The Crucifixion and the Abandonment

Mark 15:33-34 Gospel of Mark

In this sermon, Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds Mark 15:33-34, focusing on the visible context and vocal expression of Christ's abandonment by God on the cross. He argues that the three hours of darkness and Jesus's cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" are biblical explanations of God's unique and concentrated work of judgment against sin, imputed to Christ. Martin emphasizes that this abandonment was not a severing of the Father-Son love, but the Father making Christ a curse for sinners, fulfilling the cup of Gethsemane and providing the only hope for salvation.

3 illustrations in this sermon

The Visible Context of the Abandonment: Supernatural Darkness

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Darkness darker than a hundred midnights

In this part of the sermon: Martin examines the simple facts of the three hours of darkness from noon to 3 p.m., emphasizing its miraculous, extensive, and unusual nature, ruling out an eclipse.

A Negro poet's description of profound darkness is used to emphasize the intensity and horror of the supernatural darkness at Golgotha.

no matter how flippant and indifferent to the events going on at Golgotha, one thing would be sure. He would have been struck with the horrible reality that something unusual had transpired when the light and brightness of the noonday sun turned into pitch black darkness, a darkness, as a Negro poet described it, darker than a hundred midnights down in a cypress swamp. But now that erases inevitably certain questions about this visible context Question one what caused it And while various theories have been advanced and believe it or not books have actually been written

16:41 - 17:35 Read in full sermon

Biblical Explanation of the Context: Darkness as God's Judgment

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Martin Luther's Meditation on Abandonment

The point: Be thankful that we do not merely have Mark's terse account of the physical context of the abandonment, the vocal expressions of that abandonment, that we have the rest of our Bibles to explain the abandonment.

The story of Luther's three-hour meditation on Jesus's cry and his despairing exclamation, 'God! Forsaken by God! Who can fathom such a mystery?' is used to highlight the profound, unfathomable mystery of Christ's abandonment.

The biblical explanation of the abandonment. And as I come to this part in our study this morning, I am most conscious of the desire to draw back from the mystery. It is reported, and I have no reason to doubt the report, it may come from Daubigné's history of the Reformation, though I am not certain of that, that on one occasion the great Martin Luther sat at his desk with his Bible open to these words. and it is said that for approximately three hours he lived with the words describing the darkness of the three hours

36:38 - 37:26 Read in full sermon

Illustration: Father's Love and Abandonment of a Leprous Son

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Father Abandoning Leprous Son

In this part of the sermon: Martin uses the analogy of a father forced to abandon his beloved, only son to a leper colony due to the disease clinging to him, to illustrate how God could love Christ perfectly…

An analogy of a father who deeply loves his only son but must banish him to a leper colony due to the disease clinging to him, is used to illustrate how God could perfectly love Christ yet abandon him due to the sin imputed to him.

But I thought of this illustration as impoverished as it is. Perhaps it will help you. Here is a father.

64:04 - 64:11 Read in full sermon

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