My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me

A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick


There were many strange happenings on the day Jesus was crucified:

It was a Roman soldier who spoke the startling truth - "Truly this must be the Son of God"

The sign over His head claiming Jesus to be the "King"

The temple curtain which was torn from top to bottom

The unexplained darkness at mid-day

The only one person who was sinless, died with a thief and a murderer

The soldiers gambling for His garments

But perhaps the most strange of all was this cry, "My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?"

And it raises some very difficult questions:

QUESTIONS:

    1. At baptism and on the mount of transfiguration a voice came from heaven saying, "This is my son in whom I am well pleased." Why don't we hear that affirmation now as He fulfills the plan of the ages? Just the opposite seems to be happening, the Father disowning His Son.

    2. The New Testament makes clear the unity of God the Father and God the Son: "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." "I and my Father are one." In light of this, how could even a momentary separation be possible? How can One whose essential identity is that He is One with the Father, how can He be separated from God? Is it possible that for a moment God forgot who Jesus was?

    3. Would God do that? Would He abandon His only begotten Son, and during His most difficult time of need?

    4. If Jesus can't be sure of the nearness of God in time of crisis, what hope is there for us?

    5. If this was a necessary part of the unique suffering of the Messiah, why didn't He know it?

    After all:

  • He saw Nathaniel under the fig tree

  • He knew that the woman at the well had 5 husbands

  • He accurately predicted Judas' defection and Peter's denial

  • He predicted His own death

    Then why would it seem appalling to Him that He is now to be forsaken by His Father?

ANSWERS:

    1. Perhaps Jesus was merely quoting, as every good Jew would do, that Psalm associated with the cry of the suffering, needy soul. Psalms 22

    No, obviously He was more than just quoting, rather, He was letting us know that His suffering was in fulfillment of this prophetic Psalm.

    2. Perhaps wanted us to know that He understood what it felt like, the feeling of being totally abandoned. But we must understand that His suffering was real; though momentary, His being distanced from His Father was actual.

    3. Maybe this was to remind us that the worst suffering is not physical - it's the realization of separation from God.

  • Jesus fully experiences the darkness

  • Jesus fully experiences the human condition of suffering alone

    4. Jesus fully bears the judgment on sin - i.e. separation from God. Carried on Him were all the sin and the sins of humanity, the rebellion, the disobedience, the waywardness, the self-centeredness, the deception, the cruelty, the mylife - our sins, so His Father had to turn away for a moment.

  • And so He experienced the darkness, "My God . . ."

  • He entered the darkness so we might know light.

  • He received raw hate so we might know unconditional love.

  • He accepted ridicule so we might feel acceptance.

  • He experienced loneliness so that we will never be alone.

  • He partook of pain so we may have hope of healing.

  • He experienced death so we might have eternal life.

  • Jesus said we can expect to be like our Master, but not in this - because He said it, we never need to say, "My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?"

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