31st Day of Lent
Dear friends in Christ. After His resurrection Jesus told His disciples(Lk 24.44): “…all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me….it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.” Just as tonight we heard the historical account of our Lord’s crucifixion, the OT saints had that same account of the suffering and death of the Messiah for their sins—but they had it in prophecy. That’s precisely what we have in our text from Psalm 22--the account of Jesus' suffering and death in prophecy. The Holy Spirit revealed to the OT Church the sufferings of the Messiah and so provided them with a Passion history that becomes clearer in the NT.
But yet, it can also be rightly said that in parts, the OT is clearer than the NT. Our text this evening is one of them. Whereas in the NT passion accounts we are told what is happening to Jesus, here in our psalm we have what is going on in Jesus’ mind. As we examine the first verses of this psalm tonight we will see that although the Messiah, Jesus, truly suffered and that this suffering was incomprehensible to Him, He still absolutely perfectly trusted His heavenly Father—all for us and our salvation.
1. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? Jesus speaks these words on the cross. He doesn’t quote them from the psalm; instead, He spoke them and this psalm had prophesied that He would speak them, that He would suffer and be forsaken of God. No person living here on earth can imagine what Jesus suffered on the cross as He was forsaken; no person knows what being forsaken by God really feels like. Although we all at times have suffered greatly in body or soul, we were still not forsaken by God. We might get a very slight inkling, but nothing near as to what that true forsakenness of God means. To be forsaken by God means that He takes away from us all help and protection, grace and comfort, all divine mercy. Even in the midst of our greatest sorrow and suffering, the Lord is still there with His love and grace.
The only ones to experience this utter forsakenness of God are the souls of the damned in hell. That’s precisely what hell is—the place where God has withdrawn any of His gracious presence. That is precisely what Jesus suffered on the cross—hell itself. Jesus was left without any comfort or consolation as He endured the tortures of the damned. Here was the deepest step, degree of His humiliation—suffering the very pangs of hell itself. So when we hear Jesus cry out from the cross My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? we are hearing Jesus cry out from the very depths of hell as the wrath of God is being poured out upon Him, when He is without any hope of deliverance—Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?—when God’s gracious presence has been completely removed from Him.
On the cross, Jesus was hanging between heaven and earth, cursed, receiving all of God’s wrath over sin. The darkness that covered the earth showed God turning His back on His Son, Jesus; showed that Jesus was forsaken; showed that Jesus was enduring the tortures of the damned. Here was the height, the climax of Jesus’ suffering. Jesus’ suffering was a true suffering beyond anything we can ever imagine.
What does Jesus then say about Himself? But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. Not only was Jesus greatly marred by the beatings and sufferings beyond human semblance—as Scripture (Is. 52.14) also prophesizes— Many were amazed at Him, for His appearance was more disfigured than any man and His form more than any person—but like a worm, a most lowly and helpless creature, winds back and forth in pain when it is stepped on, so now Jesus is cringing, squirming under the heel of the holy God. His sufferings—being forsaken by God and enduring His wrath—were more than a person could endure. His sufferings were so severe and degrading that He lost all dignity. But I am a worm, and no man.
On top of that, through the apostle, the Holy Spirit tells us [Gal. 3.13]: Christ…[became] a curse for us. Not only did Jesus bear our curses but He also became a curse and suffered the wrath of God on account of it. Here we come to the reason for Jesus’ suffering. When we hear Jesus cry out on the cross: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? as He suffers the very depths of hell, we remember that He had become a curse for us, that is, He had taken our sins upon Himself, made them His own, that (2 Cor. 5.21) He was made sin for us. In short, we remember that what Jesus suffered should have been suffered by us. Here is our greatest comfort—Jesus endured the very wrath of God, the very depths of hell, so we wouldn’t have to, so that we might be spared. Jesus’ words spoken from the midst of His hellish sufferings, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? point us to His great love of and mercy toward us sinners. His was a true suffering. But He only suffered because He took upon Himself our sins and what we deserve.
2. The Holy Spirit writes by the apostle (Heb. 5.7) that in the days of His flesh, [Jesus] had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. Jesus did that in Gethsemane (Mt 26.39): O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will but as You will. But yet, it was the Father’s will that Jesus drink the cup of suffering down to its very dregs, that He endure fully and completely all of God’s wrath for every sin of every single person ever to live. Our psalm: O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; and in the night season, and am not silent. There was to be no rest, no easement, no repose; there was no other way to bring about the salvation of the world. It had to come about by the suffering and dying of the God-man, Jesus; the once for all perfect sacrifice for sin.
For whatever reason, this eternal counsel of the Triune God—namely that the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, would become also a true man, put Himself under the Law to obey it for all people and to take upon Himself the sins of all to suffer God’s wrath and punishment and die, to pay the price and by this to reconcile sinful mankind with the Holy God—precisely this now appeared obscure to Jesus; He chose not to know it.
Now, on the cross, the sinless Son of God is forsaken by the Father; now on the cross the wrath of God over sin is being poured out on one who never sinned. Jesus prays for help, deliverance: My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; and in the night season, and am not silent, but there is none coming, just more suffering and forsakenness. This is totally incomprehensible to the Messiah: why is He, the sinless one, forsaken, enduring the very torments of hell? My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? He prays to the Father who is the only One who can help Him and rescue Him, who had the power, but He doesn’t. He doesn’t answer Jesus’ prayer. Jesus’ absolute faithful adherence is met with rejection by the Father. Christ doesn’t understand His rejection. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
On top of that, the Son, Jesus, was always the object of the Father’s love. Throughout His ministry, the Father (Mt. 3; 17) confirmed His love for the Son—This is My Son the Beloved. In Him I am well pleased—and even on the cross Jesus was still the object of supreme love—and yet He is still forsaken.
Jesus then in our text says: But You are holy, who inhabit the praises of Israel. God’s failure to deliver His Son is not due to injustice or weakness—He’s enthroned in heaven as the holy God. But because He’s holy, He’s separate from the wicked world, sinners and every wrong—but yet He allows Jesus to suffer in spite of His cries for help. God’s holiness is inconsistent with His refusal to answer; He shouldn’t allow the holy Son to suffer. God’s holiness didn’t fit with what was going on. That’s why Jesus suffering on the cross was incomprehensible to Him. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
On top of that was another inconsistency: Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You and were delivered; they trusted in You, and were not ashamed. The ancestors, the OT Israelites, who cried to the Lord for help—even when they had sinned greatly—were rescued. OT history shows that time after time He delivered them from their sufferings. That’s what they praised Him for! The OT people did not have futile hopes when they placed their trust in Him, but when the sinless Messiah cries out, the Father is silent and continues to forsake Him. Jesus’ suffering was incomprehensible: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
3. Yet, in spite of that Jesus continues in perfect love, trust and obedience to His heavenly Father. He still calls His Father My God, My God. There is no despair in Christ. He keeps looking to His Father in heaven in perfect trust and peace in spite of how incomprehensible it all was to Him, in spite of being utterly forsaken by Him. Jesus doesn’t at all, even once murmur against God. He remains steadfast in obedience and trust. In fact, He even praises the Father: But You are holy, who inhabit the praises of Israel.
This, too, is part of His work as our Savior—remaining faithful and obedient to God. We so often are not and complain about the way God is treating us; so often we despair of Him and His help. But Jesus is faithful. When we find ourselves murmuring against God and how He deals with us, let us repent of that sin and be comforted that even on the cross as He is suffering God’s wrath, even as He is utterly forsaken by Him, Jesus still loved and trusted Him. Jesus was obedient in everything/ way for us. In faith, let us receive and make it our very own.
By His perfect trust and obedience even as the Father pours out His wrath for the sins of all, Jesus’ words My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me is a holy prayer and a sacrifice. By this prayer, Jesus overcame and conquered the power of hell as He clung to God and claimed Him. Here was the first and only time that a holy, God-pleasing prayer ascended to God from hell—where in the midst of their forsakenness and torment, the damned only cry out against God. The very fact that on the cross, Jesus suffered the worst of hell, that utter and complete forsakenness, and still loved and trusted in His heavenly Father, shows that hell has been conquered—Jesus’ holy prayer arose from there: My God, My God why have You forsaken Me—I have not and will not abandon You. You are my dear loving heavenly Father.
Christ’s suffering was a real suffering, the suffering of hell. Although we all deserve to be forsaken by a righteous God, Jesus was forsaken for our sins and in our place. Because of His perfect obedience and trust we are now reconciled to God and are bold to approach Him for every grace and blessing certain that because of Jesus nothing can separate us from His love for us in Jesus. INJ Amen.