March 24 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Matthew 27:45–50

Devotional

Golgotha lies black and silent. It is not because it is evening or night, but because God takes away the sun in the midst of day. The same God who made the sun and who called the light day has now made the day night. In darkness, Jesus must pay for the sins of the world.

Darkness is by itself not always the worst suffering. As long as there is light within, joy can still remain. We can understand the poet who said, “On His praise e’en in the night, I will ponder with delight.” We remember the account of Paul and Silas who endured darkness in the lowest prison but still had joy in God. Still, the darkness in which Christ hung on the cross is totally different. Christ’s time of darkness is a sign. The sky goes black. It is a sign of desertion, of rejection, of disowning. It was night within Christ, for the God of light had let go of Him. This is the darkness of the hellish agony.

At Golgotha, Jesus hangs in obscurity. He has been made sin and God, the Father, does not want to see Him anymore. He says, as it were, “Depart from Me, thou cursed One, into the eternal darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” God does not look upon the suffering Servant. The crowds do not look upon Him. Even His mother, in the darkness, cannot turn her eyes to Him. There is no one who could comfort the Lord on His path of suffering. Furthermore, none are allowed to go with Him, for, whoever is forsaken by God, is also to be forsaken by men.

In the darkness, Jesus is not seen, but He can still be heard. Listen. He calls; He cries with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” that is to say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Understand this correctly. God the Son cannot here be forsaken of God the Father, as God. This could never be. This would mean that the divine Trinity would be rent apart from each other. The Trinity cannot be severed. God would no longer be God. When Christ cries out that He is forsaken of God, it means that He is disowned of God as man. This helps us to better understand Christ’s desertion as personal and profound, for it is here not a matter of reconciliation between God and God, but between God and man. As man He is rejected of God. He is a man subject to like passions as we are. He became man for our sake.

We know from the Garden of Gethsemane that He was an ordinary man. He was so oppressed that He struggled in the dust as a worm. He sought support from His disciples, but they could not watch with Him for one hour. An angel came from heaven to strengthen Him, but at Golgotha God does not send an angel for support. In all things He is forsaken by God. Heaven is closed for Him and God the Father does not want to have anything to do with Him anymore. When God leaves man to himself in all things, the realities of hell are frightening.

No man can adequately express the terrible rejection of hell. When David speaks about the agonies of hell, he is on the portal of hellish pain. He has seen the Lord’s righteous sentence on him. But God’s grace intervenes so that the sentence is not carried out. Only those who are lost in eternity can understand in fullness the terrors of hell.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.