The Word - April 4, 2012 - FORSAKEN BY GOD

"At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock. At about three o'clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema Sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:45-46).

Well-known poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning in her poem "Cowper's Grave", In the 13th stanza elaborates on the scene of the cross and Jesus' cry, "Deserted!" "God could separate from His own essence rather, and Adam's sins have swept between the righteous Father. Yea, once, Emanuel's orphaned cry His universe has shaken; it went up single, echoless, 'My God, I am forsaken!"

Martin Luther actually set out to study this profound cry of Jesus. He studied for a long time, in solitude, without food or drink, in deep meditation. At last he rose from his chair and was heard to exclaim in amazement, "God forsaken of God; who can understand that?"

Beloved, our familiarity with these words has robbed them of their stark tragedy. Truly, "God forsaken of God" is a concept so tragic and mysterious, How can we understand it?

The first three sayings from the Lord on the cross were addressed to men. With this cry, however, Jesus addresses Himself to the Father. For the first three hours of daylight, the Lord's body had been exposed to the burning rays of the pitiless eastern sun. Infinitely worse than that, during the three hours of darkness, His soul, by being made sin, experienced the relentless crashing of the waves and billows of God's wrath.

But infinitely worse even than that, for the first time ever, before the universe was ever created, He experienced abandonment by God. And at the close of the six hour of darkness, He broke the silence and with a shuddering cry of desolation, from the Savior's lips came: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

Can you fathom even the surface of what happened there? These words of Jesus constitute the most desperate cry ever uttered in the annals of human history. In this cry we sense a darkness that is inscrutable, a depth that is immeasurable, and a desolation beyond understanding. Abandoned by His friends, surrounded by His enemies, no help, even from heaven, no voice angelic or divine that responded to the penetrating word, "WHY?"

"God Forsaken of God?" From the Old Testament prophet Isaiah comes the answer:"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes, we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to their own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the sins of us all." (Isaiah 53:5-6). Read the entire account from verse 1-12.