Title: The Forsaken Cross
the forsaken cross
“About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli Eli, Lama Sabachthani.
This means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46).
Fourth of the seven virtual sayings: “Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani”
1. Introduction: The darkness that covered the whole earth
It was 9:00 in the morning when Jesus was crucified. Jesus spoke the first three words between those three hours until 12 o'clock, and he died at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. This verse and the other four verses were spoken just before his death. And from twelve o'clock darkness came over all the earth. This was a miracle of God, and God expressed His heart for the crucifixion through this miracle of nature.
2. Body
1) The Forsaken Savior
- The fourth word of Jesus was “Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani”, which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The Bible says that at this time Jesus cried out with a loud voice. Before these words, we remember the first words of Jesus on the cross. The first words were “Father, forgive their sins,” and in these words we saw the intimate communion between Jesus and God and the peace in Jesus. But now, when we come to this fourth verse, we have the thought that Jesus' heart is not being shaken.
- The name Jesus means savior, and ‘sabachthani’ means forsaken. He, the Savior, is now crucified as the outcast. But this fourth cry of Jesus does not show that the state of our faith wavering in Jesus or our intimacy with the Father is weakening, but how great our sins are that he bears.
- In order to save this world, Jesus had to bear all our sins, and Jesus, who bore our sins, was not His Son in God's eyes, but a Lamb. So Jesus had no choice but to be abandoned by God. Being abandoned by our Heavenly Father was the way to save us.
- In the image of Jesus crying out to God, we only see the helpless Lamb fulfilling the purpose of his coming to die for us. People were murmuring to see if Jesus, the savior, would save them, but Jesus did not come to save himself, but to save us, and in order to save us, you had to be abandoned by God and die. When we see Jesus cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” we realize that we were the ones who had to be crucified like that.
- Even while being nailed to the cross, Jesus healed the guilty disciple's heart and did things that he could not do without him. Although the physical pain could be endured, when the heart of God the Father who forsook him came flooding in, he experienced a disconnection from God he had never experienced before, and Jesus was enveloped in unbearable pain.
2) The cross, a mirror that reveals our old identity
- The cross becomes a mirror that honestly shows who we are. When we diligently serve the Lord, we sometimes fall into the illusion that we are God's faithful servants, and sometimes we feel proud of ourselves. But when we come to the cross, we realize that these are all our shells. When we see the image of Jesus, who took on the punishment of God and died, bearing all our sins, we come to realize that our true identity is the one who crucified Jesus. We find ourselves standing here because of the grace of God who forgave you because of your love and made you His children.
- When we stand in front of the cross, we do not remember that we have worked so much for God or that I am precious to Him. We realize that we are just a sinner who crucified Jesus, and that the cross that Jesus suffered was the punishment that we should suffer. lose it So, under the cross, we discover our old identity that we so often forgot.
3) Living before the cross
- Today, we must put the cross in the middle of our lives, receive the blood dripping from the body of Jesus, and live a life focused on the work that the Lord makes us do. The more we face the futility of life in front of the cross of Christ, the more we become debtors to the grace of Jesus and we must live for Jesus Christ. It is God's total grace that gives us the opportunity to repent while we still live our lives without breaking up with our sins while looking at Jesus crucified.
- Do we still have many ways to live? What we need is grace poured out from heaven. Under the light of that grace, we must realize who the cross of Christ is for, why the sinless Lamb of God had to be crucified, and why we must live the life of believers before His death. That is why we must remove the worldly love that remains within us and wash it away with the tears of repentance.
- What pleases God is not anything else, but being something that pleases God by being in this world. Our path is not dim and clear, not far away, but near. May we become good saints who live for Christ, and on the day we see the Lord whom we love so much, we can look back on our lives and confess that we were able to serve the Lord even a little... 2004-03-28