April 9
“Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, ‘This Man is calling for Elijah!’ Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, ‘Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him,’” Matthew 27:45-49.
On that first Good Friday, from the sixth hour, high noon, until the ninth hour, 3:00 p.m., gross darkness covered the whole land! It would appear as if all Creation went into mourning because of the intense suffering and sorrow that the Savior was enduring so that He might redeem all people from sin, death, and the power of the devil.
Then, at three o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus looked heavenward and cried out with a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” This cry from the cross was foretold a thousand years earlier as the psalmist penned the words of Psalm 22:1, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” The quivering lips of the dying Savior uttered a cry which is beyond our comprehension! The Savior was suffering the pangs of hell as He was tasting death and He was being forsaken by the Father.
We cannot comprehend the depth of suffering to which Jesus descended so that you and I and all people would not be forsaken by the heavenly Father! In that heartrending question from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” we see the seriousness, the horribleness, and the damning power of sin. We cannot listen to that cry and think of sin lightly!
That heartrending cry from the cross calls us to repentance and faith. It calls us to bow humbly at the foot of the cross, confessing our sins for which Jesus endured such horrible agony, which we should have endured eternally! As we kneel at the cross, let us lift up our eyes and look on the suffering Savior being forsaken by the heavenly Father so that you and I might not be forsaken by Him in eternity! As we look up, let us shed tears of joy that God so loved us that He sent His Son to save us.
Now we who believe and trust in Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior will welcome God’s promises that He will not forsake us as He once forsook His Son to save us. Remember the words that Moses spoke to the children of Israel as they feared to go forward to the land of Canaan: “The Lord your God, He is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you,” Deuteronomy 31:6. After Moses died, the Lord spoke to his successor, Joshua, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you,” Joshua 1:5. Through the prophet Isaiah, our merciful and gracious God assures us, “‘The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has mercy on you,” Isaiah 54:10. Through the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, God promises His people who believe and trust in Jesus, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” Hebrews 13:5.
“Hark the cry that peals aloud,
Upward through the whelming cloud!
Thou, the Father’s only Son,
Thou, His own Anointed One,
Thou dost ask Him, can it be?
‘Why hast Thou forsaken Me?’”
“And when, dear Lord, before Thy throne in heaven,
To me the crown of joy at last is given;
Where sweetest hymns Thy saints forever raise Thee,
I, too, shall praise Thee.” Amen.