In the name of Jesus
Jesus had prayed alone in the Garden of Gethsemane while the disciples slept. When Jesus was arrested, all of the disciples forsook Him and fled. Now He suffers alone, entirely by Himself. Jesus is utterly abandoned. And from this, His fourth word from the cross, we can see that Christ, the God-man was abandoned not only by man but even by God the Father. He cries out the horrifying words, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"
We sometimes forget that Jesus' suffering was more than just physical. Indeed, He did die one of the most physically excruciating and drawn-out forms of execution there is. Most of you know that a crucified person doesn't die from bleeding to death but from suffocation as they hang there under the weight of their own body and from the malfunction of the bodily organs under this duress. You remember that when a spear was thrust into Jesus' side after he died, blood and water flowed forth, coagulated blood no longer able to flow properly. And Jesus underwent all of this after having been flogged and beaten and without any sleep that night.
But Jesus' greater suffering was spiritual. He felt the full hurt of Judas' betrayal. His heart ached for comfort and friendship in His suffering and found none. And above all Jesus endured the inner anguish of being forsaken by His heavenly Father. The Father turned His back on Him and left Him totally alone in His agony. "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"
Why did the Father do this to the One He called His beloved Son in baptism, the One with Him He was well pleased? The answer is that God did this out of love for you. God was willing to do this to His Son in order that you might become His children.
What Jesus was experiencing on the cross was hell itself. He wasn't just experiencing temporary pain and affliction; he was experiencing the eternal judgment against all people of all time in His body and soul. That's what the darkness over the land was all about. Divine judgment against sin was coming at Jesus full force. The powers of darkness and evil were given free reign to do their worst to Him. The Father treated Christ as if He were guilty of every wickedness and every sin that there ever was. The whole world's iniquity was bound up and put on Him, and He received the penalty of it in His own flesh and spirit.
And that penalty is hell. And hell is more than flames of fire. Hell is separation from God and from all that is good. It is to be utterly cut off and isolated and left alone in emptiness and hollowness where there is no life or joy or pleasure or hope but only despair and anger and misery and torment. A whole eternity of that is what Jesus was going through in these final hours on the cross–full fledged hell in both body and soul. "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"
Learn from this the great dreadfulness of your sin. Too often we rationalize and downplay our sin as if it were no big deal. "Sure, I'm not perfect, but my sin isn't all that bad." Here on the cross, though, we see what a big deal it is. Sin brings separation and brokenness–between us and others, and mostly between us and God. Here at Calvary we see its cost and what we deserve because of it, nothing short of hell.
However, most of all learn from Jesus' words that hell's fury has now been taken away from you. Christ drank this fiery liquid all into His flesh and put it to death. Hell burned itself out on Him so that you would not even be the least bit singed. God damned His Son, so that you would not be damned but saved forever.
This is what Paul speaks of in II Corinthians, "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." This is what Luther called the "happy exchange." Christ exchanged His righteousness and holiness for our guilt and sin. He took our hell and gave us His heaven. That is the only way we could be saved. The sentence for sin had to be carried out. A holy God cannot simply look at sin and say, "Oh, that's OK." And so out of love for you, Jesus received your sentence as your substitute. Jesus set you free from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse in your place on the tree. Because of that and that alone, you are now set free from hell and darkness and judgment forever.
The whole world's punishment has been taken away. God has declared everyone forgiven and holy through the cross. Not one exception. The power of hell is utterly defeated. The only people who go to hell are those who insist upon doing so, who insist on trying to gain eternal life their own way, by their own works and efforts–in other words, those who insist on separating themselves from God and from the saving power of Christ's cross. They refuse to believe and accept God's free forgiveness in Jesus. They trust in other gods and other philosophies; they make themselves to be their own god. And thus they have hell, separation from the true God.
But that is not so for you. For the Spirit of the living God has brought you to believe the truth of Christ. He has brought you to know that in Jesus your salvation is complete and sure. You are not separated from God but in full fellowship with Him through your baptism into Christ's body. Jesus was separated from the Father on the cross so that you never would be. He experienced the fullness of hell so that you would experience the fullness of heaven. Christ was forsaken in His suffering so that you would not be in yours. Jesus suffered for you, and now He suffers with you to bring you through your trials to the victory of Easter.
There may be times when you want to cry out like Jesus, "My God, My God, why . . .?" And there doesn't seem to be any answer or reason for the overwhelming troubles or afflictions. But ultimately, all of your why questions have been absorbed into Jesus' great why question; ultimately they have all be answered for you on the cross. It is in the cross that you find hope and comfort. For there Jesus took all your suffering on Himself. And He has shown you that in the end, all suffering in Him gives way to resurrection and wholeness and life.
You are never alone. God is with you always in Christ the crucified.
In the name of Jesus