(To LISTEN to this message, click HERE.)
Mark Wheeler
Matthew 27:46
Seven Last (pre-crucifixion) Words of Christ: “FORSAKEN”
03/24/2019
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
Through the Written Word,
And the spoken word,
May we know Your Living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
“Father forgive them for they do not KNOW what they are doing.”
That was March 3rd’s “word” from our Lord. Maybe if they didn’t KNOW, they should be offered grace. That’s what God does; do we do that?
“TRULY I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
TRUTH was March 10th’s “word” from our Lord. The TRUTH is always bigger than the agony we might currently feel, and Jesus promises paradise in this life and immeasurably beyond this life.
“[Jesus] said to [His mother], “Woman, HERE is your son,” and to the disciple, “HERE is your mother.”
Jesus points us TOWARD one another so that, with open arms and hearts, we might learn to love one another.
Today’s “word” is FORSAKEN.
For this series, because Lent is a season of personal reflection and devotion, we are starting each message with a couple questions to set the stage, questions for you to ponder, and maybe to answer at the close of the message:
- What are some songs or poems or Scriptures you know by heart, like Jesus and His community knew the Psalms?
- Listen for the two voices in Psalm 22 – how would you describe these voices? And which voice is yours today?
Today’s reading comes from Matthew 27:46. Jesus is already on the cross, having endured the pains of betrayal, a late-night arrest, an all-night, illegal trial, a predicted denial, and a conviction resulting in being whipped with a scourge and forced to carry His cross (until Simon of Cyrene stepped in to help) to the place of crucifixion where He was nailed and hung to die.
Hear the Word of our Lord …. —-
46 “My God, my God, why have You FORSAKEN me?”
In many ways, this fourth “word” from our Lord is the hardest to hear. Jesus – the One who so closely communes with God that people know God through Him, we feel God’s love and grace and power and healing just by being near Him – cries out in pain and despair! “My God, my God, why have You FORSAKEN me?” He knows God is always with Him, but He cannot feel God’s presence in this moment! He knows God loves Him, and yet this struggle makes Him feel alone and abandoned, like God doesn’t care, isn’t paying attention, maybe doesn’t even exist.
These words are hard to hear. Right? But, I believe they say more than what might be easily apparent to us. These words are a code, a cue, for anyone who might have been “at the cross” listening; or for anyone who might be hearing or reading the story 2,000 years later on the other side of the globe.
Jesus uses these words from the beginning of Psalm 22 – what we read in our Call to Worship today. You probably know that the Psalms are the songbook, the hymnbook, the prayer-book, of Jesus and His people. And this Psalm, 22, is actually a dialogue between two voices – one desperate, persecuted, nearly hopeless; the other voice, confident in the memory that God has always been there, and promises to always be there, with and for him and his people.
I have wondered if maybe Jesus didn’t recite the entire Psalm from the cross, but Matthew only recorded the opening line. Or, probably more likely, Jesus started the Psalm knowing that others would finish it from memory.
Listen to the beginning of this “conversation”:
My God, my God, why have You FORSAKEN me?
Why are You so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I find no rest!
Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In You our ancestors trusted; they trusted and You delivered them!
To You they cried, and were saved; in You they trusted, and were not put to shame!
But I am a worm, and not even human;
Scorned by others, and despised by the people.
All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me; they shake their heads;
“Commit your cause to the Lord; let Him deliver you-”, they say,
“Let Him rescue the One in whom He delights!”
Yet it was You who took me from the womb;
You kept me safe at my mother’s breast.
On You I was cast from my birth, and since my mother more me You have been my God!
The people of God in the 1st Century AD knew this anguish. It had been some 400 years between the last Old Testament prophet speaking God’s Word and Matthew’s Gospel story of the incarnation of the Son of God! 400 years of silence! My God, my God, why have You FORSAKEN me?
But the Jews knew and sang this Psalm, in faith, even when God was silent.
Anyone who heard Jesus cry out these opening lines of Psalm 22 from the cross would have heard more than just these words! They would have heard the whole conversation, the whole Psalm – they would have finished the Psalm, by heart.
Let’s try it for a second: “Jesus loves me this I know …”… “for the Bible tells me so.”
“For God so loved the world…” … “that He gave His only begotten Son…”
“This is your birthday song…” … “it isn’t very long…”
“The Lord is my shepherd…” … “I shall not want…”
That’s what would have happened with “My God, my God, why have You FORSAKEN me? ”
Therefore, these words point to the truth that all is not lost, that God, who has journeyed with God’s people through all of history, is still by their side right now, even in their depths of despair!!
We can probably all think of a time when God seemed very near and present, right? I mean, there are countless stories when everything was “going right” and we praised God, right? When we’re “in the land that is plentiful, where God’s streams of abundance flow … when the sun’s shining down on me and the world’s ‘all as it should be’”. Then we easily say, “Blessed be Your name!
25 years ago, when LPC’s Pastor Nominating Committee called me for a visit – I felt God’s nearness in a very palpable way! He was right in the mix!
But, even when we’re “found in the desert place, walking through the wilderness … when we’re on the road marked with suffering and there’s pain in the offering”. Even then, Blessed be Your name!
35 years ago, when I felt ill, and in the matter of three days lost 28 pounds, went to the doctor, was admitted to Placentia-Linda Hospital with a blood-sugar reading of 983 (I was on death’s door!), God was very near!
And I’ll bet we can all think of times when we cried out with Jesus, “My God, my God, why have You FORSAKEN me? ” But we didn’t have the rest of this Psalm’s dialogue in our hearts.
When someone I dearly love shared with me life-style choices that seemed so far from God’s will and God’s way, I cried out for God’s presence, for God’s will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Psalm 22, Jesus’ words from the cross, reminds us to remember that God has always been there, and promises to always be there, with and for us and our people!
That eternal truth does not take the temporal pain Jesus speaks any less; it does not remove our losses or our hurts, our injuries or our illnesses. But it does remind us that the pain and agony are a part of a much larger, longer, unfolding story. It is meant to remind us that as far as Jesus felt from God at that moment on the cross, this is not all there is.
This reminder may not answer Jesus’ question of “WHY have You forsaken me?” – or any of our “why” questions. But it very much answers the main “where” question. The “forsaken” part of “why have You FORSAKEN me?” is really the “where?” question. “Where is God?” “Where is our hope?” “Where is the love that every single one of us was born into? Where is that love that promises to hold us forever?”
And what is the answer? Even when all else is still unknown, the answer is always, “right here, God is right here.”
As we move into our time of prayer, let’s begin by sharing our thoughts about
- What are some songs or poems or Scriptures you know by heart, like Jesus and His community knew the Psalms?
- Listen for the two voices in Psalm 22 – how would you describe these voices? And which voice is yours today?
The beginning of the dialogue asks, Matthew 27 46 “My God, my God, why have You FORSAKEN me?” And it ends with the reminder that God is right here with us, always.
Resources:
Illustrated Children’s Ministry, LLC; 2019.
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