THINK TOGETHER.
Have you ever felt rejected or alone?
READ TOGETHER.
Mark 15:33-34. 33And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
What happens in these two verses is one of the hardest things to understand in the whole Bible. Jesus, who IS God is on the cross and he cries out to God the Father, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.
But how can God forsake God?
That’s what makes this so difficult to understand. But we must not forget that Jesus was not only God on the cross, he was also a human being. He was the human being who was dying in our place and taking our punishment. The punishment of the cross wasn’t just the terrible physical things that happened to you, like having your hands and feet nailed to wood. The real punishment of the cross was being rejected by everyone including God.
The Bible says that when we sin, our sin separates us from God. Here’s how the prophet Isaiah said it 700 years before Jesus:
Isaiah 59:2. but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
None of us deserves to live with God forever. None of us deserves for God to forgive us and welcome us into paradise like Jesus did the criminal on the cross. Because God loves us so much he wants to forgive us and welcome us home into his presence. But God is also fair, and just, and holy, therefor he has to punish sin. He has to separate himself from sinners.
So how could God love us, forgive us, and welcome us home, and still punish every sin at the same time? That’s why he put all our sins onto Jesus when Jesus was on the cross. And that’s why God the Father had to forsake God the Son on the cross – My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.
The good news is that Jesus did not stay forsaken forever. After taking our punishment on the cross, and dying for our sins, Jesus was raised back to life from the grave. Jesus was forsaken on the cross, but not after the cross. After he died, Jesus was received into Heaven along with the criminal who trusted in him. The Father declared Jesus to be perfect and raised him from the dead, defeating sin and death for us once and for all!
Now we will never ever be forsaken by God, not if we are trusting in Jesus. No sin can keep him away from us ever again, and at the same time, his presence with us can keep us from sinning.
Because of Jesus we will never be forsaken by God.
With Jesus his presence with us can keep us from sinning.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Listen to songs about the cross together: The Power of the Cross, Shane and Shane; At the Cross, Trip Lee.
PRAY TOGETHER
Father, I know that you will never forsake me. None of my sins could ever keep you away from me. But help me to not sin when I am tempted, and to remember how much you love me instead. Amen.
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