For Lord’s Day, March 3, 2013

Dear Saints,

Why do we cry?  We cry when something hurts either on the outside or on the inside so much that it has overwhelmed us to the point of expressing our deep need for relief.

May we be struck to the heart by the cry of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary as we prepare for the Lord’s Supper tomorrow evening.

At our Lord’s crucifixion, Mark 15:34 reads: “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

In this text, Jesus cries out the first verse of Psalm 22, a song the Spirit wrote entirely about the crucifixion.  Here is the cry of the Son of God utterly forsaken by His Father.  Here is a cry of terrible loneliness and wretched abandonment.  Here is a cry for how much He hurt inside.

In verse 37, we read: “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.” 

This is His last cry of excruciating hurt on the outside after being given vinegar to drink through His cracked and bleeding lips.  Surely such cries were horrid, bitter screams, as must have been the case when they whipped Him, and hammered nails through His hands and feet (Psalm 22:16).

Jesus cried because He suffered unbearably.  These were blood curdling shrieks for the pain He felt on the inside and on the outside, for you.

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”  (Isaiah 53:4-5)

Brethren, as someone has said, it is true that if only you existed, Christ would have suffered this cross for you, His elect.  It is also true that, if only you existed, it would have been absolutely necessary that Christ suffer this cross for you alone.  So imagine yourself at the Mount of Golgotha, watching Him being crucified for you; watching Him cry out in agony again and again for you.  His terrible screams would be yours in hell forever, if Christ had not suffered as your substitutionary sacrifice to make atonement for your sins in the sight of His Righteous, Heavenly Father.

Come to the Lord’s Supper tomorrow, and heed your Savior’s words anew: “This do in remembrance of me.”

Semper Reformanda,

Pastor Grant