Look Again
Good Evening! Thank you for coming today, I want to warn you that there is a lot of scripture reading tonight. It will be a lengthy post today, but I pray that you will be as excited to walk down this path as I was when I first had it shown to me by my youth pastor when I was in high school.
Let's Go! Our passage is found in Mark 15:33-39
35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
Now what we are reading here is Mark's account of the death and crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, was sent by God to earth to take on sin and die as the ultimate sacrifice for all of humanity. That is a huge task to undertake and sometimes we forget that Jesus was 100% man and it would be a struggle to walk into something like this. In fact, the night before Jesus is taken He asks God if there is any other way that this can happen.
Now this passage contains something unique that a lot of people like to hold onto. Jesus cries out to God in pain and says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It's a question that we often ask ourselves, how in these dark times does it feel like God has abandoned us. This is even more extreme though, it appears as if God has abandoned His own son! What chance do I have if God has abandoned His own son? I mean no wonder the man cries out in pain, His Father has LEFT Him. Jesus is bearing the weight of all sin from humanity and He has no God to support Him.
But what if Jesus wasn't doing this? WHAT IF Jesus wasn't upset with His father for what was going on? WHAT IF there was a bigger picture? You see Jesus knew that His father could not be with Him in that moment. God in order to remain perfect and whole has to be absent from sin. He can't have sin be part of His being, it would make Him imperfect. Jesus asked for another way not because He didn't want to be crucified or die, but rather because He didn't want to be cut off from His father.
In Habakkuk 1:13 the Bible states that "You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness." Jesus knew that God couldn't have sin with His being, which is why He had to be cut off in this moment. We are cut off from God now until we reach heaven and shed this sin filled bodies. SO STILL WHY DOES JESUS MAKE THIS STATEMENT??? He knew it was coming so why still cry out to God like this? In front of everyone!
The Sanhedrin are the spiritual leaders of the day, the ones who wanted Jesus dead. They said He was a blasphemer and a liar. Something interesting about the Sanhedrin though is their education. The Sanhedrin were Jewish religious leaders who had dedicated their lives to upholding and living the scriptures. They would begin to memorize the scriptures at a very young age in order to have it fully committed to memory. These are the people standing with Jesus's family and friends, and this is where Jesus's remark makes us take another look. If you look in your Bible their will be a little letter next to verse 34 leading you to a footnote. This footnote will lead you to Psalm 22, which reads like this:
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.[b]
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.[b]
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.[c]
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
you are the one Israel praises.[c]
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
15 My mouth[d] is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
15 My mouth[d] is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce[e] my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce[e] my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
Now does this sound familiar? Doesn't this sound like the perfect description of what we are seeing with the crucifixion scene? The Psalmist even opens the passage with the same words that Jesus used. Here is the catch though, Crucifixion was a death tradition carried out by the Romans. The Roman time period being hundreds of years after this Psalm was written. A psalmist writes a perfect description of the death of the Messiah in a form that he doesn't even understand.
Jesus may not have been crying out to God, but what if He was quoting a passage to the audience surrounding Him. What if He wanted them to see that He was on that cross, fulfilling yet another prophecy hundreds of years later? Psalm 22 finishes out with a message of peace that all will be reminded and worship the one true king. When you first saw this blog post the picture may have said evil, but Jesus can take evil things and when we look again they have turned good.
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani." What does Jesus do with His last breath? He doesn't curse the God who gave Him everything, but rather to remind the people that He is giving everything to those who have cursed Him.
I'd love to chat if you have any further questions!
Thank you for reading, and God bless.
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