Good Friday: God Forsaken

Scripture Reading: Psalm 22: 1

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from my cries of anguish?

Message:  “God Forsaken”

In his agony on the cross, Jesus cries out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus cries out a quote from Psalm 22

Some say that Psalm 22 was more commonly known as Psalm 23 in those days

Psalm 22 starts with the cry to God - “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, but it is a Psalm that ends in telling about a God that fulfills His promises, a righteous God who intervenes in the hopelessness of His children

Here’s Jesus on the cross, in the deepest pain and agony, crying out the well-known words of Psalm 22, the well-known song

Here’s Jesus fulfilling everything the well-known Psalm 22 says right in front of the eyes of everyone standing before the cross

A God who intervenes in the lostness of his people

Don’t you love the honesty of these words:  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

When we go through hell, is this not what comes to mind - words that we are reluctant ourselves to utter?

Because it is what we feel when we go through hell on earth, we feel like we are going through this alone - where is God?

Let us remind ourselves that hell is a place where God is absent

That is why, when we feel we are going through hell, we wonder where God is…

But can we really handle a place where God is totally absent?  

No!  It is beyond our imagination!

Whether you’re angry with God or denying God, God is always there

On Good Friday, Jesus went to the place of being forsaken by God

We confess in the Apostle’s Creed:  “He descended into hell”

Jesus went to the place of being God-forsaken - the place we will never be able to handle

On that cross, Jesus was totally alone so that me and you will never be alone

On that cross, Jesus was in real hell so that me and you will never be in a place where God is absent

When you look at the cross on this Good Friday, may you know that God will never leave you alone!  AMEN