Faith From The Cross (Final Words Part IV)

Sermon Title: Faith from the Cross

Good News Statement: Jesus sustains our Faith

Preached: Sunday, March 27, 2022 at Dogwood Prairie and Seed Chapel UMC

Pastor Daniel G. Skelton, M.Div.

 

Scripture (NRSV): Mark 15:29-36 Today’s scripture reading comes from the Gospel of Mark chapter fifteen verses twenty-nine thru thirty-six. Listen to the words of the Apostle Mark…

²⁹ Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, ³⁰ save yourself, and come down from the cross!” ³¹ In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. ³² Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.

³³ When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ³⁴ At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ³⁵ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.”

This is the Word of God for the People of God; And all God’s people said, “Thanks be to God.”

 

Introduction:

Jesus, Moses, and Noah are all walking down a road one day, carrying on like they usually do, when Moses asked the other two if they’d performed any miracles lately. Both Noah and Jesus said they hadn’t, and that they should try and figure out some way to determine if they still “had it”.

Sometime later, they came across a wide, but calm river. Moses proposed that they use this obstacle as their opportunity to test their skills. Noah said he would go first, and in no time flat, had a large boat constructed from the local timber and had floated peacefully across to the other side.

Moses raised his arms and commanded the water to part for him, allowing him to walk calmly across the now dry riverbed. Jesus stood by patiently and watched as his two companions crossed the river. When it was his turn, he casually strolled out across the top of the water, but shortly into his stroll he started to gradually sink into the surface of the water.

Struggling with his soaked clothing, and feeling distraught at his near failure, he lamented that he must have fallen out of the good grace of his father, God.  Moses and Noah both took a step back to evaluate the situation. After several minutes, Moses snapped his fingers and said… “Ah-ha! I think I’ve figured it out! I bet the last time you tried that trick out, you didn’t have those holes in your feet!”

Have any of you ever felt like Peter or Jesus did as they walked on water but began to sink? Jesus gives you a command to do something; you accept that command with confidence, and begin walking on water. Everything is going swimmingly! But then a drop of water lands near your eyes and you blink: for just a second you take your eyes off Jesus. Then a ripple of water crosses over your feet, and you look down: you are still walking, but uncertainty creeps in—you find yourself looking over your shoulder for something else to happen. Finally, a huge wave crashes against you; and you stop moving, begin looking around at everything, and then you slowly begin to sink. Jesus is nowhere to be found. You feel abandoned, forsaken, and left alone. You feel as if you have holes in your feet and no matter how many times you pray or cry for help, you keep sinking. You feel hopeless. You feel faithless.

Was Jesus hopeless or faithless as he cried out to God, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus was neither hopeless nor faithless: He was hopeful and faithful! When Jesus felt alone, he reminded us that just because we cannot see God, that does not mean that God cannot see or hear us. Jesus, from the cross, sustains our faith.

Opening Prayer:

            Let us pray…Dear Faithful Father, remind us to always have faith; remind us that you will save us; and remind us that even though we cannot see you, you are still present in our life.  I pray that my words fall to the ground as your words settle in the hearts of all those before me. In your name we pray, Amen.

Body:

Our crucifixion perspective this morning comes from a random man in the crowd, who happened to witness the crucifixion with his friends.

It was a morbid sense of curiosity that made us stop. We were on our way to the city on the first day of the festival when we noticed the crowd watching as three men hung nailed to Roman crosses. We were actually supposed to meet up with Simon of Cyrene and his two boys, but they were nowhere to be found. It was gruesome to see and it was a gruesome way to die: hanging by the hands and feet—with the added humiliation of being stripped of clothing—and slowly dying as breathing became increasingly impossible. For all its horror, we were drawn to take a closer look at the suffering inflicted on these men.

            I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed to be watching yet I was unable to turn away. It was clear as I looked at the crowd that there was something unusual about the man in the center. From a distance, it looked like all three men were in a line, but as I got closer, I noticed that the man in the center was further forward and the other two men were behind him. Some of the people were hurling insults at him. Three women and a young man were weeping at the foot of this man’s cross; and a man who looked like Simon of Cyrene was covering the eyes of two young boys as they pushed through the crowd to get away. And one of the other two men on the other crosses had his head tilted toward the man in the center and was saying something, but I couldn’t hear him between all the insults and weeping.

            It was evident that this man had been flogged—the bloodied stripes giving witness to the cruelty of his captors. To be honest, he didn’t even look like a man. I asked what this man had done wrong; and someone in the crowd answered, “That’s Jesus, the man from Galilee, who many believed would lead a revolt to expel the Romans.” This person continued, “But his way of dealing with the Romans was to tell his followers to show them kindness!…” Then this person concluded by saying, “So here we are with a pacifist preacher crucified as a threat to the Emperor.” “This man was a threat to the Roman Emperor,” I thought to myself. The people chose to have this man crucified… but yet Pilate saw this man as being innocent?

            The crowd around Jesus was restless. Some of the merchants seemed to gloat that just a few days ago this man had cast them out of the Temple courts and now he is getting his ‘just reward.’ I’d like to say that as we watched this scene unfold, our hearts were filled with compassion, but it was quite the opposite. The anger and venom of the others was like an infection, rapidly spreading to each of us. My friend Levi was the first to join in the act, saying, “He got what he had coming to him….” Then my friend Jacob looked up at Jesus and shouted, “Who do you think you are anyway? Some kind of Messiah you’ve turned out to be….” This man hadn’t done anything to me, yet as others were shouting I found myself filled with anger. I walked up to him and said, “Some Jew you are. You make me sick! Tell us to love our enemies! This is what happens to people who love their enemies! Listen, you’re a nobody!”

            I don’t know why I said those things.  He hadn’t done anything to me….I discovered that day that I had the capacity to hate an innocent man and a sick desire to be part of making him hurt. I realized that I would do anything to fit in with the rest of the crowd.

It was after I shouted at him that he looked at me and then looked up to heaven and cried the words of the psalmist: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When I heard him cry out, I was filled with shame. My God, what have we done? My God, what have I done? (Final Words From The Cross, Adam Hamilton, 65-66).

Sometimes in life we strive so hard—putting forth every effort we have—to make sure people know that we are part of the crowd. At times we will even set aside our own motives, beliefs, and faiths, to let others know that we would rather walk with them instead of standing up against them. We become the person, when asked to jump that will respond with, “how high.” We become as sociologists William Isaac Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas noted in 1928, “An interpretation of the situation around us.” We become like those around us: we abandon who we are meant to be. We lose faith in ourselves. We find ourselves forsaking the will of God.

Moments before death, or even possibly while he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus felt abandoned. In the Garden, Jesus asked Peter, James, and John to stay awake, but they fell asleep leaving Jesus all alone. And now on the cross, looking out into the crowd, he feels all alone again. His disciples have fled the scene except for John, the beloved disciple and Mary, his mother, Peter is nearby in the courtyard, and Jesus’ siblings are nowhere to be found. On top of all this, Jesus now turns to God and cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Have you ever felt alone? You looked out into the crowd, but found no one to lean on.

The Gospels record seven last statements of Jesus. Luke and John each record three statements, but Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels only tell us of one statement that Jesus made from the cross. Jesus surely said more, but for these two Gospel writers, this one statement was all that was needed to be recorded. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” offers, at a time of darkness, hope that Jesus will never abandon us but instead sustain our faith. This statement teaches us three things: 1) that even Jesus felt abandoned by God, 2) that we are to sacrifice for others, and 3) that Jesus was able to worship in a time of despair.

First, Jesus felt abandoned by God. In that moment, as Jesus prayed these words, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of the world, felt abandoned or forsaken by God. While hanging on the cross, Jesus probably felt that his Father had turned his back against him, that God had closed His eyes and turned around. Jesus no longer felt the presence of his Father as he hung on the cross. He felt alone, abandoned, and forsaken. Jesus the Lord was actually experiencing that feeling of God-forsakenness that every one of us experience at some point in our lives. Something bad happens, so we blame it on God for not being there, for not hearing our prayers, for not intervening and creating  a more hopeful outcome. We lose faith in God because we think God has abandoned us. Because we can’t see God working in our life, we automatically believe He is no longer with us.

We forget what Moses told the Israelites in the wilderness: “The LORD your God has been with you” (Deuteronomy 2:7), “The LORD your God…is the one who will fight for you” (Deut. 1:30), “The LORD your God carried you…” (Deut. 1:31), “The LORD your God is [near] whenever we call to him…” ( Deut. 4:7), and “…He will neither abandon you nor destroy you…” (Deut. 4:3). The LORD your God will never abandon you even if it feels like He has. Jesus has experienced abandonment, but he knows that one day he will sit at the right hand of the Father.

We all pray this prayer, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” at some time in our life. In those times, we can pray to Jesus Christ, because he knows what we are experiencing and feeling. We can pray to the One who sympathizes with us in that moment while, at the same time, saying, “God didn’t forsake me, and God hasn’t forsaken you.” Just because we cannot see God, doesn’t mean that God cannot see us. He hasn’t abandoned you.

Second, these words teach us to sacrifice for others. In the Spring of 2011—what became known as the Arab Spring—Arabs of several nations rose up against their leaders. They did so because their leaders, while living in wealth and splendor, were oblivious to the suffering and difficulties of the average person. In fact, the leaders contributed to this adversity. They seemed not to notice, understand, or care about the suffering of their people while they freely enriched themselves at the expense of their own citizens. Jesus could have been this kind of king, a king who would utter decrees and live in the lap of luxury and avoid all kind of suffering. In fact, this was one of the three temptations the devil gave Jesus when he began his ministry: “Bow down and worship me, and I will give you all the riches of the world” (Matthew 4:9) said the devil. But this was not Jesus’ way. As a king, he came to his people to deliver, save, and seek them out.

He chose to identify with the suffering of his people. He chose to fulfill the will of the Father. He chose to sacrifice himself so that you and I would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). He chose to feel abandoned and forsaken so that he would never abandon or forsaken us. Jesus chose to reveal his true self through sacrificial love. I am reminded of these words from one of the most powerful hymns of the cross, an American folk hymn sometimes attributed to Alexander Means entitled “What Wondrous Love Is This”: “What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul! What wondrous love is this, O my soul! What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul; to bear the dreadful curse for my soul.”

Jesus could have given up. Jesus could have chosen to run from the authorities. Jesus could have remained silent when questioned by both Caiaphas and Pilate. But he didn’t give up, he didn’t run away, and he didn’t remain silent. Jesus took risks, even when he felt abandoned, to make sure that we would never be alone. Jesus bore the dreadful curse so that his wondrous love would bring faith to our soul. Jesus hung on the cross, crying out to the Father, so his love would outshine any darkness. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” is a reminder to each of us that sacrifices need to be made in order to bring peace and love to a broken heart, “to save and seek out the lost” (Luke 19:10). If Jesus can still have faith to complete the will of the Father even at time of abandonment, then I believe we have the strength to make sacrifices for others in our life—who may be feeling forsaken, destroyed, or bruised at this very minute.

Third, Jesus prays and worships. Finally, Jesus’ words reveal that in the moment when he felt abandoned and forsaken by God, he chose to pray and worship. I’m sure when something doesn’t go right in your life, you aren’t taking the time to worship God: saying thank you for making me late, thank you for letting me experience pain, thank you for not answering my prayers. Rather when you experience tough times, you probably find yourself becoming disappointed with God. Often we turn away from God, refusing to pray and pretending God doesn’t exist. You turn away from God because you got sick and you were supposed to leave for a cruise tomorrow; you turn away from God, because you have to work late; you turn away from God because the kids aren’t behaving; you turn away from God because the Cubs beat the Cardinals; you turn away from God, because your prayers haven’t been answered. We decide we don’t want anything to do with God because God didn’t help us in the way we wanted. We chose to abandon God. But Jesus didn’t do that. Instead Jesus prayed and worshiped God, the Father, as he hung on the cross.

Jesus worshiped God quoting Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest” (Psalm 22:1-2). Jesus cites these words knowing the rest of the Psalm. Psalm 22:24 reads, “For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me but heard when I cried to him.” Although Jesus proclaims that God has forsaken him, he knows that God has heard his cry. God has not abandoned Jesus on the cross. Just because we might not be able to see God, that does not mean that God cannot see or hear us. When we feel abandoned, we must trust that God will be there. When we feel lost, we must trust that God will find us. When we keep sinking, we must trust that God will reach down and pull us to the surface. When we cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” we must trust that God has heard our cry. God will not forsake you. God will not abandon you. God will not let you walk through life alone.

Conclusion:

If God is willing to be by your side, to “save a wretch like me,” then can we do the same for someone in our own life? Who is crying out to feel loved? Who is crying out to be found? Who is crying out to feel protected? Who needs to know that they are not alone? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” is a prayer of worship that reminds you that Jesus will never abandon you, that you must be willing to make sacrifices to share the love of Christ with others, and that even when you feel like turning away from Jesus, because you can’t see him,  Jesus can still see you. Jesus sustains and restores our faith even, even, when we feel abandoned.

 

Closing Prayer:

Let us pray…. Dear Lord Jesus, remind us that you will never forsake us; remind us that you will never turn away from us; and remind us that you are walking with us. In your name we pray, Amen.

 

Benediction:

This week, remember that just because you may not be able to see Jesus that does not mean Jesus cannot see or hear you. Jesus will never abandon you. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, go, transforming lives as you live well and wisely in God’s world. Amen. Amen. Amen.