Forsaken (Matthew 27:45-46)

This saying of Jesus is recorded by Matthew and Mark. The Saviour said it near the close of the three hours of darkness which had begun at the sixth hour or at noon. Unlike the previous three sayings which concerned particular humans (the soldiers, the penitent criminal, his mother Mary), this fourth saying was spoken about what was happening between him and his Father in heaven (the remaining three also were not spoken to humans). 

Although this fourth saying broke the silence that had accompanied the darkness, do his words make our grasp of the time darker or do they shed light, incredible light, on what had happened during those three hours? The darkness that came at noon speaks of something unusual taking place, but without an appropriate voice giving accurate information how would anyone be able to explain what was happening during that three hours?

Clearly, the fourth saying describes a very intense experience of the Saviour. So what can we make of its meaning? It is not a place for mere speculation, but it is a place for reverend consideration. 

We know that this was not the first time in recent days that Jesus had known anguish of soul. For example, he had responded to the curiosity of some Greeks to meet with him by saying, ‘Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (John 12:27-28). Moreover, he had experienced incredible anguish in the garden of Gethsemane: ‘And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch”’ (Mark 14:33-34). But he prayed to his Father in these words: ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will’ (Matt. 26:39). So on both these occasions he was conscious of his Father’s presence, unlike what he was now experiencing on the cross.

This saying is the only complaint that Jesus made when he was on the cross. He did not complain about the cruel indifference of the onlookers, he did not complain about the barbaric method of his death, he did not complain about the spiritual assaults he would have received from the demonic powers. Those experiences he endured silently. But when the time came for him to be without the felt presence of his Father, he cried loudly, indicating the great distress he now felt. Whatever it involved, it caused him to speak with passion and strength to his Father.

Why did he feel it so strongly? The answer to this question is his holy character. He had always known the presence of his Father, he had always responded to the presence of his Father, he had loved intensely the presence of his Father, he had rejoiced day after day in the presence of his Father. There had never been anything in Jesus throughout his life, not even one thought, that would have caused the Father to turn away. Yet here he is, still without one wrong thought, but with no sense of his Father’s beautiful and much-desired presence.

Faith in the darkness

The first comment that can be made about this fourth saying is that Jesus used a verse of Scripture taken from Psalm 22. That he should have been thinking of that psalm is significant because we know that it contains prophecies of incidents that took place at the cross. For example, it predicts what the soldiers would do at the cross, although it does not say that they were soldiers. But it does say that they would gamble over his clothes. This leads to the possibility that Jesus was using the psalm to help him as he went through an experience never known by anyone before. He was the sinbearer, paying the penalty of the sins of his people, enduring the wrath of God, and that scripture would have been a light for his path, a map through the storm, for him to use through the awful experience he was undergoing. 

We can also see from this statement that Jesus was strong in faith as he affirmed twice that God was his God. His twofold use of ‘my God’ shows the tenacity of his faith that was determined to adhere to God even although the penalty he was paying was divinely imposed on him. The severity of his experience did not diminish his determination to affirm that his Father was still his chosen God. 

Sometimes it is suggested that him saying ‘My God, My God,’ rather than saying ‘Father’ indicates a lower expression of faith, that maybe he could not sense God to be his Father in the manner he had always known. Yet can we say that somehow Jesus would forget that his God and his Father were the same divine person?

Nevertheless we can see in this question a search for an answer from his God. Indeed we can say that the question is concerned with the greatest issue that could ever be explained. There are many mysteries in life that cause people to ask why. Sometimes they ask it of other people, sometimes they ask it of God, sometimes they ask it of those who are closest to them. Here we can see that Jesus is asking it of the One who had been closest to him throughout his life on earth. That closeness was not now his experience, but it did not stop him speaking to his God in a loving expression of faith.

The answer to the question can be found in thinking about the cup that the Father had given him to drink. Jesus had wrestled with this prospect earlier in the Garden of Gethsemane when the awfulness of what lay ahead of him loomed before his human mind. He had asked the Father if it was possible for him to avoid drinking the cup. The answer from heaven was that it was not possible. Therefore Jesus determined to drink that cup, which is a figurative way of describing how he would pay the penalty of the sins of his people. His cry here was connected to what he voluntarily was drinking at his Father’s hand.

Evidences

No doubt, there are different ways of looking at these words of the Saviour. The words of people often give insight into what they are thinking at any given time. What can we deduce from these words that may help us to understand the distress of Jesus at this stage of his experience on the cross?

One common experience of crucifixion was that the sufferer lost his mind due to the intensity of the pain and distress he was enduring. In contrast, Jesus realised that he was not in possession of what he valued most, his awareness of the presence of his Father. He knew what he was missing. Yet although it was a terrible experience for him to have the Father withdraw his comforting presence, he realised that it was taking place and therefore he was not in a delusional state.

Connected to the above point is that his words are evidence that the desertion was real. Why was he deserted at this stage of his experience? He was deserted because he had been made a curse due to him paying the penalty for sin. Jesus remained sinless, but he suffered as the representative of an innumerable number of sinners. He was in the presence of the holy God, his God, but because he was now paying the penalty he experienced the wrath of God, his God, against those sins. What other word but ‘forsaken’ could describe such an experience?

Nevertheless, the fourth saying of the Saviour sheds much light on his love. His cry is not an accusation against God, but a question to the One to whom he spoke on innumerable occasions during his journey on earth. Surely, it is an expression of love to say to someone that we miss them. Here, the Son of God, at a far deeper level, says to his Father that he misses the conscious experience of divine love. 

In addition, we see in this saying what the extent of his love for his people was. Why is he there? He is there because of his commitment to them that he made in the eternal covenant when he accepted them as the gift from his Father. His love for them was an eternal love, but we see here how far he was willing to go to show his love for them. How far did he go? He went as far as was necessary to pay the penalty of their sins and to provide for them redemption from sin and eternal freedom from its power and presence. These blessings come to believers because he lovingly paid the penalty for their sins.

We can also see in this saying of Jesus clear evidence of his constant truthfulness. Should he have pretended that he was not experiencing this sense of loss? Or should he just have kept quiet about it, and merely considered his situation from within, without letting others know what the situation was? If he had done the first response, we would not be able to say that he is the truth. If he had done the second, he would have hidden the reality that divine punishment is an awful experience.

Triune awareness

It is inevitable that we should think of the Trinity as we consider this saying of Jesus. Thinking of such matters may lead us to considerations that are beyond human explanation. We know that Jesus was a divine person with a human nature. This is who he was when he was on the cross. The separation that he knew was not between his divine nature and his human nature, but between him and his divine Father.

At the same time, the Holy Spirit was fully involved with ensuring that Jesus in his human nature revealed the fruits that mark perfect holiness. It is clear that the love of Jesus was holy and his aspirations for restored fellowship were an appropriate expression for him to have. But so also were his words of complaint. They were not assertions of rebellion against divine providence, but a genuine and godly expression of the devout feelings of his heart. By the eternal Spirit he was offering himself without spot to God. His cry was an expression of him being ‘without spot’.

What can be said about the heavenly Father with regard to this saying of his Son? His infliction of wrath on his Son was not an indication that his love for his Son had ceased or even decreased. After all, the Son was in the process of accomplishing the work that the Father had given him to do, and the Son at every stage was performing his role perfectly. His role was to pay the penalty for sin, which included experiencing divine wrath against the sins of his people, but we are not to imagine that somehow this divine encounter caused fluctuation in the eternal love of the Father for his beloved Son. The love of the Father for him was always full, always aware of how suitable it was for him to be fully loved, even and especially when he was paying that awful penalty.

It is the case that there are many aspects to the death of Jesus that are beyond human discovery apart from divine revelation. One such aspect concerns the effects of cross work of Jesus on the powers of darkness. Paul describes what this involved in a passage in Colossians when he writes that God the Father forgave ‘us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him’ (Col. 2:13-15). The Father is the subject of those statements. He forgave us, he cancelled the record of debt that we had, he nailed it to the cross, he disarmed the opposing powers (evil angels) and put them to an open shame, and he triumphed over them in his Son while he was on the cross. Those powers lost their claims against God’s people while Jesus was paying the penalty for their sins. His experience of abandonment was how his Father obtained victory over the forces of evil. The abandonment was the route for forgiveness to be available to sinners.

So, as Zechariah the prophet had predicted centuries before, the time had come when the Father would say, ‘Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the Lord of hosts’ (Zech. 13:7). The sword of divine justice did what had to be done to the Sinbearer, and therefore he cried in a loud voice, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Or as Isaiah the prophet had said before then, ‘it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief’ (Isa. 53:10).

Recollecting the distress

Jesus is now the Shepherd who helps his people on earth, those whom he redeemed. He is aware of all their trials and periods of distress and is able to sympathise with them. The greatest trial and cause of distress that they experience occurs when their God hides his face from them. Often they have to cry to him and ask through tears, ‘How long must I go mourning in my heart?’ They have to listen to voices, including their own, that question where their God has gone. Who can understand the depths of their sadness? Jesus can, because on the cross he went lower into distress that they can ever know. Does a day pass when one of his needy people does not this consolation?

Believers in general need to value the spiritual benefits that have come their way through faith in Jesus. Sadly, although there many blessings, believers can for a time lose sight of their worth. Is there a quick way for such to recover a sense of the value of their benefits? One short answer would be for them to recall the fourth saying of Jesus on the cross because it reminds them of the price he had to pay in order for them to experience those divine blessings. Let them repeat to themselves, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Jesus said this saying because he was in the process of procuring spiritual blessings for us, and the least we can do is remember him for doing so.