Did God Turn His Back on Jesus?

It is Friday morning and Jesus is hanging on that horrible cross. He has been beaten and whipped to a bloody pulp. Death is near. It is plain to see his plan has failed, his mission is over, he simply cannot be the Messiah.

The Jewish authorities have won. The Romans have exerted their will and power over yet another wannabe Messiah. It is over. The disciples know it, his family knows it, all his followers know it.

But not Jesus. Jesus knows this is all part of his Father’s plan. Jesus knows he could easily call down a legion of angels and escape this brutal torture at any time. Jesus knows this cross didn’t happen to him; he happened to the cross. Jesus knows he is not
a victim; Satan and death are the victims.

During the Last Supper Jesus has already assured his disciples that his Father will be with him through the coming ordeal:

“A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. (John 16:32)

But how to convey this to his followers? He was suffocating to death. He could barely breathe. He had to push his body up from his feet nailed into the cross just to catch a desperate breath, and then collapse again under the weight of his own body. So he reminds them of God the Father’s reassuring promises in Psalm 22, but in an abbreviated way. Every Jewish man and woman standing there would have known by heart David’s 22nd Psalm. Listen to the words, and compare them to what they were watching happen to Jesus:

All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the LORD,” they say, “let the LORD rescue him.”

My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, … a pack of villains encircles me; they
pierce my hands and my feet.

They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.

This Messianic Psalm 22 describes exactly what was happening to Jesus. In exact detail. So Jesus uses this to assure his followers, his mother Mary, dear Mary Magdalen, his brothers and sisters, the young disciple John, that what was happening to him had been prophesied and predicted all the way back to King David.

He was assuring them the cross did not happen to him, he happened to the cross. Listen as the Psalm continues,

 I will declare your name to my people.
“For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
“he has not hidden his face from him …”

– Stop the presses!

Jesus was making it clear, as he gasped between breaths, that despite all visible evidence to the contrary, his Father was in perfect and total control. And that his Father was right there with him, never forsaking him, never turning his back on him, loving
him and nurturing him to the very end. This assurance, this promise, is epic. Jesus meant this for his followers – and this
includes you.

So why do most people assume Jesus was forsaken by God, and God turned his back on him? Because we live in America, and we have no clue as to the context and culture of this setting.

Jesus was using a common teaching method of his time, “Remez,” used by every rabbi, and understood by all Jews. Remez means “hint.” The rabbis would say just the first line of a well-known scripture passage, and every Jew would immediately understand the
context. Every Jew. Always.

Jesus does something remarkable on the cross: He uses Psalm 22 as a Remez to declare God Almighty’s perfect power, his perfect love, and his perfect and total control, even in the midst of what looks like a complete disaster.

His cry of “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” is the first line of Psalm 22. It is simply a Remez, alerting his followers to all the promises we see in the Psalm. Jesus never addressed his Father as “God,” but always as Father.

And to put an exclamation mark on Jesus’ Remez, the final line of Psalm 22 is:

They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!

“He has done it!” This is the same language as Jesus’ last words recorded in John 19:30, “It is finished.” In the throes of death, Jesus remarkably bookends this iconic Psalm to make it plain to everyone witnessing his death:

“My God has not forsaken me, and, death has not finished me. I have finished it!”

And Jesus is “declaring to a people yet unborn,” to you and to me:

“Your Heavenly Father will never forsake you, he will never abandon you. He will never turn his back on you. No matter the circumstances, no matter all the evidence to the contrary, your Heavenly Father is with you, he is for you, he loves you perfectly, and he is in total control.” 

Amen!