Why has thou forsaken me?
Lent 2023 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsJesus dying on the cross laments, using a Psalm that ends with a victory. We to can know how to lament
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Today is Palm Sunday. IN the rest of the church it is a time to reflect on the welcome of Christ into the Holy city a mere week before he is ejected from that same city, having to cary his own cross.
Interestingly that is not the journey of the book of Common Prayer. The BCP takes a different track, assuming that Christians would go to church every day of Holy Week. So Sunday they would read the entire Gospel of Matthews account of Christ on the Cross. Monday Tuesday Marks account, Wed Thursday Luke. Friday John.
Palm Sunday is not a celebration on the book of common prayer but but a continued mournful reflection that takes us to the Saturday Vigil.
I often to talk to people that we have lost the priority of mourning as a culture and we try and keep ourselves squarely in the category of Celebration. We attend wedding not funerals. We celebrate Mardi Gras not Ashe Wednesday.
My last senior pastor talked of a time that funerals were on Weekdays and people left work to go. The funerals I assisted with and presided over latley have been on weekends to try and make them as available as possible… and the attendance is always much lighter than expected...
We are losing our ability to mourn and we are loosing out priority to mourn.
This is one of the reasons that the practice of ancient Christianity is so counter-cultural. On one hand our heritage gives us the tools and seasons of celebration, perfectly in keeping with cultural expectations.
But our tradition also teaches us how to lament and expects of us mourning and lament. Most especially in this lenten season. To follow our Lord to Calvary means to build the muscle of sadness and the to know how to express grief.
In Jesus darkest hour on the cross he uses the poetry of scripture not to deny his sadness but to declare his sadness.
Matthew 27:45 is often labeled as the Death of Jesus by editors.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”
And pretty much any Bible you read will make a quick note that he is quoting Ps. 22 any study Bible you read will talk about what is in Ps. 22 and why it relates to the death of Jesus.
So lets turn together to Ps. 22 and read through it together.
We are gonna look at how this Psalm has complaint. How this psalm has a request for aid, and finally it has declarations of praise.
Complaints
1-2 The feeling of abandonment and no advocacy. He prays to God and hears only silence.
6-8 He lists the dehumanizing work of those around him. He is mocked and made to feel like less than a man.
12-13 This is where the language gets figurative. The Psalmist describes his plight comparing it to the coning assaults of wild and aggressive beasts.
What could we even do if we where to be assaulted so other than take the fetal positions and accept that this horror is coming.
14-15 The figurative language continues, but he figuratively describes himself, wasting away. His very being is being consumed and wasting away almost like a body decomposing in the desert dehydrating and becoming dust like.
16-18 What fascinates me most about this verse is the way it prefigures the torture of our Lord on the Cross...
So these are the five complaints of today’s text. So then what is the request being made in light of the complaint
Vs. 19-21 Proximity, Deliverance, Salvation
Complaint, Request, Praise
3-5 God is Holy, and he has in the past done great things…he is worthy of our praise. This moment is a difficult one…But the Psalmist remembers That God had been faithful in times past.
9-11 The remembrance that God had not only cared for his ancestors , but had cared for him with a maternal care. He is not asking God to be something he has yet been, he is appealing to God to act within his own character.
Finally, what ever the rythms of verses 1-21 are 22-31 are almost a completely different Poem focusing only on praise
22-24 He will declare God’s greatness for he know that God has been faithful
25-26 He will perform his duty of worship because he knows God will maintain his Character and care for the forgotten
27-28 Now he moves from praise of Gods past or present faithfulness to declare his trust in God’s future Glory.
29-31 And the Psalmist ends with an even greater proclamation of God’s future glory.
In Jesus darkest hour on the cross he uses the poetry of scripture not to deny his sadness but to declare his sadness. And that same scripture then gives him the language of praise.
Look there are so many things that should cause us to pray Psalms of lament
From that earthquake a few weeks ago, to last weeks tornado, to the events of Nashville Christian School one of the victims being a Pastor who lost a 9 year old daughters.
The Nashville narrative is just too close to my narrative, and this guy and I run in some similar circles and though I never interacted with him we have mutual friends. I could not ignore that this senseless event took place in the lead up to Palm Sunday, where in the Anglican Tradition we give a special focus to our Lord on the Cross, his suffering, his lament, his death. This week during holy week we will pause in that space and focus on the sadness of the cross.
If we are to truly even know how to grieve to express Godly sorrow that is a muscle that needs exercise. Both Lent and Holy week help us build the muscle of mourning that we would be able to fulfill the command of Saint Paul
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Friends, let us finally not forget that the our great sorrow and the reason that Jesus even prays Psalm 22 is because of our sin. Our savior hangs on the cross as the cost for our rebellion as the spiritual children of Adam. Jesus Christ cries out on the cross as he pays the price for our sin, so that we might have his righteousness.
And not only is his saddness on the cross part of the free gift of grace, the story does not end with his Death. Three days later Jesus Christ will rise from the grave. We will return to these pews in a week to declare in one voice, He is Risen. But for that to have any real meaning we stop and gaze on his death and write it on our hearts so that his rising again would have nay meaning. This gift made free to us at great cost to him.
Some of you are experiencing your own Calvary. Your life is full of sorry and you are wondering if God even hears you. You feel like God is far off. Let us respond with Godly sorrow today but also with the knowledge that though we might feel he is far away from us we are actually quite close as we come to his table to receive him into our very bodies by the eating of his body. And we can know that his is true for next week we celebrate Easter. The assurance of God’s victory over sin and death. the assurance of his nearness and our inheritance of his everlasting life.