My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

 

Its Friday… but Sunday is coming!  The famous sermon goes…

Its Friday, and my Jesus was dead on a tree… but that was Friday… and Sundays coming!

It was Friday and Mary was crying her eyes out.  The disciples were running in every direction, like sheep without a shepherd.  But that was Friday… and Sunday is coming!

I used to love this famous sermon from Tony Campolo – and in many ways I still do… beautiful in its simplicity. 

Though, one of the reasons I love it – is that it does not allow me to dwell in the pain, the brokenness, the despair… it focuses my attention on the happy ever after of easter Sunday…

It allows me to take my eyes from the cross and focus on hope.

It allows me to take my eyes of the bloodied, beaten, defeated Jesus and look at the risen victor.

It allows me to move out of the darkness – and into the marvellous beautiful light.

It moves me from death to life.

I am not comfortable in the darkness – only able to live in the light

I am not comfortable in the pain – only able to bear it with certain hope.

 

Jesus was not afraid of the darkness.

Some of his best work happened in the dark…

He walked on water and calmed the raging seas just before dawn.

He taught Nicodemus at night-time.

Celebrated the most famous meal on maundy Thursday evening.

He rose from the dead, whilst it was still dark.

But for me… darkness is difficult. 

 

I was always complimented on my lovely services when ministering in traditional settings.!

Always picked the lively happy up-tempo songs.

I was good at preaching a belter of an uplifting sermon.

I prided myself that people would leave church happier than when they arrived.

Church was feel-good, happy and joyful…  

It was uplifting…

 

Preaching in the local church recently – I was phoned up before the service by 2 different people.

‘Sorry we won’t be there to listen to you this morning Ben, life is just too hard for church at the moment’.

I arrive – more apologies from people, telling me friends and spouses can’t be there – too tired – too broken and for some too many doubts and too many questions.

A family going through a difficult time – felt too ashamed to be at church…

 

I remember another friend – who had lost a son – felt utterly alone in her grief because no one would talk to her about it…

People unable to talk because they could not solve, could not fix – so let us ignore the problem.

 

We are not good with darkness… 

 

We have heard Jesus forgive us all before we even fall on our knees and repent – and instead of falling on our knees we can fall into the loving arms of our father God. 

We have heard Jesus tell us that whatever we are going through, whatever we face that today, we can be with him in paradise.  Paradise being a relationship not a place.

We have seen Jesus create the first church for the broken and the outcast with the words, mother your son, son your mother. 

 

Now its time for Jesus to share how he is doing on the cross – in the darkness.  Jesus, how are you doing?

Good thanks!  How about you?  Says nearly every Christian on a Sunday morning!

 

Not Jesus.

 

Jesus boasted throughout his life – that he and the father were one.   Intimate… love… one…  

But now we are at rock bottom.

The intimacy Jesus has always enjoyed with the father has gone. 

That paradise – that feeling of love – that oneness – gone.

Why?  Well, my friends, Jesus’ rock bottom is good news for us.

It was at the cross the greatest transfer took place.

All our sin, all our wrongdoing – all those things that disrupted paradise –

All of that, that kept us from knowing and being with God.  

God hated it– couldn’t be near it – couldn’t come close to us - and the penalty of that sin was separation, death and darkness. 

It was at this very moment on the cross – all that wrongdoing – all that brokenness was placed onto the shoulders of Jesus. 

And that gap between God and us – the death – the darkness - removed and for the first time – Jesus feels that death – separated from the father.  

Darkness… death… pain… sorrow.

Rock bottom.

 

Jesus was dying as a sacrifice for us

Jesus was dying to get rid of the punishment on us

Jesus was dying to remove the separation from God

The greatest transfer – he took our darkness so that we might know life…

But now is not the time for life – now is the time for darkness.

This once – let us not make everything happy and rosy…

Let is sit and hear and dwell with Jesus as he speaks his fourth word from the cross

‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

 

Typical of Jesus – to be vulnerable – if people were mourning – he would burst into tears with them

When he was frightened – so much so – blood leaked from his head – he went for support from his sleeping friends.

And at this moment – when life is at its darkest – he shout’s ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me’.

In front of his young disciple and the woman who loved him ‘my God, my God why have you forsaken me.

What!  The very reason he went to the cross and now he does not know where the father is…

The crowd laughing – ‘my God, my God why have you forsaken me’.

At the moment of darkness – at rock bottom – Jesus cries ‘where are you God’. 

‘Where are you’? ‘Why have you abandoned me’?  ‘Oh God, where are you’.

 

And that’s OK…

 

Thankyou Jesus for being vulnerable.

Thank you for showing us it’s OK to not be OK!

That we can express doubts and struggles.

Share are anger and pain.

 

 

In the previous words he began the new family – the church.

Now he is showing us that in that family its OK to doubt, too not believe, to ask difficult questions.

Its OK to be angry, to be broken,

Its OK to feel rubbish.

Its OK to be vulnerable.

For the rest of us – the gift is to hear the pain – to sit with them in the darkness

To be love.  

And allow them to teach us about God – waiting for permission to bring all that God has made us – to them.

 

And when it comes to evangelism – where most of us have been taught to share slick stories, wonderful apologetics, unshakable faith… we hear

 

‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’?

 

We do not need to pretend with anyone.

Our message can be – life is difficult – I do not know where God is at the moment.  I don’t know what I am doing!

But… I still believe.  I am still searching…  I still have hope…

 

Yes Sunday is coming – and yes – god can heal – bring new life…

But for now – its OK to sit in the darkness.

May we come to God and to this community of faith with absolute honesty and vulnerability because of Jesus’ 4^th word…

 

‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’.

 

May our community be one that does not rush to easy answers but sits with one another in the darkness.

 

In Jesus name, Amen

Woman, behold your son. Son, your mother.

 

 

The Jeremy Kyle programme is now (thankfully) off air – but I wonder how many times Jesus and his friends would have been on it?

As a baby, Jesus’ paternity was in question, his birth an embarrassment for many.  Joseph and Mary on the Jeremy Kyle show wanting answers and DNA testing – is Jesus really Joseph’s son?

As a child – he was a tearaway – running off – once to argue theology at the temple (as you do)!  When he gets a ticking off from his parents – the indignant response ‘didn’t you know I would be about my father’s business’?   Mary asks him ‘why are you treating us so’?   The Jeremy kyle show episode 2 – ‘my teenage son is out of control’!

When Jesus begins his ministry, he thought nothing of breaking up the family businesses – ‘follow me’ – demanding the unschooled fisherman leave their aging father on the boat whilst they go off on a road trip with their new friend.  Jeremy Kyle episode 3 ‘my kids have destroyed the family business’!

A man spoke to Jesus one day, ‘my daddy has died, I will sign up with you after I have attended the funeral’.  ‘Let the dead bury the dead’ Jesus replied (in love!), ‘follow me’.  That Jeremy Kyle episode is entitled, ‘my son refuses to come to his father’s funeral’. 

One day Jesus is teaching a whole load of strangers when one said ‘your mother and brothers are here’…  ‘Who are my mother and brothers?’  The Jeremy kyle episode – our son has publicly disowned us!

 

If there is one thing I have learnt from ministry it is that families bring out the very best and the very worst of human experiences.

On the one hand, you have the celebration of love at a wedding, thanksgiving for the gift of a child, people growing up whole and achieving the most wonderful things.

But on the other - you have the abuse, the fighting, the division… the ones who had favourites – leaving a lifetime of deep searching questions and struggles… 

Family – potentially the best place – and potentially the most difficult.

 

When the shepherds, led by angels knelt at the crib of Jesus the bible tells us ‘Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart’.   Watching Ez mother our kids – I am not sure there has been a better statement for a mother – One who ‘Treasures it all and ponders them in her heart’.

The first smile… The first gurgle… The first word…   The first step…  The first time he sang… The grab of the finger… The first carpentry work… The first friendship… The first time he prayed… The first miracle…  every single time – treasured… and pondered upon in the heart.

But… she would also remember Simeon predicting on the special day of Jesus being presented at the temple he would become ‘a sword that will pierce your heart’.  And though every difficulty was painful – it was now – this moment – staring at her beautiful, beaten, broken first-born boy – hanging from a cross that she felt it… the spear – driven through heart and soul.

Mary, grief stricken, going through the very worst thing a mother could go through – watching her beloved son tortured and left to die slowly and painfully on a cross.

There were others at the cross also.   Also, grief stricken.   Mary of Magdala – devoted to Jesus ever since he had cast out the seven devils from her.

 

And there was John – the only remaining male.   Woman were not seen as such a risk – and were able to mourn in public – for the men – there were crosses waiting for the men that followed Jesus.

 

The fact John was there show’s how young he would have been – too young to grow a proper beard – so with the woman was this brave boy who had given up everything to follow Jesus – and now… his whole world view was destroyed – his rabbi – dying. 

 

Jesus has spoken to the trinity on behalf of the crowd – ‘father forgive’ and he has spoken to the terrorist – today – even here on the cross you will be with me in paradise. And now – with still no words for himself – he speaks to those he can make out in the mob.  His mother – and his beloved disciple – broken…

 

And Jesus, who as we have already seen, has treated conventional family units with a little disdain – does the most incredible thing – he creates a new family from the cross.

 

He looks at his mother – sees the tears – the anguish and the pain… ‘Mother, behold your son’.  And then he sees his disciple – lost, bewildered, broken…  ‘son behold your mother’. 

 

A new family begun that very moment upon the cross – a family for broken mothers, previously demon possessed ladies of the night, for frightened young disciples, for tax collectors and sinners… (and you and me!) A new family – not joined by ancestral blood but by the blood of Jesus.

 

In Jesus time – in the middle east – the family was everything.  The family you were born into determined your entire life.  Your complete identity.  Your entire future.  So, one of the most countercultural things Jesus did was challenge the traditional understanding of family.    

 

Today – where too often we pride ourselves on family values – we still seem to see family as only the nuclear family and the most important part of life – and too often – working class kids get working class jobs…  our prospects are decided on where we are born or whom we are born too… 

 

Jesus begins a new family – and if we dare to look around – it is filled with the people on this screen tonight.  It is filled with the people attending all sorts of different services in town – it is filled with all sorts of cultural backgrounds – Chinese, African, American to name a few…

 

And they are our new family…

 

We are heroes in our family.  I am a pacifist – but if anything would make me fight it would be risk to my family.   I am too often filled with scarcity when it comes to money – but the moment I spend it all – is if somebody is desperate and in need in my family. 

 

Jesus loves this – but sees our concept of family as too narrow. 

 

Jesus has saved us from our families and bought us into a big one joined by his blood.

 

It’s a family that looks after the broken and lost.

 

It’s a family that welcomes the widow and the orphan

 

The married and the single

 

Black and white. 

 

Straight and gay

 

It’s a family where we attempt to do great things for each other and for the world.

 

It’s a place where we share bread – eat together – laugh together – cry together – share resources – live life together

 

And the way those lives are shared – good news to the society around us – desperate for safe places to learn who they are – and their divine purpose… 

 

The name of this beautiful new family…  My friends it is the church! 

 

May you find your family – here at the cross – find your family - with the wondrous third word…

 

‘Mother behold your Son and Son this is your mother’.

Today you will be with me in paradise

 

Genesis one and two tell us how it all began.  It was paradise.  Summed up by the beautiful word ‘Shalom’.  Paradise was a place – a garden – and all was right with self, all was right with relationships with others, all was right with land – and most importantly – all was right with God who dwelt with his people.  Paradise… 

 

The last two chapters of revelation tell us how the story ends.  It will be paradise!  Summed up by the beautiful word ‘shalom’.  Paradise will be a place – a city – or perhaps a series of gardens. And there – all will be right with self, all will be right with our relationships with others, all will be right with land – and most importantly – all will be right with God who will dwell with his people.  Paradise…

 

If we got rid of the rest of the bible – you have a transition.   A transition from a garden to a city (lots of gardens).   The calling of Adam and Eve – to take the paradise of a garden and cover the entire earth in partnership with God.  Paradise. 

 

But the rest of the bible is needed.  Because of Sin. 

 

We failed to join in with God and rather than enlarge paradise – we instead marred its beauty.  Forgiveness is needed.  And we fall on our knees in praise as we once again hear last night’s first word from the cross ‘father forgive for they do not know what they are doing’. But what does that mean? 

 

I remember the story of a boy in Kent who had been ill and in hospital most of his 16 years – and when interviewed by a bishop and asked whether it was unfair of God – he replied ‘unfair – God has the whole of eternity to make it up to me’!  Beautiful.   Hope.   Tomorrow, in the future – we will be in paradise. 

 

Someday, one day, we will be with Jesus.   That is the great hope of the Easter faith.   One day the kingdom of God will shine fully and brightly – and we will be in paradise. 

 

I do not know about you – but paradise is always a thing of tomorrow – when the kids are all at school – paradise – but in the meantime – I will struggle on…   When I have got through my money problems – paradise – but in the meantime – I will scrape by…  When I am fit and well it will be paradise but in the meantime – I will struggle on…  When I get married, have kids, lose weight, have the next gadget – paradise but in the meantime…

 

Having had a chat with the Trinity ‘father forgive’ – Jesus now speaks to a criminal – a terrorist.  And the criminal said to Jesus ‘remember me when you come into your kingdom.’  The man was surely thinking of tomorrow.  For there today, brutally tortured, howling mob, mocked before the world – surely the kingdom Jesus promised was in the future…

 

But… ‘TODAY, you will be with me in paradise’.  TODAY! 

 

You might expect Jesus to say – sometime in the future – when God has done all his work – paradise restored – you will be with me in my promised kingdom.   Tomorrow… in the future…. But no… ‘TODAY, you will be with me in paradise!’

 

This day – here hanging on the cross – today – paradise.

 

I have said many a time that this is good news because Jesus knows they will die today and thus on their way to what ever the afterlife looks like…

 

But I believe God wants to remind us this evening, that if Jesus was walking alongside us as we roam the Dorset countryside, or sat next to us at our desks at work or hanging out as we wait to pick up kids from school… and if we asked, ‘Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom’, Jesus would reply the same - ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’.  

 

Because when Jesus talks about paradise he is not talking about a place – he is talking about a relationship.   A relationship that the terrorist and the son of God entered that very day. Paradise.

 

How curious of Jesus to link ‘paradise’ with the horror of Calvary hill.  Yet, paradise – is whenever, wherever you are with Jesus.   Now to be sure – we expect that relationship to grow, become more beautiful, especially when in the next life and our human frustrations and moral limitations disappear – but the relationship begins now – today – paradise.  The criminal did not begin to be in paradise when he may have died probably in the next few days – but when he recognised the one next to him as the Lord and master of his life.  Paradise. 

 

This brief dialogue reveals the promise of God that even in the worst situations we can know Jesus with us.  Our God is not distant but intimate.  It is possible to be with Jesus right here, right now.  What situation could we go through that’s worse than hanging on a cross?  Every situation – every broken part of our lives – every deep longing – Jesus is there… bringing paradise. 

 

So, lets pay attention to those dark places – to our struggles and our fears.   Let us notice Jesus with us – hanging from the cross – saying ‘today you will be with me in paradise’. 

 

Paradise not one day… someday… but now!

 

It says in the bible wherever two or three are gathered God is with them.  We often use that for worship service, or prayer meetings, or house groups… but here we have 3 people hanging on crosses – and Jesus is with them.  Paradise. 

 

So where are you this evening?  How are you feeling?  May you know Jesus with you saying ‘today, you will be with me in paradise’.  Here and now. Paradise.  And may we take that paradise and be who we were made to be – and join God once again in covering the earth with paradise… 

 

Today – you will be with me – in paradise!

Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing

 

Palm Sunday seems like a strange day to begin looking at the seven words from the cross.  Such a celebratory affair – mile upon mile of laid out cloaks – songs being sung at the top of voices.  Laughter, chatting, rejoicing…  a worship service like no other.  ‘Hosanna, Hosanna’ – we could join in with our school assemblies still fresh in our minds!  But…  it is important to remember that in the middle of this worship service there is one man in tears.. the man who was on the receiving end of the praise and worship.  Jesus, looking at Jerusalem, listening to the songs, taking in the scene – and – Jesus wept.  

Why?  Well firstly the obvious… Jesus knew the shouts of ‘Hosanna’ would turn to cries of ‘crucify him’.  Jesus knew the disciple he had named the rock was going to deny him.  He knew the treasurer of his mission was going to betray him. And always the prophet he could see this beautiful city ahead of him destroyed 40 years later at the hands of Emperor Titus and his roman legions. 

He also weeps for his earthly ministry is coming to an end.   He has healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, welcomed the outcast, cleansed the lepers, fed the hungry and he had forgiven sins… yet… the fruit of this was unbelief and rejection.  John 1:11 ‘He came to his own, and his own did not receive him’.  Broken hearted he wept.  As now was the time for the great crescendo – to embody the message of love and hope in the most awful of ways.  ‘Lord lift this cup from me…’ but through strangled breaths and desperation ‘Not my will but yours be done’. 

So, our scene changes from the worship service on the road to the killing of the hill.  The gospel does not describe the horrific happenings of crucifixion – it did not have too – the first audience were aware of the inhumane torture device.  I took a glimpse at Mel Gibson’s passion of the Christ to begin this week with you all – and I couldn’t watch.  Nails through hands and feet, bones torn, skin hanging off through the cat O nine tails, crown of thorns pressed into the skull, blood, well everywhere…  The horrendous site of a man being tortured to death – but even worse – the very embodiment of love – hanging on a cross.   And what would be his first words?  Attack?  One last defence?  No… forgiveness…  ‘Father forgive them’. 

It is now that most preachers would give a wonderful illustration of forgiveness – one from the world – or perhaps one from their own lives.  I would tell you about how I beat up my Dads car, only to receive, when with tears in my eyes and repentance from my mouth, forgiveness…  But as great as that was – it does not come close to Jesus.   Who not only forgives from the most disgraceful of situations – agonising over the torture and punishment undeserved but it comes from not one sign of remorse.   The crowd are still baying for blood – still laughing and gambling for his clothes… not one person is on their knees begging for forgiveness – yet – FATHER FORGIVE THEM.   Before we even go to God with our list of things we need to repent for – Jesus is saying – ‘Father forgive’.   Jesus first forgives and when we accept that – well then is the time to have the conversation!

But there is more… ‘Father forgive, for they do not know what they are doing’.  Most of our malice… our sin is exercised without aforethought.  Roman soldiers, Jewish Sanhedrin, raving mob – how did you decide to murder God’s son?  ‘Standing up for law and order’!  ‘We were supporting good biblical values’!  ‘We were obeying orders’!  ‘We were not in charge it was the government’!  They did not know what they are doing.   And… we do not know what we are doing…. Yet… father forgive.

Matthew 25:31-46 is one of the bibles more difficult reads!   It is a parable of the great judgment that it is to come.   At the end, the Son of man shall ascend the throne and judge all the peoples.  On his left the goats who, have not done good to the least of these, having not recognised the incognito Christ among the poor, imprisoned and oppressed are punished.   On the judges right – the sheep – those who have reached out to the least of these – are eternally awarded.  Isn’t it good to know the questions on the final exam in advance!  There will be judgment at the end, but on what basis? ‘I was in jail and you visited me’!

But here is the shock of the parable – the sheep and the goats have something in common – they say exactly the same words ‘Lord when did we see you’?  The sheep and the goats talk the same!

You expect the goats to be stupid – but the sheep are as dumb as the goats – Lord when did we see you.

The sheep knew enough to visit the prisoner, offer food and drink, clothes…  but they do not see Jesus any clearer than the goats…  Lord when did we see you?

When it comes to seeing Jesus – you can’t tell a sheep from a goat!

In judgment both can only say ‘when did I see you Lord?’

We are all amateurs in regard to Jesus.

We don’t know what we are doing.

Yet… father forgive…

How curious of Jesus to unite ignorance and forgiveness. Usually, we think of ignorance as the enemy of forgiveness – ‘forgiveness I fine as long as the wrongdoer admits they were wrong’ – first – repentance then forgiveness.   Yet here from the cross – pre-emptive forgiveness – we begin with forgiveness.

Father forgive must always be the first word between us and god, because of our sin and because of gods eternal quest to have us. 

Forgiveness is what it costs God to be with us, his people.

On the cross – Jesus is doing what he did throughout his ministry – and the father in the power of the Holy Spirit – has done throughout the history of the world – only intensifying it – focusing it – through the cross. 

We are witnessing a conversation within the life of the trinity – father forgive – for they do not know what they are doing.

The first words are not just forgiveness – they are pre-emptive forgiveness.   Every wrongdoing… every sin… forgiven.   Every sin we do not know we have committed – forgiven…  what’s our response?  To fall into the loving arms of God – with repentance and to go on a journey where we learn that we do not know what we are doing – fully trusting in our God – who invites us to follow – and invites us to join in the transformation of the world – and who can make something beautiful with our lives.

Father forgive, for they do not know what they are doing.