WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.439 Let's read God's Word from Matthew chapter 27, verses 45 to 54. 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:19.820 And as you turn there, I'll pray. Lord, we ask now, as we turn to your Word, that you would open our eyes to see the truths of the Bible. 00:00:20.019 --> 00:00:27.000 And we know, Lord, that without the help of the Spirit, we cannot see, we cannot desire, we cannot know truly and deeply. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:34.240 We cannot know by way of experience. And so we ask, Lord, that you would give us the gift of illumination, the Holy Spirit's work in our lives, 00:00:34.380 --> 00:00:38.740 to hear and understand and believe and believe your Word. 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:48.159 So we ask for that now, and that you would help your servant David as he helps us to see what's so important about this great question Christ asked at the cross. 00:00:48.219 --> 00:00:50.400 And we ask for that in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:57.119 Now, from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:01.019 And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, 00:01:01.399 --> 00:01:03.799 Eli, Eli, Lima, Subachthani. 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:07.920 That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:01:08.659 --> 00:01:10.739 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, 00:01:10.739 --> 00:01:12.799 This man is calling Elijah. 00:01:13.839 --> 00:01:21.299 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. 00:01:22.039 --> 00:01:22.979 But the other said, 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:26.640 Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:31.319 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 00:01:32.419 --> 00:01:36.000 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:38.959 and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 00:01:39.620 --> 00:01:44.700 The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:49.319 And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 00:01:50.299 --> 00:01:53.659 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, 00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:56.519 saw the earthquake and what took place, 00:01:57.159 --> 00:01:58.960 they were filled with awe, and they said, 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:01.560 Truly, this was the Son of God. 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:03.519 This is God's holy word. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:06.620 Why? 00:02:08.620 --> 00:02:15.199 Sometimes you hear that question asked from a bed in a hospital ward, 00:02:16.460 --> 00:02:17.719 from dying lips, 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:23.099 through features perhaps contorted by pain. 00:02:23.259 --> 00:02:24.139 It's asked of the doctor. 00:02:25.460 --> 00:02:26.219 Why, doctor? 00:02:26.580 --> 00:02:26.920 Why? 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:30.460 Sometimes it's asked at a funeral, 00:02:31.460 --> 00:02:33.659 by the graveside or the crematorium. 00:02:33.659 --> 00:02:36.139 Perhaps it's asked of the minister. 00:02:37.139 --> 00:02:37.960 Why, reverend? 00:02:38.780 --> 00:02:39.340 Why? 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:45.319 Sometimes, perhaps more commonly, it's asked in private, 00:02:46.620 --> 00:02:50.079 in the inner recesses of the mind and heart. 00:02:51.060 --> 00:02:52.780 And it's asked of God Himself. 00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:54.579 Why God? 00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:56.240 Why me? 00:02:56.340 --> 00:02:56.759 Why her? 00:02:57.479 --> 00:02:58.079 Why? 00:02:58.680 --> 00:02:59.199 Why? 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:00.239 Why? 00:03:00.239 --> 00:03:00.280 Why? 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:08.359 The question why is the almost universal human response to suffering. 00:03:09.299 --> 00:03:14.759 Even professed atheists, it seems, cannot help themselves. 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:21.319 It's the instinctive, it's the gut reaction of human beings to personal suffering. 00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:30.479 Within our hearts, there is a profound intuition that human suffering and pain demand an explanation. 00:03:31.479 --> 00:03:40.919 In the midst of suffering, it makes sense to us to ask and perhaps even to demand an answer to the question, 00:03:41.479 --> 00:03:41.799 why? 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:41.880 Why? 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:51.100 There is, I think, only one place in the New Testament where that question, why me, is asked. 00:03:51.620 --> 00:03:54.780 And it's here upon the cross. 00:03:55.640 --> 00:04:00.540 And the question comes from the lips of Jesus Himself. 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:06.860 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:04:08.640 --> 00:04:09.880 And that's strange, isn't it? 00:04:09.879 --> 00:04:21.240 Here is this man who claimed not just to know God in a special way, but who in many different ways claimed to be the very Son of God. 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:27.100 And here he is asking the question, why? 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:33.719 It makes you wonder at this moment what on earth was going on. 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:40.380 Just why did Jesus cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:04:40.960 --> 00:04:42.460 Was it out of self-pity? 00:04:43.520 --> 00:04:46.060 Had He abandoned trust in His Father? 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:49.600 Was this simply a cry of defeat and despair? 00:04:51.200 --> 00:04:56.940 What do these words tell us about Jesus and the meaning of the cross? 00:04:56.939 --> 00:05:06.379 Up till now, in the gospel accounts, the questions Jesus asked have been of men and women. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:13.360 But on the cross here is a question directed towards God Himself. 00:05:15.060 --> 00:05:21.060 R.A. Finlayson, a free church theologian of a bygone age, writes, 00:05:21.060 --> 00:05:30.319 His dealings with men are finished, now He is dealing with God alone, with God for men. 00:05:31.860 --> 00:05:37.680 In other words, here are words that take us to the very heart and substance of the Christian gospel. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:44.720 And as many of you will know, these words are in fact a quote from the opening verse of Psalm 22. 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:53.500 Here in this moment of extremis on the cross, Jesus speaks and proclaims the Word of God. 00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:03.060 They are surely on our Lord's lips among the most incomprehensible ever spoken. 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:08.819 Martin Luther wrote, God forsaken God. 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:12.240 Who can understand it? 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:13.860 Who indeed? 00:06:15.079 --> 00:06:23.699 So let me tonight highlight just three things that I think we can learn from this question 00:06:23.699 --> 00:06:27.840 about the forsakenness of Jesus Christ. 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:37.319 And the first of these that I want to highlight is what we'll call the reality of Christ's forsakenness. 00:06:38.459 --> 00:06:44.000 What is this forsakenness of which Christ speaks here on the cross? 00:06:46.019 --> 00:06:55.339 I think we must understand these words of Jesus as communicating a real experience of forsakenness. 00:06:55.339 --> 00:07:03.699 I know that there are those who would want to soften the edges of this cry, who would explain it perhaps 00:07:03.699 --> 00:07:13.599 just as a quotation from Psalm 22 or as an expression of human weakness, or just as a feeling that Christ had. 00:07:15.039 --> 00:07:20.799 Some, for example, want to say that Christ only felt abandoned on the cross. 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:28.520 Now, we know from our whole human experience that people can feel things intensely, and yet they're not actually true. 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:31.120 We can feel abandoned, but we're not actually abandoned. 00:07:33.860 --> 00:07:36.100 He wasn't truly forsaken, they say. 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:40.480 He was only overwhelmed by a feeling of divine desertion. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:50.180 But you'll notice how Matthew is very careful to record both the original Aramaic words that Jesus spoke and their translation. 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:56.140 I think he doesn't want us to miss their meaning and significance. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:04.259 And you'll notice, too, that Jesus' cry, he tells us, was uttered with a loud voice. 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:13.579 In other words, this question is, if I put it this way, it's screamed, not whispered. 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:16.459 It's not a theatrical gesture. 00:08:16.759 --> 00:08:18.399 It's not a pious recital. 00:08:19.099 --> 00:08:23.039 It is the agonized shriek of an abandoned soul. 00:08:24.300 --> 00:08:27.399 And the forsakenness here is not an illusion. 00:08:27.740 --> 00:08:29.039 It's not just a feeling. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:34.980 It is the experience of the second Adam bearing the curse of the broken covenant. 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:42.620 Jesus is here experiencing the reality of which Gethsemane was but a shadow. 00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:51.060 The cup that was placed in Jesus' hands in the garden is now being drunk down to the very dregs. 00:08:51.059 --> 00:08:59.419 And as he takes that cup to his lips, he now tastes in his soul what it means to be utterly forsaken by God. 00:09:02.019 --> 00:09:10.639 And so that cry of forsakenness, I think, captures for us something of the meaning and the spiritual reality of the crucifixion. 00:09:11.799 --> 00:09:20.139 Much worse than the shame and the nakedness and the mockery and the scourging and the torture and the physical suffering. 00:09:21.059 --> 00:09:22.419 Was this. 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:29.019 That in some mysterious sense, the father had deserted him. 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:37.679 He who had lived on earth in such close harmony and fellowship with God now finds himself abandoned. 00:09:38.019 --> 00:09:43.799 The fellowship that had been the very atmosphere of his life was withdrawn. 00:09:44.899 --> 00:09:48.500 And he calls out, my God, my God. 00:09:48.500 --> 00:09:54.940 Now that, of course, and we were thinking about that this morning, is still the language of intimacy. 00:09:56.320 --> 00:09:57.360 Covenantal language. 00:09:58.100 --> 00:10:01.019 It's the language of a close relationship. 00:10:02.500 --> 00:10:09.360 We know that throughout the Gospels, Jesus prays to Abba the Father. 00:10:10.379 --> 00:10:14.480 All through the Gospels, Jesus enjoys the smile of his Father. 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:18.879 He is the Son of his love, the Son with whom he is well pleased. 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:21.700 But not here. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:24.120 Not at Calvary. 00:10:25.680 --> 00:10:29.139 He is my God, but he is not my Father. 00:10:30.500 --> 00:10:36.000 And there is for Jesus, it seems, a loss of filial consciousness. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:44.460 Because on the cross, that sense of sonship and love is eclipsed by wrath and judgment. 00:10:45.559 --> 00:10:47.700 Blotted out by the horror of sin. 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:55.860 The sin that he bears now makes it impossible for him to speak to God as Father. 00:10:55.860 --> 00:11:08.100 I mean, if a member of the church here comes to me and says, David, I never want to see you or talk to you again. 00:11:09.379 --> 00:11:10.460 I feel very hurt. 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:19.800 But if my wife, Allison, or one of my children, was to say that to me, I would feel a lot worse. 00:11:19.799 --> 00:11:28.699 The deeper the love, the closer the relationship, the greater the pain at its loss. 00:11:30.439 --> 00:11:36.019 And that forsakenness is a reality for Jesus as he bears the sins of his people. 00:11:36.259 --> 00:11:39.539 Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:11:39.899 --> 00:11:42.799 Here is the scapegoat banished into the wilderness. 00:11:43.639 --> 00:11:44.779 The curse of sin. 00:11:45.219 --> 00:11:46.639 Separation from God. 00:11:47.199 --> 00:11:48.759 Cast away from his presence. 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:52.039 Cut off from the source of all that is good. 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:56.779 And so on the cross, Jesus becomes an accursed thing. 00:11:57.559 --> 00:11:59.000 Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 00:11:59.220 --> 00:12:02.700 He made him to be sin who knew no sin. 00:12:04.539 --> 00:12:11.179 And in his humanity, Jesus experiences something he has never, ever felt before. 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:17.960 We have a little video of our eldest grandson. 00:12:18.759 --> 00:12:22.059 Being given something for the very first time in his high chair. 00:12:22.980 --> 00:12:26.419 Hitherto, he had known only his mother's milk. 00:12:26.779 --> 00:12:29.580 And what I would describe as tasteless mush. 00:12:29.580 --> 00:12:32.660 But this is a little clip of him being given. 00:12:32.660 --> 00:12:34.620 It was a piece of mango. 00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:38.180 Up to this point, he's never tasted any fruit. 00:12:39.500 --> 00:12:45.280 And as he stuffs it into his mouth, you can see he is completely nonplussed by the taste. 00:12:45.520 --> 00:12:48.400 His eyes literally popping out of his head. 00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:51.320 He's never tasted anything like it. 00:12:51.320 --> 00:12:52.379 And you can tell. 00:12:54.379 --> 00:12:59.460 And here is Jesus, tasting something for the very first time. 00:12:59.460 --> 00:13:02.519 And it's not a sweet taste. 00:13:03.080 --> 00:13:03.759 It's bitter. 00:13:04.180 --> 00:13:05.200 It's foul. 00:13:05.540 --> 00:13:06.780 It's poison. 00:13:08.040 --> 00:13:12.580 Here he is sucking out the venom of the serpent's bite. 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:19.500 And it brings not joy and delight, but agony and questioning despair. 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:23.800 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:32.479 Here Jesus bears the curse of the law, the curse of sin, by becoming a curse for us. 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:39.059 He stands in the place of sinners, bearing the legal, moral guilt of all our sin. 00:13:39.159 --> 00:13:41.959 It is something terrifyingly real. 00:13:43.419 --> 00:13:49.740 He bears not his own sins, of which there are none, but the sins of others. 00:13:49.740 --> 00:13:55.840 And here the full gravity and reality of sin becomes clear to us. 00:13:56.960 --> 00:14:02.360 Jesus bears upon his own body that sense of God's antagonism against sin. 00:14:03.779 --> 00:14:07.779 His experience here reminds us that from the divine perspective, 00:14:08.039 --> 00:14:13.360 there is not and cannot be any compromise or accommodation with sin. 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:18.820 He came across these words of the Puritan Richard Sibbes. 00:14:19.580 --> 00:14:20.240 He writes, 00:14:20.340 --> 00:14:27.300 If you would see the most ugly colors of sin, then see it in Christ upon the cross. 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:38.000 See how bitter a thing it was, forcing him to send forth strong cries to his Father. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:42.960 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:48.960 Here Jesus experiences the wrath of God against sin. 00:14:49.799 --> 00:14:54.460 Wrath that was not his own, yet became his by imputation. 00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:57.879 Here is the doctrine of penal substitution. 00:15:00.039 --> 00:15:05.820 For if Christ was not truly forsaken, then the curse has not been borne. 00:15:05.820 --> 00:15:11.660 If the darkness was only apparent, then our peace is only apparent. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:16.080 But friends, Scripture will not allow us that comfort. 00:15:17.660 --> 00:15:23.640 It was the will of the Lord to crush him and put him to grief. 00:15:24.700 --> 00:15:29.180 The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. 00:15:29.179 --> 00:15:38.379 And in that laying on, there was a real withdrawal of the light of the Father's countenance. 00:15:38.919 --> 00:15:42.539 The reality of Christ's forsakenness. 00:15:43.819 --> 00:15:45.879 And that brings me to the second thing here. 00:15:46.679 --> 00:15:50.779 And we'll call this the mystery of Christ's forsakenness. 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:53.299 J.C. Ryle comments on this verse, 00:15:53.299 --> 00:15:59.719 There is a deep mystery in these words, which no mortal man can fathom. 00:16:00.199 --> 00:16:04.919 Don Carson, the New Testament scholar, theologian, writes, 00:16:05.319 --> 00:16:09.539 We hover breathlessly at the edge of the mystery of the Trinity 00:16:09.539 --> 00:16:15.059 as the triune God's matchless love is displayed in the sacrifice of the cross, 00:16:15.459 --> 00:16:21.959 in the penal substitutionary death of the eternal incarnate Son of God, Emmanuel, God with us. 00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:28.340 But just how can the eternal Son experience forsakenness? 00:16:29.420 --> 00:16:34.480 How can He who is one with the Father in essence cry out as one abandoned? 00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:38.139 It's a mystery. 00:16:39.900 --> 00:16:43.759 But the answer, I think, lies, I think as Carson's words indicate, 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:45.540 in the wonder of the incarnation. 00:16:46.700 --> 00:16:49.980 Because the person who suffers is the divine person. 00:16:49.980 --> 00:16:53.700 But the nature in which He suffers is His human nature. 00:16:55.180 --> 00:17:01.420 In His human soul, He experiences the full weight of divine displeasure against sin. 00:17:03.680 --> 00:17:10.620 His exclamation here represents the nadir of all Jesus' sufferings. 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:17.500 In this cry, Jesus reaches the lowest point of His humiliation as the incarnate Son. 00:17:17.500 --> 00:17:24.700 Here He descends into the essence of hell, enduring the most extreme suffering ever experienced. 00:17:25.660 --> 00:17:31.920 So dense, so infinite, so horrendous as to be utterly beyond our comprehension. 00:17:33.740 --> 00:17:36.480 His cry doesn't diminish His deity. 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:41.119 He doesn't cease being God before, during, or after this. 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:47.919 His cry does not divide His human nature from His divine person, or in some way unravel the Trinity. 00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:50.139 It doesn't detach Him from the Spirit. 00:17:50.419 --> 00:17:53.839 His forsakenness is related to His human nature. 00:17:54.139 --> 00:17:58.239 He bears our sins in His physical body. 00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:05.180 So what does it mean that the Father forsook the Son? 00:18:06.420 --> 00:18:09.559 We're not seeking to deny divine impassibility. 00:18:12.279 --> 00:18:17.480 The Son did not cease to be God, nor did the Father cease to love the Son. 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:23.980 Yet in the economy of redemption, there was a real judicial abandonment. 00:18:23.980 --> 00:18:30.360 The Father is the righteous judge, treating the Son as the sin-bearer. 00:18:30.620 --> 00:18:33.539 He who knew no sin was made sin for us. 00:18:33.779 --> 00:18:40.960 Christ's forsakenness lay in the withdrawal of the Father's favor while He bore the curse. 00:18:43.259 --> 00:18:47.200 In His humanity, in His body on the tree, Jesus is utterly alone. 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:53.960 In His hour of greatest need, there comes this searing pain, unlike anything the Son has ever experienced. 00:18:55.559 --> 00:18:59.080 And yet at this moment when He most needs encouragement, 00:19:00.140 --> 00:19:01.779 no voice cries from heaven, 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:03.160 this is my beloved Son. 00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:05.880 No angel is sent to strengthen Him. 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:10.519 No well-done and good faithful servant rings in His ears. 00:19:11.140 --> 00:19:13.180 The women who supported Him are silent. 00:19:13.180 --> 00:19:16.480 The disciples, cowardly and terrified, have fled. 00:19:17.880 --> 00:19:25.259 Feeling disowned by all, Jesus endures the way of suffering, alone, deserted, and forsaken in utter darkness. 00:19:26.940 --> 00:19:32.299 Of course, it's a cry that takes us to the mystery of the Trinity and the incarnation of the Son. 00:19:33.740 --> 00:19:37.120 But beyond that, it takes us to the mystery of God's love for sinners. 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:42.279 Why would God bruise His only dearly beloved Son? 00:19:43.819 --> 00:19:46.879 It was because Christ was made sin for us, 00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:53.219 acting on behalf of His people as their representative and for our benefit. 00:19:54.399 --> 00:19:55.759 His suffering is vicarious. 00:19:55.859 --> 00:19:59.779 He suffered on our behalf, in our place. 00:20:00.939 --> 00:20:03.019 He didn't simply share our forsakenness. 00:20:03.439 --> 00:20:06.279 He came to save us from forsakenness. 00:20:06.279 --> 00:20:09.500 He endured it for us, not with us. 00:20:11.220 --> 00:20:17.460 And so, through faith in a crucified Savior, all God's people are immune to condemnation. 00:20:17.779 --> 00:20:22.859 Now, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:20:25.779 --> 00:20:28.819 Christ suffered on our behalf, in our place. 00:20:29.539 --> 00:20:30.799 Professor MacLeod wrote, 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:37.659 The gospel of the dereliction is not that Christ shares our forsakenness, but that He saves us from it. 00:20:38.460 --> 00:20:40.460 He endured it not with us, but for us. 00:20:40.700 --> 00:20:43.940 We are now free from the curse and condemnation of sin, 00:20:44.220 --> 00:20:52.799 precisely because Christ took it upon Himself and went in our place into the darkness and the abandonment and the forsakenness. 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:57.839 It is the wonder of Christ's obedience to the Father. 00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:00.460 It is death, even death on a cross. 00:21:02.399 --> 00:21:05.220 There's an old hymn that we used to sing back in the day. 00:21:06.159 --> 00:21:06.859 It was entitled, 00:21:07.059 --> 00:21:08.740 Give Me a Sight, O Savior. 00:21:09.539 --> 00:21:10.980 The chorus goes like this, 00:21:10.980 --> 00:21:30.420 Friend, Jesus Christ bore your sin and mine. 00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:36.080 Not as some abstract concept, 00:21:37.380 --> 00:21:40.380 but real sins and offenses against God. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:50.140 Our lies, our lust, our anger, our selfishness, our idolatry, our pride, our apathy, our hatred, our cruelty, 00:21:50.680 --> 00:21:52.360 our gossip, our bitterness. 00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:56.099 Under the weight of all our sin, 00:21:56.279 --> 00:22:03.879 Jesus was pitched into that dark hole of despair, dereliction, and damnation. 00:22:06.500 --> 00:22:09.759 Well, over 150 years ago or so, 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:14.319 John Rabbi Duncan was professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages 00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:17.539 just along the road there at New College here in Edinburgh. 00:22:17.539 --> 00:22:24.399 And in his classes, he was famous for going off on tangents and digressions. 00:22:24.519 --> 00:22:28.559 And he would move off from the Hebrew he was supposed to be teaching 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:32.539 to embark on a variety of theological reflections. 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:38.019 And on one famous occasion, he threw out the following question. 00:22:39.460 --> 00:22:41.599 Do you know what Calvary was? 00:22:42.519 --> 00:22:44.259 Aye, aye, do you know what it was? 00:22:44.259 --> 00:22:47.539 Dying on the cross, forsaken by his Father. 00:22:47.740 --> 00:22:49.220 Do you know what it was? 00:22:51.019 --> 00:22:55.660 And then having waited a little and having walked up and down in front of the class in silence, 00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:00.599 he looked at them again and said to them with tears in his eyes, 00:23:01.220 --> 00:23:07.019 it was damnation, and damnation taken lovingly. 00:23:09.480 --> 00:23:12.740 Friends, here we see the mystery of the love of Christ in all its splendor. 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:18.779 For here is where Jesus, damned and forsaken for the sake of sinners. 00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:23.059 And that tells us this, there is no other way of salvation. 00:23:24.339 --> 00:23:30.839 There is no other path or route we can take to come to God and to be in His presence. 00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:37.200 There is only one way, and that is through Jesus Christ, the crucified one. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:49.039 For hearing Christ's cry of forsakenness, we have a window into the mystery of God's love for sinners like us. 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:53.380 The reality of Christ's forsakenness. 00:23:54.039 --> 00:23:56.539 The mystery of Christ's forsakenness. 00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:02.299 And finally, here and briefly, what I'll call the glory of Christ's forsakenness. 00:24:02.299 --> 00:24:07.460 Because this cry of dereliction is, of course, not the end. 00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:16.859 Yes, Jesus travels alone into the far country of suffering and isolation and despair, but He does not remain there. 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:24.000 This dereliction is an intermediate point on a road leading somewhere else. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:27.259 His suffering will give way to death. 00:24:27.579 --> 00:24:29.359 His death will give way to burial. 00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:31.920 His burial will give way to resurrection. 00:24:32.839 --> 00:24:36.279 And resurrection will give way to ascended glory. 00:24:38.019 --> 00:24:45.839 The one who was with God comes to be without God in order that we should be with God. 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:52.000 Remember Peter, his first epistle, 1 Peter 3.18 says, 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:56.220 He died to bring us to God. 00:24:58.299 --> 00:25:03.099 Jesus does not return empty-handed, as it were, from the far country. 00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:07.299 For He brings with Him a multitude that no man can number. 00:25:07.299 --> 00:25:14.199 Through the Son's forsakenness, we are brought close to God. 00:25:14.200 --> 00:25:20.460 So close that He can wipe away every tear from our eyes. 00:25:22.120 --> 00:25:24.819 And so the cross is not a tragic defeat. 00:25:25.700 --> 00:25:27.920 It is rather a glorious victory. 00:25:29.100 --> 00:25:34.519 As Christ is lifted up, exalted and elevated on the cross of Calvary. 00:25:35.940 --> 00:25:40.720 Remember, John in his gospel refers to the cross as Jesus' glory. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:45.019 That's why the theme of Paul's preaching was what? 00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:48.259 Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 00:25:49.380 --> 00:25:50.539 That's the message. 00:25:51.620 --> 00:25:56.480 And we read in all the gospels that the shame and the disgrace of the cross 00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:00.059 soon gives way to resurrection and ascension. 00:26:00.700 --> 00:26:02.600 Suffering gives way to glory. 00:26:02.599 --> 00:26:14.000 We need to see everything in the light of Jesus' victory and exaltation and glory. 00:26:16.959 --> 00:26:23.779 It's good to remember that in God's economy, suffering gives way to glory. 00:26:23.779 --> 00:26:28.539 Look at the darkness Jesus was in when He cried out, 00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:31.279 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:26:32.420 --> 00:26:41.039 And you will see that you have a Savior to whom you can come in the very darkest moments of life. 00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:45.359 When you feel God is nowhere near you. 00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:48.839 He's actually been there. 00:26:49.699 --> 00:26:52.039 He didn't just feel abandoned. 00:26:52.639 --> 00:26:53.779 He was abandoned. 00:26:55.459 --> 00:26:59.359 And so, your Savior has a tenderness towards you 00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:04.779 that no one else in this world could ever have for you. 00:27:04.779 --> 00:27:09.740 Jesus' cry of dereliction is a reminder 00:27:09.740 --> 00:27:15.859 that even when the circumstances of our lives make us feel that God has forsaken us, 00:27:16.700 --> 00:27:19.779 or maybe that we're surrounded by opposition, 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:23.539 that the final word lies with God. 00:27:25.359 --> 00:27:29.059 And the cry of dereliction is in one sense the price of our reconciliation. 00:27:30.500 --> 00:27:32.700 Because He was forsaken, we shall never be. 00:27:32.700 --> 00:27:36.420 Because the face of God was turned from Him, 00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:40.840 it has turned towards us in everlasting mercy and love. 00:27:42.420 --> 00:27:47.600 And this is the gospel in its, perhaps in its starkest and yet most glorious form. 00:27:48.819 --> 00:27:51.940 The cross is not merely an example of love. 00:27:52.220 --> 00:27:55.980 It's not just a demonstration of God's hatred against sin. 00:27:56.779 --> 00:28:00.640 It's the place where God's justice and mercy have met. 00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:03.960 Where the sinless one was treated as a sinner, 00:28:05.100 --> 00:28:08.340 that the sinner might be treated as the Son. 00:28:10.420 --> 00:28:14.480 And so, from our crucified, risen Savior, 00:28:14.860 --> 00:28:19.720 there flows to us forgiveness and cleansing, 00:28:20.800 --> 00:28:24.640 mercy and love, righteousness and acceptance with God. 00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:28.080 I wonder if you can see that tonight. 00:28:29.300 --> 00:28:33.500 All of those wonderful blessings that flow to us 00:28:33.500 --> 00:28:38.120 because of the one who suffered and poured out his soul to death. 00:28:39.120 --> 00:28:43.020 Because of the one who chose to be numbered amongst the transgressors. 00:28:43.480 --> 00:28:46.640 Because of the one who bore the sin of many. 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:51.520 Because of the one who was forsaken on the cross. 00:28:53.280 --> 00:28:55.060 And of course, this is why we have this table. 00:28:56.240 --> 00:28:57.940 These elements of bread and wine. 00:28:59.160 --> 00:29:00.920 Christ has given us this meal 00:29:00.920 --> 00:29:05.540 so that we will never forget the cost of our salvation. 00:29:05.539 --> 00:29:08.480 Here at the Lord's Supper, 00:29:09.019 --> 00:29:15.920 God is making us to understand it. 00:29:16.420 --> 00:29:19.539 And helping us to take it in. 00:29:21.740 --> 00:29:24.039 We used to sing an old hymn in Sunday school. 00:29:25.079 --> 00:29:26.279 An old Victorian hymn. 00:29:26.720 --> 00:29:28.159 There is a green hill far away. 00:29:28.279 --> 00:29:32.059 Perhaps some of you of a certain vintage might remember it. 00:29:32.740 --> 00:29:33.799 It has this verse. 00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:36.399 We may not know. 00:29:37.180 --> 00:29:38.480 We cannot tell. 00:29:39.059 --> 00:29:41.440 What pains he had to bear. 00:29:42.639 --> 00:29:47.139 But we believe it was for us. 00:29:48.039 --> 00:29:50.480 He hung and suffered there. 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:53.919 Do you believe that tonight? 00:29:55.980 --> 00:29:58.399 C.H. Spurgeon once said that his whole theology 00:29:58.399 --> 00:30:01.740 could be summed up in four words. 00:30:01.740 --> 00:30:07.740 Jesus died for me. 00:30:09.079 --> 00:30:12.299 By God's grace, as we come to the table tonight, 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:18.099 may each one of us be able to say the same. 00:30:19.079 --> 00:30:20.099 Let's pray together. 00:30:20.099 --> 00:30:33.619 God, our Father, we ask that you would impress 00:30:33.619 --> 00:30:40.779 these realities upon our hearts and our minds. 00:30:40.779 --> 00:30:54.519 Lord, we ask that we may indeed reflect on what it means for the Son of God to have loved us and given himself for us. 00:30:54.519 --> 00:30:57.500 Lord help us 00:30:57.500 --> 00:31:00.859 to appreciate 00:31:00.859 --> 00:31:03.099 and rejoice in all that 00:31:03.099 --> 00:31:04.000 he has accomplished 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:07.079 help us to turn away from 00:31:07.079 --> 00:31:08.839 sin and self and 00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:11.099 the many idols of our culture 00:31:11.099 --> 00:31:15.059 and to rest 00:31:15.059 --> 00:31:17.019 in our crucified 00:31:17.019 --> 00:31:18.940 and risen Savior 00:31:18.940 --> 00:31:21.160 for we pray 00:31:21.160 --> 00:31:22.240 these things in his name 00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:24.940 and for your glory. Amen.