四月十五日

我的神，我的神！為什麼離棄我？（詩22:1）

我們在此看看我們在極度痛苦中的救主。任何地方都不能像在加弗瑞那樣完全顯露出基督的憂傷，任何時間也不能像他在加弗瑞破空高呼“我的神，我的神！為什麼離棄我”時那樣滿了傷痛。他在那時飽嘗肉體的疲憊，又加上因笑駡和污辱而來的精神上的苦痛，因此使他的憂傷達於頂點，他精神上所受的苦痛是我們的言語所不能形容的，都緣他的父離棄了他。這是他可怕的痛苦的午夜，那時他沉降到苦痛的深淵。沒有一個人能完全瞭解他這話的意思。有人想有很多時候我們也能說：“我的神，我的神！為什麼離棄我？”有時烏雲和黑暗把我們父親的慈面遮掩起來，但我們要記得我們的神是絕不會丟棄我們的。表面看來好像他離棄了我們，但基督才是真被神所離棄。父的愛對我們消滅，我們就開始憂傷起來，但神卻真真轉臉不看他的兒子，誰能量度他因此所得的痛苦有多麼深呢？我們這樣呼喊不過是一再表示我們的不信，而他，卻是道出了一件可怕的事實，因為神真有一段時期向他掩面。可憐的、在患難中的人哪！你曾有一度在神慈面的光中生活，現在落到黑暗之中，但你要記得神並不是真真把你丟棄了。神的恩面照耀著我們或是被烏雲遮蔽起來的時候，他還是我們的神。我們每逢想到神離棄我們就得到很大的痛苦，那末當救主高呼“我的神，我的神！為什麼離棄我”的時候，他的苦痛該是多麼大呀！

April 15

"My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" --Psalm 22:1

We here behold the Saviour in the depth of His sorrows. No other place so well shows the griefs of Christ as Calvary, and no other moment at Calvary is so full of agony as that in which His cry rends the air--"My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" At this moment physical weakness was united with acute mental torture from the shame and ignominy through which He had to pass; and to make His grief culminate with emphasis, He suffered spiritual agony surpassing all expression, resulting from the departure of His Father's presence. This was the black midnight of His horror; then it was that He descended the abyss of suffering. No man can enter into the full meaning of these words. Some of us think at times that we could cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" There are seasons when the brightness of our Father's smile is eclipsed by clouds and darkness; but let us remember that God never does really forsake us. It is only a seeming forsaking with us, but in Christ's case it was a real forsaking. We grieve at a little withdrawal of our Father's love; but the real turning away of God's face from His Son, who shall calculate how deep the agony which it caused Him?

In our case, our cry is often dictated by unbelief: in His case, it was the utterance of a dreadful fact, for God had really turned away from Him for a season. O thou poor, distressed soul, who once lived in the sunshine of God's face, but art now in darkness, remember that He has not really forsaken thee. God in the clouds is as much our God as when He shines forth in all the lustre of His grace; but since even the thought that He has forsaken us gives us agony, what must the woe of the Saviour have been when He exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"