Dartmouth College Chapel
April 12, 2006
Richard R. Crocker, Ph.D., Chaplain
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
As you know, this is Holy Week for western Christians – the week when we
remember the passion of Christ. It is also, for Jews, coincidentally this year,
the festival of Passover. Tomorrow, Maundy Thursday, we remember how Jesus
celebrated the last supper with his disciples, how he washed their feet, and
how he gave them a new commandment, that they should love one another, as he
loved them. The Latin word for commandment is mandatum, from which we derive
Maundy, and so tomorrow is Maundy Thursday. The following day is Good Friday,
the day of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. On Good Friday, many Christians attend
services where they remember the words that Jesus, according to the various
gospels, spoke on the cross – the so called “seven last words.” According to
Matthew and Mark, the last words that Jesus spoke on the cross were, in
Aramaic: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In those Gospels, Jesus
died after quoting, or praying, the opening words of Psalm 22.
I assume that you have come to this worship service today because you are
either a Christian or a person interested in Christianity. In either case, the
words of Jesus from the cross, the last words, according to Matthew and Mark,
would be important. Last words are always important, whether they are the last
words of a poem or a book or a life. In the case of these last words, “My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?” – we have at least two choices for
understanding what they may mean.
The first choice is that Jesus actually meant those words: that he felt, as
he died, God-forsaken. His death on the cross was not simply a physical death,
but a spiritual one. All that had sustained him in his mission and ministry
was, at that moment, gone. To experience the total absence of God is to
experience hell. And some Christians – perhaps most - understand that as he
died, Jesus experienced complete desolation. He experienced it, many say, for
us; because Jesus experienced desolation and the absence of God – hell, if you
will - we, who put our faith in him, never have to experience it. This is one
way that some Christians see the events of that Friday as good – good for the
world – hence Good Friday.
There are others, however, who believe that when Jesus spoke the words, “My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he was referring to this whole psalm,
which he would have expected his Jewish followers to understand – just as you
might expect your friends to know a whole song if you simply quoted the opening
words. I do not know what songs might be that familiar to people of your
generation, since I am not particularly familiar with contemporary lyrics. But
if I said "You must remember this…” I expect many of you would be able to
supply the remaining lyrics. Or at least people older than I am would. Or, if
you are of my generation, if I say, “you can’t always get what you want”, you
can supply "but you get what you need.” Or certainly, if I said, “Silent
night, holy night”, you could finish the verse. And since the psalms were the
Jewish hymnbook, the opening words of this psalm would cause devoted hearers to
remember it all. And, taken as a whole, this psalm is exceptionally powerful
because it describes both the abandonment that believers sometimes feel, and
the assurance that God’s goodness will ultimately prevail. Thus, there are
those of us who have experienced severe loss, or depression, or pain, or
loneliness, for whom these words early in the psalm aptly describe the
desperation that we have felt: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones
are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my mouth
is dried up like a potsherd[1] and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of
death.” This is desolation. But the psalm goes on to conclude that God will not
”despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted”. At the last, “All the ends
of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the
nations shall worship before him….” Even those who have died shall bow down to
him.
People who see Jesus as referring to the whole psalm by quoting the opening
words see him as affirming, not only or chiefly desolation, but faith that,
through this affliction, the whole world shall be redeemed.
It is impossible, of course, to know exactly what Jesus meant when he spoke
these words on the cross, but we can be sure that he was quoting scripture, and
thus guiding his followers to think about it. And that is what we are doing
today. We, whether we are his disciples or merely curious, are gathering to
pause and think about the events of this Holy Week and what they mean. We think
about the new commandment that Jesus gave us – to love one another, and we know
how hard that has been for us to do. We think about his death and wonder how
his suffering, and ours, can ever be called good. And on Easter Sunday, we will
celebrate the mystery of an event called resurrection, an event that both
confounds and comforts all who believe.
I would like to say just one word about the event that the media have been
pumping this week, which is the publication of the newly found Gospel of Judas.
The publicity surrounding the publication of this ancient document is
calculated, like almost all contemporary events, to whet our appetite for
novelty and to increase sales. If you have not heard of it, it is simply this:
an ancient manuscript was discovered about 30 ears ago in a cave in Egypt.
After circulating among antiquities dealers, it finally came into the hands of
National Geographic, and it has been established as a Coptic copy of the
ancient gospel of Judas. While I have not read the document, I have listened
carefully to the breathless reports that this gospel says that Judas did not
betray Jesus, but rather that Judas was Jesus’ closest disciple, and that he
led the authorities to Jesus because he and Jesus had arranged that he would do
so. In other words, Judas did what Jesus wanted him to do. Let me simply say
that this is not news to anyone who has seriously studied the New Testament.
The story of Judas has long been open to various interpretations, among which
is the one that Judas acted at the instruction of Jesus. What is new is that at
last we have a copy of an ancient text that testifies to this theory. There
are, as you know, others.
For Christians, there is a lot to think about. The simple interpretations of
the sacred texts that you may have absorbed in Sunday school or youth group are
certainly not the only possible interpretations. What Jesus meant by the words,
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” is not absolutely clear. Judas’
role in the crucifixion is not absolutely clear. But what is absolutely clear
to Christians is that Jesus died, willingly, but excruciatingly – but that his
death, surprisingly, was not the last word. The Romans, of course, thought it
was. His enemies thought it was. Even his disciples thought it was. But they
were wrong. Wait till Easter. Amen.
Copyright © 2006 Richard R. Crocker
[1] a piece of
broken pottery
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