Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Matthew chapter 27 verse 46

and about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,

Eli, Eli, Lema Sabaktani, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

What a humbling verse to read and reflect on.

Jesus on the cross, amidst all of the physical agony and pain that we know accompanied the cross at least as

best as we can know I don't even think we can really fathom all of the physical pain involved in the

cross but here in this verse we we realized that there was a spiritual agony that was far deeper than even that physical pain.

That Jesus here was in a sense enduring separation from the Father.

Why have you forsaken me? he asked.

And there's so much,

theologically, that we could talk about here.

And even, practically, I here, some preachers when they talk about this text and talk about

the crucifixion, just say, oh, the father couldn't bear to see what these soldiers were doing to his son, so he turned away, but that is not what's going on here.

The reality is Jesus is at this moment on the cross. He is

enduring the judgment penalty for sin that I deserve that you deserve. It's not that the father can't

bear to see what these soldiers are doing to his son. The reality is the father can't

bear to see sin. Your sin, my sin. We deserve to be forsaken by the Father. We deserve to be separated from the Father forever.

We deserve to be cast out of his presence.

That is what we deserve in our sin and our rebellion and what Jesus is doing in Matthew chapter 27 is he's enduring

that forsakenness that separation for us on our behalf that Jesus is choosing to suffer the separation we

deserve so that you and I and our sin despite our sin can be reconciled to God through Jesus' death in the cross.

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