This series of meditations on the seven utterances made by our Lord Jesus in the hours when he was hanging on the Cross were originally given at Communion services, and subsequently produced as booklets.
This is the link to the Audio version of the meditation CR 4 – “My God, my God, Why…” – Audio
My God, My God, Why…?
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?” Matt 27:45,46
In Jerusalem, at the time of the year called “Passover”, the midday sun beats down relentlessly, encouraging travellers to find whatever relief they can in the shade. On the day when Jesus died, however, it was different. At twelve noon the skies went as dark as midnight and remained that way for three hours. About 150 years later, the Christian apologist Tertullian, pleading the cause of Christ and his church to a persecuting Roman Government wrote, “Look in your own archives and you will see that it was recorded there was a strange darkness at midday for three hours at the time when this man died in Judea.”
Deep darkness just seemed to wrap round this fourth cry of our Lord, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But is it any wonder the sun refused to shine? Surely this was the most anguished, agonized, mysterious cry in the whole of human history. It is also – as we shall see – the cry most pregnant with meaning, with grace and with hope. What do I hear in this cry?
First,
I Hear ANGUISH in this Cry
“My God, why…?” How often has that bewildered cry been wrung from the lips of the sufferer?
Why has my loved one been taken?
Why have I lost my child?
Why have my hopes and dreams been dashed?
Why is my body racked day after day and night after night with unrelieved pain?
Why is my heart broken with unrequited love?
My God, WHY?
Maybe someone reading this meditation is asking this very question, right now. There seems to be neither end nor purpose to your suffering. You cry out to God, either because you cannot understand how a God of infinite love can permit this for one of his children, or because, since he alone knows the reason why he would do so, you also would like to know. Certainly, you can find no reason yourself. Like Jesus, whose anguished cry pierced the darkness, so does yours. You cannot help it. My God, WHY?
“Forsaken.“ What a meaningful, heart-rending, anguish word this is also. To be forsaken, abandoned, cast off, deserted, is always hurtful; to be forsaken of God is worst of all. This cry has been called “The Cry of Dereliction.”
Children, sometimes, are forsaken by their parents. How terrible and tragic. When I was last in Brazil at a missions conference I remember meeting one young woman, the daughter of missionaries, who was dedicating her life to working among abandoned children in Sao Paulo. I have heard of people who do not want the dog anymore, or the cat. They drive out someplace, open the car door, and tip the unfortunate animal out, leaving it to scavenge or die. That is unconscionable cruelty, but who could do that to a child? And yet, she told me, in this city of ten million people, there are many, many, abandoned every day. They are forced to live by their wits from garbage cans, sleeping wherever they can find a little shelter. These children are horribly abused as well as abandoned. And right in the centre of all that, in downtown Säo Paulo, she was there with others in a team, trying to reach these children with the love of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Parents are sometimes forsaken by their children. Maybe in their sunset years, just when they need the children most to call, to write, to visit – they are cruelly abandoned. It is heartbreaking. Friend sometimes forsakes friend. Most of Jesus’ friends forsook him at the end. Wives are being increasingly forsaken by husbands and husbands by wives. The Bible speaks about the fact that the church should always be a haven and a loving source of grace to widows and orphans. The widows and orphans of today include those women and children who have been abandoned. They also cry.
Physical pain is hard to bear – and crucifixion may be the cruellest death that man has devised – but there are pains of the heart that are worse, and misery of the soul beyond endurance.
The Lord Jesus uttered no cry of anguish when they nailed his tender flesh to the cross. Instead, he prayed, “Father, forgive them.” He uttered no cry of pain as he gasped in agony with every breath. Instead, he had words of hope and assurance for the penitent criminal suffering beside him. Jesus was silent when his tormenters walked by and mocked him. When he spoke, it was to make provision for his mother, committing her to the care of his most loved disciple.
At last, however, after six hours, an anguished cry is rent from his lips. What is it? It is not, “Why did Judas betray me?” It is not, “Why did Peter deny me?” He does not cry, “Why, oh why, did my disciples desert me?” No doubt those things hurt him deeply. But this was the worst by far, “My God, my God, why have YOU forsaken me?”
O what anguish of soul when love is severed. If you love someone deeply even temporary parting is painful. That is why we see the soldier’s wife weeping at the airbase or the widow weeping at the grave. It is worse when love is replaced by misunderstanding or by anger. Where once there had been such oneness, love, and joy, now a cloud has come. There is a rift, a gulf. The deeper the love and the closer the bond, the worse the pain when something seeks to destroy it.
And that is one aspect of what the Lord Jesus was going through, for there had never been a love either before, or since, like the love of the Son for the Father, and the Father the Son. It was a perfect love. It was and is eternal. All other loves that we might have, are but a pale reflection of the intensity, the union, and the oneness of the love of the Father for the Son. Yet, here on the cross Jesus is undergoing the awful anguish of separation, when God replaces love with wrath.
C.H. Spurgeon said, “I do not think that the records of time or even of eternity contain a sentence more full of anguish… Here you may look as if into a vast abyss, and though you strain your eyes, and gaze until sight fails you, yet you perceive no bottom. It is measureless, unfathomable, inconceivable, this anguish of the Saviour on your behalf and mine. It is no more to be measured and weighed than the sin which needed it, or the love which endured it. We will adore where we cannot comprehend.”
Second
I Hear MYSTERY in this Cry
Whenever has a righteous man or a woman, I ask, been deserted of God at the point of death? It is usually the very opposite. When we read our biographies, history books, and testimonies, the Godly man or woman finds at the point of death God very faithful and close. David said, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and staff comfort me” (Psalm 23:4). No dereliction there.
The apostle Paul, writing to Timothy from prison, and facing death, writes in heartrending words of being deserted by almost everyone. But then he says, “The Lord stood at my side, and gave me strength” (2 Timothy 4:17).
So has been the experience of saints and martyrs when they have come to the end of the journey. The Lord has stood by them and given them strength; and sometimes even more radiance at the stake, or in the arena, or before the executioner than at any other time. Like Stephen of old they see the doors to Heaven opened and the Lord waiting to carry them home to their reward. As they come to the river, on the other side they glimpse the Glory.
One of my most vivid childhood memories is an event which happened a few days before the death of my mother when I was seven years old. She had contracted rheumatic fever when she was a child which led to valvular heart disease in adult life. I hardly remember her as anything but an invalid who for the last years of her life was confined to bed.
One day from her bed in a ground-floor room, she called my father’s name, “Jim, Jim.”
There was such an unexpected strength and excitement in her voice that not only did my father rush to her side but my grandmother and I entered the room also. I distinctly recall that my mother was sitting up in bed and leaning forward away from her piled-up pillows. She appeared to be gazing upward and had a radiant look on her face which I had never before seen, nor ever since forgotten.
“What is it, dear?” asked my father. “What is it?”
“Oh Jim,” she said – not looking at him but continuing to gaze upward with such intensity that I looked upward also – “Oh Jim, I have just seen Jesus.”
“Have you, my dear? What was he like?”
“Oh Jim,” my mother replied, “He was all shining and his arms were outstretched towards me.”
I think some more questions were asked of her but my father and grandmother were crying and I was taken from the room. A few days later my mother went to Heaven to those welcoming arms.
My mother was not forsaken, quite the reverse. On her death bed the Lord in his tenderness made his Presence known to her in this remarkable way.
As a pastor I have been privileged to visit with other saints of the Lord who have known that special Presence in their last hours. So much so that, though I confess to be afraid of pain, I am not afraid to die. I know my Lord will not forsake me. He will be there when the time comes.
But not so the Lord Jesus. Yet Jesus was the most righteous man who ever lived; the only human being who could truly say, “I always do the will of my Father.” Nevertheless, he was apparently forsaken in his most severe moment of need; seemingly abandoned at his hour of death. So he thought, and so he declared.
Perhaps you think he was mistaken. Perhaps you think his mind was confused, damaged by his dreadful injuries and suffering. This sometimes happens so that the person speaks out of character and we say, “He is not himself.” There is a very close interdependency between body, mind, and spirit. When someone is severely, physically ill other aspects of their human nature can be adversely affected. When faced with their groans and utterances we must make due allowance. They are not responsible. They say things they would not otherwise say or believe. Is this the explanation for this mystery? Was Jesus mistaken? Had his mind collapsed? I do not believe so. He had refused a proffered drink because it contained some anaesthetic. He would have his mind kept clear. No, he was not mistaken, for reasons we shall describe.
Or perhaps you think this was due to Satan’s attack. Surely Satan, should he be permitted to do so, would attack a man or woman of God, even in their dying hours? You bet he would. Satan has no mercy and is the very personification of vindictiveness. Add to that the fact that Satan hates Jesus Christ more than he has hated any other human being. Furthermore, Satan is the father of lies and will seek to persuade the believer that he is deserted of God even when no such desertion has taken place. All that is true. Satan is and does all those things and many more.
Satan was undoubtedly at Golgotha that day – the betrayal, the desertion, the cruelty, the injustice, the mockery, and the murder prove that – but Satan is not the explanation for the Savior’s agonized cry. He spoke what was real. Jesus of Nazareth, love incarnate, was forsaken of God. What a mystery!
But there is another aspect to the mystery of this cry of dereliction. How can God be deserted by God? Is Jesus not God in the flesh? Does not the Gospel of John begin with these words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1,14).
Did not the Lord Jesus say, John 8:58, “Before Abraham was born, I AM!” The Jewish authorities rightly recognized that as a claim to Deity, and took up stones to stone him, the penalty by law for blasphemy.
Jesus said to his disciples. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. I and my Father are one” (John 14:9,10; 10:30). The Apostle Paul wrote, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). How then can God be deserted by God?
The great Reformer, Martin Luther, set himself to study this verse. He fasted. He spoke to no one for hours. He sat still, not moving, like as if he was in a trance. And then he began to walk around the room and he began to say, “God, forsaken of God. Who can understand that?”
No one can completely understand it. I think it relates to the fact that our Lord Jesus was two Natures in one Person. Fully divine, yet fully human. And here he was, the Man, Jesus of Nazareth, dying on the cross, forsaken of God.
By the way, do you know that Jesus always addressed God as his Father except this one time. Even on the cross he prayed “Father, forgive them…” But during those three dark hours he addressed his Father as, “My God, my God…”
Surely the ground on which we are standing is holy ground.
Third,
I Hear GRACE in this Cry
Why? The Lord asks the question “Why?” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
We want to know that too. Why? Why must this beautiful life end like this? Why must these compassionate healing hands be nailed to a cross like this? Why must the One who dwelt in love with the Father from all eternity, be separated from that love? “Father, why did you forsake Jesus? Why did the sky go dark? What is taking place here? Will you explain it to us?”
Yes, God has explained it to us. His explanation is in the Bible. You could almost say that God’s explanation of the Cross IS the Bible from beginning to end. The Bible is God’s Word to mankind and its message centres on the Cross. As we have said, there are some aspects of the Cross which are beyond our understanding but other aspects God has made as plain and simple as possible. More than anything God wants all of us to understand the message of the Cross and why Jesus, His Son, uttered this awful cry. Then, having heard the message we must act upon it. The Father’s answer to you and me is, “You ask me, ‘Why the Cross?’ You want to know why my Son had to die? My Son came for you. He died for you. We were separated for you. Sinner, don’t you realize that?”
“For me, Father? Tell me how.”
Here is a brief explanation.
God, Man and Sin
God is holy and cannot look upon sin. That does not mean that he does not know about it and see it, because God is omniscient and sees and knows everything. He is God. It means he can have no fellowship with it for God is light, and sin is darkness, and in him there is no darkness at all. Because he is holy, God is revolted by sin and he must turn away from it.
Man is sinful. Sin is not some abstract thing. Sin is what sinners do and say and think. So, the sinful things we do and say and think are offensive to him. Is that a strange concept? It should not be. Even we are sometimes revolted by sin and angry with the sinner. Think of how you feel when faced with terrible cruelty – especially to a child – or the violence of an abusive husband who beats his wife, or ugly examples of greed or malice. Could anyone see the movie “Schindler’s List”, or read about the Holocaust and not be repulsed? Well, if we, who ourselves are sinners, can experience the kind of revulsion we sometimes do at the worst examples of human behaviour can we not begin to understand that God, who is pure light and holiness, is revolted by ALL sin – including yours and mine.
Not only that, God is also JUST and must punish the sinner. He cannot merely turn away and ignore it. Is that also a strange concept? Again, it should not be. Once more we have that reflected in ourselves. God, who is the Source of all true justice, has made us in his image, and we desire that criminals are punished for their evil deeds. When a terrorist plants a bomb which kills innocent bystanders; when a little child is abducted, tortured, and murdered; when someone cheats elderly people of their life savings with tricks and lies; we do not say, “Oh dear, never mind, it doesn’t matter.” Our whole being cries for justice. Many believe that certain offenses even deserve the death penalty.
Do you know that the Bible says that God pronounced the death penalty upon ALL sin? Not only murders – every sin. Your sins and my sins. The Bible says, “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20) and “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). It does not mean physical death only. It is referring to spiritual death, and eternal death; the anguish of being shut out from the glorious and gracious presence of God for ever. The Bible speaks of it as “outer darkness.” Shut out into darkness. God has appointed a Judgment Day.
The Meaning of the Cross
Here is the Good News. God is not only holy and just, he is also loving and kind and full of grace. No sooner had sin entered the world but God promised a Savior. Do you remember how even in the Garden of Eden God came seeking, and God came calling. Adam and Eve had sought to hide from God and cover their shame with leaves – the first effort of man to try to deal with his sin in his own way and by his own efforts. But that would not do. Having drawn them out to confess their sins God graciously covered them with the skin of an animal which had been slain. God was showing them that if they were not to suffer the penalty of eternal death then “someone” must die in their place. But the death of a lamb or a kid was only a temporary expedient. It could not take away sin or satisfy the justice of God. God promised Eve that one day Someone would be born of woman who would do that – but only at tremendous cost to himself.
At last, after thousands of years of symbols and signs, prophecies and rituals, the Lord Jesus came and the promises were fulfilled. Calling attention to Jesus, John the Baptist cried, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). So, Jesus went to die on the cross for us, condemned as if he were the worst sinner that ever lived.
Listen to the Scriptures:
“We all like sheep have gone astray, and each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6
“God made him, who had no sin, to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor. 5:21
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us.” Galatians 3:12
“For Christ died for sins once for all to bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3:18
God looked upon his own beloved Son as if he were a murderer, an idolater, a blasphemer, a fornicator, a liar, a cheat, a hypocrite, and every other kind of sinner that a man can be. In his holiness God was revolted and turned away and in his justice God was angry and smote his own Son. But we have said Jesus was a righteous man and a Godly man? The only truly sinless man. Yes, Jesus died as our representative and substitute. This was all for us. Theologians call it, “Substitutionary Atonement.” It is the very heart of the Christian Gospel. Hymn-writers usually put it more simply:
Bearing shame and scoffing rude
In my place condemned he stood.
Sealed my pardon with his blood
Hallelujah! What a Savior. Philipp Bliss, 1838-76
And the darkness. What was the darkness? Nobody has ever been able to explain it. It cannot have been an eclipse of the sun because Passover was always at the full moon. Some have said it was nature protesting at what was taking place. The creation mourning for the death of its Creator; for the hands nailed to the cross were the ones that fashioned the stars, and the voice now crying out in anguish, was the same voice that in the beginning said, “Let there be light.” No wonder the sun hid its face.
However, I believe it was more than that. It was because darkness is a symbol of sin. And darkness is a picture of judgment and eternity without God. So, there was darkness for those three hours as Jesus hung on the cross because he went into outer darkness, bearing the darkness of night for sin, for you and me. Now, do you understand it?
Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut its glories in
When Christ the mighty Maker died
For man the creature’s sin. Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
A Vital Question
Now the most important question of all for the reader: What have you done about it?
This salvation which Christ bought for us on the Cross is a gift which we must accept. The Bible says: “The wages of sin is death but the GIFT OF GOD is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Are you sure you have received this gift? Are you certain that you are saved? If you were to die tonight, do you know, beyond any doubt, that you would go to Heaven – not saved by something you have done but by receiving Jesus Christ?
Let me tell you a true story of Joan of Arc, the heroine of France. Born in 1412 in Domrémy, a little village on the Meuse, she was the illiterate daughter of a ploughman. As a young girl she claimed to have visions that she would lead the French armies to victory against the English and the Burgundians, who had been at war with France for decades. It was called the “Hundred Years War.”
Of course, at first people regarded her as slightly mad, but eventually she was taken to the pretender king, King Charles. He was impressed that she knew him notwithstanding his heavy disguise. So, though only seventeen, she was given a suit of armour, a sword, and a battalion to lead.
To the astonishment of all France, she began to enjoy victory after victory. She even took the great city of Orleans. That is why she is always called the “Maid of Orleans.” She was wounded but she bravely fought on, until in 1429 Charles was crowned king.
Later, intent upon trying to add to her successes, Joan was captured. She was tried by the English as a witch, was found guilty, and when that verdict was endorsed by the Paris ecclesiastical court, she was burned alive in the market place in Rouen. She was nineteen years old.
The French government wanted to do something to honour her memory. They discovered that the village from whence she came, Domrémy, owed a tremendous debt of taxes, which they never could pay. An emissary was sent from the king who asked for the book which recorded all the inhabitants and the terrible debts they each owed. Then on each page it was written, “Debts remitted for the Maid’s sake.” Page after page, name after name, “Debts remitted for the Maid’s sake.”
In Heaven there are also books? One for each of us. They too are full of debts, all the sins that we have committed. There is only this difference: some are awaiting the Judgment, while others have this written across them in red, “Debts remitted for the Son’s sake.”
What does it say on yours? If you are not sure – make sure.
It is not to do with being a Baptist, or a Presbyterian. It is not to do with being a Roman Catholic or a Protestant. It is to do with being a sinner in need of grace, and coming and saying, “Oh God, have mercy on me a sinner, for Christ’s sake. I believe he died for me, was forsaken for me, and I trust in him and him alone as my Saviour.”
Even though you pray that prayer in simple stumbling words that is all that it requires, and the moment you do that, written across the page, are the words, “Sins All Gone. Debts Remitted for Jesus’ sake.”
YOU cannot pay for your sins. Some people think that by doing good deeds or going to church or giving money or keeping the Ten Commandments, their sins will be wiped out. Good though these things are, even though you did them all diligently and even perfectly – which nobody does or can – that could never erase even ONE sin. Only the blood of Christ can do that. If we could buy or earn our own salvation would Jesus have left Heaven and died on the Cross? Of course not. The Cross was the only way. Jesus said. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no-one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Now I MUST tell you something more that I can hear.
I Hear A WARNING in this Cry
What if you reject him? Does it matter? Indeed. it does.
My friend, if you are unsaved, I would be an unfaithful messenger if I did not tell you that this cry of dereliction is the eternal cry of all those who have chosen to reject the Saviour. The cry of Hell is exactly this cry, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” It is a cry that goes on day after day after day, night after night, on and on and on. If you die in your sins that is what you will cry, with no escape. There is no road from Hell to Heaven.
I know we do not hear much about this nowadays. It is unfashionable. But the great question is not, is it fashionable, or is it palatable, but is it true?
If you doubt it, I suggest you study Matt 25:31-46, Luke 12:5, Luke 16:19-31, Rev 20:10-15. I cannot avoid it. It horrifies me. But if it were not so, Jesus would never have needed to die. From what would he have needed to save us?
Do you know that our loving and tender Lord Jesus spoke more of Hell than anyone else in the Bible. That is because he knows what it is like and he does not want anyone to go there. He does not want you to go there.
That is why he died for you.
Some people have thought that Jesus went to Hell after he died (“He descended into Hell…”). Personally, I do not believe that. I believe he went to Heaven. I do think, however, that in a sense he went to Hell BEFORE he died, because there on the Cross he took all the punishment – the eternal, spiritual, awful punishment – for your sins and for mine. The Cross tells us how much God hates sin but also to what amazing lengths God has gone, in love and grace, to save the sinner.
The holiness, justice, love, and grace of God all meet at the Cross.
Finally,
I Hear HOPE in this Cry
It might seem strange to you that this cry, which appears on the surface so hope-LESS, should give me hope. But so it is.
In our modern way of speaking “hope” is a rather “iffy” word. That is, to say it speaks of things which might or might not come to pass; we just “hope so”. We say, “I hope it will be a nice day for our picnic,” but we have no assurance whether it will be or not. Maybe it will rain. “Hope” in the Christian vocabulary is quite different. It is being certain of what you do not see and assured of the glory of what is yet to come.
Here are just four of the unseen certainties that hope brings to my heart when I come to the Cross and hear this cry.
a. The Certain Hope of Sins Forgiven
We have gone over this one. Because Jesus paid the price for my sin – all of it – I will never have to pay.“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Sins past, present and yes, even future have been covered by his blood.
b. The Certain Hope of His Compassion and Care
Always remember Jesus knows how you feel and what you are going through. He has been there. Before he ever came to the Cross he knew loneliness, sorrow, exhaustion, disappointment, depression, temptation, desertion, and betrayal. On the Cross he knew terrible pain physical, emotional and spiritual – and then (so it is said by doctors) died of a broken heart.
Furthermore, Jesus not only knows your pain, he feels it with you. Again and again we read that Jesus was “moved with compassion.”
Some people seem to believe that because Jesus rose again and ascended to Heaven, he now does not feel our pain. Isn’t he moved with compassion any more? Of course he is. We read how Jesus wept in sympathy and grief. Doesn’t he weep any more? Of course he does. When Saul of Tarsus was murdering Christian men, women, and children because of their faith in Christ, Jesus asked him, “Why are you persecuting ME?” (Acts 9:4) He didn’t say “them”, he said “…ME”.
The Jesus you read of in the Gospels is the same Jesus who hears your heart-cry and stores up your tears. The Bible says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). And one day he will wipe every tear from your eyes and mine, and we will never cry again. Hallelujah!
Yes, Jesus knew all these things that you and I have to contend with, save one. He did not know the awful pain of guilt and shame because he never sinned. However intense the temptation – and it was more intense than any temptation you or I have ever undergone – he had the victory.
Until the Cross. Then he was “made to BE SIN.” Just think of that. This beautiful, sinless man suddenly knew the agony and the guilt and the shame of having committed every sin in the book.
When you feel that indescribable shame for something you have done and you wish – O how you wish – you could put back the clock and not have done that thing. If only you could erase it from your record and your memory. Then remember God, for Christ’s sake has erased it and God, for Christ’s sake has forgotten it. It is as if you had never done it.
But more; Christ knows what you are feeling because he once felt it too – only far, far worse. Even here he shares our pain.
Brother, sister however dark your day, whatever your torments of the night, however intense your suffering, could you kneel at the Cross and hear this anguished cry and still say, “Lord Jesus, you just don’t know what I am going through and I don’t think you care.” I doubt it. I certainly could not. I KNOW he cares. I am certain of it.
c. The Certain Hope of His Presence
Jesus cried this cry of dereliction so that you and I need never cry it. He was forsaken of God so that you and I would never be. Not now, not ever. Once you trust in Christ and belong to him you can never be forsaken. He ALWAYS keeps his promises and he has said “Never will I leave; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Others may forsake you, Jesus never will.
Now there may be times when you might FEEL forsaken. We do not always sense the Presence of the Lord. We walk by faith, not by sight.
He has never promised that life will be easy. He calls upon disciples to carry a cross. Though we are his children he sometimes (for his own purposes) allows us to suffer grief and pain. We must trust him even when we do not understand his ways. We must trust him in the dark as we do in the light. He does not explain all his ways. He is not obligated to do so.
When we cry, “My God why?” we must come back again and again to the Cross. When I do so, I see the dear Son of God bleeding and dying and God-forsaken and it was all BECAUSE HE LOVED ME. I know that since my Saviour went through all the pain of the Cross for me, he will not forsake me now?
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
He will not, he cannot, desert to its foes
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake
He’ll never, no never, NO NEVER FORSAKE Richard Keen c1787
d. The Certain Hope of a Bright Tomorrow
You need to know this cry is a quotation from the opening verse of Psalm 22. This Psalm has been called “The Crucifixion Psalm” because David was not only moved to write of his own experiences but, borne along by the Holy Spirit, he interwove remarkable and detailed prophecies concerning the suffering of the Christ.
Consider these lines, for example:
“All who see me mock me, they hurl insults shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him, let him deliver him since he delights in him’ (vs 7-8).
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint…my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth…a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.
They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing” (vs 14-18).
So close are these statements to what actually happened to the Lord Jesus on the Cross that some have even accused him of deliberately manipulating events to make them fit the Psalm! One wonders how he is supposed to have talked the soldiers into gambling over his clothing.
The Lord Jesus lived these Messianic Scriptures. He declared, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled” (Luke 18:31). And after he had risen, he gave his disciples a wonderful Bible study, expounding these familiar passages. Jesus knew precisely what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem. That is why he shrank from it in the Garden of Gethsemane.
I believe the whole of Psalm 22 was clearly in our Lord’s mind as he hung on the Cross. Just as some statements describe physical aspects of his agony, such as the piercing of his hands and feet, and some emotional aspects, such as the mockery and scorn, the opening cry of anguish perfectly suited his incomparably dreadful spiritual experience as our sin bearer.
But the Psalm is not a hopeless Psalm. Yes, it commences that way but the tone changes. It moves from desertion to deliverance, from pain to praise, from horror to hope. It speaks, towards the end, of the Glory of God and of the triumph of the Gospel. “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him” (v27).
Jesus knew how the Psalm ends, and he knew how the Cross would end – in triumph. Soon he would shout a victory cry, “Tetelestai – It is accomplished!” This cry, therefore, was not because he was perplexed, not knowing why this was happening. His cry was not because he doubted the love or wisdom of his Father. It was the sheer, indescribable agony of soul which wrung this cry from his lips. So may we sometimes cry out in our pain, “My God, why?” Not because we are angry with God or doubt his love or demand explanations, but BECAUSE PAIN HURTS!
Hebrews 12:2-3 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” In other words, our Lord looked beyond his suffering to the joy which would soon be his. So must we. With God there will ALWAYS be a bright tomorrow. Whatever awful thing you are having to bear today, it will end.
“Weeping may remain for a night but rejoicing comes in the morning “ (Ps 30:5). Believe me I know from my own experience.
Even though we have some affliction which God in his wisdom allows us to bear until the day we die, what is that compared with eternity? His grace will be our up-holding for each day and when Jesus calls us Home we shall enter Heaven where love, joy and peace abound and where we will never hurt again.
When our Lord and Savior uttered the cry considered in this meditation he had already promised the man suffering and dying beside him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Jesus knew he would rise and reign.
Do you live on earth with an eye toward Heaven? We should, you know. Jesus did. The Apostles did. The early Christians did. Our forefathers did. Today we are in danger of becoming totally obsessed with this world and this life and with ourselves. But the focus point of the Bible is the world to come and our future life in it; that is our destiny, our ultimate “bright tomorrow.” We too will rise and reign – with Christ.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor 4:16-18).
May I never boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 6:14).
Near the Cross I’ll watch and wait,
Hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand Just beyond the river.
In the Cross, in the Cross
Be my glory ever, Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest, beyond the river.Fanny J Crosby