ELI, ELI LAMA SABACHTANI

Eli, Eli Lama Sabachtani!

My God, My God, Why Have you forsaken me?

On this special day for the humanity, and a very difficult, exhausting, and painful day, but nevertheless special for our Lord Jesus Christ., He was dying on the cross for us and taking our sins upon himself.

These words that Jesus uttered were more than a quote from the OT; he meant that with His whole heart and being.

He was suffering Crucifixion, he was fulfilling the will of God and the plan of Salvation was coming to its climax. The event s of crucifixion is well known to us, and as we are studying from the past weeks the last word of Jesus on the cross, let’s remember some of them. On the Cross Jesus was:

• Uttering words of grace and forgiveness

(Luke 23:34 – Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.)

• Offering salvation

(Luke 23:40, 42, 43 – But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die?  We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”)

• Giving instruction

(John 19:26-27 – When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.)

And now almost after 6 hours on the cross, he cried out in loud voice, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

What happened between the sixth and the ninth hour (12pm – 3pm) is a blank apart from the de fact that darkness covered all the land (v45 – At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock.) it is a fulfilment of what Amos prophesied about 750 years before Christ. (Amos 8:9 – “In that day,” says the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth while it is still day.)

But we also know that Jesus is taking the sins of the world on Him. Jesus was crying out in anguish because of the separation He now experienced from His heavenly Father for the first and only time in all of eternity. It is the only time of which we have record that Jesus did not address God as Father. Because the Son had taken sin upon Himself, the Father turned His back. This is such a great mystery, that is not surprisingly that Martin Luther went into seclusion for a long time to try to understand it and came away as confused as he began. Because the Son had taken sin upon Himself, the Father turned His back.

As it says in (Hab 1:13 – But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil.), God could not look upon His Son, because of sin. Not His, but of the whole world that was upon Him. God has no part with sin, he cannot mix with sin, not even look at it, he is pure and perfect and at that time, he had to turn His back on His Son.

God has revealed the basic truth of it for us to accept and to understand to the limit of our ability under the illumination of His Spirit. And nowhere in Scripture can we behold the reality of Jesus’ sacrificial death and the anguish of His separation from His Father more clearly and penetratingly than in His suffering on the cross because of sin. In the midst of being willingly engulfed in our sins and the sins of all men of all time.

Jesus on the other hand was at this point identifying himself with the current situation of mankind, separated from the father because of sin, at this point he was undergoing the judgement that was meant for us, sinners, and he was being punished in our place.

In our place condemned he stood. God’s perfect justice has to be satisfied and Jesus was facing the consequences of the sins of the world that he was carrying on that cross. He was not crying out loud to God because of the nails that were piercing His hands, or because of the lacerations on His back, or even because of the crown of thorns he was wearing, He cried out because He was experiencing separation from God, by becoming our substitute. In my opinion, this was the worse pain and most difficult part of His earthly mission.

a)     He was pierced for our transgressions. (Is 53:5 – But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

b)    Became propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10 – This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.)

c)     He gave himself as a ransom for all men.

(1Tim 2:6 – He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time)

(Mat 20:28 – For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.)

d)    He was made sin for us. (2 Co 5:21 – For God made Christ, who never sinned, to become sin itself, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.)

He died for us suffering temporarily consequence of our sins, so those who accept Him and believe in Him might live with the eternal consequence of forgiveness, salvation; we were made acceptable in the sight of God, through the righteousness of Jesus.

Freedom is what we have in Christ and is not temporal, is eternal. Rom 8:1 – So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

When Christ was forsaken by the Father, their separation was not one of nature, essence, or substance. Christ did not in any sense or degree cease to exist as God or as a member of the Trinity. He did not cease to be the Son, any more than a child who sins severely against his human father ceases to be his child. But Jesus did for a while cease to know the intimacy of fellowship with His heavenly Father, just as a disobedient child ceases for a while to have intimate, normal, loving fellowship with his human father.

We can assume that God as a Father did not forsake him, what I mean is that the Father did not stop to love Him and care for Him, Luke 23:46 – “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

But God as a judge and a righteous judge, had to punish sin, and at that time God had to separate from Him, in order to Jesus experience spiritual death in our place.

But the abandonment is not the whole story, Jesus cried out My God, My God. The human Jesus felt and gave expression to the abandonment and what was happening to Him at that point, but He also retained His complete trust in God, My God, My God.

“My” points to a relationship, possession.

This is all about Christ and what he accomplished, what he conquered for us, but it applies to us tonight, and I want to leave you with this thought.

Christ paid the price for my sin and for your sin, the abandonment he endured in our place was to guarantee a place for those who trust and put their faith in Him of total acceptance. A place in the family of God, sin was dealt with, God punished Jesus, His own Son, so we could walk free and enjoy a real relationship with the Father. The promise that God will never leave us nor forsake us is real for those who are in Christ. For those who are washed by His blood.

We are not condemned, we are saved and free from condemnation.

We are not aliens; we are part of the family of God.

And we are not alone; God is with us and within us through His Holy Spirit.

All because Jesus took our sins and delivered us from the condemnation we deserve.

These are truths that you should base you life upon.

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