Good Friday Sermon
Matthew 27:45-50 45 ¶ From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 46 And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” 48 At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last.
Religious people do not like Friday. They love Easter. It’s very clean, pretty, happy, and everybody goes to church. Well, most everybody. It’s in competition with Christmas. We live in a culture that thinks God is on their side or that there is no God but them. We do not like to talk about pain, suffering, or death because it is upsetting, uncomfortable, and makes us nervous.What is so good about the death and suffering of a God man? Our heroes do not die and to believe in a God who becomes one of us is not rational but considered insane. The cross is a failure to human understanding but in it is the hiddeness of God’s salvation for the world.If we are honest with ourselves we have said or thought these words from Psalm 22 and from the words of Jesus from the gospels. My God, my God why have you forsaken me? The paradox of the Godforsaken man; Martin Luther once said, “God forsaking God. Who can understand it.”? TV preachers, friends like Job friends, and our own justification and sugar coating of why did God allow this to happen does nothing. Trite condescending words are offensive. Being an Atheist is easy. We hear the cries of My God, my God why have you forsaken me
Victims of Katrina-according to an AP Report: There are 56, 000 waiting for 2 1/2 years for promised aid and adequate housing living near toxic trailers.
My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
Immigrants coming into our country with the threat of deportation, separation of families, and hateful crimes.
My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
Racism, Sexism, and Hate crimes felt among the most vulnerable in our society. My God, my God why have you forsaken me?Muslims, Gays, political or religious exiles on the borders of society.
My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
9-11, the forgotten ones in our streets, the suffering ones in Darfar.
My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
You lost your child in miscarriage or from an accident
My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
A family member took his or her life. A loved one killed in time of war.
My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
These are the words of a devout Jew. These are the words of Jesus. They thought he was calling out for Elijah. Eli is a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic. They thought he was calling out for Elijah, the defender of the defenseless but like all righteous Jews he was calling out to God, arguing and questioning God. Where is God? Where is God’s justice? Where is God’s love?
In the classic book Night by Halocaust survivor Eli Weisel: Weisel describes life in the death camps under the Nazi regime. He recalls the death of two Jewish men and youths being hanged. In this dark situation he heard voices behind him saying, “Where is God?”, “where is God now?” He said he heard a voice inside that said; where is he? He is here. He is hanging there on the gallows.”
This is not some indifferent diety high in the sky but what theologian Jurgen Moltmann calls the Crucified God. The God hanging in the gallows. The God in Christ who enters creation with flesh and blood and suffers with and for us now. Where is God? The Cross-where the Godforsaken Godman cries out My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
The cross is where God embraces us in our darkness, our pain, our emptiness, our loneliness, and in our weakness. There is not a resurrection or Easter without Good Friday-without the cross. When you have lost all hope look to the Cross. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Only a suffering God can help!” Amen
