My God! Why! (4/11/11)

Shalom,

 

    Please begin by reading Matt 27:45-47.

 

    Matthew reports to us that a mysterious darkness covered the land for three hours.  A strange, weird darkness settled down over the world, obscuring the sun until it couldn't be seen anymore.  This supernatural darkness covered the land from noon until 3 in the afternoon.  It was a completely supernatural manifestation, not natural in any way.  Imagine a heaven-sent darkness lasting for three hours.  It was almost as if Creation was sympathizing with its Creator.  It's almost as if the Father said, "This is the darkest moment in the history of my Creation."

    When it says "all the land" it could refer to all of Israel or the whole of the earth.  Was it only localized to the Jewish nation, or did this darkness cover the entirity of the earth?  I can easily see this as a world-wide event, affecting all the earth because Jesus was on the cross for the sin of all mankind.  This supernatural darkness intensifies the desolation of what Jesus was facing.  It reaches its full depth as Jesus, made to be sin for us, experiences the horror of separation from his Father.  Sin creates this awful separation, and he cries, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

    The darkness can't be explained as an eclipse, or a sandstorm, or anything of a natural origin.  We need to understand this darkness as supernatural, showing the hand of Yahweh in our Messiah's sacrifice.  Darkness is associated with judgment in several places in the Bible.  We need to understand it here as pointing to Yahweh's judgment of sin linked directly to the cross of Christ.  That darkness meant judgment.  It was the direct judgment of Almighty God against sin.  It was the wrath of Yahweh burning itself out in the very heart of Jesus as our substitute.  In those dark hours, Hell came to Calvary.  Our Savior descended into it and experienced its horror in our place.

    After three hours of darkness we hear Jesus cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me."  It was during this time of darkness that Jesus was made "sin for us" (2 Cor 5:21).  He'd been forsaken by his Father.  The darkness was a symbol of the judgment that Jesus endured when he was made "a curse for us" (Gal 3:13).  This emphasizes the holiness of our Great and Righteous God.  How could our most holy God look with favor on his Son who had become sin for us?

    Jesus spoke these words in Hebrew and the spectators didn't really understand what he was saying.  They thought he was calling for Elijah to help him.  If they had been listening carefully they would have remembered the words of Psalm 22, and they would have understood the truth.  But they were blind to the truth because of the darkness of their own hearts.

 

    Every individual has blood on their hands.  Rom 3:23 says, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  This verse gathers up the whole human race into one statement and tell us we still fall short.  We're as guilty as the people of Jerusalem and Rome.  We also nailed Jesus to that cross.  We took part in his awful separation from his Father.  We're responsible.

    In order to understand our Messiah's words of anguish we need to go to Hell, but not in our present condition.  We would need to go to Hell with the full taint of sin just like the holy Son of God.  No one in Hell understands this condition.  No one on earth can either.  No person on earth, no sinner in Hell, can approach the experience that will enable them to understand the signiifcance of our Messiah's terrible cry.  Clearly we don't qualify.  The terrible truth is that we deserve what Jesus was suffering on the cross.  We deserve the punishment and pain, but even if we were to suffer something similar we still wouldn't know what Jesus went through for us.  We'd only be suffering for our own sin.  Jesus suffered for the sins of mankind.  The pure and holy Son of God, who didn't deserve punishment of any kind, took on the full burden of our sins.

    We don't fully comprehend these words because we don't fully understand the holiness of Yahweh.  The prophet Habakkuk said it well, "Your eyes are to pure to look on evil, you cannot tolerate wrong" (Hab 1:13).  Finite, depraved sinners don't understand how sin appears to an infinite, holy, and righteous King of Glory.  His attitude toward sin caused him to turn his back on his Son and forsake him.  Sin is serious business to Yahweh.  Sin is so serious that there is only one way it can be dealt with.  Heb 9:22 says, "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."  These words Jesus spoke from the cross reveal the reality of sin and holiness.  They also reveal the reason for the sacrifice of our heavenly Father's Son.

    When Jesus cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me," he gave full expression to his feelings of abandonment.  But these words also point out his continuing relationship of confidence, patience, self-resignation, and trust in the sovereignty of God the Father.  Jesus is crying out after the Father as well as crying out to him for help.  In the anguish of his awful godforsakenness, Jesus conitnues to trust.

    The word fosaken is made up of three words.  "To leave" meaning to abandon.  "Down" suggesting defeat and helplessness.  And "in" referring to the place of circumstance.  It is the forsaking of someone in a state of defeat or helplessness in the midst of hostile circumstances.  "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me, left me behind, deserted me."

    For the first time in the eternal life of the Trinity, God the Father turns away from God the Son.  The Father denies Jesus his presence.  He's forsaken of what he's known and lived with for all eternity.  For the first time the eternal fellowship between the Father and the Son was mysteriously broken.  In the anguish of his godforsakenness, Jesus still cries out to his Father.  He trusts even in his cry of desperation and desolation.

 

    Think of it.  Yahweh laid the penalty of your sinful heart on Jesus.  Yahweh made him the representative of all your sins and mine.  And he paid the penalty for us.  Think of gathering all the sin of humanity into one giant heap.  What a seething and broiling mass of wickedness.  Jesus came down to earth to take on that seething mass so Yahweh could blot out it's effect on us in one all-sufficient and comprehensive sacrifice.  And don't forget, it wasn't the Messiah's sin but yours and mine, our seething mass of corruption that Jesus identified himself with and suffered for.  No wonder he made such an anguished cry.  He didn't have to face this.  He only did it because of his great love for us.

    Jesus had never been separated from his Father, but he was willing to do it for us.  When he allowed the sins of the world to be placed on him, the Father had to turn away because of his righteous justice.  Jesus came down from the glory of heaven to save our souls by becoming sin in our place.  Jesus stepped in between absolute justice and our sin to satisfy the need for punishment.  Our sin deserves punishemnt and Jesus sacrificed himself on our behalf.

    Godforsakenness is a good word describing the depth of what Jesus suffered on our behalf.  When he cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me," he was beginning to experience the depths of Hell.  My Hell, your Hell, all the Hells of all the guilty sinners were burning their fires on him.  Jesus, the holy and righteous One, went through absolute Hell so we don't have to.

    Jesus paid the price, not for himself, but for each of us individually and personally.  In particular, he stood in our place.  He did it so you and I would never have to experience what Hell is really like.  Instead of you and me, Jesus went as our representative.  He took our pain and suffering upon himself.  He was our substitute, our replacement.  His pain, his cries of loneliness, his agonizing question from the cross are the prophetic manifestations of what awaits doomed sinners in the everlasting condemnation brought about by their unwillingness to seek forgiveness for their sin-guilt.

    These words from the cross are a divine revelation of what Hell is like.  It reveals to us the wrath of our Creator against all sin.  This is the clearest revealtion of the wrath of Almighty God given to us.  We should pay attention, and work at avoiding the experience by receiving the grace found in Jesus Messiah Master.

    These words also reveal the satisfaction of the debt we owe.  Yahweh prophetically told us how he would make provision to pay our sin-debt.  Isaiah 53:5 speaks of the suffering servant who was "pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him."  John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

    Jesus had to pay the price alone.  He tasted spiritual death for everyone in the world.  He felt the way a lost sinner feels, without ever having sinned himself.  The innocent suffering for the guilty.  No wonder he cried out in anguish.

 

    In these words we can begin to comprehend the love of our heavenly Father.  In these words we can begin to understand the depravity of sin when compared to Yahweh's holiness.  In these words we can begin to understand how the death of Jesus atones for our sins.

    Today Jesus is your advocate.  Today he pleads for you to believe in your heart that he died for your sins on the cross.  If you will hear him and ask forgiveness for your sins, you will be saved.  The salvation he offers is complete and all-sufficient.  It will save you for all eternity if you believe in Jesus and obey his Word.  You will have eternal life, joy in the presence of your loving heavenly Father forever.

    Tomorrow could be the day Jesus will become your judge.  If you refuse to accept his sacrifice on your behalf, his substitution, his taking your place of punishment, he will judge you and condemn you to eternal death.

    Please make a wise choice.  Choose life, that's why Jesus faced the anguish and horror of being sacrificed.  Our debt is paid in full when we ask Jesus to take away our sins and help us walk in his ways.

 

    Blessings & Peace,    Mike