Monday, March 14, 2011
Psalm 22:1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
FORSAKEN!
On the cross Jesus suffered excruciating pain:
+ terrible physical pain in every bone and joint and muscle on fire, every breath on fire with burning fever, burning thirst, burning heat,
+ terrible emotional pain as He was denounced and denigrated, stripped and displayed, shamed and humiliated
+ terrible pain of mind ... oxygen-deprived, defenses stripped away, yet conscious and aware -- helpless to alleviate the agony.
And all this was not the real suffering of Jesus for our sakes, for our sins, on the cross. Suffering and death by crucifixion was what befell the rebel against Rome. Rebels against God deserve worse than separation of the body from the soul. "The soul that sins, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:20). This is separation from God forever ... eternal death ... hell!
That pain that is really beyond anything that we can imagine -- because it is spiritual. The Bible pictures it as everlasting fire because we humans do know how terribly painful a burn can be. But hell's terrible pain will be chiefly a burning of heart and soul and spirit -- the pain of separation from God and His abiding love and goodness.
Here in time people feel the crushing burden of God's rightful wrath resting on them, yet there are always some evidences of God's goodness at hand -- such as the warmth of the sun and the air they breathe. In hell such evidences of God's kindness vanish altogether. This is what Christ experienced on the cross.
This is what caused Him to cry out in the darkness: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
Jesus felt the full fury of God's just anger over sin -- our sin.
As predicted by the Psalmist, the Messiah suffered this soul-forsakenness as God's faithful Servant and the sinner's willing Substitute.
Thou hast suffered, sad and lonely, Rest to give my weary soul;
Yea, the curse of God enduring, Blessing unto me securing.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 151:3)
