The Final Question of the Cross: Sermon Matthew 27:45-54

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

How many of you have ever seen the movie Castaway starring Tom Hanks? The movie is about this guy who is stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. He was forced to survive and live in complete isolation. He was so alone in fact that he made a friend out of a volleyball that had washed up on shore and named him Wilson.

We have all been alone at some point in our lives. Some of us tread being alone and some of us love and need some “me” time on occasion. Although we may not be stranded on a deserted island, we do know what it means to be without the presence of other human beings. However, have any of you felt alone in a room full of people and despite the fact there might be ten or twenty people in the room you feel, for one reason or another, completely alone? I think this is what Jesus felt on the cross. In fact Jesus uses the word forsaken, which if you look the word forsake in the Webster’s dictionary it says “to renounce or turn away from entirely.” In other words it means to be alone despite being surrounded by people. Because there were people there at the scene of the Crucifixion, but still Jesus feels abandoned, forsaken.

Not only does Jesus feel forsaken by the people there, he also feels abandoned by God. In fact he is addressing God, he says “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which translates to “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is an interesting text because this one of the few times where Jesus does not refer to God as “Father”, in this moment the intimacy is lost, Jesus feels alone and simply cries out, like many of us to in the midst of crisis, “My God, My God.” This line does not originate with Jesus but comes from Psalm 22, we read it earlier. David writes this Psalm in a time of trials, he is being chased by his enemies, he probably hides in a cave somewhere and quickly jots these words down, asking the same question Jesus asks, the same question we explored last week, “God, where are you, why have you left me?” Jesus’ momma or school teacher might have forced Jesus to remember and recite this Psalm, like some of us were forced to memorize Scripture, and in this moment of despair and agony those childhood memories flood back and Jesus cries out to God.

So we see, even the Son of God, Jesus our Savior, asked the question “why God, where are you?” In the asking of this question we must ask ourselves, does God abandon Jesus on the cross? This is an important question to ask because our ideas about who God is and how God functions hinge on this question. If God is love and God is good how can God leave God’s own son to hang there all alone? No parent would leave their child to die completely alone. There are some theological answers to this question that I want to explore today and allow you to decide for yourself.

One answer comes from a more conservative, perhaps a more traditional mindset. This answer says yes, God did forsake Jesus, in the sense that God turned away from Jesus. Not to be mean or in any way to punish, but because of the sin of the world that had been placed upon Jesus in that moment. Jesus bore all our sins on the cross and \the sinless had become sinful, and so God, who is pure righteousness, cannot look upon sin and therefore has to turn away, even away from this dying son on a cross. This idea is based on the notion that God cannot be in the presence of sin, because God is pure and righteous it would be like mixing oil and water. This idea makes sense to those of us who are already Christians and who understand the idea that Jesus laid down his life for the sins of the world. It also gives us an idea of the horror of that moment and makes us wonder what was worse, the physical agony of the crucifixion or the mental and spiritual agony of the sins of every person who had, does, and will live on this earth?

There are problems with this theory. One problem with this notion is it makes God seem mean, almost cruel, I mean if God is this loving parent then how could he leave his son, abandon his only child? No parent could do that. If God is love like the Bible says in 1 John4:7 then how could God do this? Also, if God abandons Christ on the cross because of the sins of the world; does God abandon us here on earth because we are constantly sinful? Humans are inherently sinful and logically then God could never look upon us, because even those of us who are under the grace of Christ still commit sin. So if God abandons his very son because of the sin put upon him by God, then what hope do we have? So you can see the problems with this notion.

Let’s try to rethink this theological concept a little bit. There are times in each of our lives when we have felt abandoned. We might have been left out in the cold by friends, spouses, or even family. We might have been in debt, sick without someone to take care of us, or whatever the situation might be we feel abandoned. There might have even been a time when you felt like Jesus, forsaken, even by God. Sometimes we feel like that because God does not come immediately to our aid. We pray and pray and we automatically assume the because our prayers were not answered that God has left us or God is punishing us and we might even remember this story and say yeah God has left me just as he left Jesus. However, the truth of the matter is that wherever we go or whatever we do God never leaves us. God is always there.

So how do we reconcile this with our story today? If God is with us then why does Jesus cry out in this way? Where was God? The answer in short: God was on cross. Remember that Christ is God made into flesh, the Holy One made into this human shell so that God might experience what it was to be a human being.

I remember a story that can illustrate this point. George Washington had just been appointed general of the American Revolutionary Army and was on his way to Philadelphia to receive the official paperwork; he hadn’t even been issued a uniform. Along the road he encountered a group of American soldiers digging a ditch with their commanding lieutenant “supervising” and when Washington asked the young lieutenant why wasn’t he offering to help. “I am an officer” the young man replied. Washington then got off his horse and aided the men in their work. When they had finished Washington mounted his horse and rode off. The point of the story his that Washington despite being the highest ranking officer in the American army was not afraid to get down and dirty with his men so that he could better understand then and thereby better lead them. This is called servant leadership, not asking anyone to do anything they would not do themselves. The ultimate act of servant leadership is in the cross.

God wanted to know what it meant to face the worst the world could dish out. God wanted to know the worst of humiliation, the worse of degradation, the worst of pain, and yes the worst of abandonment. Why? So that God himself can stand in solidarity with us. Meaning that God can stand with us because what ever pain or trouble we find ourselves, God has been there too. There is no pain God himself has not felt. There is no hurt God has not experiences, there is no shame that God in Christ did not bear. God as been there so God can be with us.

We might feel abandoned, we might feel alone, separated by God, but through the cross and God’s own suffering and abandonment we are never forsaken by God. We have hope eternal that no matter where we are or what we do or have done God is always with us. This is the hope of the gospel; the promise that we stand on even in the darkest of places. We might not always feel God’s presence and God might not come exactly when and how we want him to, but God’s love is never away from us. Let us always remember Paul’s words to the church in Rome, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.