Good Friday (2007) message by Pastor Rich Doebler—Jesus' Desperation.
45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt 27:45-46, NASB)
Why did Jesus feel so alone? So deserted? The Amplified version has Jesus saying: "My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me, leaving Me helpless—forsaking and failing Me in My need?"
Why did the Son of God—so close to his Father that he told his disciples if you've seen me, you've seen the Father (John 14:9)—why would he, of all people, feel so abandoned and alone?
Criminals on their way to be executed can have a family member or a chaplain by their side. Even in death—even when they're guilty—criminals have someone. Why couldn't Jesus have had that small comfort on the cross? Why couldn't his Father be with him?
I'll tell you why. The Father had to turn his back on Jesus because Jesus had willingly taken on himself all the sin and guilt of the world.
Jesus carried an unimaginable weight to the cross—weighed down with the suffocating burden of sin. All the sins of all humanity from all time. Every wrong you and I have ever done. Every hurtful word, every selfish act, every pain we caused.
We humans are motivated by lust, by anger, by envy, by hatred, by jealousy, by selfishness, by ambition, by greed—and though he was sinless, Jesus became all those things so we would not have to be.
We are liars; we are thieves; we are adulterers; we are addicts; we are murderers—and Jesus became all those things on the cross.
Jesus took on himself all the atrocities and abuse and evil that has ever been perpetrated upon this world. Slavery, prejudice, injustice, concentration camps, terrorism, the killing fields—he took it all. Jesus identified himself with the Hitlers, the Stalins, the Osama bin Ladens, the Idi Amins. He also identified himself with all the Doug's, the Steve's, and the Richard's of the world. When he went to the cross, he went for you. He went for me.
But Jesus didn't just carry our sins to the cross. He became sin! Hanging there on the cross, the perfect and sinless One—he who had no sin at all—became sin!
"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor 5:21, NASB).
No wonder Jesus felt abandoned and rejected! When God, the Father, looked at Jesus, he didn't just see an enormous bag filled with all the sins of the world. He saw a sinner—a despicable, vile sinner. He saw wickedness and unspeakable evil.
The righteousness and justice of God would not allow him to ignore such sin. He could not casually sweep such horrendous crimes under the rug. God—to be a holy God—could not associate with sin.
The OT prophet wrote: "...your evil...has separated you from your God. Your sins cause him to turn away from you..." (Isaiah 59:2, NCV).
So God turned his back on this sinful man—the holy One who took our place. God would have turned his back on us, except that Jesus took our blame instead.
A few years ago, I read a remarkable article in National Geographic about the Dalits of India—the caste of "Untouchables," those at the bottom rung of the social ladder, the rejects and outcasts of society. They live miserable lives, assigned with all the filthy, dirty, repugnant jobs that no one else wants to do. [June, 2003]
One of the stories in that article was about Amrutbhai Sarasiya, a member of the "scavenger" caste—lowest of the Untouchables. His job was to manually clean out latrines and clogged sewer pipes. He was, quite literally, a human roto-rooter. He would lower himself down into the sewer system beneath the streets, slosh around in the filth and the muck, take care of the problem, and then climb out.
National Geographic showed a picture of Amrutbhai coming out of the sewer. His job was done, but no one would let him near the neighborhood wells for water to clean off. No one wanted anything to do with him. And who could blame them? He was covered with filth and human waste. Sewage was matted in his hair, caked on his skin, crusted under his fingernails. He looked and smelled awful—and so he was rejected and scorned by everyone. [To see a picture of Amrutbhai coming out of the sewer, click here and go to page 4 of the document.]
Like Amrutbhai, Jesus became an "untouchable." He lowered himself down into the sewer of sin. Though he was holy and blameless, he willingly touched the unclean—those whom others avoided: lepers, sinners, disreputable women, tax collectors. Jesus sloshed around in the filth and the muck. Unlike Amrutbhai, who was born an untouchable, Jesus chose to lower himself. He chose to become sin—filthy and disgusting and repugnant to his Father.
Jesus loved us enough to come down to clean up our mess. That's why he felt the sting of rejection by his Father. When he cried out, "My God! Why have you forsaken me?" he exchanged places with us. We were the ones who deserved to be forsaken. Instead, because of Jesus, you and I can be accepted. That's why, if we choose, we can receive God's forgiveness and love.