Listen up, little ones
Listen for the words cried and loud.
Reading
Matthew 27:45–56—Loud Cries and Tears
Optional Reading
Hebrews 5:6-10
Keys for kids
- Jesus cried out to God in His suffering.
- God heard His loud cries and tears.
- Still Jesus was forsaken and died. But He was made alive!
Questions
- Why did God forsake Jesus on the cross?
- What were some of His loud cries?
- Did God save Jesus from death? Explain.
Notes
(See Saturday for authors.)
During his earthly life, he offered prayers and appeals with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence (Hebrews 5:7). My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning (Psalm 22:1)?
Jesus willingly went to the cross to die. Jesus willingly faced the righteous punishment for sins—not His, but those of all who would be saved. Jesus willingly became a curse. Willingly. But not trivially. He was willing—but it was not easy.
Why!? Why!? May the words of His groaning be burned in our ears and our hearts. As savage as the beatings before the cross were, as excruciating as the pain of death by crucifixion was, the full pain was in the abandonment by God. This was not an ignoring abandonment. No, it was the purposeful withdrawal of love and the carrying out of divine wrath upon His sinless Son.
For a limited, yet real and agonizing time, God the Father forsook the human nature of God the Son so that the Father might lay on the Son the iniquity of us all.
Jesus, forsaken by the Father, died.
But then Jesus, heard because of His reverence, was made alive! And he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 22b, 111a
Prayer
- Rejoice that Jesus is the source of eternal salvation.
- Give thanks for something from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.