Title: Silent God/Matthew 27:45-53
Contents Holy Week
The last days of Jesus were a time when God was completely silent. God's silence had already begun in the Garden of Gethsemane. Sweating like blood, and writhing with sweat until his body became wet, he remained silent until the end in response to Jesus' prayer, "Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me. Not only that, God was completely silent until Jesus suffered an indescribable suffering and was crucified.
God did not respond to His Son Jesus being whipped, torn in flesh, and bleeding from ignorant people. And on the cross he said, "Eli Eli Ramasabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In spite of the cries of unbearable pain and bloody cries, God was finally silent and did not reach out and hold His Son. Seeing this, people believed that Jesus was not the Son of God. So they got even more excited and teased and teased Jesus like this. “Aha, you who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save thee and come down from the cross.” “He saved others, but he cannot save himself.” “Let Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Nevertheless, God was silent. Then why was God silent?
It's a true story in America. This story is a true story that became known all over the world through a magazine called Reader's Digest. A man named Smith worked as a railroad official for 25 years. This man married well over 40, and although it was a late marriage, God blessed the Smiths and gave the family a son as a gift. The child grew up lovingly and healthy, and Smith, as a railroad official, was also satisfied with his job and faithful to his family, and his life was very happy.
Just when the boat passed by, the bridge was raised and the boat passed through. Shortly after, I got a call that a train was coming. A train horn is heard in the distance. However, the child who had just been with him suddenly disappeared. The child was nowhere to be seen even when they looked around, and the train sent a horn signal that it was passing the last point only by operating the switch to lower the bridge. Smith activated the switch because it was more urgent to lower the switch than to find the child. At that moment, a child's scream came in.
The legs were mechanically raised and lowered, and the machine was made to work by moving large cogs. The child's scream came from the side of the cog that lowered the bridge. The moment he looked towards the gears through the window of the guard post, it was dark in front of him. It is unknown when the child got there, but the gears are slowly turning, and the child's clothes are bitten by the gears and the child is being sucked into the gears. However, the train comes at full speed past the last horn signal. There were 1,200 passengers on the train. Here Smith had to make a decision. Will the cogs stop working for the child? Then the train carrying 1,200 people will fall into the river, and all 1,200 people on the train will die. On the other hand, if the switch continues to operate, the train crosses the bridge safely, but the beloved son is sucked into the cog wheels and dies.
As the child screams and gets sucked into the gears, Smith closes his eyes, covers his ears, and keeps the switch on. As a result, the iron bridge continued, and the train passed safely through the bridge as if nothing had happened. Shortly after the value passed, Smith ran out of the post and went to the bridge lowering machine. A child's clothes were torn on the gears, and the gears were wet with blood. But there was no form of the child. It was because the child was caught in the gears and was crushed as if it had been ground in a mixer, leaving no trace.
Ladies and gentlemen, why was our God silent? Why was God silent when His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, prayed in Gethsemane? Did God really not see this when the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, was ridiculed, whipped, taunted, and reviled by ignorant people? If you saw it, why were you silent? On the cross, "Eli, Eli, Ramasabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Why did you keep silent to the sound of writhing and screaming?
In order to save me and you, our God was silent until the end to the sound of his son's cry and blood. And on the cross he said, "Eli Eli Ramasabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Even when he screamed and screamed, he closed his eyes and covered his ears and proceeded with the crucifixion as it was. If you stop the crucifixion process for the sake of your son, the son will live, but the train of history that carried mankind will crash into a river, history will be destroyed, and mankind will fall into eternal death. However, if the son screams and proceeds with the crucifixion, the son will die, but mankind will be saved and given eternal life, and history can move forward toward hope. For this reason, God closed his eyes so that he would not see the terrible things his son was going through, and closed his ears so that he would not hear the bloody cries of his son, and proceeded with the crucifixion.
A parent's love for their children is great. It is because our parents are the ones who jump into the fire for the sake of their children, even though they know death for sure. But what could be compared to the pain of God who was silent even after hearing the cry and screams of his only son? This is the suffering God suffered to save us. Dear brothers and sisters, just as we were born into this world by eating our mother's pain, we ate God's pain and were reborn as God's children. Just as we live without forgetting our mother's love for the rest of our lives, we must live in grace so that the beautiful love is not wasted while giving thanks for God's love. And let us give thanks as we think about why God is silent about the bloody cry of His only Son on the cross when we are faced with the suffering we experience despite our faith. God will hear my suffering and accomplish His will on this earth, and He will bless us who bear the suffering with patience and give us the victory of the resurrection.
Today we are invited to the Lord's Supper where we receive the Lord's torn flesh and shed His blood on the cross. This sacrament is the crystallization of God's pain and suffering to save me. May we now participate in the pain and suffering of the silent God by receiving the sacrament. I hope that I will be able to thank God for the greater pain and suffering that has no choice but to remain silent about my pain and suffering. And I hope that you will become a powerful Christian as a child of God who has been promised the hope of resurrection. When the Lord suffered on the cross, I hope that God, who silently participated in the pain and suffering, still walks with us and remembers that He is Immanuel, so that we can become faithful saints.