Hanging on the cross, enduring the pain of crucifixion, Jesus cries out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Why would Jesus say such a thing? Because he is bearing witness to what He is doing. ON the cross He is being forsaken for the sins of His people, not for any sin of His own. Jesus was feeling the full wrath of God against of God against sin. Having no personal iniquity, this was a completely new and utterly horrific experience for Him. Paul says that "Christ became the curse for us" [Galatians 3:13] and in another passage, explains that the One who knew no sin "became sim for us."  [2corinthians5:2]  On the cross, Jesus was drinking the entire cup of God's judgment against sin--not his own sin, but ours.  He is proclaiming that, as He hung dying, He was taking the full measure of our punishment so that we would not have to.

In truth, He really was being forsaken by God.  But this bears careful attention.  Many have assumed God forsook Christ by "turning away' from Jesus on the cross.  That doesn't seem like the best explanation, however, for it would require God somehow missing out of the culmination of His own eternal plan.  Can we really suggest that God was somehow absent from the death of His only Son?  In fact, as we saw in the text from Matthew, there is quite a bit of evidence to indicate that God is fully present.  When we read about the sky turning dark for three hours in the middle of the day, and a massive earthquake, and the dead coming back to life, and the 60-foot tall temple curtain tearing in two from top to bottom, we are supposed to realize that God is there.  When the centurion (and those with him) saw all of these things happen, their response was "Truly this was the Son of God!)  They saw and understood.

So God was most certainly there when Jesus Died.  But He was there in all of His justice against our sin.  His holiness was on full display.  [Remember that many of God's manifestations of holiness, like that on Mount Sinai, required thick darkness so the people would not die upon seeing Him as He is.  Even the High Priest had to fill the Most Holy Place with a cloud of incense before he went in.]  At judgment on Christ so that He could redeem and restore His people.  He was there.

   --Bro.Mark