The Forsaken Messiah

Introduction: Several weeks ago, in anticipation of this service, I asked the Lord to direct my attention to something special as we remember what our Lord did for us on Good Friday. At first, I thought of walking through the Scriptures and detailing the events of the Passion week. That is until the Lord drew my attention to one of Jesus' statements while He was on the cross: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This statement is a direct Old Testament quote from Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is a Psalm of David, and during this time in David's life, he also felt forsaken by God. That much is obvious as the Psalm begins with the question, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Yet, the interesting feature of Psalm 22 is that the details do not correspond to any known event in David's life. Historically, the church has always understood this Psalm to be typological of Jesus' death. In other words, while David used poetic language to describe his immense sufferings, these expressions later became literally true of the sufferings of Jesus at his executors' hands.

Being Good Friday, as we consider this Psalm, I want to skip over David's situation and head straight to this Psalm's fulfillment in Christ, the Messiah on the cross.

Read Psalm 22

Transition: Reading through that Psalm, it is hard to imagine the audacity of mankind treating the God of the universe as a despised worm, yet as you read through the gospels, you can easily observe that that is exactly what man does. The observation may be most evident as you begin reading in the gospel of John.

Jesus, the Light of Men

As an older man, the apostle who was once known as a "son of thunder" picked up his pen and, moved by the Holy Spirit, began to write his account of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. John stated in chapters 20 and 21 of his account that he wrote because he wanted all men to know about the signs which Jesus did, which were so many that if they were all to be recorded, the world could not contain the books that would be written. And when he begins his testimony, he paints the verbal picture for us of how the divine Son broke through into our dark world.

In John 1:1-2, he wrote, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

Jesus, the very Son of God, shone into the darkness of our broken world. Finally, in a world of oppression, division, slavery, and disease, the light had come!

Yet, when He came (John 1:10-11), His own did not receive Him because (John 3:19) they loved the darkness, so they rejected the light of the Son of God.

We are here tonight to remember that day when, at Calvary, darkness fell, not on you or me, but it fell on the very Word of God who was full of grace and truth.

According to John 1, this was the very reason the Word of God wrapped Himself in flesh - to carry the weight of the world's sin as the spotless Lamb.

No Fanfare, No Celebration

You might think that when God came to live among us, there would be fanfare and celebration, but instead, He walked His entire life hand in hand with hostility. At his birth, Herod sent soldiers to slay Him. At the beginning of His ministry, He spent 40 days in the wilderness with the devil himself. He healed people wherever he went, only to have the religious leaders accuse him of witchcraft and plot to kill Him. When the very Word of God took on flesh, the sinners of this world mercilessly berated Him.

And the hostility of all the world culminated that day as Jesus endured the cross. Just as Adam rejected God in the garden, man mustered all his might and rejected God by nailing him to the cross - to die alone.

Surrounded by Enemies

Matthew 27:45 tells us that as Jesus endured the cross, darkness fell over all the land from noon until 3:00, and as the darkness began to lift, the voice of Jesus broke out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

And with those words, the significance of Psalm 22 becomes blatantly apparent. Psalm 22 records the desperate words of David, surrounded by enemies on every side, as he cried out to God, "Why have you forsaken me?". And in the darkness that surrounded Jerusalem, the Son of God was surrounded by His blood-thirsty enemies, as He cried out, "My, God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

Just as David's enemies surrounded him on all sides, so was Jesus surrounded by his enemies as he hung on the cross. And His enemies descended on Him (as Psalm 22 puts it) like wilds bulls, wanting every ounce of his blood. They had gaped at Him with their mouths accusing Him of evil and conspiring to destroy His life, and while he hung there on that tree, they mocked Him.

"He saved others; Himself He cannot save."

"If He is the King of Israel, let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe Him."

"He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"

They were like dogs seeking to rip His hands and feet with their teeth.

"Let Him be crucified," they said.

"What evil has he done?" Pilate rebutted.

"Let Him be crucified," they cried out the more, "let His blood be on us and on our children."

They were like lions, stalking their prey, like oxen, trampling on their victims.

Without remorse, they stripped him naked, mockingly crowned Him with thorns, and spit on his face.

They pierced His hands and feet and then left Him to die alone, all while gambling for his garments.

They enjoyed his misery. They were the darkness seeking to put out the light.

And if the taunting of the religious leaders, soldiers, and crowds weren't enough, a criminal hanging for his own sins turned to Him in those last hours and said, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

Forsaken by God

Yet all of this was nothing in comparison to the trial of facing the wrath of God on sin. Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53:10, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." Literally translated, it pleased the Father to crush Him for sins he had never committed, that, according to 2 Corinthians 5:21, "we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Jesus faced unimaginable grief as He faced the wrath of a holy God against all of humanity's relentless, God-despising acts of treason. I don't know about you, but a large number of those treasonous acts were mine.

That's why He was there; after all, He died there for you and me.

The Joy of His Suffering

Yet, according to Hebrews 12, he endured the cross with joy, considering the shame of the cross worthless compared to the joy of glorifying His Father, for it was on that dark day that the radiant glory of God shone its brightest. As God's justice crashed down on Jesus, God's mercy and grace became available to all who would call on Him by faith. According to Revelation 13:8, He is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Every second of human history led to this glorious moment.

Even as men raged in rebellion against Him, this was not their plan, but His. According to Acts 4:27-28, it was God who appointed Herod and Pilate; it was God who ruled over the hearts of the Gentiles and people of Israel "to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done."

Jesus, the suffering Messiah, was also the very Word of God. He is the final and decisive authority in communicating to man how a rebel can become a saint.

It Is Finished

Soon after Jesus declared himself to be the forsaken Messiah, he raised Himself up on the cross and said, "It is finished!" Even in His moment of death, He was in complete control as He gave up the Ghost.

Man's debt no longer needed to be covered with the blood of animal sacrifices, for it was now officially paid in full.

Conclusion: Although we typically remember Psalm 22 for its declaration of the forsaken Messiah, it would also benefit us to remember how the Psalm ends. By the end of the Psalm, David could still say, "For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard." And in verse 26, he writes, "The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever."

Even though Jesus was the forsaken Messiah while He was on the cross, He would not be there for long. Even though His body was laid lifeless in the tomb, it would not remain there for long. According to Philippians 2, the humble servant who gave his life on the cross would also be exalted and given a name above every name. And one day, every tongue will confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

When Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He knew he would soon finish the Psalm. On the cross, He won the war against sin, and at His resurrection, He made a public display of just how powerless the forces of Satan are. Truly, "It is finished!"

As we conclude tonight, because of what Christ did on the cross, let us confess tonight that He alone is our hope in life and death.