As has been tradition here, short messages are given on each of the seven last words of Christ. As the secretary for the Ministerial Association, I was given the task of assigning each of the words to one of the pastors. I assigned myself the fourth word.
It's a challenge to condense all that I could say into around a 3-minute period. I don't want to leave anything critical out, yet I can't leave in anything that are even slightly tangential or detracting from the central theme. So it was a case of edit, edit, and more edit.
The service was once again at the Lutheran church. Each word was interleaved with music. Some of the speakers went longer than others.
The following is the text of my message. I used some dramatic intensity, literally shouting out a few of the emphasized words and phrases in the text below. Afterwards, I felt just as exhausted as I do after giving a sermon of the usual 20-35 minutes. The only thing I can figure is that usually, the energy and emotions put into a sermon are probably spread out over the whole time (or comes right near the end), but for something like tonight, everything is concentrated into just a few minutes.
All scriptural texts are taken from the English Standard Version. (Emphases are mine.)
The Fourth Word: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Matthew 27:45-46, Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
For three hours Jesus was silent. Darkness, unnatural darkness, covered the land; as if creation itself sought refuge from the horrors inflicted upon the Creator. Where is God? The onlookers are certain that God's curse is upon Jesus; certain that God has abandoned him. Jesus cries out words that seem to confirm their darkest thoughts.
Jesus, the Son of God, who was with the Father from the beginning of eternity now knows what it feels to be forsaken and abandoned.
Have you ever felt forsaken and abandoned? By others? By God? Do you ever feel as if God is absent? Did God truly abandon Jesus while he suffered? Does God abandon you? Is God ever absent?
Following the Last Supper, John records Jesus saying (John 16:32), "Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me."
Jesus believed that God would continue to be with him through his sufferings.
Peter, in one of his letters, looking back on Jesus' crucifixion wrote (1 Peter 2:21-24):
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Peter wrote that Jesus left an example for us to follow when we go through times of trials and suffering.
Here are at least two examples that Jesus left for us:
First, Jesus, even when all feelings and emotions said otherwise, clung to his faith in the love of God for him. Jesus continued to trust that whatever happened to him, God's loving purposes would be accomplished through it.
Secondly, Jesus continued to seek to show God's love and grace, amid his sufferings and agony.
- To the soldiers nailing him to the cross.
- To the thief who asked for forgiveness and assurance of salvation.
- To his mother.
All of us go through difficult times. Jesus showed us the way through those times of trouble. The way through is through continuing to trust in God and through bringing comfort and healing to those who are also suffering. Through our loving and compassionate actions, we become the presence of God in the lives and hearts of those who are feeling forsaken and abandoned. God's mystery is that as we offer comfort through empathy, we in turn, I believe, open ourselves to receive comfort.
For Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4)
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