Sermon, April 2, 2003, by Rev. Art Wiese
Sermon Text -- Mark 15:33-36
In his book called "God Can Move Mountains," Pastor Ralph Beiting says that for thirty-eight years his work in the back hills of Kentucky have taken him to places like Thousands Sticks, Cutshin, Quicksand, and Hell-fer-Sartin (Hell-for- Certain). He says that there are even two towns which he has visited called Upper Hell-fer-Sartin and Lower Hell-fer-Sartin. He says that the names of these towns bear witness to the extreme hardships experienced by the early pioneers as they made their way into the mountains. "[Today], most of their descendants carry on [the] sad tradition of struggling simply to live in [the] villages and towns and hidden "hollers" about which the rest of America has easily forgotten. "Most of them don't have a church to go to," he says, "and many people don't go, even when they do. Their hard lives have worn them down. They are caught in a web of inertia and depression." And then he concludes, "Some of them probably believe that God has forgotten them, too."
Most of us, at one time or another, will probably also experience this feeling of forsakenness. There will be times in all our lives when God seems completely hid-den from us. We try to pray, but nothing happens. We listen carefully, but no one answers. We look for results, but see no changes. We search for meaning, but find no clues. We try everything we can, but nothing seems to do any good. And it is then that we begin to ask "Why?" Why does our child get into trouble or use drugs? Why do those closest to us have to argue and fight all the time? Why must we suffer from the pain of illness or injury? Why did the plant have to close so that so many lost their jobs? Why did our friend have to get sick and die? Why do accidents happen? Why do disasters take place? Why do wars come about? Why? Where are you, God. in the midst of all the difficulties we encounter in life? How is it possible, that we should feel so all alone? Have you forgotten us too? It is then that hope seems to vanish, when faith disappears, when dreams seem to die. And it is precisely then that we cry out with the words of the psalmist, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
It should not surprise us that when Jesus hung on the cross, pain shuddering through his body and his vision blurred from the dying process, he cried out with these same exact words. In that very human moment, misery engulfed him as he also felt alone and helpless, frightened and betrayed, for here was the sinless one, the spotless lamb of God, suffering death on the cross. No doubt, he ached throughout his body. No doubt, he fought to catch his breath. No doubt, he weakened with every drop of blood. No doubt, he began to dread as his life slipped away. All of that was part of a crucifixion. It was a horrible and agonizing way to die. And to make it worse. he had done nothing wrong. He had done nothing to deserve such suffering. He had done nothing to justify all his pain. All of it must have seemed so supremely unfair. And so, even Jesus begins to question. Even he asks "Why?" "Why God?" "Why have you forsaken me?" It should not surprise us because Jesus was so thoroughly one of us. He was fully human, a person like us, who freely chose to walk in the midst of our human story. Hear the words of Psalm 22 which describe his plight: "Yea, dogs are round about me; a company of evildoers encircle me; they have pierced my hands and feet -- I can count all my bones -- they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment the cast lots" (Ps. 22:16-18). It is not a pretty picture. It is a picture devoid of hope, a picture that is filled with despair.
It is very human to despair. We are sinful human beings, separated from God. Though we might like it, there is no neat pattern whereby our particular measure of sin leads to an equal measure of punishment. We are caught instead in the sin of all humanity. From the moment the first humans disobeyed and tried to take life into their own hands, they were separated from God. Expelled from the Garden of Eden, they immediately stood on the edge of a giant precipice unable to return to the perfect care of their life-giving Creator. The breach was too great, the gap was too wide. They could not, and we cannot, reach to the other side and be reunited with God. When we try, we discover that we are too tangled in our own selfish desires and our own corporate sin to be able to lift ourselves out. There is no way for us to fix our predicament. But wait! Jesus hangs on the cross in despair. He calls out in the very words of Psalm 22, which have already described his predicament. Like the psalmist, he is pleading with God. "Why are you so far from helping me?" he asks. And then, later in the psalm, there comes a change, "Those who seek him shall praise the Lord..All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Lord" (Ps. 22:26-27). The man on the cross, the one dying there for no good reason, reaches across the gulf of separation to us! In his despair, his voice echoes the sound of our own . In his cry of desolation, we hear that God truly understands the terror of our separation. By dying the death of the forsaken, Jesus has made those who are forgotten known to God. And in his words, we find our salvation. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He has experienced it all. He has closed the gap. He has overcome the division. "I am here with you," he tells us. "I know your hurt. I understand your terror. I realize your despair. You are not alone."
It was this picture to which Martin Luther pointed in his "Sermon on Preparing to Die." "Gaze at the heavenly picture of Christ," he says, "who descended into hell for your sake and was forsaken by God as one eternally damned when he spoke the words on the cross,.'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' In that picture your hell is defeated and your uncertain election is made sure. If you concern yourself solely with that and believe that it was done for you, you will surely be preserved in this same faith. Never, therefore, let this be erased from your vision. Seek yourself only in Christ.and you will find yourself in him eternally."
Amen.