The sufferings of Jesus will overwhelm your sufferings

Matthew 27:45-50

Sermon

Good Friday

Matthew 27:45-50

Nathaniel Timmermann

Peace Lutheran Church, Otsego

April 10, 2020

Intro

I was listening to a respected pastor the other day talk about the on the ground situation in New York.

·        There are some working class churches in which 80% of the people are out of work

·        It’s brought death much closer. He said in Queens, right across the river, people are sitting in their apartments and watching body bags come out of houses.

There is a lot of suffering right now.

You can watch how upset and angry people are.

·        People are upset with politicians – shut down or not, force production or not, ticket or don’t, give aid or don’t

·        People are upset with their neighbors – you follow the rules, you don’t

·        People are upset with churches – you shouldn’t follow the government’s rules, you should follow them,

I'm not really surprised how upset we are. I was talking with one of my Chinese friends. They are far less angry. They aren’t lashing out at each other, the government, their neighbors, or their informal Christian groups.

At least a part of that, there are cultural differences. The Chinese are collectivistic, so they are more willing to set outside their own personal rights for the good of everyone. The bigger thing, … they also have more resources for handling suffering.

I don’t think it is a stretch to say our anger is a reaction to the suffering we’re experiencing that we don’t really have the resources to handle.

Anger is always a secondary emotion – John Gottman

“Most cultures—unlike our own—expect suffering as inevitable and see it as a means of strengthening and enriching us. Our secular culture, on the other hand, is perhaps the worst in history at helping its members face suffering. Every other culture says the meaning of life is something beyond this world and life. He summarizes them with 5 options...

[It may be (a) going to heaven to live with God and your loved ones forever; (b) escaping the cycle of reincarnation in order to enter eternal bliss; (c) escaping the illusion of the world to go into the all-Soul of the universe; (d) living a moral, virtuous, honorable life even in the face of defeat and doom; or (e) living on in your family and descendants. In each case suffering, though painful, can actually help you reach your life goal and complete your life story.]

“But in secular culture the meaning of life is to be free to choose what makes you happy in this life. Suffering destroys that meaning. And so, in the secular view, suffering can have no meaning at all. It can’t be a chapter in your life story—it is just the interruption or even the end of your life story.” (Tim Keller, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/tim-keller-wants-you-to-suffer-well/, accessed 04/10/2020)

Adventure/discovery

What does the cross offer us for suffering?

Part 1

On Passover evening Jesus was arrested. He stood trial with the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling body. Then he went to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, for the judgment that he should be crucified. Early on the day we remember as Good Friday he went to the cross. He was crucified about 9am.

During the day, he said 7 sentences or words as we call them from the cross. One of the last was this:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That word, “eli” is Aramaic word for “my God”. It’s the possessive form. Some of the people heard that. They think that he was calling Elijah. You can say the same thing to Elijah. The people, whether they think he is just delirious or they believe some kind of miracle is going to happen, say, let’s see what happens.

The physical pain he is experiencing is intense. It’s not as important as the spiritual pain. We’ll talk about that later. I don’t think you would write about this if you were making it up. Jesus doesn’t seem very impressive. He doesn’t seem important. The people have no idea what he is saying.

They think he is calling Elijah. That’s almost embarrassing to say to you. I want you to believe in this man. I want you to trust him with your life. But people who were there thought his last words were asking Elijah, a prophet who had been dead for over 500 years, to save him!

They do the same thing we do whenever we see someone suffer. I’ve heard from people who are  angry or sad through the virus. They’re saying too, why doesn’t someone do something? How could this happen?

What we need to see, we’re only mad and sad and hurt and disappointed and overwhelmed if bad is really wrong.

When we say, why doesn’t someone do something, let’s see about Elijah. We’re assuming tdhere is an order in the universe. The universe isn’t supposed to be this way. Somehow, someway, someone should rescue me from this mess.

People will say, there isn’t any right or wrong. Or if there is, you certainly can’t tell me what to do. I’m the master of my own fate. I get to decide my life. Then some suffering strikes...

And we say, this isn’t right. I shouldn’t have to go through this. That person shouldn’t endure this. Someone rescue them.

That is telling us there is a god. Or at least some higher being. Someone each one of us looks to and asks for help and blames and yells at and all that.

If everyone does that, it’s universal. It’s someone over everyone.

 Suffering also tell us there is a God.

You’re upset, your angry, and your hurt... you can't let it turn you away from God. Let me give you an example of this

(JB telling me of this woman, I don’t even remember her name. He pastored her frequently when she was sick and her mom was sick. Lots of visits. Then I think it was the woman’s mom died. He talked with her a few more times. And boom, she wasn’t around. She came maybe once a year to church after that.

He said she came to church one time, I think it was Good Friday. She was just angry.)

Part 2

How do we keep our hearts soft? You have to look even more carefully at what he says, because the infinity of his sufferings will cover over your sufferings.

What does he say?

·        He says, “My God, my God”

·        He doesn’t say, “my pinky finger, my pinky finger”

·        He doesn’t say, “ouch my leg, my leg”

·        And he doesn’t say, “my disciples”

·        He doesn’t even say, “my people”. He already said that.

·        He says, “My God, my God”

When you get hurt, what do you say? I’m guessing that what a lot of you say when you stub your toe would be pretty inappropriate right now. You always scream about what is hurting you.

Look at Jesus. What is shocking is, most of the time, he was quiet. He didn’t say a thing:

·        He gets arrested. He says, “why have you come at me with clubs at night? Didn’t I teach publicly?”

·        He stands trial before the Sanhedrin. He’s silent.

·        He stands trial before Pontius Pilate. He’s silent. Go home, look this up. Can’t make this up.

·        And you’ve heard him on the cross. He doesn’t scream about his feet, his hands, his hair, his legs. He says kind things like “Father forgive them.”

·        Hardly a word!

Matthew says he “cried out in a loud voice”. A great voice literally. In other words, he shouted, he screamed. The whole time he has been silent. Now he screams his pain.

What’s his pain? His God. You and I do this all the time. If you have a bad day at work, you come home. Toys are all over the floor. The coats have fallen off the racks. What do you do? You scream and holler at someone, probably your spouse who says hello to you first. Is your spouse causing the pain? No, but your spouse is pushing into you and exposing your hurt.

What really hurt Jesus wasn’t you, me, or all of humanity. Something happened with God. He lost him.

How bad was it for you this man who never cried out, who never complained, who never turned against his father to scream at his Father?

Jesus Christ did not feel there was a God anymore, that there was a God who loved him. He didn’t feel that. He couldn’t sense it. He didn’t sense God loved him, that God would ever come back to him, that God was there at all, and he wasn’t. He was gone. Jesus’ heart froze. Jesus was plunged into outer darkness. Jesus Christ went to hell.

Do you remember how you felt the other day when the sun started to shine a little, it was almost 70 degrees, and we all stood longingly in our backyards hoping someone would come by and say hi?

God is like the sun, and God, to some degree, is keeping us soft and he’s keeping us warm. To some degree, he’s keeping our humanity from completely freezing. He’s keeping us from the outer darkness. This is true whether you’re a believer or whether you’re an unbeliever, whether you’re trying to get near God or whether you’re trying to run away from God.

Except for Jesus, there was no God. Where God should have been, there was only darkness and cold.

The Bible over and over again says, “What is the ultimate punishment? It’s to be banished from God and his loving presence. He was gone. He was sent to hell, and he went into eternal torment. Do you know what? The words go beyond that. The words do not just show at that moment Jesus Christ went to hell, that at that moment Jesus Christ took upon him what all of the sins of humanity deserved.

It goes beyond that. It doesn’t just say, “You have forsaken me,” which tells us a lot about the infinity of Christ’s sufferings, but, boy, the words tell us even more, because the person who is being forsaken is saying, “My God, my God.” That had never happened before, and that has never happened since.

One of the things that the Bible has told us that no one goes to hell who hasn’t already chosen it for themselves. For example, when the Judge says, depart from me into hell. The people don’t say back, dear God, we really wanted to be with you, we just made a big mistake. They say, “when did we see you hungry, or thirsty”. What’s the problem? They never even saw Jesus. They never wanted anything to do with him.

So everyone who goes to hell says, “Cruel master! Wicked sovereign! You’re just going to crush me. I would rather be away from you!” And you’ve heard this. People jokingly say things like, “I’d rather be in hell and do ____ than be in heaven.” I’d rather party with the devil in hell... That kind of thing.

Except for Jesus.

I don’t know if I’ve every called Rachel, “my Rachel”. I call her my wife. I call her my love. I don’t know if I ever call her “my Rachel.” I certainly never call her “my Rachel, my Rachel”. That would assume so much intimacy. It doesn’t matter how close we are, I don’t know if I would dare call her “my Rachel”.

And Jesus says, “my God, my God”.

That is a great hell.

Doesn’t that melt your heart?

It’s more than enough. Here is how you know.

Verse 50 “Jesus gave up his spirit”

After all that, he wasn’t out of control. He didn’t collapse. “… he gave up his spirit.” He stayed utterly in control. For him to be saying, “My God, my God,” continuing the intimacy, continuing to reach out, continuing to hold to the covenant, means, “From hell’s heart I obey you.” From hell’s heart I hate you? I curse you? No. “From hell’s heart I obey you. From hell’s heart in hell’s heart …”

How did he do it? He never gave up. He never gave in.

All so you would know, without a shadow of a doubt, that God loves you more than life itself. There is nothing he would rather have in all of creation than you. He will take your sins on himself and carry them into hell itself to have you for all eternity.

I don’t know what the reason is for your particular suffering.

I know what it’s not. It’s not that he doesn’t love you.

And if you see that, you will have a power in every suffering.

“But even as hope died in Sam, or seemed to die, it was turned to a new strength. Sam's plain hobbit-face grew stern, almost grim, as the will hardened in him, and he felt through all his limbs a thrill, as if he was turning into some creature of stone and steel that neither despair nor weariness nor endless barren miles could subdue.” (6.3.5-6)

If your hope is from you or is something you have generated, it will never last. It can’t power you through great suffering.

As your hope seems to die, the sufferings of Jesus will overwhelm your sufferings and make you last.

Let’s pray

Father, we see the intensity of his sufferings. Help us now to think on this in such a way that helps us to see because he was forsaken we will never be forsaken. Because he went to hell, we do not have to go. Father, we pray you would help us to think about this in such a way that it leads us to the amazing hope and joy that it promises and it indicates. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.