Forsaken

Happy Sunday. Welcome back to our study on the seven last sayings of Jesus. While on the cross, Jesus did some remarkable teaching. Today's lesson from the fourth word is painful, to say the least.

Before we get to it, I want us to look at some Old Testament teaching. The story I'm about to tell you is found in Leviticus chapter 16. As the chapter begins, Moses is given instruction for a very special day, the Day of Atonement. Our Jewish friends still celebrate it; it's known as Yom Kippur.

In Leviticus 16, God initi- initiates this special day. Moses is told to have Aaron sacrifice a young bold and a ram as sin offering for his own sins. Aaron is to wear special garments. He's then to select two goats. One of the goats is to be sacrificed as a sin offering covering all the people, and the other goat is released into the wilderness as a scapegoat.

That's where the phrase came from. The scapegoat carried the sins of the people away. I want to read two verses from Leviticus 16. There verses 21 and 22:

"Then Aaron shall lay his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region, and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness."

Back to the cross, where Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. As Jesus is on the cross, he is now the scapegoat for the sins of all people, including me, including you, including all people past, present, and future until the end of the world. Now we get to the fourth word. It's found in Matthew chapter 27, verses 45 and 46.

Matthew tells us, "From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, lama,' that is, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" This is the toughest of Jesus's seven sayings. This one hurts me as I listen. Today we try and make sense of the most bizarre event in history, God on a cross, and we try and make sense of the words "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

What's happening here? Is Jesus really forsaken? To understand what's going on, let's look at some more scripture. Galatians 3:13 tells us, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'"

Second Corinthians 5:21 tells us, "For our sake he made him," God made Jesus, "to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." From the Old Testament, we look at prophecy from Isaiah 53:6: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." On the cross, Christ became a curse. On the cross, Christ became sin. On the cross, Christ became iniquity.

At that moment, when Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus took on all the sin of the world, all of mine, all of yours, all of creations. And at that moment God could not look. Habakkuk 1:13 tells us this about God: "Your eyes are too pure to uphold evil, and you cannot look at any wrongdoing." God's too pure to behold evil.

It seems that at this moment God turned his back on Jesus, and Jesus, for the first time, is alone. Jesus knew what it was like to be forsaken, somewhat. He was forsaken at times by his family. He was forsaken at times by his hometown, by his disciples. He was forsaken by the nation that he came to save, and now Jesus was forsaken by the Father.

At that moment Jesus became sin, and all of us know that sin separates us from God. For the first moment from before time began, Jesus is out of communion with God. It's noon, and we are told that the darkness covered the land. We don't know if it was dark just in Jerusalem or if there was darkness over the whole earth. I think it was probably the entire planet, maybe the solar system.

Some have suggested that it went dark because God was throwing a veil over the suffering Christ. If you were to dig into the Old Testament, you would find that darkness is used in scripture as a symbol of judgment. Here God is saying the judgment had occurred for the whole earth. In saying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me," please do not think that Jesus is suffering a crisis of faith. This is not a crisis of faith; this is a declaration of faith, a declaration of fact.

What Jesus is doing here is reciting scripture. Listen to the words of Psalm 22:

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but do not find an answer, and by night, but find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel, and your own in- in you our ancestors trusted. They trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame."

As Jesus began quoting Psalm 22 from the cross, he was also expressing trust and praise from that psalm. This is an amazing word from Jesus. Two thousand years later, how do we apply this? Don't take Easter for granted. Know your sin is no longer yours; if you're a Christian, it's been taken care of.

Know that the greatest price was paid for your sin, and know that sin breaks God's heart. Pray with me. Father, in that word from the cross we see suffering, and we see the amazing moment when you took away our sin and gave us your righteousness, not self-righteousness, but yours. Father, help us to trust you and to accept that forgiveness that you suffered so for.

Thank you for this word that, while it is hard, it gives us hope, because we now know that we are forgiven for our sins. Thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless.