Got Spring?

Spring is here!  Finally!  We are so happy to see the first bit of color break through the brown and burst into our garden reminding us that new life is just around the corner.  The most important season of the Christian calendar is upon us, Easter, or Resurrection Sunday as some prefer to call it. 

Recently we have started a new family devotional book in the evening with our children that is written one lesson for each day of the year.  Being in April we could feel the anticipation growing that we were getting close to the cross.  Every night it has been getting closer and then last night...PLOP!  There it was in our laps, a challenge of our present day thinking.  

There is a very respected teaching in the world today that interprets Matthew 27:46 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" as a moment when God turned His back on Jesus at the sight of the sin of the world hanging on Him.  My intention in explaining this is not to open up a theological can of worms, because believe me I am no theologian, but to challenge the believer to see Jesus and His words clearly. 

It is an important question to ponder, did God forsake Jesus (for even a second) or didn't He?  If the answer is yes, then why does He say over and over in His Word that He will not ever leave or forsake me?  After all, I am dirt, not fit to tie the sandals on the feet of Christ. (See Deut 31:6,8, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5, Psalms 23:4, 37:25)  

I have personally struggled with this concept for most of my Christian life until a couple of years ago.  I heard a teaching by Voddie Baucham where he helps to explain these words uttered by Christ from the cross. 

First, we need to understand that in the times of Jesus very few had the Word on paper.  Some wealthy people and temples were the owners of the scrolls containing Scripture.  For the masses the way the Word was shared was verbally as the scroll was read or memorized and then recited.  The Word of God was handed down generation by generation as an oral tradition. 

Second, we need to know that in a temple service the "reader" would call out the first line of the passage to let the people know what was about to be read.  Today, the passages are organized by chapter and verse for the believer.  If you look in your Bible at the words in Matthew 27:46 and then look at the cross reference it sends you to Psalm 22:1.  Actually every gospel account sends you to Psalm 22:1.  Why?  Because Psalm 22:1 is the very words Jesus said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." (In the Hebrew and then translated into the Greek for the New Testament reader) 

You see Jesus knew the Word better than anyone that has ever walked the earth before or since.  The Jews were there watching the scene unfold.  They had been waiting for a Messiah to come and fulfill the prophesies for hundreds of years.  Jesus was fulfilling them as they watched, but some were just not getting it.  The way my Pastor would tell us to turn to Psalm 22:1 today, Jesus was telling them to recall the Psalm and compare it to what they were first hand witnesses to at Golgotha.  Here is the 22nd Psalm in it's entirety:

Psalm 22

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?


My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.


Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.

In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.


To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.


But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.


All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.


“He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
“let the LORD rescue him.


Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”


Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.


From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.


Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.


Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.


Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.


I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.


My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.


My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.


Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce[e] my hands and my feet.


All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.


They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.


But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.


Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.


Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.


I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.


You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!


For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.


From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.


The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the LORD will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!


All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.


All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.


Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.


They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!

The Word says Jesus knew the plan.  He knew exactly what He was supposed to do.  He asked God to let the cup pass if there was any other way.  There was no plan B.  It had been set from the foundations of the earth.

John 19:28-30 says, "Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.'  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips.  When he had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.'  With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." (see Psalm 69:21)

I do not believe the modern day teaching that says Jesus was reacting from a feeling  of abandonment from God, like what was in our family devotional last night.  But I believe His words hold deeper meaning and that Jesus was directing an unbelieving crowd to the truth with His final breaths.  He still directs us today with those precious words, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  Just turn to Psalm 22:1 and see that "HE HAS DONE IT!!!  Oh Glory!  He will never leave us or forsake us!!!