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Eloin Eloin Lama Sabakhtani. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Were the last recorded words of Jesus on the cross. This Good Friday, Reverend Daniel shares that the Savior who suffered for our sake is able to see us through our every trial.

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Today's reading, I'm reading from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 15, verse 33 to 41. Mark chapter 15, verse 33 to 41, beginning at verse 33. And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloy, Eloy, Lema Sabatani, which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, Behold, he is calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. Verse 37, and Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, Truly, this man was the son of God. There were also women looking on from a distance, among them, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James the younger, and of Joseph and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him. And there were many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. You know, crucifixion could go on for many days. Jesus' death in Mark's gospel didn't take too long, it took about three hours. The sixth hour is about 12 noon, 12 p.m. And the ninth hour is 3 p.m. So it's about three hours. So Jesus dies according to the gospel of Mark in a matter of hours. Mark tells us at noon there was darkness over the land for three hours. And at three o'clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eloy, alloy, lemma sabbatani, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These are his last words according to Mark. So today, uh our meditation for Good Friday is not on the trial of Jesus, what he went through, and uh the questioning by Pilate and Herod. We want to focus our meditation this morning just at the point of the death of Jesus. The final words that he uttered. And we realize that uh when we look at the final words that Jesus uttered, each gospel writer frames the story in a different perspective. In Luke's account at the death of Jesus, Jesus seemed to be more at peace with what is happening. He still cries out in a loud voice, but his final words make his death an offering to God. So the final words recorded by Dr. Luke is this Into your hands I commend my spirit. It's his last utterance according to Luke 23, verse 46. John in his gospel also didn't have the difficult words that Mark actually tells us this morning, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Like Luke, John's gospel portrays Jesus as being very much in control of the situation. As Jesus dies, John records for us, he says, the three very important words. It is finished. John 19, verse 30. Jesus then bows his head and gives up his spirit. So it is given up but not taken away. There's no anguish, much anguish recorded in John's gospel, just an aching thirst that he said, uh knowing that everything was finished, he said to fulfill the scripture, he said the words, I thirst. This ref reflects John, the author's concern on the vision of the cross as a great triumph and a victory of God's love. Jesus at the cross was seemed to be even reigning. He was reigning on the cross as king because he has finished what he came to do. However, for both Matthew and Mark, it includes the distressing and tormenting words that is the theme of our reflection this morning. In Matthew and Mark, it both records for us these words of Jesus. Those are Aramaic words translated to English. It says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Interestingly, the various gospel accounts at the death of Jesus quotes from the Psalter or the book of Psalms. So each writer actually, as they wrote the gospel, they recorded the final words of Jesus, and the words of Jesus came through the Psalter or the Psalms. In Luke 23, verse 46, you can see on the slide, it says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. So this is actually taken from uh Psalm 31, verse 5. Uh into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. We see again in John's gospel, in John 19, verse 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. So it alludes again to uh Psalm 22 verse 15, which says, My strength is dried up like a pot shed, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. So similarly, our focus, the focus of our meditation today from Mark 15, 34, again uh is quoted from the Psalter or the Psalms. It says, At the night hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, uhloy, alloy, lama sabat lema sabatani, which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So these are the words, uh, the first few words of Psalm 22, verse 1. In his moment of agony, Jesus is drawing on the Psalms, and with them, uh a writer would say his whole religious tradition, his upbringing as a Jew, and his formation, growing up in a Jewish family. They are known to read the Psalter, the Psalms at meals, at times of prayer. So Jesus was perhaps giving voice to his sense of forsakenness through the scriptures he knows so well, the scriptures he knows and he loves, became a voice of the anguish that he's going through. Perhaps they comfort him. Scriptures comfort him through the agony, helping him to make sense of what is happening. In fact, Psalm 22 in the history of the church is interpreted very often as a commentary on the passion of Jesus, Psalm 22 or the death of Jesus. It predicts in very exacting details what happened on the cross. Even some of the minuscule details is recorded there. For example, in Psalm 22, verse 14 to 16, it reads, I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a potshed, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death, for dogs encompass me. A company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and feet. Alluding to the experience of perhaps Jesus on the cross, how he felt and his surrounding context. So the salter in our lives, the psalms in our lives, scripture is so important for our formation as believers today. Because the sorter of the psalms bring words to express what we feel in times of distress and dislocation, times where we can't make sense of the crisis that God brings us through, allows the uh things to happen, circumstances one after another happening to our lives. When we don't make sense of that, we can use, like Jesus, the Psalter or the Psalms to voice out what we feel and think. When words alone can't express our inner thoughts and emotions. So I like to suggest to us that Psalm 22 is a good place for us to start. Let's now move on and focus uh on the words of Jesus in Mark chapter 15, verse 34, which has been read for us. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, as mentioned earlier, alloy alloy, lema sabatani, which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So those present at Jesus' uh crucifixion misunderstood him. They thought they didn't didn't recognize that Jesus was quoting from Psalm 22. Some bystanders, as we read in the account earlier, thought that he was calling Elijah. Jesus was misunderstood even at the point of death. Why so? Because for Mark's gospel, we will see that a very central theme and key, the key idea is what we call the messianic secret or something, uh a secret that uh when Jesus healed those who were sick and lame, he tells them, don't reveal it, you know, but go to the chief priest, do what you need, but don't uh reveal my identity. So uh why so? We know that Mark begins his gospel with a clear declaration that when Mark wrote the gospel, it is the story of Jesus, the Son of God. Mark 1, verse 1, chapter 1, verse 1 tells us the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There's no secret about this, he's here to narrate the story of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of Jesus Christ. So there's no secrecy here. However, if you read Mark's gospel through uh a very fast-paced story, you realize that as the story unfolds, it seems that only the demons and those on the edge of the story who have little agency or power, they seem to recognize who Jesus is. Whereas those who were the Jewish leaders, even the disciples who followed him uh in ministry as their rabbi and teacher, three times they misunderstood him. You know, when he said he was going to the cross. We see that in Mark chapter 5, verse 7. Uh, crying out from a possessed man, the demons who are a legion scream in protest at the power of Jesus over them. What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? So the demons, in uh as an irony, understood and recognized him, Jesus, as the son of the most high God. Uh possessed man uh recognized that. And they actually addressed Jesus by the correct title. And then we see the man with leprosy in Mark chapter 1, verse 40 intuitively recognized who Jesus is and said, If you choose, you can make me clean. Blind Bartimus in Mark chapter 10 verse 46 to 52 stubbornly called out to Jesus for mercy. He said, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Even when the disciples shut him up. The gentile Sino Phoenician woman in Mark chapter 7, verse 24 to 30, persistence in coming to Jesus to cast out the demon out of a daughter, shames those who claim to know who Jesus really is. Jesus blesses the little children in Mark 10, 13 to 16, whom the disciples tried to turn away because children during that time uh they are their words are not to be taken seriously, and somehow in a Jewish society, until you reach the age of maturity, which is about 12, 13 years old, where you take the ba mitzvah, then you are considered an adult. Before that, you are you are not worthy of attention, right? Uh, very different from our context today. So Jesus blesses the little children. The disciples tried to turn them away. It's like, don't waste your time, Rabbi. You know, these are just little children. Go and do the more important things. And yet Jesus took a little child and blessed, blessed them and said they belong to the kingdom of God. So, what is Mark trying to tell us in his gospel story? I believe uh one commentator said that Mark is putting the forsaken, those who are forsaken, right at the center of his gospel story. They are the ones who see the Messiah, they are the ones who recognize who Jesus is, and they are the ones that respond to Jesus and receive the healing. So the little children that Jesus welcomed, those excluded because of being a non-Jew or Gentile, the unclean, those with a diminished social status, those with illness that deem them unclean and unworthy, are those for Mark's gospel with eyes to see what Jesus came to do. So this is a great reversal in Mark's gospel story. Because those who should be seeing don't see. The closest disciples couldn't see. The Jewish leaders who study the scriptures couldn't see. The rabbis crucified Jesus. So the greatest reversal or inversion of it all is that Jesus himself will be the one forsaken. Mark paints his story and brings us to the point of climax in the words of Mark 15, 34. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because throughout the story of Jesus, the forsaken, the outcast, the non-Jew, the unclean, they are the ones who responded to Jesus. So the heart of Mark's gospel is really Jesus at oneness, at oneness with those who are forsaken. Because he himself uttered those words of being forsaken by God. Yes, Jesus in Mark is an amazing miracle worker and wonderful teacher, but that is not the whole story. The messianic secret is the idea that Jesus purposefully hid his identity as the Messiah in Mark. He performs miracles but admonishes demons, disciples, and witnesses not to tell anyone about them. Because what Jesus will be in the story of Mark is what will be the most uh scandalous story at that time. Because it's scandalous because in a Jewish context, you know, they could not accept a God who is crucified on the cross as a criminal. So of course the word scandalous is it's not a nice word to use today of Christianity of our faith. It's not a scandal, but at that time it was almost scandalous because a king crucified as a criminal on the cross is almost a curse. Right? The scripture tells us curse is the man who was who is being crucified on a tree. So so, in fact, at the cross, the secret is that Jesus, at the heart of his ministry, he came for the forsaken, and he demonstrated that by being forsaken himself. In fact, uh the Aramaic words uh lema sabatani means why have you left me alone? So we can translate it as alloy, alloy, uh why have you left me alone? It's the agonized cry of the one who has been abandoned. So, one who has been deserted by the one they love and the one who they thought loved them. The pain is not just the pain of isolation, it is much, much worse. It's the pain of being left alone. The words of Psalm 22, verse 1 to 2 rings clear. It says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day and you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. John tells us that in his gospel, Jesus is one with God. Jesus said in John 5, verse 19, Truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but what he sees the father doing. For whatever the father does, that the son does likewise. Again to Philip in John 14, 9, he says, Jesus says, Whoever has seen me has seen the father. So John is key in uh representing the father-son relationship as one of oneness, of perfect in terms of in terms of the will and the desire. So though one with the father, there was a period of painful separation from the father, as Jesus himself bore our sin on his body and took on darkness upon himself. From 12 noon to 3 p.m., Jesus bore the sin of the world. He bought the shame that we have to go through in life on his own body. Jesus had to experience, and this is the good news of Good Friday. In fact, it's not just Good Friday, it's a great Friday because of what Jesus came to do. Jesus had to experience being God forsaken to the deepest drakes as he faced the deep darkness of Good Friday. So at the end of the story of Mark, it was only the centurion. Again, it's a non-Jew, a Roman centurion, standing at the foot of the cross that acknowledges that truly this man was the son of God. So the story of Mark goes a full circle, right? Mark 1, 1 tells us the beginning of the story, uh, the gospel of God, the Son of God, and Mark 15, 39 ends, truly this man was the son of God. It's as if Mark writes his story to tell us the gospel is for those who are forsaken in life. Because the climax of the story is for Mark is the words that Jesus uttered. To identify fully with our pain, to identify fully with the sense of being God forsaken in our lives. So we are told by Mark that the curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom, indicating for us an open access. To God through the death of Jesus. So now Jesus invites us to come to Him who was God forsaken and who identifies with the forsaken in his death. So that those who put his faith, their faith in him, will never be forsaken. Listen to the words of Hebrews 13, verse 5C. In the context of being contented with what we have, he says, For he said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. This poem was composed by one author. I think in Singapore, unlike the West, I don't think we have much time to appreciate poetry or poems. Sometimes when I try to dabble with poetry and poems, at the back of my mind, I say, what is the main point? What is the poem trying to say? But there's something about poetry, those of us are into poetry that brings out, uh tees out meaning as we dwell in the words, go beyond just surface reading and allow the words to sing through in our hearts and minds. So this is uh uh something that was composed by uh one commentator. He says, uh uh alloy alloy, in strange, exotic words, I do not know. Who on earth understands uh Aramaic? Uh Eloy, alloy, lama, sabatani. What are those words? You speak of painful things, I know too well. Jesus could understand Aramaic. So the authors find it's worth to preserve the words as it is, as is uttered by Jesus, to bring about the potency. So even though in strange exotic words I do not know, you speak of painful things I know too well. The pain we go through, the sense of being God forsaken. We know that too well. Of separation, even left bereft, of love forsaken and the grabs of hell. And it's only fleeting consolation to find these words embedded in the Psalms, giving meaning to contorted passion. Through the twister's eye, a final calm. God was on the wood that awful Friday, crying out, Lema Lema Lama Sabatani, misunderstood again. He's calling Elijah. Let's see if Elijah will come down. Drowning in the depths of our exhaustion, trouncing pain within the depths of pain. Twisted thorn and sacred wood and iron where life lost, their life has been regained. Church. Let me repeat again because this is so important. Jesus had experienced the deep darkness of being God forsaken, so that we, so that those who are forsaken, those of us here present listening to the sermon today, as we are being forsaken in varying degrees, may identify and run to Jesus, the one who was also forsaken. One of the purposes of Jesus dying on the cross, and we know that on Good Friday, is to bear our sins on his body. But for Marx, for Marx readers, and for us, it's not just to bear our sin, but also to fully identify with humanity in his humanity. He was fully man. And because he's fully man, he fully experienced to the dregs what it means to be forsaken by the God whom he enjoyed full communion before the creation of the world. So what pained him the most, probably like one commentator would say, it's not his physical pain as much as it is there, but it is the spiritual emotional separation from the father. That for three hours darkness, the father had turned his eyes away from the Son of God who bear the sin of our world, of the whole world, so that we in our lives can know that we have a God who has walked with us, a God who understands what we go through. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14a and 18 tells us that since therefore the children share in flesh and blood. He, Jesus Himself, likewise partook of the same things. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. In Christianity, we worship a God with wounds for the world to see. This is nowhere more clear than on Good Friday. But we don't stop there because 1 Peter 2.24 tells us that he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. Through his death, Jesus has opened the way for us on Good Friday to die to sin. There's power now to overcome sin in your lives. There's power to live for righteousness, and there's power for healing if you have wounds or forsakenness or times in your life where you need God's healing. God has opened a way. Something changed at the death of Jesus. So I'd like us to make a response to Jesus. And we do have some time. We deliberately move the offering to uh before the sermon so that on this Good Friday morning we have time to meditate and reflect and respond to Jesus in a couple of songs. And for those of us who want or need ministry or need prayer, I will invite us uh forward in due time. But first, let me uh invite the worship uh team to come to come up to lead us in a few songs. Um and I'd like us to consider three questions. Firstly, do you feel God forsaken in your life today? Mark tells us Jesus identified with that to the dregs, and he came in Mark's gospel for the forsaken because he himself was forsaken. Do you feel forsaken? Is there trauma in your life? Are you going through grief and you felt no one understands and loves you? Today, Jesus himself understands and he wants to draw you in to his full humanity. Secondly, do you need healing? By his wounds, you are healed. And Jesus, the power to heal is still at work in our lives today. Thirdly, do you need to turn from sin and live to righteousness? The power to live for God and for righteousness is also here with us.

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