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As we reflect upon Calvary and the Spirit of God leads us there in our hearts, I remind

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you of another of Jesus' statements, this one found in Matthew 27, where it says,

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about the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,

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which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

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Of the seven final statements of Jesus from the cross, I don't believe there is one

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that is filled with more mystery, or one that is more moving than this one in which Jesus

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asks God why.

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It is, of course, a quotation from the Old Testament.

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It is the first verse of Psalm 22, which was penned by Jesus' human forefather, King David.

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David was probably lamenting some extremely difficult experience in his own life, which

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was then followed by God's gracious deliverance.

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And in that context, he actually asks three questions.

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He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

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Why are you so far from saving me?

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Why so far from the words of my groaning?

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David's words and Jesus' are words of a soul in agony, asking the question, why?

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It is the question that was asked in a church in Dunblane, Scotland, a few weeks ago.

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Pastor Alan MacLeod, who ministers at the Free Church of Scotland in Dunblane, addressed

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his people on the Sunday following the killings of 16 children in the kindergarten, plus their

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teacher.

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He preached that Sunday morning about evil and noted in his message the only cure for

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such evil.

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The next day he was interviewed by a reporter from World Magazine.

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And he said, we went yesterday to the cross at Golgotha.

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And we considered the cry of the Lord, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

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We considered the cry that Jesus uttered from the cross, why?

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The reporter goes on to write in his own words, why?

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That's a good question to ask after such a horrible deed.

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That question leads to an answer.

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There is sin in the world.

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And only one act of God can redeem every man's wickedness.

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And it is that one act of God that we contemplate this afternoon as we gather here.

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Who of us has not asked at some point in his life or her life, why?

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In the midst of agonizing bewilderment or searing solitary pain, who of us has not asked,

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why?

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Perhaps it was sitting at the edge of a hospital bed where bad news had just been delivered,

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or standing beside the casket of a young child, or crying alone in the shadows, or watching

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an elderly parent slowly sink into Alzheimer's.

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Who has not asked why?

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And so when Jesus cries from his cross, why?

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He asks a question that the human race has asked many times.

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We note that Jesus' cry was a cry of agony.

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We can only begin to understand something of the physical anguish he was enduring on

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the cross.

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Suffocation was the most cruel form of execution ever devised by man.

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It is impossible for one who is crucified to find any relief in the hours of his torture.

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It is impossible to rest when hanging on a cross.

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And because of the fear of suffocation, because of the position of the body, there is the

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constant pressure, the constant fear for the next breath that one has.

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So Jesus' cry was a cry of agony.

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But was Jesus perplexed as we are sometimes when we ask that question why?

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Was he confused as to what was taking place?

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Is that why he cried out, why my God have you forsaken me?

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I think we can understand a bit more of all of this when we see that his cry was not only

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one of agony, but it was a cry out of darkness.

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The scripture says that he was crucified beginning at nine o'clock in the morning.

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And then it was about noon, after three hours of his agony, that things began to change.

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The sky grew unusually dark and black.

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It was not the clouds came over the sun.

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It was not that there was a solar eclipse, for the sun and the moon at the time of Passover

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cannot be in a position to cause an eclipse.

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Something supernatural was taking place as the sky grew dark.

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A shroud was drawn over that crime scene, where the heinous act of humanity against

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the Son of God was taken out.

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This darkness that came over that scene may well have been a worldwide darkness, and how

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appropriate if in fact that were the case.

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John MacArthur summarizes some of the extra biblical references to supernatural darkness

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in the whole world on that day.

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The early church father, Origen, reported a statement by a Roman historian who mentioned

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such a darkness that occurred throughout the Roman Empire.

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And another of the early church fathers, whose name was Tertullian, wrote to some pagan acquaintances

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of his about an unusual darkness on that day.

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And in the letter to them he said, which wonder is related in your own annals and preserved

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in your own archives to this day?

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In other words, even the pagans had noted in their records that there was this darkness

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that could not be explained that occurred on that day.

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And there is some reference to a report from Pilate to Emperor Tiberius that assumed the

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emperor's knowledge of a certain widespread darkness, even mentioning that it occurred

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from 12 to 3 in the afternoon.

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And so this was not a localized thing most probably.

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This was a worldwide phenomenon.

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And Jesus cried out of that darkness.

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But the darkness was more than a physical darkness.

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It was a darkness that was spiritual.

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For darkness in the Bible is associated with judgment.

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It is mentioned that way in Exodus, in Joel, Amos, in Zephaniah, all of whom link darkness

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with divine judgment.

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Jesus himself in the Gospel of Matthew three times describes hell not only as a place of

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fiery torment, but as a place of outer darkness.

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And Peter and Jude speak of angels who because of their heinous sin are kept in darkness

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awaiting their final judgment.

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And so this darkness that occurred at Golgotha on that day and around the world was a darkness

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that symbolized judgment from God which was inflicted upon Christ.

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It pleased God to bruise him, for he bore our sins on the cross.

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Listen to these statements of Scripture that undergird what I'm saying.

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He was delivered up because of our transgressions.

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He died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

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He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.

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He died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust.

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He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf.

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Think of it.

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Think of it, all of the lusting, all of the adultery, all of the lying, all of the cheating,

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all of the greed, of all of the ages placed upon Christ as he died in that darkness.

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The result of the sin being placed upon him was the separation of himself from his father

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for the first and only time in all of eternity.

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This was not a separation of substance.

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It was not a separation of nature.

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He was still God the Son even during that darkness.

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But during that time there was a loss of intimacy and fellowship with his father.

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And what occurred in nature was nothing more than an astronomical manifestation of what

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had occurred in the spirit realm.

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And it is in that context that Jesus cries out, why?

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It is a wail of a soul in aloneness, a soul experiencing abandonment.

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It is the cry of one who knows the silence of heaven, of one who is brokenhearted.

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Now understand that when Jesus asked the question why, he knew why.

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He was not confused and perplexed.

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Psalm 22 goes on to answer the very question that was asked, why?

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asks David.

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And yet he says, you are enthroned as the Holy One of Israel.

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So he knows that this loss of the fellowship with God is because of sin.

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And the Son of God knew that as well.

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And he died there as a man.

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And so he expresses himself as a man.

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He was the representative man.

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He did not die in confusion and disillusionment.

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He died understanding what he was doing.

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And yet he died as a man, and to illustrate his humanity, he cries out, why have you forsaken

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me?

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But I think there is something more.

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It was for our sake that he cried out as he did, so that we might begin to grasp the extent

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of his suffering and the expanse of his love.

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And if you today are crying out in your soul a question why, why my God?

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If that question is on your parched lips today as it was on the lips of Jesus, then know

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that there is one who is true man, who understands what you're passing through.

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But one who went on to experience what David expressed in verse 24 of Psalm 22, God has

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not despised or disdained the suffering of his afflicted one.

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He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help.

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And God hears your cry.

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Shuttered in this moment of aloneness, even as he heard the cry of his son, and as surely

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as God answered the cry of his son, so he will answer your cry.

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Elizabeth Browning captures so well in four lines what is taking place in the text we

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are looking at.

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Yea, once Emmanuel's orphaned cry his universe hath shaken.

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It went up single, echoless, my God, I am forsaken.

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It went up from the holy lips amid his lost creation, that of the lost no son should use

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those words of desolation.

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His orphaned cry was so that you might not ever have to give a cry like that of separation

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from God for eternity.

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Another poet in our day has captured the same thought when he writes, why did they nail

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him to Calvary's tree?

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Why tell me why was he there?

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Jesus the helper, the healer, the friend, why tell me why was he there?

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All my iniquities on him were laid.

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He nailed them all to the tree.

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Jesus the debt of my sin fully paid.

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He paid the ransom for me.

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And that's what it's about.

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And that's why the cross, and that's why Jesus endured abandonment by his father in those

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hours of torment for you and for me, that we among the lost might not have to cry out

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with such an orphaned cry as he knew.

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Let's pray.

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Father, today as we contemplate the cross and our Lord Jesus and His suffering there,

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may our hearts be broken, may our hearts rejoice as we understand why, why He was forsaken

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for our sake.

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Amen.