(Matthew 27:45-49) Forsaken

(Matthew 27:45-49) Forsaken

Series: Sermons in Luke
Ref: Luke 23:34; John 19:23–27

President Abraham Lincoln signed into law an act that allowed someone to hire a substitute to take their place in the army. Even though Abraham Lincoln would not have been drafted, he felt he should provide for a soldier to ceremonially take his place.

John Staples, the son of a Methodist minister was asked, personally, by Lincoln, to enlist as his substitute, and John agreed. He went off to war in Lincoln’s place.

In his hometown of Dover, New Jersey, there’s a monument at his gravesite that reads in part: J. Summerfield Staples; D.C. Volunteers, the substitute for Abraham Lincoln.

Over these past few studies, we’ve made our way to a hill nicknamed, in Greek, The Cranium – translated – the Skull; in Aramaic, the word Golgatha – for skull; in Latin, Calvaria – or Calvary.

There on that windswept hill is a monument that effectively reads, “Divine Volunteer, the substitute for you and me.”

I recommend you take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 5 and verse 8 – get out your pen or pencil and write your name into the margin of that verse if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, as your substitute.

That verse reads:

But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for – Romans 5:8

I have written there – Stephen Davey

This is the gospel – this is our only hope – this is our greatest gift – this is the reason behind this season – He was born for this – born to die.

Now from that cross, we’ve listened and watched as Jesus made three statements that we can easily understand. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”. I agree with Warren Wiersbe’s wonderful little book on these final sayings of Christ from the cross – we can easily imagine the Lord saying this, because of His compassion.

We can understand why He would then promise the dying thief eternal Paradise, because He is the Savior of sinners.

We can understand why Jesus gave Mary to John, as Jesus fulfilled the commandment to honor father and mother – to take care of family members in need – especially an aging woman and a widow named Mary. Jesus was fulfilling his legal role as the eldest son. (SOURCE: Adapted from Wiersbe, p. 42)

These are statements we marvel at and deeply appreciate.

But now comes the Lord’s fourth statement which is not only marvelous, but mysterious. We’ll look at it in depth in a moment, but it’s familiar to everyone. Jesus says in the depths of His agony, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

What a mystery. But what a comfort.

How many Christians through the years have been scolded for asking God “Why?” “Why?”

Well, Jesus did.

And if Jesus can, you can.

Even if you know, and Jesus certainly knew – you know what God’s word has answered – that:

  • trials build humility into our demeanor (2 Corinthians 12:7)
  • painful times are used by God to correct us (Hebrews 12:5-11)
  • difficulties deepen our dependence on God (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
  • times of testing weave perseverance into the fabric of our faith (James 1:12).

So when it seems God is breaking you apart, He’s actually building you up.

  • trials make us more like the character of Christ (Romans 8:29)
  • sorrows make us anticipate heaven all the more (Revelation 21:4)

These are some of the reasons why – and older Christians who know the word, already know these truths, but that still doesn’t mean we can’t ask why?

Jesus knew the scriptures by heart – He was the most spiritually mature man to ever walk the planet – and He will ask why.

You see, even though you might know the verses and principles I just rattled off, when the pressure’s on and the pain intensifies and the sorrows increase and there’s no end in sight, in an emotionally exhausted and pain-filled state – the question races heavenward: “Why God?” “Why this?” “Why me?” “Why now?”

And that’s where we find Jesus – fully God – yet fully man – asking this kind of question.

One author wrote that this is the most “staggering sentence in the record of scripture.” (SOURCE: Adapted from Charles R. Swindoll, The Darkness and the Dawn (Word Publishing, 2001), p. 166)

Now the gospel by Luke doesn’t record this statement, so we need to travel over to the narrative of Matthew’s gospel – Matthew chapter 27.

Matthew sets the scene for us here in verse 45 – notice just verse 45:

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. Matthew 27:45

From the sixth hour – that’s noon – until 3:00 in the afternoon, there is this sudden, supernaturally imposed darkness.

It’s like thick curtain has shrouded the earth, blocking out the sun. The word for land – “darkness over all the land” is translated elsewhere “earth” – this is global darkness, like the global flood.

Even in extrabiblical historical accounts, there are references to unusual darkness, dating to this period of time. (SOURCE: Ibid)

By a miraculous act of Almighty God, midday becomes midnight. (SOURCE: Stu Epperson, Jr., Last Words of Jesus (Worthy Publishers, 2015), p. 69)

The Son of God now hangs in silence during these three hours of thick darkness, until after He makes this cry from the cross.

By the way, the Bible doesn’t give us reasons for this miraculous darkness, but there are some clues are offer insight.

First, the rabbi’s had long taught that the darkening of the sky was a sign of God’s judgment upon the world for some terrible crime.

Without a doubt, the greatest crime in human history is now being committed.

Secondly, darkness was a sign of sorrow.

The prophet Amos wrote a text that prophesies of the coming Tribulation period – but it’s a text that can have more immediate application to the crucifixion.

The prophet Amos writes:

“And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight … I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.” Amos 8:9-10

Nothing could be more fitting for this day of the Lord’s crucifixion – as if all of nature goes into mourning as if for the death of an only son.

Third, this darkness has meaning in the context of Passover.

While Jesus is hanging on the cross, the nation Israel is celebrating Passover – that moment in their history when they escaped from Egypt under the leadership of Moses.

God had sent plague after plague to warn Pharaoh to let His people go. And Pharaoh constantly refused to heed the warning of 10 plagues in all.

So God sends this ninth plague – total darkness throughout the land. The darkness lasted 3 days, followed by the final plague – the death of the firstborn sons throughout the land.

So get this: you have three days of darkness and then the death of first-born sons.

Jesus is hanging on the cross for three hours followed soon after by His death – the death of God’s only son. So this darkness signals coming judgment and death.

Now Passover was a celebration of Israel’s escape from Egypt. There was hope before that 10th plague arrived. The Israelites were commanded to kill and roast a lamb – take it’s blood and paint it on their doorposts.

Whoever had the blood of the lamb applied to their home, the death angel passed over them and they were rescued. Thus, the name, “Passover”.

While Jesus is hanging on the cross – the nation Israel is killing their Passover lambs as a memorial to their rescue from Egypt centuries earlier.

So here you have Jesus – dying on the same day as the final Passover Lamb who’s blood will rescue anyone who has applied His blood – His sacrificial death – to the doorposts of their hearts.

So at this moment, you have total darkness, before God judges the Lamb, who will die for the sins of the world.

Think of it: when Jesus was born in the middle of the night, God the Father lit up the sky with brilliant light; but now as Jesus is going to die, God the Father darkens the sky, in the middle of the day. (SOURCE: Adapted from Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on Mark (Zondervan, 2016), p. 390S)

One more observation at this point.

This is the darkness of secrecy, one author called it. (SOURCE: Wiersbe, p. 46)

During these three hours,

  • Jesus will be saturated with the sins of all of humanity from all of human history (1 John 2:2)
  • Our iniquity will be laid upon Him (Isaiah 53:6)
  • He will become sin for us, who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21)
  • during these three hours, Jesus will be drenched with our sin upon Himself (1 Peter 2:24);
  • and He will bear this alone (Hebrews 9:7).

This pictures the Day of Atonement when the High Priest, once a year, took the blood of the sacrificed animal – slipped behind that thick veil that hung some 30 feet from the ceiling – and there in secrecy – alone except for presence of holy God, the High Priest will sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat – the lid of the ark of the covenant – and make the transaction for sin’s covering.

So, Jesus, as our High Priest, He is carrying out an eternal transaction with the Godhead – offering His bloodshed for our complete and final atonement.

So get this: on the cross, Jesus is the High Priest, the Only Son, and the sacrificial Lamb.

Let me tell you, there isn’t any room for you or me to squeeze in there and add something. We offer God nothing – Jesus, our High Priest – the firstborn Son – the final Passover Lamb does everything.

Now back to Matthew’s account – here at verse 46 now:

And about the ninth hour (3:00 o’clock) Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46

He cried out with a loud voice – “cried out” is a combination of “to shout or cry” with the prefix for “up” – to cry up – this was a loud, passionate cry as he raises His head toward the blackened sky.

He’s speaking this in His native tongue – Aramaic – Matthew translates it for us into Greek – this staggering sentence means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Imagine this scene. The sunlight has been blocked unnaturally. It’s dark.

Jesus has been hanging there in the darkness – and in silence – for nearly three hours.

The curious people have probably left by now; they’ve seen all they really wanted to see. Others, frightened by this sudden unusual darkness, have made for their homes. Still others remained, quietly watching for something else, unusual, to happen. (SOURCE: Swindoll, Darkness and the Dawn, p. 167)

Then, suddenly, out of the depths of this strange darkness comes this piercing anguished cry from Jesus:

Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani!

Verse 47:

And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” Matthew 27:47

They weren’t listening all that well because He didn’t call for Elijah – verse 48 says:

And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” Matthew 27:48-49

Well, there was the common belief that Elijah might come to rescue some righteous person in their distress. “So let’s wait and see if God sends Elijah to rescue Jesus from the cross”.

Elijah wasn’t going to rescue Jesus – no one will intervene.

Thomas Dooley served for many years as a missionary doctor in Laos, near the border of China. On one occasion he was given a newborn Himalayan moon bear as a pet. It was a cuddly ball of brown fur, at least for a while, until it would need to be released into the wild.

So Thomas began building a small cage for the bear and an old Chinese man walked by, stopped, stared, and then began to weep.

Dr. Dooley went over to him to discover the reason for his tears, and the old man recounted how he and his family once lived in Communist China. He and his young son worked together on a farm and at harvest time, the laborers were told that they could have not one grain of rice for themselves – it was the property of the Communist State.

However, his wife had become sick, primarily from malnutrition, and their son had concealed a few handfuls of rice in his clothing to take to his starving mother.

He was discovered and the authorities decided to make a public example out of him. They imprisoned him in a cage, about the size of the one that Thomas Dooley was making for his pet bear. They put the caged boy in the center of the village. The cage was so small that he couldn’t move much, or even sit up.

To add to this tragic scene, the man said this to Dr. Dooley:

“His mother and I were forced to watch, she from one side of the village square and I from the other. The guards would not allow us to speak to him or go near him. Our son died slowly, nothing to eat or drink, covered with filth and flies. It was a relief when the guards pronounced him dead.”

The difference between that event and the death of God’s son is that the Father could intervene, but He will not. The plan was for Jesus to die alone.

So here is the anguished cry from Jesus.

This is a cry of painful separation.

Jesus refers to God the Father three times from the cross. The first time Jesus speaks, He calls God His Father. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The last time Jesus speaks, He will say, Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.”

But in between these two references, Jesus refers to His Father with the distance that has been brought about by sin, covering Jesus like filth and flies.

Instead of intimacy in the Godhead there is formality.

One author writes that this would be like you walking up to your father and calling him “Mister” rather than “Daddy”. Jesus addresses the Father as though He is removed/separated/distanced from Him – and indeed He is. (SOURCE: Ibid, p. 170)

But there’s more here –

This is a cry of genuine despair.

Jesus felt every bit of this separation. He wasn’t faking this emotion. He wasn’t acting.

He experienced disfellowship within the Trinity which He had enjoyed from eternity past.

Spurgeon writes, “This desertion of Christ was real!” But notice, Jesus isn’t crying out, “Why has Peter forsaken me?” “Why did Judas betray me?” (SOURCE: Charles H. Spurgeon, Christ’s Words from the Cross (Baker Book House, 1984), p. 53)

“Why did my disciples leave me?”

No – “Why have you – God – forsaken me?”

And here Jesus quotes His forefather in the flesh, King David who wrote in Psalm 22 and verse 1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus, the Son of David now drinks this cup like King David never did!

John Calvin wrote centuries ago that out of the horror of this darkness, this God-forsakeness, Jesus us quoting the only verse in Scripture that actually describes what He is experiencing – and fulfilling. (SOURCE: Quoted by R. Kent Hughes in Mark: Volume 2 (Crossway Books, 1989), p. 207)

Think about it, the religious leaders had already stood there mocking Him, saying, “He trusts in God, so let God deliver Him now, if He delights in Him.” But God wasn’t delivering Him. And now with this cry of despair, it seems like Jesus is taking their side – He declares Himself to be forsaken. (SOURCE: Clovis G. Chappell, The Seven Words (Baker Book House, 1952), p. 40)

And He was! Why? So that you will never be forsaken!

God’s word promises you, Christian, in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

I will never forsake you – that’s the same Greek word Jesus uses from the cross.

He was forsaken by God the Father as He paid the price for our sin, so that we can be given this eternal promise.

Three thoughts from this cry from Christ on the cross.

First, these words reveal God’s inflexible justice.

Spurgeon again writes it this way: In the darkness, the soul of the man Christ Jesus comes into awful contact with the justice of God. (SOURCE: Spurgeon, p. 61)

This is what sin does! It kills. It destroys. The wages of sin is death. Jesus is paying for our sins.

Even though He’s God’s Son He’s not going to get a presidential pardon; He’s not gonna get a pardon for something he did, or something they find out later he did; or something he might still do in the future. What a pardon.

Who gets that kind of pardon? You do. We do! For something we did in the past. For something we did that hasn’t been found out by anyone else. For something we’re gonna do in the future. We get that kind of pardon. But not Jesus.

The Bible says that God spared not His own Son (Romans 8:32).

There was no free pass for God’s son.

Holy justice is entirely inflexible and impartial.

It is at the cross where justice is satisfied, and the demands of holiness are vindicated. (SOURCE: Arthur W. Pink, The Seven Sayings of the Savior on the Cross (Baker Book House, 1958), p. 72)

These words reveal God’s inflexible justice.

Jesus was experiencing your judgment day here, so that you can avoid the final judgement from a holy God. (SOURCE: Epperson Jr., p. 78)

Second, these words deliver an urgent warning

This is a warning the devil doesn’t want you to hear. This is a warning the world is trying to stifle with the sounds of their amusements and shallow laughter and trivial pursuits.

Listen to Jesus – if He is forsaken because of sin, what chance do you have before a holy God?

We’re told that God loves everybody so much that He would never judge anybody. He’s too merciful to carry out some kind of eternal threat. This is exactly how Satan argued with Eve. (SOURCE: Pink, p. 83)

The first sin was about to be committed in human history.

“Eat that fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – God put that there to give you an opportunity to become as wise as His divine counsel. Take a bite.”

“Oh, no – God warned us that if we disobeyed His word and ate it we would die.”

And Satan said, “You shall not surely die.” “C’mon, you’re not gonna die. God wouldn’t judge you for some little act of independence.”

And Eve ate it, and gave to Adam.

They will eventually die physically, but they died immediately spiritually; the light of God’s glory that had covered them was turned off, and they saw they were naked; their fellowship with God was broken and they hid from Him.

Don’t listen to that liar. Don’t let him deceive you into thinking you don’t need the cross of Christ – you don’t need delivering – you’re not a sinner – or better yet, you’re a sinner and you need to trust in Christ, but what’s the hurry – you got plenty of time for that.

If you’re still breathing, there’s still time to resist the devil and draw near to God. Come by way of the cross of His Son.

Third, these words offer a lifetime invitation.

If you’re still breathing, you have an open door. But that door will close when you die – and after you die, the Bible says, judgement comes.

You will either be in your sin, to pay the price for your sin, or you will have trusted in the cross work of Christ – having asked Him to be your substitute.

Before you die, you need to carve on the tombstone of your life testimony the only words that will matter when you see God – the words, “Jesus Christ was my substitute. He went to war for me.”

Jesus endured the wrath of God so that you can be rescued from God’s wrath.

Jesus entered into the darkness of judgment so that you can live in the light of forgiveness.

Isn’t it bittersweet – eternally so – that Jesus was forsaken, so that we who believe, will never ever be forsaken by God.

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