Day 109: Matthew 27:45–54

At about three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elî, Elî, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (v. 46).

The curtain drops on our scene in the form of darkness, which lasted three hours. The Light of the world was about to be extinguished, if only for a brief time. Just before He breathed His last, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). How appropriate that He would use His last breaths to utter the trust upon which His entire life had rested.

But I’m not sure we can properly appreciate those words of faith unless we consider the ones spoken by Him only moments before. I believe this cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” marked the exact moment when the sins of all humanity—past, present, and future—were heaped upon Christ and the full cup of God’s wrath poured forth. Somehow I believe that to bear the sin, Jesus also had to bear the separation. Though Christ had to suffer the incomparable agony of separation from the fellowship of His Father while sin was judged, I am moved that He breathed His last breath with full assurance of His Father’s trustworthiness. The human body of the life-giver hung lifeless. It was finished. He gave up His last human breath so He never had to give up on humanity.

Several years ago, I had the privilege of participating in a solemn assembly of 30,000 college students gathered on a huge field in Memphis, Tennessee. After we heard a powerful message about the cross, two young men began to walk down the hill carrying a large wooden cross. The two students, bent under the weight, carried the heavy cross through the crowd to a place just in front of the platform and then erected it as a visual aid. We couldn’t possibly have planned what happened next.

Students began running to the cross with an urgency I can neither possibly describe nor recall without sobs. They sprinted from every direction through the crowd. Their sobs echoed in the open air. They lifted the cross out of the ground and began to pass it with their hands lifted high above their heads all over the crowd. They passed it from hands to hands all over the crowd and up the hill. I am covered with chills as I recall the scene when the repentant found refuge in the shadow of the cross.

In our sophistication and familiarity, have we been away too long? Run to the cross.