4-2-99: Good Friday 1999 St. Mark's Lutheran Church

Mt 27:45,46 Watertown, WI

Pastor Jensen

Contemplate Christ's Cry

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The Gospel of Saint Matthew, 27:45 & 46

Introduction

Many years ago there was a man who had his office at his home. Because he was a very busy man, he and his wife had an understanding. That understanding was: when he was in his office, he was working and didn't want to be disturbed. The wife respected her husband's wish that he not be bothered while in his office. From time to time it would even occur that this husband would be so deeply involved in something that he would not come out at the set time for a meal, but even then his wife honored her husband's request and did not come to get him.

On one day this man awoke early, as was his custom, and went into his office. Breakfast came and went, but he did not come out of his office. This didn't bother his wife, after all it had happened before. But when the noon hour came and her husband did not come to the dinner table, she thought that perhaps something was wrong, because it wasn't like him to miss two meals straight.

Concerned about her husband, she went to her husband's office, carefully cracked open the door so as not to disturb him, and peaked inside. What she saw was her husband sitting in his chair, staring at the wall, deep in thought. She concluded that he must have been doing some intense contemplating to have missed two meals straight, so she carefully closed the door.

Hours passed. Supper time came and went and still her husband did not appear from his office. Now she was not concerned. Now she was a bit upset that her husband had not had the common courtesy to come out for any of the meals which she had prepared that day. Once again she went to his office, opened the door not so carefully this time, and said to her husband who was still staring at the same place on the wall, "Martin Luther what are you doing in here?! What is so important that you haven't come out for any meals?"

What was so important? What was so profound that Dr. Luther spent the entire day contemplating it? It was our text. He had been contemplating Christ's cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Christ's cry from the cross is worthy of our intense contemplation as well and as we contemplate Christ's cry, we see that it is a cry . . .

1) from the depth of damnation 2) a cry of innocence, and 3) a cry of perfect trust.

1. A Cry from the Depths of Damnation

As we contemplate Christ's cry the first thing we note is that it is a cry from the depths of damnation. "My God, My God, why have you FORSAKEN me?"

There on the cross, Jesus was forsaken by God. As we see Jesus on the cross God has left Him, totally abandoned Him in His hour of need. Nothing of God's goodness was to be found. God had withdrawn from Jesus every last ounce of love. Not even the tiniest glimmer or token of divine mercy was present or felt by Jesus.

At that ominous hour God would not even turn a tender eye toward Jesus. The Heavenly Father would not even look at His own Son. The Heavenly Father had previously delighted to announce, "This is my Son whom I love, with Him I well pleased." But now through His forsaking of Jesus, He was saying, "This is not my Son. I have no love for Him. With Him I am utterly disgusted!"

Nor would the Heavenly Father listen to Jesus' cry, His fervent prayer. God had forsaken Him. It was as if God had erected a hugh wall of separation between Himself and Jesus. With that wall God shielded all of His love from Jesus and shielded all of Christ's cries from reaching God. God would not listen to Jesus. He had so completely forsaken Jesus that the sound of Jesus' voice, had it ever reached God's ears, would have been utterly repulsive.

So complete was the separation from God which Christ experienced during that time that even as Christ cried out to the His Heavenly Father, He did not call out, "My Father, My Father," but rather, "My GOD, My GOD."

In the past Christ had always addressed God with the words, "My Father."

• As a twelve year old boy, when His mother found Him in the temple, He had said, "Didn't you know I had to be about my Father's business."
• In the Garden of Gethsemene He had turned to God in prayer, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me."
• During His entire ministry, Jesus had continually referred to God as His Father to express His special relationship with God.

But now, now on the cross we do not hear Christ refer to God as, "My Father." Now He is separated from the love of God. Now He has been damned by God.

On the cross as He cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?," Christ was suffering the depths of hell, damnation. Christ was forsaken by God, separated from God's love, and that's what damnation is, separation from God's love.

In mercy God does not totally withdraw His love from unbelievers in this life, but rather still shows His love for them by giving them life as a time of grace and still allows them to harvest and work for what they need. He still shows His goodness by giving them families and friends. For those who refuse to trust in God, God still shows them some goodness until they die in their sins and go to hell, where they are totally separated from all of God's love and goodness eternally.

But Christ did not need go to hell to suffer hell. He suffered hell there on the cross. There He was damned. There He was separated from God's love.

Christ's damnation on the cross was not only a case where God turned away His love from Him. Christ's suffering of hell wasn't merely God refusing to shower His love and mercy on Him, but also God raining down His full wrath on Him. During this time of anguish, Christ never once was the focus of God's love, but He was the focus of God's divine anger over sin.

2. A Cry of Innocence

But contemplate Christ's cry. "My God, My God, why have you forsaken ME?" "Why have you forsaken ME?" This is a cry of innocence. Christ did not ask this question for His own benefit. He asked the question for our benefit. He asks us to contemplate the question.

Contemplate who it was that asks this question. It was Christ. Of all the people for the Heavenly Father to forsake, why Him? Why His Son? Why the one whom He loved? Why the one with whom He was well pleased? Why had God forsaken the only man who could honestly and innocently ask, "Why have you forsaken me?"

God the Father forsook the only one who could honestly ask the question, "Why have you forsaken me?" in order to save us, the ones who could not honestly ask, "Why have you forsaken me?" We were the ones who turned our love away from God. Each us has forsaken God by daring to slap His holiness in the face. We have each abandoned God by giving His glory to ourselves. We have stabbed God in the back by putting other things first in our lives and in our hearts. To have forsaken God once in such a way would have been a terrible atrocity worthy of eternal punishment and damnation, but we have been so arrogantly bold as to continue to do it over and over again.

The answer to Christ's innocent cry, the answer which Christ knew well was: God had forsaken this man, Jesus, in the place of all mankind who had forsaken God. Jesus bore in His body on the cross the divine punishment for every last sin that has been committed or ever will be committed. God looking down from heaven knew every last sin and for each sin God's wrath was hurled down at Jesus like a divine thunder bolt which penetrated into every fiber of Jesus' being. Here was no token payment for sin, no down payment. Here the full payment for sin was being extracted from Jesus. Here God punished Jesus for every sin, starting with the very first sin of Adam and Eve and continuing right down to the last sin that will be committed before Judgment Day, and among those sins were every last one of your sins.

As Christ cried out from the cross, He was being forsaken by God so that you might never be forsaken.

• The Heavenly Father withdrew His love from Jesus, so that His love would rest on you.
• The Heavenly Father turned away from His Son, so that you would be His son or daughter from whom He will never turn away.
• God gave Christ the full cup of His wrath to drink that you might never taste of it in the least bit.
• The Heavenly Father refused to listen to Christ's cry for mercy, because He desired to hear even the faintest sigh whispered from your heart.
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3. A Cry of Perfect Trust

And what was Christ's reaction to the Heavenly Father turning His love away from Him? Did He then turn away from God? Did He begin to curse God for not being there for Him when He really needed Him? Did Christ forsake God when He was forsaken by God? Listen to His cry, "MY God, MY God, why have you forsaken me?" He calls out, "MY God, MY God." It is a cry of perfect trust.

Even as God was unleashing His divine wrath over sins against Him, Christ trusted in God.

• Even as being damned by God for the sins of the world, no curse was uttered from His lips.
• Even though God would not listen to Him, in perfect trust He cried out to God.
• Although God would no longer allow Jesus to call Him, "My Father," Jesus still delighted to call Him "MY GOD, MY GOD."

Even while being punished for all our sins, which all break the First Commandment, here on the cross our Savior was perfectly fearing, loving, and trusting God above all things. And He was doing it for us. So now each of us may now call the almighty God, "MY GOD" and even more preciously, "My Father."

Conclusion

"My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" The contemplation of this cry of Christ is truly a blessed one, when we realize that here in this phrase is the heart of our salvation.

But what particular aspect of this phrase had Luther spent the whole day contemplating? Luther remembered who this Jesus on the cross was. He wasn't just a sinless man. It was the second person of the Trinity who hung on that cross and endured the wrath of God. And when his wife Katherine came in and asked him what He was doing, her bewildered husband, still staring at the same place on the wall that he had been all day long, replied, "God forsaken by God! Who can understand it?" The answer is: No one. It is the height of all divine mysteries that God was forsaken by God that day on Calvary. Yet is the height of all comfort that God forsook Himself in order to save you. Amen.