My God, My God Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?
“My God My God”
Text: Matthew 27:46
It is the nature of man to always want to be in control. As a result, we feels that we must understand everything. Man believes that all must be explained by reason, and for this reason, he has often tampered with those things that belong to God. This passage under consideration is one that has been tampered with by our explanations, and all explanations have fallen short. It is a passage that stands outside of human reason and explanation. We must understand as man that there are areas within the parameters of God’s domain that we do not, cannot, and will not understand. There are areas that will always remain a mystery.
The bible tells us, Deut. 29:29
The secret things belong unto the Lord: but those things which are revealed belong unto us
It is upon the Mysteries of God, that our faith is built. If we were ever to know all about God, then the relationship between God and man would change.
At that very moment the God/Man relationship would be based on Knowledge and not Faith.
The songwriter says,“We’ll understand it better by and by,” we are not saying that we will understand all that there is to know about God.
We will understand the process of salvation, as God has worked it out….
So it is that we must approach this passage of scripture. God in Jesus recited these words, but they are a mystery. They are beyond human explanation. These words are a mystery because,
It is God was speaking to God,
God was Suffering for Humanity,
God’s Greatness was Revealed.
I. God Speaking to God: It is certainly a mystery when we say that this statement of Jesus from the cross was God speaking to God. However, it is true. The scripture says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus is the second entity of the Godhead, or trinity, and here God the Son is speaking to God the Father. The Genesis writer recorded God as speaking to Himself in the beginning when He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Here again, we have God in communication with Himself. . This being true, the conversation was far above man’s ability to understand it and to even attempt to explain it. It becomes difficult, if not impossible, for us to explain the meaning and intentions of others, not to mention explaining the things of God. The scripture admonishes us, “What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11).
As men and women we must come to know and accept the truth that we are not to know all that God knows. It is not embarrassing to not know. It is humility in us to acknowledge that we don’t know. It is within the parameters of our not knowing that our faith is nourished and cultivated.
When Jesus said from the cross, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46), we need to leave it untouched by our reasoning, and be happy in the knowledge that it was God speaking to God, and He knows.
II. God was Suffering for Humanity: The interpretation of this passage of scripture is further clouded by the fact that this God was suffering for humanity. The sins of the whole world were placed upon the shoulders of this carpenter from Nazareth. The sins for all men in every sphere of time, past, present and future. This fact alone will not allow the finite minds of man to interpret the full meaning of Jesus’ words. We cannot conceive of the enormity of this statement; that Jesus here suffered for all the sins of the world. We know that He did for the scripture says, “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). However, the full meaning of that escapes our finite minds. How does one man take on the punishment for all men? It is a mystery, but aren’t you glad that He did. No man can know the level of pain that is suffered by another individual, except the man himself. Jesus crying out, “My God My God, why hast thou forsaken me,” we know God was suffering for humanity, and that is all we need to know because it was said again, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). We cannot nor will we ever know the depth of His pain and Suffering. I don’t have to understand His words from the cross, but I rejoice and glory in the fact that I am healed by His stripes. I rejoice in the fact that because of Him the punishment of hell has been lifted from my being.
God’s Greatness was Revealed: There is no doubt that as these words fell from the lips of Jesus, God’s greatness was being revealed. Jesus established the rules for greatness earlier when He said to His disciples, “Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (Matthew 20:26-27). Jesus labeled Himself as a servant. He said again to His disciples, “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). We know without a doubt this was God speaking to God; it was God Suffering for Humanity; and it was God’s Greatness Being Revealed Introduction