KCL Chapel
Matthew 27:45-56
Spring term Sermon Series
23rd March 2016
THE DEATH OF JESUS
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O
Lord my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
‘Mummy, Mummy, where have you gone?’ were the exact words of 6 year old me
whilst stood near the sea front in Poole. I was with my parents and brother at our
family get together where, each year, we take it upon ourselves to walk along the
sea front, regardless of the weather conditions. This time, 16 years ago, the weather
was quite nice, bright sunshine with a little breeze. As you can imagine, everyone
was very relaxed. Apart from me.
‘Mummy, Mummy, where have you gone?’ I squealed at the top of my voice. We
had been enjoying the sunshine, walking along the beach, and I had wandered off
in my own little world. All of a sudden I found myself by the sea, with lots of
people around me. However none of those people were my family, let alone my
mum. ‘Mummy, Mummy where have you gone?’ were the words of a child who
felt abandoned. A child who was helpless, and could only scream and squeal to try
to get someone’s attention. I was more than scared, I was terrified. I had lost my
family, not one of them was in sight, and I was in an unfamiliar place. I was
abandoned.
After what felt like hours, but in reality was more like 30 seconds, I spotted a
woman up in front of me, wearing a lilac jumper and jeans, walking with a bald
man. All of the men in my family were bald and my mum was wearing a lilac
jumper. ‘Yes’, I thought, ‘I found her’. So I ran up to the lady in front of me, and
grabbed her hand without as much as a second thought about who it was. I had
found my mummy. But as I grabbed the hand of the adult next to me, I thought,
‘this doesn’t feel like mums hand’. So I looked up at the face of the lilac-jumper
wearing woman. This was not my mother.
Panic mode set in. A wide-eyed 6 year old quickly retreated from the stranger, and
I curled up in a ball on the floor. I was feeling tormented because I thought the
strangers ahead of me were my family. I felt humiliated because I mistook a
stranger as my mother. I was well and truly abandoned, I was almost in pain from
the sheer embarrassment that I had brought upon myself.
I cried out for my mum one last time ‘Mummy, Mummy, where have you gone?’ I
had lost all hope. I really had been abandoned. I buried my head in my hands and
refused to look up for anything. Until I heard a familiar voice behind me. ‘Jess, are
you okay?’ I peeked through my fingers and there was my mum, right behind me.
She picked me up and hugged me for what felt like a life time. I was home. I was
safe. I hadn’t been abandoned at all. Of course, my mum knew exactly where I was
the whole time. What felt like an hour to a young child, was actually about one
minute. Mum was right behind me. Of course I wasn’t abandoned, my mum was
and is always there for me, because she loves me.
As a 6 year old child, I had felt abandonment without actually being abandoned at
all. What Jesus went through was so much worse than anything I or we have ever
experienced. Tom Wright says that on the cross ‘the weight of the world’s evil
really did converge upon Jesus, blotting out the sunlight of God’s love’. Jesus
really did feel abandoned. The sin of the world was completely upon his shoulders,
on the cross. As far as Jesus knew, he was completely on his own at this point.
Previously Jesus had prayed ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from
me’. Jesus knew it was going to be painful. So his words ‘My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?’ aren’t just Matthew trying to make the portrayal of Jesus’
death more dramatic. Jesus really did feel forsaken by God, and as Basil Hume
said, it was ‘his greatest suffering’. In order for Jesus to be human, as well as God,
he must feel abandonment, as this terrible pain is something that all humans feel at
some point in their lives. Whether it is as simple as feeling abandoned for 1 minute
at the beach as a child, or whether it is a feeling of being truly abandoned by God,
this feeling is something we all go through. So for Jesus to bear the burden of our
sin, he must know true abandonment – ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken
me?’
At this point on the cross, Jesus was completely in pain, he would have been
extremely thirsty, more extreme than any thirst we have ever felt. Some may argue
that the sponge on the stick is a painkiller. But Matthew’s account doesn’t say he
drinks from the sponge, nor does it say the stick is anything but a stick. However, it
was still pretty close to Jesus’ face. Imagine this. You are in absolute agony. You
are thirsty. You can’t move, you can’t breathe properly, and the people around you
have turned against you, they are not who you thought they were. To torment you,
they put a wet sponge near you. Not a sponge soaked in water, but soaked in
vinegar. The smell sticks in your nose, it is pungent, so strong that it makes your
eyes water. That is what Jesus experienced when the sponge came near him. It
wasn’t a nice refreshing drink of water, it was a strong vinegar that makes your
eyes, lips and nose sting. This wasn’t an act of kindness, this was an act of torment.
Although when I was a child, I felt tormented by the strangers I had mistaken for
my family, I hadn’t felt anywhere near the kind of torment Jesus did at this point
on the cross. He was abandoned, and all the people around him could do was shove
a sponge in his face that they knew would torment him.
But Jesus didn’t, or more, couldn’t, fight back. He was so weak at this point, he
used his last bit of energy to cry out one more time. Matthew recounts this as
‘Jesus cried out again in a loud voice’. He screamed, or roared, or shouted, he let
out the final breath and energy he had. And he gave up his spirit. Jesus didn’t die
on full strength, he let out absolutely everything he had in him, his body literally
could not live anymore. Jesus died in absolute agony. His body was weak. There is
nothing strong about Jesus’ death. He was helpless. He truly felt what it is to have
the sin of the world on his shoulders. In order for Jesus to experience what it is to
be human, he had to feel weak. Let’s hope that all of us here never experience a
death like Jesus’ crucifixion, however we do all experience feeling weak and
helpless. Yet Jesus, the Son of God, has been through the same, or even worse.
God sent Jesus to die for us, to take away our sin, so that we may have eternal life.
We might feel weak and helpless right now, tomorrow or at any point in life. But
remember that God understands, through Jesus. We can always turn to our Father
in heaven, because he loves us so much that he put his only son through pain in
order that we might have eternal life.
Yet, this isn’t the end. Jesus died, yes. But the story doesn’t end here. We know
that Jesus rose after three days, even Matthew hints at it in the Gospel passage for
today. We know what happened to Jesus on earth, both before and after his
resurrection. But we don’t know what happened to him when he got to heaven. Did
God our Father embrace him? I like to think he did. Did He pick him up and hug
him so hard to show him he loved him? I don’t know. But just as my mum
embraced me when I thought I had been abandoned as a 6 year old child, I am sure
that God embraced Jesus. Because our heavenly father loves us so much, that he
gave us Jesus. Jesus took on the pain and torment of abandonment so that we might
draw closer to him. So if you feel abandoned, or terrified, or lonely, remember that
God understands. Jesus has been there, experienced exactly what we are going
through. God loves us so much, so let’s remember that he gave his one and only
son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. If that isn’t
love, then I don’t know what is.
Amen .
Jessica Lane,
Chaplaincy Assistant at the Guy’s and Waterloo Campuses