Matthew 27:45-56
The Death of Jesus
45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 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?”).
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink.49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
Acts 17:24-31
God is Not Far from Any of Us
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Isaiah 55:1-13
Invitation to the Thirsty
1 “Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
If anyone ever on earth was close to God it was Jesus...He was very close to Him and always teaching and talking about God, as His Father...Jesus certainly spoke differently and thought differently than any man...And He never thought about God in terms of absence...No, God was the central belief in the life of Jesus...
But many of us look around for Him and see an Absent One...We sometimes feel His Absence...Absence can be defined as the nonexistence or lack of, an occasion or period of being away from a place or person, or the state of being away from a place or person...We often see absence as a negative thing, as lonely, as a disconnect from something, and as something more uncertain than things that we can see and touch...But we look at absent one way and God being a Spirit, and living in a different Kingdom sees absence in another way...For God's thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are man's ways God's ways...The heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher and different than our ways, as well as God's thoughts are different than man's thoughts...God sends the rain and the snow down to the earth from heaven, and they do not return back to heaven...But the earth buds and flourishes so that the earth will seed for the sower and give us food and bread to eat...And so is God's Word that goes out from His mouth: It will not return back to Him empty, but will accomplish those things that He desires...God gets things accomplished and so He is here, and not far from any of us...He is active and present in the world...In what we think of absence, God's Will does get done...So how God views thing like being absent is different than how we view absence...Absence is not doubt...Just as you being away or gone or absent, does not mean that you do not exist...
When Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”) -one might think God was absent from Him...Some of those standing beside Jesus on the cross heard this, and they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”...But maybe Jesus like all of us lost Him in just that moment...And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His Spirit...His Father had slipped away for that brief moment only to return for His Grand Re-entrance and Resurrection...The Resurrection was a portal to God and away from the thinking of absence about Him...