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Extraordinary Words

Jesus had been nailed to His cross at 9am – the third hour. At midday (the sixth hour) something unprecedented took place – the light of the sun was obscured and darkness covered the land. This was no ordinary occurrence as the darkness lasted three hours (up to the ninth hour). No solar eclipse could explain this event – eclipses last minutes not hours and what is more they don't take place when the moon in full as it is at Passover time.

Now darkness is a term that is widely used in the OT. It is employed in a variety of situations signifying differing both positives and negatives.

Darkness covering the land of Egypt was one of the plagues – a sign of God's judgment. And this aspect is developed by Job as well as being used by other OT authors.

But darkness is also used in reference to God and to His presence:

·       1Ki 8:12 "Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness."

·       Or again in the Psalms we read Ps.18:9, 11 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet… He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water."

God was present at Calvary – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Something mysterious was taking place – something that wasn't easy to understand – hence darkness. God was present in judgment as the problem of sin was being dealt with.

During these three hours of darkness Jesus had not spoken another word. During the earlier stages of His crucifixion Jesus had spoken on behalf of others. Having spoken on behalf of His enemies, having assured a repentant thief of future bliss and after having provided for the well-being of His mother He fell silent for three hours. Now suddenly His voice rings out again and what words!

Matthew and Mark both record this particular word of Christ from the cross and they both state that He cried out with a loud voice. Luke who records the very last words that Jesus uttered from the cross also stated that He called out with a loud voice! The two words in Greek are mega & phone = megaphone.

1.       Jesus meant to be heard by those about Him. He was not whispering and trying to maintain a quiet conversation.

2.       He was also full of strength – we should not imagine that Jesus gently expired becoming weaker and weaker. He was able to cry out with a strong voice. He did not have His life gradually taken from Him. As the end comes it is He who determines what happens.

The disciples had often heard Jesus pray during the three years of His ministry but they had never heard use the words He uses now!

What is striking about calling out "My God, my God"? After all, the phrase is a Biblical one being found in the Psalm we read – Ps.22:1 and the words "my God" are found over and over again in the OT.

But Jesus didn't refer to God in this way. Throughout His life on earth He spoke of His Father. There is a change here and it is significant.

However now, on the cross, bearing the sin and shame of His people, He calls out in the words of the Messianic Psalm 22. The Psalm speaks graphically of suffering and crucifixion and that centuries before crucifixion was known as a means of execution.

Our Lord uses Bible words that describe the sufferings of the Messiah to express the anguish of His soul as He, the Messiah, suffers in the place of His people to secure their salvation.

The importance of the words cited is underlined by both Matthew and Mark as they quote not merely His words but also the original language in which He expressed them. In doing this they slow the pace of the text down and focus our attention upon His cry. In doing so they also enable us to understand a little better what happens next.

Hearing His words a bystander jumps up and suggests that Jesus is calling out for Elijah to come to His rescue.

Is this genuine? Is that the bystanders really thought? If Jesus had whispered His words then some case might be made for a legitimate misunderstanding. A thirsty, tired voice could perhaps be easily misheard and we know that Jesus was becoming thirsty now having earlier refused any drugged drink that might have served to alleviate His suffering. But is this right? Had it been a soldier then perhaps the misunderstanding would have been more likely – but Jesus was speaking in the language of His own people and it was one of them who made the suggestion. There is a real difference in the pronunciation of the words used even if there did exist some similarity. In addition Jesus was citing the opening verse of a well known Psalm!

No, there is mockery here too that continues towards Jesus. There is a deliberate refusal to face up to what He is doing and saying. The leaders don't want the ordinary members of the crowd to be begin to make a link between Jesus and the sufferer of Psalm 22 no, they have a vested interest in allowing His words to be twisted and deformed. "Oh, He's delirious" is the attitude now – but let's wait a bit to see if Elijah will come to help Him! Ha, ha, ha!!

Men continue to do the same thing today. The words of the gospel concerning Jesus Christ begin to come a bit too close to home for comfort and so we'll have a laugh about it all. Don't want to go getting too serious now do we?

Are you sometimes in danger of doing the very same thing? You hear the gospel message and you make light of it. It's very possible for Christians too to handle sacred things in an unholy fashion. Hear the warning Christ gave earlier about casting pearls before swine! Beware lest the Lord the light from our midst and as in OT times there come a famine of the hearing of the Word of God.

Jesus was not calling out for Elijah – and no-one present really thought He was – but that didn't stop them!

What can one begin to say about these words? How extraordinary they are!

Martin Luther sat many hours one day contemplating the meaning of these words and as he rose from his meditation could only say: "God forsaking God who can understand that?"

Hymn writers too have struggled to express just what was taking place:

Isaac Watts wrote the words we've already sung:

Well might the sun in darkness hide,

and shut his glories in,

when God, the mighty Maker, died

for man, the creature’s sin.

William Williams, Pantecelyn, the "Sweet singer of Wales" wrote:

AWAKE, my soul, and rise

amazed, and yonder see

how hangs the mighty Saviour God

upon a cursèd tree!

How gloriously fulfilled

is that most ancient plan,

conceived in the eternal mind

before the world began.

 Here depths of wisdom shine,

which angels cannot trace;

the highest rank of cherubim

still lost in wonder gaze.

Anne Ross Cousin spoke with these words:

Jehovah lifted up His rod:

O Christ, it fell on Thee!

Thou wast sore stricken of Thy God;

There’s not one stroke for me.

Thy tears, Thy blood beneath it flowed;

Thy bruising healeth me.

Jehovah bade His sword awake:

O Christ, it woke 'gainst Thee;

Thy blood the flaming blade must slake,

Thy heart its sheath must be.

All for my sake, my peace to make:

Now sleeps that sword for me.

Or Charles Wesley:

O LOVE divine! what have You done?

The immortal God has died for me!

The Father’s co-eternal Son

bore all my sins upon the tree;

the immortal God for me has died!

my Lord, my Love is crucified.

Behold Him, you that pass Him by,

the bleeding Prince of life and peace!

Come, sinners, see your Maker die,

and say, was ever grief like His?

Come, feel with me His blood applied:

my Lord, my Love is crucified:

Paul Gerhardt:

Thy grief and bitter passion

were all for sinners’ gain:

mine, mine was the transgression,

but Thine the deadly pain:

lo! here I fall, my Saviour;

’tis I deserve Thy place;

look on me with Thy favour,

and grant to me Thy grace.

In order to try to appreciate something of the enormity of what was taking place that day during those hours we need to ask a few questions concerning that word forsaken.

What does forsaken mean? Then further we need to ask Does God forsake and if so why? Which types of people does He forsake?

The meaning of to forsake – to abandon or to leave desolate. To cast off, to disown, to refuse or reject, to shun and to spurn.

Now God is by His very essence everywhere – there is no place where He is not. And yet He is not everywhere manifested in the same way.

In the OT there are clear indications that God does forsake and the kind of people He forsakes are sinners.

·       Just think about Adam and Eve – following their sin, God chases them away from His presence and no longer wants their company. He used to walk in the garden in the cool of the day and fellowship with them but now with sin He banishes them and places cherubim with flaming sword to prevent any return.

·       Or think of the world at the time of Noah – a wicked world full of wicked people and God cuts them off with the Flood.

·       King Saul was forsaken because of His disobedience.

·       Or again we read in 2Chr.24:20 "Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has forsaken you." And this means that He gave up His own people to serve and follow the false gods and baals that they were so often lusting after.

But we also read in the OT that the LORD God was constant towards the righteous:

·       Gen.24:27 "Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master."

·       This was a truth frequently celebrated in the Psalms eg. Ps.9:10 "And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you."      Or Ps.37:25  I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken."

As we turn to the NT and to Calvary we are forced then to ask how it can be that Jesus – the righteous one who had been verbally approved by the Father speaking words of approval through the clouds is now finding the clouds hiding from Him His Father's loving face. If God forsakes the sinner but not the righteous just what is going on?

When Jesus cried out on the cross about being forsaken, He was not suggesting that somehow God was absent from Golgotha. Nor was He suggesting that the Trinity had somehow ceased to exist. Notr was He simply suggesting that He no longer felt God's presence – for Him there was at that moment no friendly presence for Him to feel!! What He was declaring was that He was no longer experiencing the absolute harmony of communion with the Father that He had hitherto eternally enjoyed!!

The divine desertion of which Jesus was complaining comprised the total lack now of the slightest manifestation of favour, grace and love. When these are gone God is said to be gone. This is the state and condition proper to the devil and his fallen angels the evil spirits. And now on the cross in the darkness this is the lot of the spotless Lamb of God as He is made to be sin for us.

This was a judicial forsaking. It was a forsaking that was perfectly justified because Jesus had now been made a curse for us as He hung paying the penalty of our sin.

Dare you think that sin is a light matter? Dare you act as though it is somehow God's duty to tolerate your sin and then simply pass over it? Do you see what the Trinity was prepared to endure because of your sin? The Son to know no longer enjoy the smile of His Father's face; the Father forced to turn away as His Son bore the full weight of His judicial wrath.

My friends I think it unlikely that we will ever understand what it cost our God to save us. The cost was enormous and we were and are still so utterly undeserving.

May He grant us to stay here at the foot of the cross and contemplate in awe and wonder just how our salvation was accomplished. Let us not entertain thoughts of cheap grace but in humbleness of spirit repent and worship!

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