Living the Message

Today at MCC, we started a series for Lent focusing on the last words of Jesus on the cross. Pastor Henry read the story of the crucifixion from Mark15:1-41 and talked especially about verse 34, "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? '--which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'"

Pastor Henry talked about how the answer to this question could be found in Psalm 22. In the Jewish tradition, when someone would refer to one line of Old Testament scripture, others would know that he was referring to the whole text from which it came. Thus, when Jesus said, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?", He was referring to Psalm 22. In this Psalm, we see that this question was also asked by Israel's greatest king who in the end was delivered. And at the cross, we would see that though horrific, this is not the end.

Question of the week: What do you hear when Jesus cries out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" When we hear this cry of desperation, I think we can also hear how great Jesus' love for us is since it was our sins that put him there so we wouldn't have to suffer what He did.