Countless sermons have been given on Jesus Christ’s cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” How could God the Father forsake God the Son, the second person of the Trinity? Clearly He would not.
That at the cross God laid on His Son the sin of the world is the greatest miracle of history and is what redeems you and me. But to say God the Father could not look on sin as it was laid on Christ ignores the fact that God had already looked on all of it as it occurred and still does. So what is the meaning of Christ’s words here?
Of all the books of the Old Testament, one was quoted and prayed by Jesus Christ more than any other: the book of Psalms. The Psalms were in the same order as we have today but were not numbered. In order to name a Psalm, it was necessary to state its first few words. That is what Jesus was doing. If you read Psalm 22 you can clearly see why the Savior would have its words on his mind as He suffered on the cross.
Do you think the following verses from Psalm 22, 23, and 24 (all penned by His ancestor David) might have been on His heart and mind?
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me. They make mouths at me, they wag their heads.
Be not far from me, for trouble is near. For there is none to help.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.
For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has encompassed me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.
(and thinking of what would come when the cross was over)
Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in!
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 2:8, “…wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”