GOOD MORNING BELOVED!
Welcome to this special edition of the SJMBC Podcast:
“HOW IMPORTANT IS THE WORD OF GOD TO YOU
WHEN IT COMES TO . . . ?”
I am your host Brother Henry Cotton, Jr. and I am also the Pastor of the SJMBC. Welcome to our Podcast. We will be broadcasting every day during this Holy Week Celebration by remembering Jesus “Seven Last Words from the Cross.” The topic for our Podcast today is:
“HOW IMPORTANT IS THE WORD OF GOD TO YOU WHEN IT COMES TO . . . THE WORD OF ANGUISH!”
As Jesus hung on the cross in excruciating pain; having been beaten and bloodied, the Bible singles out seven last phrases (or words) that Jesus spoke. The second word was:
“About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) Matthew 27:46 (NIV)
From the time I was very young, I remember the preachers saying that God could not bear to see His son go through all the pain and suffering He was going through on that cross; so that is why He had the darkness hide Him.
That made sense to young Cotton then . . . for a while! But being brought up in the church under an uncle who was the Pastor, an Aunt who was a sure ‘nuff Pastor’s wife and Sunday School Teacher, and parents who were saved and avid church goers; I began to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. So one day I came across this passage of scripture:
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139: 7-12 (NIV)
Now young Cotton has some questions: If GOD is a spirit and there is no place where we can go that HE can’t; and if the darkness can’t hide us from Him and it can’t stop Him from seeing us because it is just like light to Him, what I had been believing about what was going on between Jesus and His Father on the cross wasn’t adding up to me (expound).
I still couldn’t get pass Jesus saying: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” So I looked up the word “Forsaken” and I discovered that it had a number of meanings: To leave behind in some place, to desert, to leave, etc.; but they all had leaving in common. So Young Cotton is still befuddled because the dots still don’t connect (expound).
Well years go by, and young Cotton winds up becoming a preacher and finds he has to preach one of the seven last words and guess which one he has to preach about? Well, I found out that I can’t preach something that I really don’t agree with; it didn’t matter that I had been hearing a lot of older and seasoned preachers saying what I had questions about, I now had to have some answers.
Well, the Holy Spirit made me aware of something; instead of looking up the English translation “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” look into what Jesus said originally: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” Well, guess what I found? Like so many words do, “Eli, Eli,” has multiple meanings too, but guess what a couple of the meanings are? The root word of Eli is EL, and EL means Strength, Strong, and Strong One. Now the dots are starting to connect; whenever Jesus would pray to His Father, His Father always gave Him the support he needed. But now, when it seems like Jesus needed His support most His Father didn’t give it.
Think about when you were learning to walk and your father would hold your hand as you shakily tried walking. Eventually your father would not physically leave you, he wouldn’t hold your hand but he would move stuff out your way and stand there to encourage you to make your steps. But since there is no place for GOD to go, and no way HE could not see what HIS Son was going through, HIS way of moving things out of HIS Son’s way was to make it so dark that the world could not see HIS Son!
Well, as Jesus looked around, His father was not there to hold His hand or to encourage Him like HE usually did, Jesus uttered these words:
MY STRENGTH, MY STRONG ONE WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?
Jesus’ daddy who He always turned to for strength was not there holding His hand out for Him. Oh His Father was there (because there’s no place for GOD to go), but the strength He always gave to His son He withheld!
Remember, our ZOOM Podcast airs live on Tuesdays at 7:00am:
Pastor Cotton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82997714213
Meeting ID: 829 9771 4213
You can always reach me through our website and our email:
Website: https://stjamesmbcphilly.com
Email: pastor@stjamesmbcphilly.com
