Matthew 27:45-56

Be Still: Father, thank you for the gift of life. Holy Spirit, please fill me and speak to me as I read your Word today. Amen

Read: Matthew 27:45-56

'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me' (v46)

Encounter: The picture doesn’t look good. Jesus has been captured, 'tried', beaten, whipped, spat on, mocked, stripped naked and nailed to a cross. The man who the Jews were hoping would lead the people of God in overthrowing the Romans and ushering in a new kingdom is suffering the ultimate humiliation. Hope defeated, faith crushed, evil wins again.  

Even Jesus appears to have given up. As the sky turns black, he cries out ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani’ which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ The last desperate lament of a dying man. 

Or is it…?

That lament sounds familiar. Isn’t that exactly what King David cried out in Psalm 22, as he expressed his sorrow that ‘all who see me, mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. ‘He trusts the Lord’, they say ‘let the Lord rescue him.' That all sounds quite familiar too! 

Maybe Jesus’ last words aren’t an admission of defeat after all but a hint as to what is to come. A Good Friday ‘Easter Egg’ if you will. Do you remember how Psalm 22 finishes? It doesn’t finish in defeat; it finishes in victory. It finishes with the promise that ‘all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord’, that ‘future generations will be told about the Lord, they will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn….He has done it!’

Maybe this isn’t Jesus defeated….maybe this is Jesus doing it!

Apply: Take a moment to respond in worship to our victorious King Jesus! Pick your favourite worship song and sing it from the rooftops!  

Devote: Jesus, thank you for your victory on the Cross! Thank you that you have ultimately defeated sin and death so that I can walk free! Please help me never to lose the awe and wonder at your work on the Cross.