On Account of Christ, You Are Never Forsaken :: Matthew 27:46

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Virtually every word Jesus spoke from the cross was a Word on behalf of someone else. He thought of others first. He looked at his persecutors first and asked for their forgiveness first. He looked at the criminal to his right and gave him the promise of salvation. He looked at his mother and gave her a son. As he lived, so he died ... pleading, promising, giving.

But there was one word in particular from the cross in which Jesus turned in upon himself. After hanging on the cross for hours, dripping in blood, gasping for air, he looked up into the blackened sky and uttered his bitter lament, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Mt 27:46)? 

4. Who can describe this God-forsakenness?

We like to think we know what it means to be God forsaken. We describe places like the Mojave Desert as such a place. But we can only imagine what it really means. We certainly can’t imagine what it must have been like for God’s only begotten son, the beloved one. We can only imagine the pain and emotion he felt. We can only imagine his despair. 

Some twelve hours before his death, Jesus actually sweated blood in prayer. That is how much God-forsaken stress he was under. Then the mob came for him in the God-forsaken darkness of night. They mocked him. They bond him. They beat him. They shouted crucify, crucify, crucify him! He received the God-forsaken scourging of forty minus one. He was stripped naked, humiliated, and nailed to the cross. We can only imagine the God-forsaken pain he experienced ... the bleeding, the gasping, the crying, the dying.

Christ was numbered with the criminals, with the transgressors. The men to his left and his right had committed crimes worthy of death. And here, the sinless son of God, by his obedience to the Father for the redemption of the world, was guilty with them ... more than a million times more guilty than them. The pain of the God-forsaken cross was only intensified by the taunts of the bloodthirsty who forgot God themselves. 

Let him prove himself, they cried out at Jesus. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, thank God this happened. It was necessary for Jesus to be God forsaken in such a way. 

3. Jesus became God-forsaken for you.

Sin has no place with God. Sin is literally God-forsaken. The wages of all sin ... no matter how big ... no matter how small ... all end in the same place ... which is God-forsaken death ... total separation from God. It doesn’t matter if it is your idolatry, your adultery, your lust and immorality. It doesn’t matter if it was just a white lie or something much worse, like gossip. Sin must be punished. 

We could have stood by a friend in need, but we decided instead to protect our own interests.

We could have held tightly to God’s promise to help us, but we gave in to fear and anxiety.

We could have resolved to remain faithful, but we caved in to the temptations of the crowd. 

We could have confessed our sins, but we stayed silent. 

We could have been bold in rebuking sin, but we held our tongue and an opportunity to confess the name of Jesus slip away.

We abandon our Lord just as quickly as Peter. 

We abandon our own confessions. 

We abandon our God. 

2. But God never forsakes you. 

The merciful Father may seem distant and remote at times in your life, but tonight we have proof that God doesn’t forsake you. He abandoned Jesus instead. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ was born for this reason ... to ensure God would not forsake you. He was born without sin, and lived without sin, so that he could suffer and die for your sin. Your sin, my sin, the world’s sin ... died in the fullness of time ... in Christ ... on the cross. 

It has never been God’s will to crush you. Jesus took your place. God poured out all of his righteous wrath upon Jesus, destroying all sin there on a God-forsaken tree of death. He saw our sin on the cross and despised it there. Jesus was delivered up to death. He was delivered for the sins of the people. Jesus was forsaken. 

Do we feel lonely and friendless? So did Jesus. 

Have we experienced sorrow and adversity? So did Jesus. 

Do we wonder about the future and how things will turn out? So did Jesus. 

Have you felt shame and despair? So has Jesus.

God died this day so that now our sin would be left for dead on the tree of death.

Now when we look to the cross and see the body of Jesus, we know he is not unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. ... Now we can approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Heb 4:15–16).

1. On account of his life and death, we now know we are no longer forsaken.

We, like sheep, continue to forget God, but God has laid the iniquity of us all on Jesus. We continue to spurn his means of grace, but God always remembers his covenant with us. He is always coming to us, calling to us. His forgiveness is complete. Nothing else needs to be done to cancel what separates us from him. Christ’s perfect death is all we need to know that we are not God-forsaken any longer. The Word became flesh and dwelt and died among us, full of grace and truth. Our pain has become his pain. Our loss has become his loss. 

BEHOLD, HE WILL NEVER LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US

... in Jesus’ name.

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