Matthew 27:46

Matthew 27:46

"Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" May we dare to answer that desolate cry? may we presume to take up the question and say, "Lord, it was for us men, and for our salvation?"

I. First, that we might learn what sin is, how deadly, to cause Thy suffering; how hateful in the sight of God, that Thou shouldest feel Thyself forsaken of Him for so much as coming nigh to it, even to bear and to destroy it.

II. Secondly, that we might know how entirely Thou didst take and carry it yea, for an Apostle has said it didst even becomesin; that we might feel it gone, and in our new freedom might even, as the same holy Apostle has said, become righteousness in Thee.

III. Thirdly, that we might distinguish between the feeling and the reality of God's desertion; that we might learn, in Thee, to trust Him even when we cannot see, even when we are out of the sunshine of His smile, in the shadow of that spiritual solitude which is darker, yea, darker far, than the valley of death itself.

IV. And so, finally, that we might be made willing, if need be, even to die thus; even to be made like Thee in Thy uttermost desolation, when, with the sins of a world upon Thee, and with tenfold need of the brightest ray from heaven to make the load endurable, Thou wast called to taste death itself in darkness, teaching us that it is not comfort, but safety, not the consciousness, but the reality of God's love, which is indispensable; that as there is of course no merit, so neither is there always any advantage, in that confidence of acceptance, in that serenity of hope, in that broad daylight of assurance which some make the essence of faith or the whole of religion.

C. J. Vaughan, Words from the Cross,p. 43.

Matthew 27:46

Consider the nature of our Lord's spiritual cross. It was the being brought under all the conditions of a sinner, though Himself without sin. Sin tried upon Him all its powers, first to lure, afterwards to destroy. As for instance

I. He was tempted by direct suggestions of evil. The approaches of the wicked one were made to the will of the Son of God, with the design of withdrawing the consent of His pure soul from His heavenly Father. They were a thousandfold more hateful and harrowing than the falsehood of His suborned accusers, or the scourging of His sinless flesh.

II. Again, He suffered a perpetual unmingled sorrow for the sins of men. Doubtless the destinies of His Church on earth stood like a lowering horizon behind the Mount of Crucifixion. The rents and wounds of His mystical body already pierced His spirit; and the false kiss which the world should give, to the betrayal of His Church; and the afflictions of His saints, and the tyranny of the strong, and the pampered self-pleasing of soft spirits, and the plagues of worldliness, and the foreseen apostasy of the latter days all these dwelt heavily on Him to whom all things to come are as things that are.

III. And once more: He suffered throughout we know not how large a portion of His whole life the natural fear of death and of His coming agony. We know with what a piercing strength the first glimpses of a coming sorrow shoot in upon us; how they chequer our whole life, and overshadow all things; how sad thoughts glance off from all we do, or say, or listen to; how the mind converts everything into its own feeling and master-thought. Perhaps our keenest sufferings are in sudden recollections, remote associations, indirect hints, words, tones, little acts of unconscious friends. And even so it was with Him. When a lowly woman anointed Him with ointment He saw in it the preparation for the grave.

IV. And as the chief of all His sorrows, He suffered we know not what darkness of soul upon the cross. He was made sin for us.

There is one more truth we may learn from what has been said. I mean, what necessity there is that all should be thus crucified with Him. Suffering is sharp and piercing, but it cleanses, purifies; it puts in the sharper lines and the deeper colouring; it is as the shadow of His crown of thorns.

H. E. Manning, Sermons,vol. i., p. 258.

References: Matthew 27:46. Contemporary Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 168; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week,p. 264; G. Macdonald, Unspoken Sermons,1st series, p. 163.Matthew 27:46; Matthew 27:47. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xii., p. 142.