Abandoned

Psalm 22

Psalm 22 The Message

God, God … my God! Why did you dump me miles from nowhere? Doubled up with pain, I call to God all the day long. No answer. Nothing. I keep at it all night, tossing and turning. And you! Are you indifferent, above it all, leaning back on the cushions of Israel’s praise? We know you were there for our parents: they cried for your help and you gave it; they trusted and lived a good life. And here I am, a nothing—an earthworm, something to step on, to squash. Everyone pokes fun at me; they make faces at me, they shake their heads: “Let’s see how God handles this one; since God likes him so much, let him help him!” And to think you were midwife at my birth, setting me at my mother’s breasts! When I left the womb you cradled me; since the moment of birth you’ve been my God. Then you moved far away and trouble moved in next door. I need a neighbor. Herds of bulls come at me, the raging bulls stampede, Horns lowered, nostrils flaring, like a herd of buffalo on the move. I’m a bucket kicked over and spilled, every joint in my body has been pulled apart. My heart is a blob of melted wax in my gut. I’m dry as a bone, my tongue black and swollen. They have laid me out for burial in the dirt. Now packs of wild dogs come at me; thugs gang up on me. They pin me down hand and foot, and lock me in a cage—a bag Of bones in a cage, stared at by every passerby. They take my wallet and the shirt off my back, and then throw dice for my clothes. You, God—don’t put off my rescue! Hurry and help me! Don’t let them cut my throat; don’t let those mongrels devour me. If you don’t show up soon, I’m done for—gored by the bulls, meat for the lions. Here’s the story I’ll tell my friends when they come to worship, and punctuate it with Hallelujahs: Shout Hallelujah, you God-worshipers; give glory, you sons of Jacob; adore him, you daughters of Israel. He has never let you down, never looked the other way when you were being kicked around. He has never wandered off to do his own thing; he has been right there, listening. Here in this great gathering for worship I have discovered this praise-life. And I’ll do what I promised right here in front of the God-worshipers. Down-and-outers sit at God’s table and eat their fill. Everyone on the hunt for God is here, praising him. “Live it up, from head to toe. Don’t ever quit!” From the four corners of the earth people are coming to their senses, are running back to God. Long-lost families are falling on their faces before him. God has taken charge; from now on he has the last word. All the power-mongers are before him —worshiping! All the poor and powerless, too —worshiping! Along with those who never got it together —worshiping! Our children and their children will get in on this As the word is passed along from parent to child. Babies not yet conceived will hear the good news— that God does what he says.

Heart Attack at Conference

<Reading from Psalm 22>

Did you know that in the summer before 6th grade I almost died of a heart attack, left completely alone, abandoned by my family?

6th Grade. Conference.

Searing pain right in this area here.

And everyone was gone. The dorm was empty. I had left my key inside the room and the room was locked.

I remember sliding down to the ground outside the door to my parents’ room thinking “this is it. Here I die.”

It turns out that everyone was at a thing called the “President’s Reception” with cake and punch and just hanging out.

It turns out that my “heart attack” was just my first experience with “heartburn.”

It turns out that I wasn’t about to die abandoned by everyone I knew and loved.

What did Jesus say?

Totally abandoned. Lost. Alone.

Moments of despair, of suffering. Tossing and turning all night, maybe. Like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Or seasons of despair. Unanswered prayers… or prayers that feel unanswered. Seasons of seeking and searching for God and maybe not feeling it. Not feeling a response.

John of the Cross calls it the “Dark night of the soul”. Spiritual crisis.

Have you ever felt completely and totally abandoned? Alone?

Ever prayed in that moment that God would help? And he didn’t?

That’s the story we read in Psalm 22, isn’t it? Yes, David says “yet you are holy… in you our fathers trusted...”

But he’s still just calling out for help. Surrounded by troubles. Asking God to save him. And feeling abandoned.

The Psalmist, David, he looks forward to a day when “they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.”

But that day is not David’s day. Much of the time David was beset by enemies and God didn’t answer in that moment. David’s life was beset by tragedy, at war with his own son, a house divided and racked with drama and turmoil.

Words from the cross

Set the scene. Jesus, whipped and forced to carry his cross. The point here wasn’t pain (or not just pain). It isn’t that Jesus’ death was the most painful in all of history. The point was humiliation. The point was to heap shame and scorn on the convict.

Matthew 27:32–44 ESV

As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

It is all mockery and derision. Humiliation and shame. They “reviled” him.

And then something crazy:

Matthew 27:45 ESV

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

Crazy. Is this literal or metaphoric? Certainly not a regular eclipse for Passover was that week and that’s a full moon. Regular eclipse only happens at new moon.

Matthew 27:46 ESV

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?”

Jesus speaks these impossible words: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus Forsaken

Is this the moment when the Father "turned his face away" from the Son?

That is the way I was always taught.

Why would Jesus say that?

We know that Jesus took on all of our sin and death there upon the cross. He died. Substitutionary atonement - he died as a substitution, he died instead of us.

And Vicarious atonement. He died and we are included in Him, in Christ, so we die with him.

And what does God have to do with sin? Nothing.

So one theory goes that God the Father turns his face away from God the Son in this moment… and so they are sundered.

Can the Trinity be separated like that? I don’t know. If that is the way it happened… then yes and absolutely.

What is unquestionable, I think, is that Jesus felt every bit of that agony. Even that separation. Whether there was true separation in the Trinity, the “Father turns his face away” or not… there is Jesus taking on the sin of the world, the guilt and shame, including every feeling you and I have ever had of abandonment from God. Including David’s pain when he wrote those words of Psalm 22.

Imagine that: every wrong thing, every sinful thing, shameful thing, stupid thing anyone has ever or will ever do. Collected together and that burden, the full weight of it, placed on one man’s soul.

What darkened the sun, what killed the light in that moment? Sounds like a moment for darkness. That our sins could black out the sun. Stop thinking of petty lies and shoplifted grapes. In there too is every murder, every rape, every enslavement, every war crime, every deep and hidden shame. Every moment, every thought.

On Jesus of Nazareth. Fully God, yes, or he could never bear the weight of it.

But fully human. And feeling every bit of that soul crushing darkness. And he cries out of it “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!”

and yet… we must sing the whole song.

Sing the Whole Song

It was common then and still common now, to sing the first line of the song and invoke the whole thing.

When I sing “And Iiiiiiiii ee iii”… you know “I will always love you” and all the rest.

Jesus speaks the first words of the Psalm and also invokes all the rest of it. Including words like:

Psalm 22:24 ESV

For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

and finally

Psalm 22:29–31 ESV

All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

Hear the prophecy in that? Who is “the one who could not keep himself alive?” Isn’t that how they have now mocked Jesus? But Posterity itself now serves him. And they shall come and proclaim… he has done it.

To every David who cried out to God “Why have you forsaken me...” in the moment of their struggle. To Job who wondered, who cried, who suffered, who longed to see his redeemer.

This is God's final answer to every human being who has felt abandoned by God in their suffering.

Ultimate Suffering or Ultimate Savior

So which is it?

Is this the moment that Jesus takes on the sins of the world… and God the Father turns his face away from the Son because He is holy… and there is now separation where from eternity there was no separation. This spiritual death as Jesus, the Man for all Humanity, takes on the sin and death that had forever separated us from God… he takes all of that on. Is this that ultimate suffering?

Or is this God’s answer to that suffering at last? Is Jesus singing the whole song, including and fulfilling the part where God finally answers all those cries for help, for relief, for life, for freedom, for healing and for hope.

Is Jesus suffering here or triumphant?

Yes, yes, and amen. Jesus takes on all the sin, all the pain, and all the abandonment and injustice. He takes it all to its final end. Death. Tetelestai. It is finished.

John 19:30 ESV

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Tetelestai. Not “I’m tired and done” but “it is successfully now and forever accomplished.” VICTORY!!!!

And then gives up his spirit. He dies not on the Roman’s timeline, they would have kept him there for days. He dies at the appointed time, when the time is right, having taken on all of humanity, sin and death, he takes it unto death. It is finished.

Two Thieves

Luke 23:39–43 ESV

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Two thieves on the cross witness all these things and respond differently. One with mockery, one with confession. Which thief are you?

Invitation: We are thieves. Confess it, own it, and ask Jesus for help. We will be with him in paradise.