Why Have You Forsaken Me

all right so with the trial of jesus and the scourging out of the way now matthew moves into the actual crucifixion of christ and the death of jesus um and because it is passion sunday i at least would like to read the account of jesus's death in matthew so let's read matthew chapter 27 verse 32 and following it says this as they were marching out they came upon a man of cyrene simon by name this man they compelled to carry his cross and when they came to the place called golgotha which means the place of a skull they offered him wine to drink mingled with gall but when he tasted it he would not drink it pause there for just one second why was it called golgotha the place of the skull we don't actually know we don't know for a fact but some ancient church fathers said that it was because this was a place of execution so when the romans would execute people they would do one of two methods if you were a non-citizen like jesus you would be crucified but if you were a roman soldier a roman citizen you would be decapitated you would be uh beheaded like saint paul was so um some scholars and an ancient christian suggested this place was called golgotha because they would leave the skulls of the beheaded victims as well as in some cases even the the bones of some of the of the executed men who were crucified there so it was a place of death it was a place of execution it was the place of the skull others have suggested it's because that there's a there's a particular hill in jerusalem that looks like a skull if you look at the shape of the skull and you can go to this day and you can kind of see it you have to stretch a little bit but you can kind of see it so that's another suggestion in any case it's a place associated with death oh there's a third tradition too i might as well tell you uh some of the church fathers said that it that golgotha was the place of the burial of adam so that adam and eve had actually lived in jerusalem that jerusalem was where eden used to be and that adam was buried uh under the mountain of golgotha so sometimes on the on uh on depictions of icons of the crucifix you'll see a a grave underneath the two the cross with a skull or sometimes you'll see adam underneath adam and eve and things like that depicted as being beneath the crucifix well that's part of the tradition of of connecting golgotha with the with this with the death of adam so that where the old adam died and was buried the new adam is going to bring life through his death and his resurrection any one of those interpretations is out there as a an ancient meaning for the place of the skull in any case matthew continues in verse 35 when they had crucified him they divided his garments among them by casting lots and then they sat down and kept watch over him there and over his head they put the charge against him which read this is jesus the king of the jews then two robbers were crucified with him one on the right and one on the left and those who passed by derided him wagging their heads saying you who would destroy the temple and build it in three days save yourself if you were the son of god come down from the cross so also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him saying he saved others he cannot save himself he is the king of israel let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him he trusts in god let god deliver him now if he desires him for he said i am the son of god. and the robbers who were with him crucified him and also reviled him in the same way now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour and about the ninth hour jesus cried with a loud voice eli eli lama which means my god my god why hast thou forsaken me and some of the bystanders hearing it said this man is calling elijah and one of them at once ran and took a sponge filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink but the other said wait let us see whether elijah will come and save him and jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit and at this moment in the mass we always kneel and pause to honor the moment when jesus died matthew now continues verse 51 and this is only found in matthew's gospel behold the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom the earth shook and the rocks were split the tombs also were open and many body of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many and when the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over jesus saw the earthquake and what took place they were filled with all and said truly this was the son of god all right let's stop there what's going on now we've seen that jesus has fulfilled the passover he's the new adam he's the suffering servant he's a new joseph he's the true son of the father what's going on in this account of jesus's death well i'd like to highlight one key element and that is the so-called cry of dereliction right in matthew's gospel here jesus's final words on the cross are my god my god why hast thou forsaken me or why have you forsaken me and over the years of teaching the passion i've realized that this is a troubling passage for a lot of people because when they hear jesus cry out my god my god why have you forsaken me it can sound as if he is despairing in his final moments as if he not only feels abandoned by god but thinks that god has turned his back on him or abandoned him or forgotten him in fact some non-catholic christians some protestant christians will actually say that that's what happened they'll say that at the moment of jesus death the father turned his face away from from christ and turned his back on on christ because he could not look upon sin and christ took the sins of the world upon him at that point well i think that's wrong i don't think that's what's going on here i don't think that jesus either despaired or that god turned his back on him and the reason i think both of those interpretations are wrong is because of the jewish context of jesus's words see when jesus says my god my god why have you forsaken me he's not just crying out in the anguish of his crucifixion although he is that he is crying out in anguish he's quoting the old testament he's quoting psalm 22 which is in fact the responsorial psalm for this passion sunday and if you go back to psalm 22 what you're going to find out is something really fascinating what you'll see is although psalm 22 begins in desolation and the experience of david feeling abandoned by god the psalm ends with the conversion of the nations it ends with the conversion of the pagans it ends with the conversion of all the families of the earth so just for a quick second if you look at the responsorial psalm for today the opening lines are my god my god why hast thou forsaken me why are so far from helping me from the words of my groaning my god i cry by day but thou dost not answer and by night but find no rest so it's true it begins with david's feeling forsaken by god but if you walk through the whole psalm and i would totally i would really encourage you to read it in time in its entirety you'll see that david goes on to say things which can't possibly apply to him he says things like this they have pierced my hands and my feet i can count all my bones they divide my garments among them for my vesture they cast lots well when did when did david have his hands and feet pierced well he never did but christ does he's fulfilling psalm 22 by means of the crucifixion by having his hands pierced by having his feet pierced in other words jesus on the cross is a new david right but he's going far beyond the sufferings that david ever experienced what david's describing symbolically and metaphorically jesus is experiencing literally by being nailed to the cross and put to death and so as you walk through the psalm what's so fascinating about psalm 22 that jesus is quoting on the cross it actually says in verse 24 that god has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted one he has not hid his face from him but he has heard when he cried out to him so by invoking this psalm jesus is quoting a scripture which says that the cry of the one who is apparently forsaken by god is actually heard by god the father and that the father doesn't turn his back on the one who is afflicted and instead hears his prayer and answers the prayer and so when you get to the end of the psalm it ends in this way all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the lord all the families of the nation shall worship before him for dominion belongs to the lord in other words all the families of the earth will convert when god answers the prayer of the afflicted one well go back to the gospel of matthew and what do you find when jesus cries out my god my god why have you forsaken me at the very foot of the cross the pagan centurion the roman soldier stands there sees jesus hears the cry and doesn't say uh truly this man despaired of god but truly this man was the son of god and right there at the foot of the cross the conversion of the nations begins the conversion of the gentiles begins so jesus not only quotes the psalm he fulfills it in the beginning of the conversion of the nations with the with the words of the centurion very powerful very significant and so what the church tells us about this quotation here about this cry of jesus is this the catechism says quote all the troubles for all time of humanity enslaved by sin and death all the petitions all the intercessions of salvation history are summed up in this cry of the incarnate word here the father accepts them and beyond all hope answers them by raising his son catechism of the catholic church paragraph 2 606 2606 so in other words what the catechism saying is far from despairing when jesus cries out my god my god why have you forsaken me what jesus is actually doing is speaking on behalf of all humanity don't get me wrong he is crying out in anguish he feels the pain of the cross but he's using the inspired words of scripture to cry out to god on behalf of humanity who feels abandoned by god in their suffering who feels abandoned by god in their sin who feels abandoned by god in the darkness of of this valley of tears such that every prayer that was ever uttered from the beginning of time until the end of time all the suffering of all of humanity is caught up into the into the words of jesus my god my god why have you forsaken me which is spoken as a prayer to the father and the father answers that prayer by raising jesus from the dead so if you've ever felt you know abandoned by god if you've ever felt forsaken by god if you've ever felt like god has forsaken you always remember that jesus knows what that's like he experiences that in his human nature on the cross but he also cries out to god with psalm 22 which is the psalm that tells us god doesn't abandon his righteous ones and that he will answer their prayer and bring about the salvation of the world that's what happens when the new david speaks the cry of dereliction while hanging on the cross [Music] you

Channel: Catholic Productions

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Keywords: psalm 22, cry of dereliction, brant pitre, catholic productions, jesus forsaken

Id: BXDpq3qLqjM

Length: 12min 52sec (772 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 07 2020