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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Doesn’t it seem utterly shocking, surprising, and unexpected that the Son of God would be forsaken by the Father on the cross? Here, the sinless Son of God is abandoned, accursed, condemned. What could be more shocking than this? And yet it should not be surprising for us. We should not be surprised, especially for three reasons, three events that take place before this.
First of all, in the Garden of Eden, in the book of Genesis, God blessed Adam and Eve with every divine blessing. They’re the pinnacle of God’s creative work. He blessed them in every possible way, put just one boundary on them, one limit. “Do not eat from this tree, because on the day that you eat of it, it will kill you.”
With something forbidden, that seemed to become their focus. That’s what they wanted most. What is God withholding from us? How can he dare place a limit on us, they thought. They mistrusted, wanted to define good and evil, right and wrong, all on their own terms, without God. They rebelled and took of the fruit and ate.
And look at the results of this, the results of this rebellion and where the curse of God falls and where it does not fall. To the serpent, God says, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.”
To the man, Adam, God says, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.”
To the woman, Eve, God says, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
So where does the curse of God fall? God directly curses the serpent and the ground, but Adam and Eve do not receive the direct curse of God. Indeed, there is a death on that day. Corruption, sin enters the world. Some things become more difficult, but they are not forsaken even though they deserve it. The curse of God is deferred for another.
With this, we come to the second reason, the second event that explains the words of Christ. We come to the words that Jesus spoke. They were inspired many centuries earlier. This comes from the Psalm of David, Psalm 22. In the beginning of the psalm, David feels forsaken, left alone, rejected by God. David would indeed deserve this forsakenness. Recall his situation. God chose him even though he was the most unimpressive among the children of Jesse. Yet he raised him up in his mercy to the pinnacle king of Israel, blessed him in every possible way.
And how did David respond? He acted with deceit and lies and murder. In the psalm, David speaks both of himself and he also speaks of all Israel, the Old Testament church. David tells of God’s faithfulness throughout the ages, and thus the psalm turns from perceived forsakenness to hope and God’s deliverance through the ages.
David says later in the psalm, “You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel, for he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him.” David and Israel would not be utterly forsaken even though they deserved it. No, the curse, the ultimate disfavor of God would fall upon another. The Father would hide his face against another.
And so we come to the third event, the baptism of Jesus. Recall that scene in the Judean wilderness. There John the Baptist is giving a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And it’s said that the entire region of Judea and all of Jerusalem is coming out to him to receive this gift. And all who come there, their sins are washed away into the waters of the Jordan River.
On that day, the Jordan River is teeming with all the sins of those people and the sin of all humanity, and Christ takes all this upon Himself. The sinless Son of God receives the baptism meant for sinners because He becomes the sin-bearer. In the Jordan, He literally stands with sinners, taking the place of sinners, receiving from John the baptism that sinners receive.
What is it that happens? Paul says it so well in the book of 2 Corinthians. He says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Luther calls it the joyous exchange. We receive from him his blessing, his undeserved favor, his saving work in his blessed life, death, and resurrection for us. And he takes on our guilt, our shame, our brokenness.
Fast forward to the cross. While on the cross, the sinless Son of God is viewed by the Father as guilty of all sin of all people of all times. The guilt of all is laid on Him, even though He had no guilt. Our debt is transferred to Him. And so, deemed guilty for us, the Son of God is rightly forsaken by the Father on the cross.
And so Jesus says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In the name of Jesus, Amen.
