{"id":870,"date":"2019-04-16T20:37:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T19:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/broughtybaptist.org\/wpsite\/?page_id=870"},"modified":"2019-04-16T20:37:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T19:37:14","slug":"matthew-2746-the-words-of-anguish","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/broughtybaptist.org\/wpsite\/?page_id=870","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 27:46 The words of anguish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the National Gallery of Art in\nthe USA there hangs a unique painting of Calvary. The figure of Christ on the\ncross is almost hidden in the darkness. At first glance one sees nothing but\nthe dim figure of the suffering Saviour, but as you look longer and with closer\nscrutiny of the picture it is possible to view another figure behind Jesus, who\nwith outstretched arms is tenderly supporting the suffering One. The face of\nthe person holding Jesus is twisted by even more pain than the One crucified.\nIn this way the artist intends to convey that God the Father is grieving and\nsuffering with His Son as He dies upon the cross (Drescher,\nTestimony of Triumph<\/em>, p.51).\nAlthough we are incredibly familiar with the fact of the cross and the death of\nJesus and even the main reason for Him volunteering to die in our place, yet\nthere is also a mystery here that we can never penetrate as we consider the\nself sacrifice of the Son of God. To experience abandonment by one with whom\none has had perfect unbroken fellowship from eternity, yet not a loss of love\nbut as a result of being the substitute for guilty sinners the wrath of God was\ndisplayed by His turning of His back on His beloved Son for our sakes, a\npainful and humiliating experience for the Lord of glory. We may have been\nabandoned in a human relationship context, caused grief and heartache by people\nwe love, and still love in spite of their wrong words and actions which we hate;\nmaybe feeling that sense of loneliness or separation from other people with\nwhom we desire friendship or fellowship, or even feeling that we are walking in\ndarkness stumbling along not sure of the how to go forward in our particular\ncircumstances. In a scene so familiar in cities of the Roman world of the first\ncentury AD there were occupied crosses at the entrance to the city gates, a\ndeterrent to other citizens to ensure their compliance with the laws of Rome.\nOn this occasion three men hung in public view and one, the man on the central\ncross cried out Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani? My\nGod My God Why have You forsaken Me? <\/em>     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Here we see the\nSignificance of Sin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/sup><\/strong>From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all\nthe land. 46 <\/sup><\/strong>About three in the afternoon Jesus\ncried out in a loud voice, <\/em>\u2018Eli, Eli,<\/em> lema\nsabachthani?\u2019<\/em> (which\nmeans <\/em>\u2018My God, my\nGod, why have you forsaken me?\u2019<\/em>) <\/em>(Matthew\n27:45-46) This was not a natural darkness\nin Jerusalem that day from 12 noon to 3pm. It was the middle of the day when\nthe sun should have been shining at its brightest rather than totally obscured.\nIt was not an eclipse that lasts for a shorter time than these three hours. It\nwas an act of God the father to veil the sight of the suffering of His beloved\nSon. God who is a holy God of whom the prophet Habakkuk declared: Your eyes are\ntoo pure to look on evil; You cannot tolerate wrong <\/em>(Habakkuk 1:13).\nIsaiah 53:4-6 describes in graphic details a sight that Isaiah had not seen,\nthe suffering of God\u2019s perfect Servant on the cross: 3<\/sup><\/em>He was\ndespised and rejected<\/strong> by men, a man\nof sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their\nfaces He was despised,<\/strong> and we\nesteemed Him not. 4<\/sup>Surely He took up our\ninfirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken<\/strong> by God, smitten<\/strong>\nby Him, and afflicted<\/strong>.5<\/sup>But He was pierced<\/strong> for our transgressions, He was crushed<\/strong> for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace\nwas upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. 6<\/sup>We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own\nway; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. <\/em> God cannot excuse sin; He cannot avoid\npunishing wrongdoing as it deserves. It must be dealt with properly as He is a\nGod of justice and righteousness. He created us to have a living healthy\nrelationship with Him, but the barrier of our sin stands boldly in our way, as\nsurely as if we were driving a car along a road with a Grand Canyon sized hole on\nthe pathway ahead of us which we could not cross. Isaiah 59:2 screams out from\nthe page: Your\niniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face\nfrom you, so that He will not<\/strong> hear.<\/em>\nA human being who has never grasped the seriousness of their own sins, the\nproblem of the depravity of their own human heart that was alone sufficient to\nhave put Jesus on the cross, has never seen themselves as God sees us all too\nclearly. God did not send His Son to save us because there was anything in us\nthat merited His intervention. There was nothing but the stench of rebellion\nagainst His perfect holy standards. Human beings too often \u2013if we are honest \u2013\nenjoy sinning! The consequences of sin may be painful and if there is no\nrepentance possibly eternal implications, but at the time it might appear fun\nand a source of pleasure. Christians need to be careful in the way we present\nthe gospel because if we tell people that sinning will you miserable , they may\nwell turn round and say, well actually I am enjoying what you are calling sin!\nSalvation is a gift of God for people who have glimpsed something of your \/my\nplight and asked God to intervene.                                                                            \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Before we called out to Him, God knew\nwe would need a Saviour and sent Jesus to die in our place. God the Father was\nnot angry with Jesus when He suffered on the cross in fact He had never loved\nHim more that when He hung there in our place, recognising the cost of what His\nbeloved Son was doing in the place of hell-deserving sinners. The covering of\nthat awful scene with darkness was an equivalent action to His words at Jesus\u2019\nbaptism: This\nis My Son whom I love; with Him I am well pleased<\/em> (Matthew 3:17). Jesus on the cross here is\nquoting from Psalm 22:1-4: My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? Why are you\nso far from saving Me, so far from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry\nout by day, but You do not answer, by night and am not silent\u2026but You are\nenthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. In You our fathers put\ntheir trust and You delivered them. They cried out to You and were saved; in\nYou they trusted and were not disappointed.<\/em> The chief priests and\nother religious leaders of the nation had taunted Him with these words: He saved\nothers but He cannot save Himself! Let now this Christ, this king of Israel, come\ndown from the cross<\/em> that we may see\nand believe (Matthew 27:42). They could not have been more wrong \u2013 if He\nhad come down their belief would have been insufficient for salvation as the\npenalty of their sin and ours would not have been paid; reconciliation with God\nthe Father had not been obtained until Jesus met the cost in full in His own\nperson, in His own sacrifice on Calvary. \nMadame Chiang Kai-shek, a Chinese writer told the story of a farmer who\nbecame a hero in her country during an earthquake. His farm was on high land.\nAs he looked down the valley to the shoreline, he saw that the earthquake was\ncausing the ocean to pile up and a tidal wave would soon engulf the lowlands\nbelow him. He realised that his neighbours would perish unless he could call\nthem immediately to his hill top. Quickly he put a torch to his dry rice barn\nand rang the fire gong. The people looked up and saw the smoke rising. They\nrushed up the hill at once to help fight the fire. But even before they reached\nthe burning barn, they heard the roar of the waves below, covering the fields\nthey had just left. Immediately they knew that their neighbour had sacrificed\nall his possessions in order to save their lives (Drescher,\np. 50). God in Christ has given His best, His all for you \u2013what is your\nresponse to Him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Here we see the\nSignificance of Gethsemane<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus had placed a special\nemphasis in His life on earth on the closeness of His fellowship with His\nheavenly Father. For example, John 8:29: The One who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me\nalone, for I always <\/strong>do what pleases\nHim.<\/em> In a similar way in John 16:32 Jesus said to His disciples: A time is\ncoming, and has come when you will be scattered, each to His own home, You will\nleave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone; for My Father is with Me. <\/em>In\nGethsemane Jesus knew what lay ahead of Him. It was the only time in His life\nwhen He was alone, when He would experience total isolation weighed down by the\nweight of carrying our sins. In the light of such a predicament Jesus prayed to\nHis Father: Father\nif You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will but Yours be done\u2026<\/em>\nLuke 22:42).The disciples were asked\nto stand with Him, to support Him in prayer, but already one had betrayed Him\nto the authorities, eight for whatever reason were not in a suitable spiritual\nstate to be invited to the prayer meeting in Gethsemane and the three that were\ntaken there repeatedly fell asleep \u2013not exactly the most promising candidates\nfor the leadership of the Christian Church due to start its programme of world\nevangelisation in a couple of months time that year! They had all they declared\nthat they were in good spiritual shape and that they would go with Jesus all\nthe way \u2013yet within hours their words mocked them as they forsook Him and fled.\nWhat a warning and a challenge to us- it is easy to make promises to the Lord\nin Church on a Sunday, but living it out throughout the week can be a tough\nproposition. Are you? Am I?in a\nright spiritual state with the Lord so that He can use us in His service; eight\nof those first disciples were left at the edge of the garden and this was out\nof the twelve people Jesus handpicked to be His closest followers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        This was a most solemn time of prayer.\nLuke 22:44 records: And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and\nHis sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. <\/em>We are\ntalking of an open-air time of prayer after dark when a cool or even cold air\ncan be felt all around you. Can you imagine what intensity of prayer could\nproduce such physical symptoms? I must admit I have great difficulty\nvisualising such an intensity of commitment in prayer. I have certainly never\nprayed in such an earnest manner. How many of us can say \u2013if any \u2013 that we can\nunderstand such anguish of spirit. To avoid embarrassment at the Son of God\napparently feeling so vulnerable in His agonising hour some Christians have\ntried to play down what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane. Theophylact an eleventh-century\nAD Byzantine bishop in Bulgaria declared that: \u2018Jesus spoke this word for us;\nfor He was never forsaken by God, but we were\u2019. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274),\nleading RC Dominican theologian stated: \u2018The forsakenness only applied to\nJesus\u2019 body\u2019. Or the classic comment comes from German rationalist philosopher Friedrich\nSchleiermacher (1768-1834) who stated: \u2018We may safely conclude from the\napplication which the Saviour made of this holy hymn (Psalm 22) to Himself\u2026that\nalso in this moment\u2026 He thought and felt about His death as clearly and calmly\nas we find Him doing everywhere in those last addresses by which He sought to\nprepare His disciples for His death.\u2019 (cited in\nDrescher, p. 52) Gethsemane was anything but an atmosphere of calm\ndetachment! There was a holy dignity, but also a holy agony at the path of\nsuffering that lay before Jesus, culminating in a holy sorrow concerning your\nsin and mine that caused Jesus to endure the cross. If you have not yet come to\nfaith \u2013you need to realise it was your sin that put Jesus on the cross. One day\nGod will ask you; what was your response to My beloved Son\u2019s sacrifice for you?\nWe need to give a response now that will be sufficient on that day before the\nLord!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Here we see the\nSpecial Love of God<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the lips of many of us at some time or other are the words: \u2018You don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going through\u2019 or \u2018I don\u2019t know what you are going through\u2019 \u2013how true those words are. \u00a0Listen to these words from the book of Hebrews concerning Jesus. Hebrews 2:17-18: For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. <\/em>In Amos 8:9-10 there is a prophecy about the judgement of God upon sinful Israel: In that day, declares the sovereign Lord, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your religious feasts into mourning and all your singing into weeping… I will make that time like mourning for an only son\u2026\u00a0 <\/em>David in Psalm 37:25 could declare: I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken\u2026<\/em> Yet Jesus, the unique, one and only Son of God: cried out in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? \u2014 which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? <\/em>Jesus in John 15:13-14 said: Greater love has no-one than this that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command. <\/em>Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760), the famous leader of the Moravian <\/em>Christian missionary movement was in a church as a young man and a picture of Christ on the cross caught his eye and the caption under the picture led to his conversion. It said: \u2018Lo! This I have done for Thee.\u00a0 What hast Thou done for me? It stopped the wealthy young ruler in his tracks and led him to consecrating his fortune, his talents and time to the cause of Christ. After his conversion he set up a missionary society that sent missionaries all over the world. It was a group of his missionaries on a trip to America that pointed unconverted Anglican Vicar John Wesley to Jesus. \u2018I went to convert the heathen but who would convert me\u2019 was Wesley\u2019s later remark on that encounter.\u00a0 The cross destroys sentimental teaching of a \u2018larger hope\u2019 of people getting into heaven having consciously rejected Jesus; for God to put His Son through the agonies of Calvary and for that not to be essential for salvation would be an act of sadism not love. It is though a picture of priceless love because it was the only way for sinners like you and me to be saved and united in fellowship with God the Father.\u00a0 Have you responded to His love?\u00a0 Here was a cry of anguish <\/strong>may you never echo it! Here was a cry of separation <\/strong>may you never experience it, because you in Christ have experienced the love of God, obtained for you and me at Calvary Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction In the National Gallery of Art in the USA there hangs a unique painting of Calvary. The figure of Christ on the cross is almost hidden in the darkness. At first glance one sees nothing but the dim figure of the suffering Saviour, but as you look longer and with closer scrutiny of the … Continue reading Matthew 27:46 The words of anguish<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-870","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/broughtybaptist.org\/wpsite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/broughtybaptist.org\/wpsite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/broughtybaptist.org\/wpsite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broughtybaptist.org\/wpsite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broughtybaptist.org\/wpsite\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/broughtybaptist.org\/wpsite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871,"href":"https:\/\/broughtybaptist.org\/wpsite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/870\/revisions\/871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/broughtybaptist.org\/wpsite\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}