Seven Last Words From The Cross:

My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Mid-week Lenten Service 4 - March 9, 2005

Matthew 27:46

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

A man over-looking the wreckage of his home after it has been leveled by a mudslide in Southern California looks heavenward, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

A woman and her husband stand at the side of the bed of their 8-month old daughter, who has just died, she cries, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Walking out of the doctor’s office, having just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, the young man shakes his fist heavenward, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Job was a righteous man, fearing God and turning away from evil. He was wealthy, he had children. He has a wonderful relationship with God. And yet, all was taken from him - his wealth gone and his children dead. And if this were not enough, he was then stricken with boils all over his body.

Job, because of what he saw as his previous relationship to God, asks, “Why?” “What have I done?” "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Who here hasn’t asked God the same question, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Who doesn’t see God and that omnipotent being who sits afar off and looks almost without care at His creation. He is the God who is way off up there and who doesn’t listen.

The world tells us that God may have set things in motion at creation, but He hasn’t really been caught up much with it since then. For proof, they point to the recent tsunami, the mud-slides in Southern California, the avalanche in the Alps, the hurricanes in Florida, and even still they look back and September 11. Add to this the sorrows of each of your own lives, and it is easy to ask, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Yes, when we look at our own little world close around us, it is easy to ask the question. After all, we look at our friends, our neighbors, and even our own family and we are a people who are frightened of abandonment and in fear of disappointment. How is a child expected to trust the Lord when he cannot even trust his own parents - broken promises, but always the excuse - "It was because of work" and other responsibilities? How is a woman to believe God won’t forsake her or fail when her husband of 20 years walks out on her and her children for another woman?

How can people believe God will not forsake them, when everywhere they look, people, even God’s people, are leaving each other and forsaking each other? How can you believe God whom you do not see, when loved ones whom you can see, are breaking their promises even to the ones they claim to love?

So, you ask why, just like Job did. You know what, God doesn’t answer Job’s question of why. Instead, He gives Himself. He proclaims all of life comes from Him, “Who laid the foundation of the earth? Who set the lines? Who laid the cornerstone?” Basically, God asks Job, “Who are you to question me who made all that exists - I have given you all this - and more.

Even as God pointed to Himself, and what He had done as He spoke with Job, you have been given much more.

God doesn’t simply look down at His creation. God is not content to be an observer of the play of humanity’s woeful existence. Instead, God steps into creation by taking the form of one of the servants as the Second Person of the Trinity takes upon Himself human flesh. God, in Christ Jesus, experienced hunger and thirst. God knows your sorrow and pain, for His own family forsook Him, thought Him crazy. He watched those He loved die, and in His great compassion wept over the city of Jerusalem, knowing how they would forsake Him. Even His best friends forsook Him when they abandoned Him on the night when He was betrayed. When He needed their companionship the most, they fled in fear.

Dear friends in Christ, Who is speaking the words, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This is none other than Jesus Christ, the very Son of God Himself. These are the words of God the Son, in human flesh, from the cross. He is suffering unfairly in the prime of His life.

As you hear these words from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", I invite you to see a miracle more profound and incredible than the works of creation. In these words, we see God Himself take into His flesh, the sin and the guilt of us all. You and I who have forsaken God by turning our back on Him, by selfishly wanting something much less than He desires to give us. So, Jesus Christ is forsaken by His own Father, so that God could keep His promise to you - “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Yet, when we ask, where is God in the midst of all the human suffering? He is there, hidden in the suffering of our neighbors - hidden in our own suffering. We can ask, “Why God?” Creation asks why too, it groans with anticipation for the revealing of the sons of God. It labors and struggles under the ravages of sin.

And, when we ask, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Remember that, while Job didn’t get from God an answer to the question as he would have liked it answered. Yet, the answer God gave, was much more than satisfying.

When you ask the question, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", I encourage you to see and hear the answer God gives. He gives Himself, stripped and beaten, mocked and forsaken, nailed between two thieves. He doesn’t give a detailed answer about the reasons for the sorrows and suffering of mankind. Instead, He extends the hand that was pierced to grab you and takes you to Himself in the water of baptism, and holds you there.

As you ask, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", Hear the words of Jesus, as God the Father meant them for your ears, as a declaration of His love for you. At the cross, God says to you, “Never did I leave you, never did I forsake you. Instead, I give my only begotten Son that you might be mine and I might be your Father forever.” Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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