He Breathed His Last

What makes today good? It is a day theologians and preachers and Sunday school teachers struggle to explain with words. The depth of the sacrifice, the reality of the love, the full meaning of the atonement cannot be captured in words. How is it that our God – the God who created us and loves us – would so completely empty himself? How is it that Jesus was so completely empty, so human, that he cried out for God?
Jesus suffered as his life ripped apart. He suffered betrayal. He suffered denial. He suffered abandonment. He suffered abuse. He suffered scorn. He suffered the worst physical pain a body can experience as his flesh tore each time he struggled to push himself up above the fluid that was filling his lungs and drowning him enough that he could struggle for another breath.
So what makes today good? We are human. And we have a God who knows, who understands, who has experienced being human. Every life has suffering. Every life has a last breath. Every human cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
It starts when we first wake up in a bassinet and our mother isn’t right beside us. We cry out for her. “Where are you?”
We grow and then one day we wander and get lost, and we try to be strong, but fear whelms inside us and we cry out. “Mom,” we shout, “Dad! Where are you?”
What makes us shout for them? We know, don’t we. We know that they will come. Even though we feel alone in that moment, we know their faithfulness. We know their love. Even though we long to have their arms around us and for them to comfort us, we cry out, “Where are you?”
That’s the cry of the Psalmist in Psalm 22, the cry that Jesus quotes, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” It is an honest cry. It is a cry of feeling abandoned, but knowing.
That is what makes today good. Jesus cries out. Jesus feels abandoned and fear whelms inside as the pain sears, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Where are you?” And even though he feels alone in that moment, he knows. God is faithful. He knows God’s love. Today is good because as Jesus breathed his last breath, he knew. And in that breath, even the Roman centurion knew. “Truly, this man was God’s Son!” What was it about that last breath? Jesus knew the rest of the Psalm:
Praise the Lord! Glorify him! For he did not hide his face from me, but heard me when I cried to him. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
What makes today good? That last breath was for us. When he writes to the church at Rome, Paul says, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
All that took place – the whole life of Jesus – from his birth, to his baptism, to his ministry, his healings, his teachings, his miracles, his transfiguration, his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, his last meal with his disciples, everything that happened on that cross and in the resurrection that followed was… for us.
So that we would know, on the Good Fridays of our lives, in the midst of that darkness, even when we cannot feel God’s presence, when we cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Where are you?” God hears us. We are not alone. Even when we breathe our last, hope is not lost. Our God allowed darkness to cover him. Our God allowed death to swallow him up…for us.