Sermon for 2/21/24: Midweek Lent 1 (Psalm 22 series)

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God in Hiding

Psalm 22:1-5

Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The words of the Benediction which we hear Sunday after Sunday are a great comfort to us. “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” While it may be triggering to those who live in unbelief, the fact that God rests His face upon us is pure joy to the Christian, for we know that the face of God is our Lord Jesus Christ. When we see Jesus, we have seen the face of our heavenly Father in all His grace and love; He is directing all His favor and good will toward us. So what must the opposite of this be? What does it mean when God turns His face away? Or, in the terms of our text, what must it mean to be forsaken by God? Our Lord Jesus knew, for He had reason to ask, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

The Psalms speak of Jesus. To rightly understand any text in Scripture, we must first ask, “What does this say about Jesus?” Of the entire Psalter, Psalm 22 is perhaps the most descriptive because it prophesies the Messiah’s suffering and death, the means by which He won the victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil. During these midweek gatherings, we will look at this Psalm in its entirety to see how this is so. In the section set aside for this evening, we consider in particular the words our Lord Jesus spoke from the cross: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

We have likely all felt what it is to be forsaken…or if you haven’t, it is more than likely that you will have the experience at some point in your life. Death will separate you from a loved one. Your father or mother will be gone, unable to help you. A friend or coworker will betray you. All of us have had experiences similar to what Jesus experienced. But no one has experienced forsakenness like Jesus did, for He suffered being forsaken in a way far greater than any mere mortal has experienced: The Son of God, who exists in perfect union with the Father, was forsaken by the Father.

And like Jesus Himself, we must ask that all-important question: WHY? Just a few weeks ago at the Transfiguration, we heard the Father proclaim, “This is my beloved Son.” What has changed? Why was Jesus forsaken by the heavenly Father? How could God the Father forsake His Son? To understand how this can be, we must first understand that, from the time of His conception in Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is at the same time True God and True Man. Jesus, true Man, performed miracles and even rose from the dead. Jesus, true God, suffered and died. What this means is that Jesus Christ, who is from eternity, the One by whom all things were made, the One who is sinless and perfect and holy, was at the same time the single greatest sinner the world has ever known. This is true, not because He ever committed any sin of His own, but because He so completely identified with the human race that He took upon Himself the sin that saturates humanity. As St. Paul wrote in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, “For our sake, [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin…” Because Jesus took on every sin ever committed by any person who ever lived, His cry was not merely a symbol; it was a cry of deepest anguish, for the sinless Son of God bore in His flesh the full punishment which every sinner of all times and all places deserved: He was completely forsaken by His Father. He who is God Himself was bearing the torment of hell—for what else is hell than to be completely separated from the Father?

When His Son cried out from the cross, the Father went into hiding. He would not show Himself even to His own Son, for the righteous God cannot abide the presence of sin. It is here above all else that Jesus stands in our place. He was forsaken so that we would never have to know the forsakenness of God. The torment of hell assaulted Him so that we would never need to know that experience for ourselves. The hidden God is to us the God of greatest blessing, for He hid Himself so that He might save us!

In fact, this is something He still does. God continues to hide Himself from us. Though forgiven of sin, we are yet sinners, and sinners cannot bear the glorious presence of God. So God continues to hide Himself from us. But this is no longer a sign of His wrath or displeasure, as it was at the cross. Instead it is a sure sign of His desire to bless us because of the cross. He hides Himself in simple water, so that, when it is combined with the Word of God, that water eternally cleanses our souls, making us spotless so that we may stand in righteousness before Him. He conceals the very body and blood of Jesus, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins, in and under mere bread and wine. He even hides behind the voice of His called servant who speaks the holy word of forgiveness to us, as we confess in the Small Catechism, speaking with us through the voice of our pastors “as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.”

So it is that the words that close out this portion of Psalm 22 become our joyful confession: “In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.” God hid Himself from us to save us. That He does so is our joy and delight, our great eternal reward. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.