The Coming of Christ: The Forsaken Messiah
Psalm 22:1-18
Motivational icons. Every decade has one.
In the ’70s, a smiley face entreated us to “Have a nice day.”
In the ’80s, we sang, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” with a smiling Bobby McFerrin.
In the ’90s we were admonished to “Just Do It.”
But here in the toddlerhood of the 21st century, motivation has been harder to market. Terrorism, bunker busters, a shock and awe stock market and massive layoffs have put a crimp in the motivational marketing pipeline. Snappy jingles and yellow smileys have given way to orange alerts and pink slips.
Enter a company with products for the times in which we live. Despair, Inc. has cornered the market in pragmatic pessimism. While some companies peddle pithy motivational materials, Despair markets a line of “demotivational” products, all designed to feed the collective angst of a depressed populace.
For example, there’s the Pessimist’s MugTM – a glass mug with a line in the middle that says, “This cup is half-empty.”
Perhaps you’d like to give your spouse, coworker or friend a BitterSweetTM candy – valentine-style candy hearts with messages like, Call a shrink, Up yer dosage or C that door? Then there’s the FrownyTM. Despair has trademarked the e-mail emoticon and put it on everything from T-shirts to hats. In fact, if you want to legally use a FrownyTM in your e-mail, you’ll have to order it from Despair’s Web site (www.despair.com) at $0.00 per download.
But the centerpiece of Despair, Inc. is the lithograph collection – beautiful photos with a depressing twist (“Interior designs for inferior minds”). Some of the sentiments:
- Photo of a sunken ship, with the message: “MISTAKES: It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.”
- Photo of a lightning storm, saying: “PESSIMISM: Every cloud has a silver lining, but lightning kills hundreds of people each year who are trying to find it.”
- Photo of a tree bent by the wind, saying: “ADVERSITY: That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.”
- Photo of a dark sunset, saying: “DESPAIR: It’s always darkest just before it goes pitch-black.”
Dr. E.L. Kersten, Despair’s founder and COO, lays out his company’s core value: “Whether you’re a pessimist, an underachiever or a chronic failure, I personally offer my unconditional guarantee that DemotivatorsTM will truly inspire you to new lows!”
Despair, Inc. has tapped into the truth that all of us know and few of us want to admit – suffering is a grim reality of the human condition. No amount of wealth, no measure of security and no low-fat, oat bran-fueled diet can defend us against suffering and eventual death. Good or bad, rich or poor, conflict and calamity are just a word, a mistake, an accident or an illness away.
Depressing? Exactly. While it makes for humorous office art, despair and suffering can be debilitating – fading one’s view of life to pitch-black.
That’s where David, the psalmist, finds himself. He’s in deep trouble – surrounded by enemies, broken in body and spirit. He cries out for help, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (22:1). In the midst of pain and impending death, the writer seeks the intimacy of relationship with God, but God seems “so far from helping.” He remembers how God has been there for others (vv. 4-5), but now surrounded, tortured and almost dead, he hears the sarcastic taunts of his enemies ringing in his ears. “He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him” (v. 8 NIV). Hear now the words of the Psalmist.
READ THE SCRIPTURE
Psalm 22 is a vivid account of crucifixion. However, at the time David would have written this Psalm, crucifixion would have been a very foreign concept. For crucifixion was not practiced in the time of David. Therefore, this is not an account of suffering endured by any ancient person but a prophetic piecture of the suffering to be endured by Jesus when he died to pay the penalty for our sins. In other words, this Psalm is entirely prophetic and messianic.
David describes vividly the hours of darkness that often come when suffering occurs. Each of us here certainly can understand the feeling of being all alone to face our fears, our anxieties, our sufferings. As we investigate further the forsaken Messiah, let us pay close attention to Jesus’ thoughts and actions in His final hours. Jesus never asked why. Rather Jesus went knowing that God the Father had set in motion a plan for the redemption of His children.
Jesus hanging on the cross that day, forsaken by humans, didn’t turn inward and ask why. Rather he turned outward caring and thinking about those around Him.
If you are a fan of the Gaither’s, you have probably heard these words before:
THE LOOK OF LOVE WAS ON HIS FACE
THRONES WERE ON HIS HEAD
THE BLOOD WAS ON HIS SCARLET ROBE
STAINED A CRIMSON RED
THOUGH HIS EYES WERE ON THE CROWD THAT DAY
HE LOOKED AHEAD IN TIME
FOR WHEN HE WAS ON THE CROSS
I WAS ON HIS MIND.
CHORUS:
HE KNEW ME, YET HE LOVED ME
HE WHOSE GLORY MAKES THE HEAVENS SHINE
SO UNWORTHY OF SUCH MERCY
YET WHEN HE WAS ON THE CROSS
I WAS ON HIS MIND.
Jesus on two occasions quotes Psalm 22 directly as he hangs on the cross. In Matthew 27:46 Jesus quotes the very first line of the Psalm; “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” And again John 19:30 gives us another quote from the very last verse of Psalm 22; “It is finished, God has done it”
Psalm 22 begins with a description of Christ’s alienation from the Father as He was made sin for us. The Psalm then continues with a vivid description of the crucifixion. The Psalm then ends with triumph as the suffering One testifies to the hearing of His prayer and that He will declare the name of God and praise God before his brethren and in the great assembly. It is important for us to note here that Jesus ended His earthly life by quoting this verse of the Psalm.
Listen to me here. The very reason for Jesus quoting this verse was to give us victory over death, that the atonement for sin was perfect and fully accepted by God the Father. All of this so that future generations born into sin would be saved because of Christ’s Sacrifice.
Assured of God’s presence in the midst of his suffering, Jesus is able to see his own suffering and death as a source of life for all who suffer and despair.
We’re called to see our suffering in the same light, as a means of grace whereby we receive the assurance of God’s presence and represent God’s presence to others in distress. Henri Nouwen says that “We do not know where we will be two, 10, or 20 years from now. What we can know, however, is that man suffers and that a sharing of suffering can make us move forward … in the conviction that the full liberation of man and his world is still to come.”
The Good News, prophesied in Psalm 22, lived out in the life of Jesus Christ. The great hymn writer, Charles Wesley writes these words found in your Hymnal on page 363:
And can it be, that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
‘Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the first-born seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
‘Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace,
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me!
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth and followed Thee.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
The repair for despair isn’t gallows humor or wallowing in the whys and wherefores of suffering. It’s drawing closer to God and closer to others who suffer. In doing so, we see fear give way to hope. Jesus the forsaken Messiah who died for us so that we would not be forsaken.
Perhaps Paul put it best: “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).
Now, That’s a promise for us all.
Sources:
Boice, James Montgomery, Psalms Volume 1
Despair, Inc. Web Site, despair.com.
Retrieved August 27, 2008.
