eternal sacrifice. Jesus did not die as a criminal for he had no sin! Nor as a martyr to a failing cause. He died as a substitute for all mankind. On the cross, Jesus received the judgment of Hell for sin which was to fall upon us. Yes, Isaiah was right:

“He was wounded for my transgressions

He was bruised for my iniquities

The chastisement of our peace was upon

Him, and with his stripes we are healed!”

Two men died along side our Lord, one on either side. One prayed and died to sin with the promise of paradise. The other died in sin with the judgment of perdition,. I challenge you to a new trust in the crucified Christ today. Mercy asked will be mercy given and never shall his cry become your Cry!

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Last modified: April 07, 2008