Words Of Life From The Cross:
"My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?"



A Sermon On:
Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22


PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO

Recap what we've been celebrating:
The presence & closeness of God; His promises to us
- via the cadets
- via baptism of Tobie Kay

It's been a rich morning so far. Great celebration of the presence and closeness of God and His certain promises to us:- the promises of belonging to Him,
- the promise of His care - promises we laid claim to for little Tobie Kay in her baptism, and for our cadets as we acknowledged their ministry here today.

Now buckle in, hang on, we're going to make a rather abrupt change in direction
Edda will lead us in making that shift. She's going to read for us the lyrics of a song, a poem that comes straight from the heart of one individual and his experience. They're lyrics found in the bible. Please join us in reading them:

PSALM 22


If you've ever had the bottom cut out from under you,
If you've ever been at a point in your life where the ones you thought you could count on disappeared, or turned their back where everything you thought was stable suddenly began to shift, or became unreliable, and you felt as if you couldn't go on anymore;
you felt as if things were hopeless;
as if you were going to be crushed; the weight of life being so heavy that it was going to suck all the wind right out of you. If that's ever been you, then you can probably resonate with the emotions and the feelings and the temper that is displayed by the writer of this song.

Why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?
I cry out by day, but you do not answer......

The writer of these words, named David, grew up in a secure rural environment of ancient Palestine, a shepherd's son. It was hard work, but secure. Everything changed when he was taken from that setting by an unexpected encounter with a giant, and a military battle. He was an instant hit with the king, national overnight celebrity. But as quick as his star rose, so quick did it fall. David had to run for his life, almost losing it to a crazed king's paranoia. He became a real life version of The Fugitive long before anyone dreamed up the movie or TV version. For years he lived a hand to mouth, minute by minute existence in the hills and caves of Palestinian wilderness.
In time order was restored, and David eventually became king. But later there was more trouble when his son rebelled and led a coup attempt. It failed, but for a time David was chased out of the capital and into the wilderness again. His son was eventually killed in battle.

Now, we don't know where -- but somewhere in one of those moments when the bottom fell out of his life, David wrote these words. Intense words. Despairing words. Dare we say words that to at least some degree are underlined with a tinge of anger against God?Against one that He had counted on for support, direction, protection, encouragement.
David reached up for it and felt ---- only air.
Can you identify?
Perhaps there have been times in your life where you've been really let down. Perhaps by a business partner that you thought you could depend on.
Or a child you had truly prayed you could trust.
Or a parent you simply and innocently assumed would protect you.
Or a friend you expected would keep your confidence.And your trust, your confidence was broken. Your assumptions were shattered by the hurts inflicted on you. Or church leaders you expected to support you, but who bound you with strict rules and statements of condemnation.
What did you feel? What do you feel?
Anger?
Frustration?
Revulsion?
Maybe deep despair?

The words of Psalm 22 are not mere poetic license, are they?
They're real. Very, deeply, graphically real.


Real -- literally real in the life of someone else in David's family, someone living years after David penned these words.
Perhaps you read along with Edda and heard echoes in Psalm 22 of something else -- something deeper than merely the frustration and despair of one shepherd-king's abandonment & aloneness.
Well, you're right. These are prophetic words that point to something bigger, words that anticipate a greater darkness and despair, a more horrible experience of abandonment than David, or you, or I ever have or ever will experience.

Edda's going to read one more piece from the Bible. I invite you to follow along.

MATTHEW 27:45-50

Darkness. Unnatural darkness from noon till 3pm.
A voice calling out of that darkness the same words his forefather did: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Real agonizing words because of real forsakeness.
Don't minimize these words by suggesting it was merely the pain of the moment. The abandonment by God was real. The darkness says so.

You know what I understand that darkness to be? It is the darkness of a shadow. The shadow of God's back. He had turned his back on Jesus, deliberately closing his eyes to Jesus' plight, covering his ears and refusing to hear, closing his mouth and refusing to speak words of command to a huge battalion of angel warriors who could have released Jesus in a moment.
God the Father turned his back.

It was like a parent who would turn his back, refusing to look or listen or act as his child was being approached by a villain ready to beat on and abuse that little one.
And so the villain, Satan, acting in physical ways through the soldiers, the civic officials and religious leaders, swooped in and beat on Jesus. So Satan came down in vicious spiritual ways, making those hours of darkness on the cross true hours of hell for Jesus.
Hell -- the presence of Satan
and the absence of God.
Only -- unlike a callous parent who would, in some twisted moment, turn away from a child crying out for help -- this was planned.
The suffering of Jesus is a very deliberate abandonment, a very deliberate rejection. It was one that Jesus knew was coming and which he actually agreed to.... in order that we wouldn't be abandoned, would be rejected, wouldn't be forsaken.

We human beings have sinned, we have rebelled against God and His standard, His will for our lives and for Creation. The just cosmic penalty for that crime is death -- being cast into hell.
Which was our fate.
It was the future that would have awaited Tobie Kay. The future fate of each cadet and counsellor; of each of us.
It was the future averted for us when God the Father and Jesus the Son developed this deliberate plan. The plan of having an innocent one climb into the docket and take the place of we, the guilty ones.

He was condemned.
He was forsaken, abandoned, rejected.
That we would be pardoned.
That we would be held on to, cared for, accepted.

Friends -- Jesus has taken our place. And the gift, very simple and very awesome gift of eternal acceptance by God, acceptance right now;the gift of God's presence in our lives and hearts, moment by moment that gift is held out to us.
Admit that we need it. Admit we are guilty. And surrender everything to Jesus.
And the gift is yours.
That's the goodness of God which John & Annette will be teaching little Tobie.
That's what the counsellors are striving to teach these cadets.That's what so many of you are praying your non-believing family and neighbours and co-workers will come to accept in these weeks leading up to the Billy Graham Mission.
That's what many of you are going to learn more about -- what it means and how to share it -- as you've signed up for and plan to attend the Christian Life & Witnessing classes coming in mid-April. That's the heart of the season of Lent. Jesus' suffering for our release.
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Because Jesus cried those words; Because of his forsakenness, his abandonment, his rejection --
Because of that the Bible doesn't just include the lyrics of Psalm 22. it goes far further. We have, right up against it, next to it - Psalm 23, a part of the bible that ends up being one of the first pieces that many new believers memorise from the Bible. Part way through Ps.23 we read: "Even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil
FOR....... YOU ARE WITH ME."

That's the great and final message of the Bible.
Oh, hey, yes --
There are the moments of life when we let each other down; when we even turn our back on each other, walk away from each other, ignore each other in sinful, painful, unnecessary ways.The scriptures acknowledge that pain.
It's real pain.
Pain we can't ignore.
And the Bible gives all kinds of room to give expression to that pain. To yell and groan and cry about it. We don't have to fake it and pretend there's no struggle in those days when we feel as if someone covering us with a big dark wet blanket that keeps heaven and everyone else away from us.

Those moments are there.
But they're not the last word.
The last words -- real words -- words from God are these spoken to those who have given their lives in surrender and trust to Jesus:
"Surely I am with you always to the close of the age" (Mt 28.20)
"Never will I leave you or forsake you" (Heb 13.5)"I have given them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." (Jn 10.27)
Meaning that in the days when we feel as if we're left on our own, forgotten about, ignored by everyone, left to despair... we are NOT alone.For God is there. Always there. When no one else will take time to listen to your sobs of grief, He has all the time in the world.
When despair leaves the future seeming to be one black cloud, somewhere He will drill a hole through that cloud, and in His time guide you to that hole.
When you're ready to enter the interview for a new job, He'll be sitting there with you, ready to answer your silent prayers for appropriate recall and guidance in whether or not this is the job for you.
When death stands ready to close the back cover on the book of your earthly life, His mighty hands will stand ready to push back Satan and prevent his diabolical forces from snaring you; God's mighty hands will receive you like the hands of an obstetrician guiding a newborn into birth; guiding you into the birth to eternal life.

Which is why we can sing:Guide me, O my great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but you are mighty; hold me with your powerful hand.

We can sing that and know He will hear. And He will answer.
For the sake of His son. And the work accomplished in that forsaken moment.

We're going to sing that song -- hymn # 543. If you're wondering about the words there -- they refer back to ancient bible times when the nation of Israel had just been set free from centuries of slavery and barbaric treatment in Egypt. They travel for some 40 years through difficult desert conditions in order to reach the land of rest God promised them. And God went with them each step of the way. The symbol of that was a huge cloud that always accompanied the people. A cloud that lit up at night as though it were on fire -- which it was, with the Holy presence of God. A cloud that led them to the Jordan river, and across into the peace and rest of a new homeland.

We're also on a journey through difficult conditions of a less than perfect world. We too look forward to the peace and rest of a new homeland, a heavenly one. One day we will make a crossing - not over a river named Jordan, but through a door named death. God's presence will guide us the whole way -- right across the finish line. Before we sing, though, let's pray.