1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This was the startling cry of Golgotha: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani. The Jews mocked, but the angels adored when Jesus cried this exceeding
bitter cry. Nailed to the tree we behold our great Redeemer in extremities, and
what see we? Let us gaze with holy wonder, and mark the flashes of light amid
the awful darkness of that midday-midnight. First, our Lord’s faith deserves
our reverent imitation; he keeps his hold upon his God and cries twice, MyGod, my God. The spirit of adoption was strong within the suffering Son of
Man, and he felt no doubt about his interest in his God. Oh that we could
imitate this cleaving to an afflicting God! Nor does the sufferer distrust the
power of God to sustain him, for the title used—El—signifies strength,
and is the name of the Mighty God. He knows the Lord to be the all-sufficient
support and succor of his spirit, and therefore appeals to him in the agony of
grief, but not in the misery of doubt. He would like to know why he is left; he
raises that question and repeats it, but neither the power nor the faithfulness
of God does he mistrust. What an enquiry is this before us! Why hast thouforsaken me? We must lay the emphasis on every word of this saddest of all
utterances. Why? There was no cause in him; why then was he deserted? Hast.
It is done, and the Saviour is feeling its dread effect; it is surely true, but
how mysterious! It was no threatening of forsaking which made the great Surety
cry aloud: he endured that forsaking in very deed. Thou. I can
understand why traiterous Judas and timid Peter should be gone, but thou, my
God, my faithful friend, how canst thou leave me? This is worst of all, worse
than all put together. Hell itself has for its fiercest flame the separation of
the soul from God. Forsaken. If thou hadst chastened I might bear it,
for thy face would shine; but to forsake me utterly, ah! why is this? Me.
Thine innocent, obedient, suffering Son, why leavest thou me to perish?
A sight of self seen by penitence, and of Jesus on the cross seen by faith will
best expound this question. Jesus is forsaken because our sins had separated
between us and our God. Why art thou so far from helping me, and from thewords of my roaring? The Man of Sorrows had prayed until his speech failed
him, and he could only utter moanings and groanings as men do in severe
sicknesses, like the roarings of a wounded animal. To what extremity of grief
was our Master driven! What a strong crying and tears were those which made him
too hoarse for speech! What must have been his anguish to find his own beloved
and trusted Father standing afar off, and neither granting help nor apparently
heating prayer! Yet there was a reason for all this which those who rest in
Jesus as their Substitute well know.
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