the Questioner is the Plan

The Word for today:
Matthew 27:32-50

mark this: Matthew 27:45-46 --
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

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

His words rent the rocks. The voice which created and sustained them had come undone, and so did they:
And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. (Matthew 27:51)

You and I do not know what it is to be forsaken of God. The vilest man on this earth today is not forsaken of God. Anyone can still turn to him.

But when Jesus took my sin upon himself, he is forsaken of God. Here's why:
Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)

But when Jesus takes your sin upon himself, he is forsaken of God. Here's why:
You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness. (Habakkuk 1:13)

Jesus not only bore our sin, but actually became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, unable to behold evil or look on iniquity, the Father had no other choice but to turn his back on his son.

Jesus wanted us to know why. So he asked, quoting the first line of Psalm 22.

Jesus was ever the rabbi, the Teacher. Rabbis had a tradition of quoting the first part of a passage, expecting their students to seek out and study the entire passage. In quoting this verse, Jesus was calling His disciples to turn to Psalm 22, where crucifixion is perfectly described eight hundred years before it was invented by the Romans.

Thus, Jesus was not only expressing the emotional shock of separation from his Father, but at the same time he was instructing those who heard him to search the Scriptures; and to understand that he was the fulfillment of Scripture, the Messiah.

Jesus wasn't just saying that the question pointed to the answer. Jesus' question revealed that the Questioner is the Plan.

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