Why Was He Forsaken?

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Thanks for joining us, Lord, We thank you for letting us worship

today and sing to you. Thank you for the team that

gathered early to make that easy for us.

And we pray now that we'll hear what you have to say to us from

your scriptures as we remember that this is Holy Week, the week

that your son came in triumphantly but was then

arrested in a sham arrest and trial.

And we pray God that we would remember all that he's done for

us right now. In the name of Christ, we pray,

Amen. All right, today we're going to

talk about the cross. And at the end of our time

together, we'll be a celebrating communion.

So if you've been wondering like when's we're going to have

communion at the end of our time together today, something I like

to say often is this, that the gospel message of Jesus Christ

is scandalous, is scandalous. We can be forgiven of all our

wrongdoing, everything we've ever done wrong.

We can be forgiven of that. And at the same time, we can be

given right standing before God because of Jesus's

righteousness. That's scandalous.

It's scandalous. And at the heart of this

scandalous message that you can be forgiven and you can be made

right with God, at the heart of that is a scandalous event.

Jesus dying on the cross was not what anyone who knew him thought

would happen. Jesus died a criminal's death

between two criminals. And while there are multiple

scandalous things that took place around his trial and his

execution, there is one scene that we're going to focus on

today. It's a moment where for those

who were there that day, they would have thought Jesus was

cracking. He was breaking under the

pressure, but in reality he wasn't cracking.

He wasn't breaking under the pressure.

In reality He was holding firm to the mission of His life for

the very reason He was born. So go with me to Matthew chapter

Matthew 27:45–46

27, verses 45 through 46. Matthew 2745 through 46 here,

Jesus, it's on the cross, nearing the end of his life.

He has survived a beating that most people who received did not

survive. He's nailed, He's bleeding, he's

naked before a crowd of people. And this is what Matthew records

for us from that scene. Matthew 27, 45 through 46.

From noon until 3:00 in the afternoon, darkness came over

all the land. About 3:00 in the afternoon,

Jesus cried out in a loud voice. Eli, Eli Lama Sabachthani, which

means My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

There are three ideas from this text.

We're going to see a cry, a question, and a resolve.

So if you take notes, those are the 3A cry, a question, a

resolve #1A cry. First of all, we see this cry

from Jesus, and the word cry is a sanitized translation for

sure. The Greek word here is not like

a whimper or a cry. This is a shriek.

This is a loud scream. It's the kind of cry.

It's the kind of shriek that everyone there that day would

have noticed, would have looked up and paid attention to.

It's the kind of moment that everyone would have.

It would have burned in their memory.

Have you ever been anywhere heard someone shriek a cry and

you can still remember that sound?

This is what's happening here. This would have burned in their

memory. I want you to notice that

Matthew records the cry in the original Aramaic.

Why would he do that? Why would he tell us?

Eli, Eli Sabakhthani, Lamasabakhthani.

Why would he record the original Aramaic?

What is the language that Jesus spoke?

This is the actual words that came from the cross.

These, this is what he said. This is this is, you know, when

we read the Bible, we'll read Jesus words in English, Matthew

or Luke or John, they're writing them in Koine Greek.

So they're taking Jesus as Aramaic.

They're putting it into Greek and then we're putting it into

English. But this is Matthew saying, I'm

going to give you exactly what he said in the Aramaic.

Why is he doing that? Because there were eyewitnesses

there that day that distinctly remember the shriek, the scream

coming from the cross. And so Matthew says, I'm going

to record it like we all heard it because we all heard it just

like this. Now, if you're a skeptic of

Christianity, maybe you're not a believer in this whole story.

Let me just ask you to think about this.

If you were making up a story about Jesus, if you're making up

a story about a a man who died on the cross, this is not what

you would expect the founder of your made-up religion to say on

the cross. In other words, you would not,

you would not have him say these words.

You, you would have him instead, instead have kind of a hero's

death. You would have him say some

encouraging, some challenging, some courage words there at the

end of his life. I think of all the time of, of,

of the end of Braveheart, you guys, what does he say?

What does he say aloud? Freedom, right?

We all know that, right? Like, that's if you don't know

that. If you haven't seen the movie

Braveheart, is it? You've not seen it?

Wow. Shocked.

Anyway, so at the end of that movie, you know, he's dying and

he's being tortured. In the midst of his torture, all

he has to do is say he'll be loyal to the king, and he won't

say it. Instead, he says freedom, Right?

And it echoes throughout the people.

And they're like, you know, and when you watch the movie, you're

kind of moved with chills. You're like, yeah, OK, so.

But that death is the legend. Just so you know that.

I'm sorry, Did I ruin that for you?

That's a legend. Sorry, John, that's a we don't

actually know what he said. That's made-up.

We would expect if you were making up a legend, you would

have just that kind of death, right?

You would have Jesus on the cross saying freedom.

Instead he says, why God? Why God have you forsaken me?

That's not what you would expect.

And even skeptics of the Bible and skeptics of Christianity

will say this. So if you're a skeptic, this is

something skeptics say. They say that that there is good

reason to believe that this is a genuine authentic recording of

Jesus's death, that this is how it happened because this cry is

recorded in the Scripture. The fact that Matthew would

record this suggested it actually happened this way.

And Jesus cries, why God? Why God?

And this is a cry of desperation and a cry of pain.

He cries out, Why God? Why?

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever cried similar

words? Why?

We have all experienced that moment, and here's Jesus

experiencing his why have you abandoned me moment.

Now here's the thing. Jesus chose these words on

purpose. In other words, this wasn't just

an emotional outburst. This was Jesus choosing words

strategically. He's asking this specific

question for a reason. And that's our second idea this

morning, a question. So we have a cry, and now we

have a question. And what is this question?

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me Now in this question

that Jesus is asking from the cross in all of his pain and his

excruciating death, This is a question he's asking on purpose.

It is not random. It has a reason.

Jesus is not just choosing some random words.

He's actually quoting A Psalm. He's quoting Psalm 22, which is

a Psalm of King David. So David wrote the Psalm.

Now listen to the very first verse of Psalm 22.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

There's Psalm 22 verse one, my God.

So there's Jesus quote. Now what he's doing on the cross

is he's saying these words in Aramaic and everyone who heard

them would have remembered them. And Matthew records them for us.

And Jesus chose them specifically so that we would

know what Psalm 22 says. And listen to the rest of verse

one. Why are you so far from saving

me, so far from my cries of anguish?

David's this is David, King David writing this.

Verses 7 and 8 say 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.

Verses 13 through 16 David writes in his Psalm Roaring

lines that tear their prey open, their mouths wide against me.

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.

Dogs surround me, a pack of villains and circle me.

They Pierce my hands and my feet.

Verse 18, They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my

garment. This is King David thousands of

years before Jesus is on the cross.

This is King David and he's describing something and what

he's describing is something he's never experienced.

He's describing an execution, but it it's not an execution he

walked through. It's not an execution that he

lived. He was never executed.

Instead, what David is doing is he's being led by the Holy

Spirit in in the inspiration of this poem centuries before

Jesus. And Jesus quotes this Psalm on

purpose in the middle of his excruciating death because it

points to a reality about this death he's experiencing.

This death, according to Psalm, is an execution.

This Psalm 22 is describing an execution, someone who's being

executed. Jesus quotes Psalm 22 on purpose

to say the execution David was singing about, which is a

strange thought thing to write a song about, right?

The execution that David is writing a poem about, that

execution was always pointing to me, because my execution on this

cross is not random, it's not an accident.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David was

foretelling this moment, a moment that he himself did not

live. But I am not living.

So the question why am I being forsaken?

Why am I being mocked? Why am I being torn apart?

Why are my hands and feet pierced?

Why are they gambling for my clothes?

Well, it's a purposeful death. This is a an on purpose

execution. Jesus is dying on the cross for

a reason. If it is indeed an execution,

then an execution is an exercise of judgement.

That's an exercise of justice. No one is executed unless it's

an exercise of just justice. And this is the reason Jesus is

executed. He's executed for justice.

It's judgment. He's suffering the judgment of

God. You remember the little detail

that Matthew said? He said at noon the sky went

dark. Do you guys remember that?

All throughout the Bible, darkness is symbolic of God's

judgment, God's bringing judgement.

God's judgement is falling on Jesus.

That's why he's being forsaken. That's the purpose of his death.

Every execution is happening because of judgement, and this

is God's judgement. Now, if there's judgement on

someone, the assumption is that there's guilt.

Judgment would not come, especially from a perfectly just

God, unless there was guilt. But the reason for this judgment

is not any of Jesus's guilt. The Scriptures tell us that

Jesus was without sin, and yet he's receiving judgment as if he

were guilty. Well then, for whose guilt is he

being judged? For my guilt, judgment has

fallen on Jesus. Judgment and justice is coming

to him for my guilt. And for your guilt.

He's not guilty, but he's experiencing execution as if he

were guilty. I'm guilty and you're guilty.

Now. I know, I know.

This feels uneasy. It this feels uneasy.

We, we don't like the idea of guilt.

Pop culture, pop psychology says you shouldn't feel guilty.

Guilty. Guilt is bad for you.

We don't like the idea of guilt. But listen to me carefully.

If you deny that we have guilt, then you're also denying that

there's any such thing as right and wrong.

So if you say there's no such thing as guilt, I'm not guilty.

You're not guilty. We're just living our lives.

Then you're also saying there's no such thing such things as

right or wrong when you also deny guilt.

So you deny that there's no such thing as right or wrong.

You're like, hey, there's there's no right or wrong.

But you also deny that we ever need forgiveness, that we ever

need someone to forgive us, to restore relationship with us.

Because you've never done anything wrong.

Why would anyone need to forgive you?

But you're also denying repentance.

You're saying, well, I'm not guilty.

I've never done anything wrong because I'm not guilty, then

there's no need to change. So this feeling of like, I don't

think there's a such thing as guilt and I don't think people

should feel guilty is to say that there's no right or wrong,

is to say there's no such thing as forgiveness and to say

there's no reason to ever change, that no one should ever

change. So if you say there's no guilt,

if you deny that guilt exists, then whatever you do is neither

bad nor good, is simply a choice.

That's it. If someone hurts you, then you

are simply suffering because of their choices.

They are not guilty and you are not a victim.

This is the reality. If you say there's no such thing

as guilt, I'm not guilty. People aren't guilty.

The people are just people. This is not what the scriptures

teach and we know that. This is not how the world works.

We know there is right and wrong and when we do what's wrong, do

you agree with this? When we do what's wrong, we feel

it. Do you ever notice that?

Like you feel it? And if you tell a little white

lie, as soon as it comes out of your mouth, it's kind of like

you lose your cool with somebody 1015 minutes later.

You're like, when we do wrong, we feel it.

Now what we what we struggle with to believe is that all

guilt requires there to be judgment.

And you know that you believe that because if someone had done

something to hurt you, something terrible, while you would

forgive them because Christ compels you to, you would still

would like the justice system to work on your behalf to bring

judgment against their law breaking.

But I always say about justice and judgment, you know, justice

for thee, but not for me. But that's not how it works.

If we're all guilty, then we're all subject to judgment.

And I have guilt and you have guilt.

Everyone has guilt. And the Bible teaches the wages

of our guilt or the payment for our guilt is death.

And that's not just physical death, that's separation from

God. But God in his infinite mercy

and his grace placed all the judgement for my guilt and for

your guilt on to Jesus. And so when Jesus refers to

Psalm 22, a clear description of an execution, this is what he is

saying. He's saying this is not an

accident or meaningless death. This is judgment from God placed

on me on your behalf. This is an execution.

It's not one I deserve, but it's what I'm taking.

He's not the one who's guilty, but he remains on the cross and

he fulfills the calling of his life.

He stays. And that's our third idea, a

resolve. So we have a cry, a question and

a resolve. The words my God, my God,

they're an indication of something.

You see, when God made covenant with his people, he said I will

be your God and you will be my people.

In other words, now you can refer to me, the creator of

heaven and earth, as. My God, this is covenant

language that Jesus is using. You can refer to the creator of

the world as my God. And so when Jesus uses my God,

he's using covenant language. So these two words, my God, also

show us something else. Not only is it covenant

language, but it shows us the real pain of the cross.

And it was deeper than the nails and deeper than the crown of

thorns, and deeper than the beating He took before He was

placed on that cross. The words My God, my God, show

us the real pain of the cross. And I'll be completely frank

with you, this is about the only pain on the cross that we can

relate with just a little. We can relate with the pain of

my God, my God, just a little. Because the worst pain of the

cross that we all tend to forget as we focus on the crucifixion

of Jesus, the worst pain of the cross was not the beating, not

the blood, not the nails. The worst pain was relational.

It was relational. You see, when you lose someone

you love, when someone who's dear to you is taken from you,

you know that relational pain and Jesus is experiencing on the

cross separation from his heavenly Father.

Now that sounds like, well, OK, but hold on.

Listen to what John, the John, the Gospel writer in the Gospel

of John chapter one, verse 18, Listen to what he says.

I'm not going to read it word for word, but he tells us that

that Jesus is the only one who has seen God because he is at

the Father's side. And what the old King James

Version says is that he is in the bosom of the Father and

that's for all eternity. You can't say he, you can't say

he was. He just is.

For all eternity, Jesus and the Father had been connected.

That's what John is describing. This is the nature of their

relationship between the Father and the Son.

For all eternity they were in constant relationship, constant

companionship with each other. And He has been in an eternal

relationship with His Father. And now on the cross that's

being torn apart because God made him who had no sin to be

sin. For us, this is the excruciating

pain. And we know the confusion that

comes with relational pain. We know that.

We know the heartache that comes with relational pain.

And here is what? Here is Jesus in the midst of

that pain, Yet He remains faithful to his Father.

He is resolved in the midst of his confusion, in the midst of

the deep relational pain where He goes, Father, why are you

abandoning me? He stays resolved on the cross.

He does not abandon His mission. He does not call down the angels

to rescue Him. He does not just get off the

cross, which He had the power to do that.

No, instead He showed perfect obedience to the Father even in

the midst of the pain that He was experiencing.

He was obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Why would Jesus do this? Why would He subject Himself to

the pain of separation from God? Why would he have the resolve to

walk through this? Why would he be forsaken?

Why would he have his hands and his feet pierced?

Why would he die as a guilty man when he in fact knew no sin?

The answer is quite simple, But friend, deeply personal for you.

He did this for you. He did this for me, He did this

for you. Jesus gave up His eternal

connection with His Father on the cross so that you could have

an eternal connection with your heavenly Father, your Creator,

for all eternity. He suffered the just judgement

for my guilt and your guilt for my sin and your sin.

And He did this on your behalf. And here's the thing that we

don't realize is we could not have even done it for ourselves

because the payment for our sin is death, which is separation

from God. But God demonstrated His own

love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for

us. For whom did he do this?

For me and for you. I know these things can feel

legendary and almost fantastical, but please, will

you acknowledge that you're Can we?

Can we acknowledge that we have guilt?

Can we all acknowledge that we're not perfect?

Can we all acknowledge that we've done something wrong?

I can and then can we ask the question if if I've done

something wrong, do I deserve just judgement?

And yes I do. Then once you please place your

faith in this simple truth, God loves you and sent his Son to

suffer and die for you personally.

Jesus Christ is Lord crucified for my sin and your sin.

Now listen to me. Once you place your faith in

this simple truth, you don't have to have all the answers

figured out. Like you don't have to know how

it all works. You just have to acknowledge

that you're guilty, that you're not perfect, and I feel like

most of us are there. And then we just simply have to

accept the free gift of Jesus's death through faith.

He's not waiting on you to get holy enough or get good enough

or go to church enough. He's not.

He's done this for you. Knowing how broken we are, He

knows we're a mess. Do you ever feel like a mess?

I feel like a mess. He died for us knowing we were a

mess. So if you feel like you're a

mess, that's perfect. That means you acknowledge you

need the Savior. He's not waiting on you to get

holy enough or good enough. He loves you.

He experienced separation from God, so you could have eternal

connection with God. He experienced separation from

God so you could be connected to God for all eternity.

He was forsaken and did not deserve to be, so that we who

deserve to be forsaken shall never be forsaken.

God, we thank you for meeting us in this place this morning.

We thank you for the hope ahead of us as we celebrate Easter,

the resurrection of your son Jesus, your power over death,

your victory over sin and the great.

We thank you in Jesus name and all God's people said Amen guys,

God bless. Have a great week.