The 7 Sayings on the Cross (4)

"My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

This is the middle saying from the cross and it surely shows us the solitude and abandonment of the Saviour there on the cross. We have said previously that the first and last sayings address the Father, but here at the 9th Hour having endured those 3 hours of darkness alone, bearing our sin in His own body he cries from the cross the 4th and middle saying.

I have put this most mystifying of statements alongside the mocking of the High Priests when they said:

"If thou be Christ, the chosen of God..."

They had mocked him and questioned his identity as Christ. Of course they knew that Christ would be the Messiah the chosen of God and this is what they refused to believe, in fact they regarded it as blasphemy and it enraged them so! Remember that it was the Lord's answer to that question of the High Priest "art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" that caused the High Priest to rend his garments in rage. Even today it is this acknowledgement of Christ as the Son of God that brings so much opposition and confrontation with the world.

It is a great mystery to us that Christ the chosen of God, the very Son of God should be caused to cry out from the cross "my God my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" A fellow believer reminded me recently that the middle word of this the middle saying from the cross is that little word "why?" and we may ask ourselves this afresh today! Why should it be so? Why must he die and be forsaken of God? The believer in question pointed out that the answer perhaps lies in Psalm 22 where this middle saying is found prophetically: "for thou art holy". God is holy, and Christ was bearing the burden of sin in its entirety! The scriptures say he was made sin for us, and that the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was forsaken of God as he bore the judgement of a righteous and holy God for our sin... Surely we stand on holy ground as we consider again this tremendous truth and marvel at the mystery of the cross.

"How didst Thou humble Thyself to be taken,

Led by Thy creatures and nailed to the cross,

Hated of men, and of God too forsaken,

Shunning not darkness, the curse and the loss"

 

Yours in Christ, Mark