“Final Words from the Cross: “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?” Mark 15: 29-36

My dad is a history buff. I’ve shared before that we were the family that always had a historical component to our family vacation, including going to museums while at the beach. Thankfully, though, my brothers and I have grown to share my dads love for history. I know that when dad recommends a book for me to read it is either going to be about history or Christianity, which is exactly what I found in a short book dad told me to get a few month ago entitled How Do You Kill 11 Million People? by Andy Andrews. I was surprised when I saw the authors name because we grew up listening to cassette tapes of Andy Andrews comedy routines on trips as a child. But what was held in those pages was anything but funny.

Andrews was wondering how you could kill 11 million people during the Holocaust of World War 2 with so few people trying to stop it. World War 2 seems to be a time that fascinates us today - with more and more movies and books coming out about the history of what happened. The 11 million people that died were not just Jews, but priests, gypsies, political prisoners, folks of different political parties, criminals, the mentally ill, the list goes on and on, each marked by a different color. So how do you kill 11 million people in a society and not have more people rise up to stop it? You lie to them. And tell them that lie over and over until it becomes their reality, even if it isn’t true.

Those passing by the cross of Jesus had bought into a lie that had been told to them time and time again. That what Jesus was saying was dangerous. That he was trying to break down the fabric of their society. Some were so angered by Jesus that they were having a field day. They were shouting insults at Jesus for sport. The chief priests and scribes added fuel to the fire by shouting at Jesus as well. The crowds mocked him and spit on him. They wanted to break his spirit, as they broke his body. That was what cruxifixction existed to do. As people died by the gruesome process of hanging by their hands and feet, they were also naked on public display, for humiliation. 

And then the ninth hour came and Jesus cried out in a loud voice “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!”. In the Gospel of Mark this is the only statement that is recorded as Jesus crying out from the cross - the only thing he said - it was that important. 

Have you ever felt forsaken by God? Like God has abandoned you? What was that experience like for you? The Gospels of Luke and John don’t record these final words from Jesus at the cross, probably because they had a hard time reconciling it in their minds - how could Jesus who was fully human and fully divine, God’s very self feel abandoned by God? 

The truth is Jesus wasn’t abandoned on that cross by God, just as we are not abandoned when we are going through valleys in our lives. God is right there beside us. Yet, there is a difference between knowing in your head that God is there and will not abandon you, and feeling in your heart. In this moment, in Jesus’s heart he is wondering where God is even though he knows that God is right there.

Think about the times when you feel that God has abandoned you - usually it is in times of darkness. And the darkness was present that day so long ago. The darkness was palatable in the hearts of the crowd. We sometimes want to make the people in the crowd out to be horrible, worse then we could ever be - but the truth is they were just normal people like you and me who bought into the lie. Who believed that Jesus should die. And maybe even some who didn’t believe that he should die, but got swept up in the crowd’s mentality. 

The cruxifixction of Christ is also sometimes referred to as the trial of humanity. Sin - selfishness, greed, fear - were all on display that day. In the words of Pastor Adam Hamilton, “The scene holds a mirror to our own souls. We are meant to see ourselves in the crowd, and it’s not a very hard thing to do.” The people mocking Jesus, trying to break Jesus’s spirit, were just like you and me.

We live in a world where hate speech is ever present. While, yes, this type of rhetoric certainly shows the darkness of sin in our lives, it also seems to be part of our defense mechanism as a society - if we are saying awful things about someone else, then no one has time to notice the sin in my life. Or in this case, if I am part of the crowd mocking Jesus, then I am not being the one mocked or crucified. 

This mentality, which can be seen from even our little children on the play ground in bullying, can also be seen in the silence. The folks that committed sins of omission  by what they did not do and did not say that day - which is just as present in our society today as it was so long ago. This omission can be seen best in the famous words of Pastor Martin Niemöller which hang on the walls of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC: 

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me”

By not speaking that day, people were trying to distance themselves from Jesus with their silence and refusal to stop the horrific acts in front of them.

It was into this darkness of humanity filled with both acts of mocking and violence and silence that Jesus cried out the words from Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” While some mistakingly thought he was calling for Elijah most would have recognized the words - they were that well known. It would be like people saying today “Amazing Grace - how sweet the sound” or “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” - people would have known them. 

While some call this the “cry of dereliction” - cry of abandonment, Jesus was actually praying. The psalms were prayers and poems set to music. Even in the midst of feeling abandoned Jesus was praying, worshiping God. But the Jews in the crowds would have also known the history behind these words. They were part of a psalm of David - one where he was being pursued by his enemies. But that is not the end. The Psalm ends with David praising God for rescuing him. Just as Jesus was praying and worshiping to God knowing that this, this present darkness he was facing, was not the end and that death would not have the final word.

Brothers and sisters, we live in dark times. We live in times when people are buying into hurtful lies and are causing violence against one another in their actions and their silence. The trial of humanity that happened so long ago at the cruxifixction showed that our spirits are dark at times. But it also reminds us that this evil around us does not have the final word. That Jesus paid the ultimate price so that we could be set free from that which consumes us. Jesus was not abandoned that day on the cross, just as we will not be abandoned now, even during dark times. Let us lift up our heads and proclaim with Jesus and David the words of truth found in Psalm 22, “  Future generations shall be told about the Lord.They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, for he has done it.” Amen.