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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at the Gospel reading tonight, those words of Jesus,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
I think it’s safe to say that most, if not all, people like to be alone sometimes. But I think it’s also safe to say that no one likes to be forgotten. No one likes to be forgotten on their birthday or any other special times to them, and more so, no one likes to be forsaken. In Jesus’s words tonight, most Bible translations used forsaken in this verse. Some of them use abandoned or even forgotten, but I think forsaken is the best because it just seems stronger. Stronger than forgotten or abandoned.
Forsaken, really it means completely abandoned or completely forgotten, completely helpless. Jesus already knew what being forgotten was like. He was forgotten by his parents once when they left him behind in Jerusalem—forgotten but not forsaken because they did go back for him and found him in the temple. Jesus was forgotten by his disciples, in the Garden of Eden—sorry about that—the Garden of Gethsemane. But Jesus was forgotten and not forsaken because he was still with Heavenly Father in prayer in the garden. But now, on the cross, he’s forgotten even by his father.
Jesus is forsaken, completely abandoned, and completely helpless. No one’s on his side at this point on the cross. He’s alone, he’s abandoned, helpless, forsaken. God’s not coming to help him. Elijah’s not coming either. Perhaps it’s accurate to say that literally, Jesus was left for dead. Now, these words, there’s all kinds of theological discussion about it, about how God the Father forsook his own son. Did God really forsake him? Jesus is God, so how can God forsake him completely?
Well, to be honest, that’s a whole another sermon, or a Bible class to talk about that, or a discussion over adult beverages, perhaps is even better. But Martin Luther questioned this actually too and asked this, God forsaken by God, who can fathom that? But Luther goes on to say about these words, he says, we can look at it this way: the Father turned his face away from Jesus, the Son of Man, who was laden with the sins of humanity, without forsaking the sinless Son of God who was and remained part of the Trinity even in His crucifixion.
Yeah, it’s still confusing, I know. But who can fathom it really that Jesus and His Father remain one and yet being forsaken by God? Well, maybe we can explain it this way: yeah, Jesus is God, but he’s also human; he’s both. And that’s what was forsaken—his humanness—that the human Jesus, the sinless Son of Man, Jesus who took on all of the sins of the world of all people and took them to the cross and dies with them there.
At this point in the crucifixion, with all of the sins of the world on him, of every human being, of all of humanity, all of that on him, even God the Father cannot bear to look at him; he forsakes him. Now, no matter your theological take on these words, they truly reflect pain and suffering for Jesus. Even if Jesus really wasn’t being forsaken by his father, he really feels that way and expresses that, “Why have you forsaken me?” They’re powerful words; they’re very faithful words.
Because in those words, Jesus is carrying out fulfilling prophecy about his suffering and death that goes back to King David in the Psalms that we’ve read tonight, Psalm 22, which Jesus basically quotes on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He’s not just quoting the psalm; he’s fulfilling God’s plan for this suffering Messiah to come into the world and to even be forsaken by his father.
These are very faithful words of Jesus from the cross—that he’s forsaken so that we would not be forsaken. And we aren’t forsaken, but there sure can be times when we feel like it. Sometimes, times when maybe when you think, say, or do something that is so bad that it causes you to feel that there’s no way, no way that God wants to associate with me, much less forgive me. Your sin is so evil, so disgusting, so ugly that not even you can look at it, much less God look at it. I think you know the sins that I’m talking about.
Sins that can really hurt other people. Sins that you plan and carry out with great malice. Sins that lie or deceive or cheat on purpose. Sins that are sexual in nature? Sins that you know darn well are wrong, and you do them anyway. Sins that you never thought that you would commit and even vowed not to—maybe even sins that you actually enjoyed. Yeah, those may make you feel forsaken by God, and deservedly so, because simply put, God can’t look at sin.
The Old Testament book of the prophet Habakkuk says of God, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.” And yet, there we are, evil and in wrongdoing, and you may feel completely forsaken by God, completely abandoned, completely helpless, even left for dead. But it’s for this reason, for your sin and what it does to you and others, that Jesus is on the cross dying and being forsaken anyway. That’s why he’s there—because of those evil, disgusting, ugly sins that you commit.
He’s there suffering for you, to pay for your sins. He’s there being forsaken for you and being forsaken so that you would not be. Everything happening to him—being forsaken, abandoned, completely helpless, left for dead—that should be you and should be me, but it’s not. For Jesus, no one is coming to help him. Elijah doesn’t come to save him, but it’s because Jesus has no need of help in this situation. He’s doing exactly what he came to do for you—to be forsaken so that you would not be.
He’s forsaken because of all the ugly sin that he’s bearing, and Jesus’ words aren’t even a cry for help, but they’re from the depth of your death and despair, suffering what you and I should be suffering. When we see Jesus forsaken and abandoned on the cross, this is our sin and death that’s being abandoned and forsaken. In our sin, we should be completely abandoned and forsaken by God; we should be left for dead, but we’re not because Jesus is faithful.
And because of that, God does not forsake us. In fact, just the opposite, God has words of life for you—words of life from the cross, words that give life even in the death of our sin and how bad it can be. We hear words of life tonight in Jesus because they are faithful words—again, faithful to carry out God’s plan of salvation, faithful in suffering and death and being forsaken.
Jesus is faithful to carry out what God wants for us—to forgive us, to forgive any evil, disgusting, ugly sin and pay for them with his life. We may forsake God, but he does not forsake us. We may not be faithful, but he is. Christ is faithful on the cross because he has faith in the promise that God would not forsake him either. Jesus was going to live again.
Jesus is forsaken for this time on the cross—very temporary—because three days later, he would rise again, fulfilling Psalm 16 that says, “You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.” And he did not see decay because we know three days later, Jesus was alive again and still is. Jesus is faithful; he is with us so that we’ll never be forsaken, ever by God—in our needs, in our death, or on the day of judgment on the last day.
So if you don’t like being forgotten, or forsaken, or abandoned by God because of your sin, got good news: God has not forsaken you! Jesus, God’s Son, was forsaken for you—in place of you. Your evil, disgusting, ugly sin was piled on him, carried to the cross, nailed it there, and paid for it there.
I like to look at the event of the crucifixion in light of Jesus’s words here—being forsaken. Think about it just physically—what’s going on: Jesus on the cross. He’s suspended between heaven and earth; he’s not touching either one. He’s stuck in between. He’s forsaken by earth and by heaven. Earth has put him on the cross and is killing him; God the Father is forsaking him, turning his eye from him. Jesus literally is in no man’s land, hanging on the cross.
That’s how much he’s willing to suffer for you—to be in that place where no other person can go, stuck between earth and heaven, and dies there. That’s how faithful Jesus is to do that, even under such circumstances—to be forsaken for you so that you are never forsaken by God. May God grant it and bless us with it. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
