Sermon Summary
Walk with us through the suffering of Jesus and the Father’s silence on Good Friday.
Sermon Audio
Sermon Text
The Silence of the Father
Nate Roten / Easter 2026 / Crucifixion; Silence / Mark 15:22–37
Main Idea
On the cross, Jesus enters the silence of God so we never have to.
Intro:
This week, we have seen some of the sufferings Jesus encountered before He was placed on the cross:
• Judas betrays Him
• Peter Denies Him
• The crowd, who sang “Hosanna,” frees a murderer and yells ‘Crucify Him!”
• Pilate and the Pharisees unjustly tried Him
• Roman soldiers beat and mocked Him
All of this followed Jesus sweating drops of blood in Gethsemane, straining under the emotional weight of what lay ahead.
Yet as excruciating as these sufferings were—and as horrific as crucifixion itself was— there is a spiritual element of Christ’s suffering that we can often miss amid the physical horrors He endured.
Over the past month or so, we have put ourselves in the shoes of many of the people Jesus healed and ministered to. Many of these men and women have felt the sting of isolation and loneliness along with their physical ailments. As we strive to connect with them and apply the truths of scripture to ourselves, we have often asked ourselves questions like:
“Have you ever prayed and heard nothing back?… Not a no. Not a yes. Just silence.”
“Have you experienced moments of crisis when God felt utterly distant, and you felt completely isolated in your suffering?”
“Have you ever felt abandoned… as if God has turned His back on you?”
Tonight, I want you to see and feel what Jesus felt on your behalf. Good Friday is the only moment in all of Scripture where Jesus—the eternal Son of God—experiences the reality of divine silence, so that you and I never have to.
Passage
Mark 15:22–37 CSB
22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of the Skull). 23 They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 Then they crucified him and divided his clothes, casting lots for them to decide what each would get. 25 Now it was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26 The inscription of the charge written against him was: The King of the Jews. 27 They crucified two criminals with him, one on his right and one on his left. 29 Those who passed by were yelling insults at him, shaking their heads, and saying, “Ha! The one who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save yourself by coming down from the cross!” 31 In the same way, the chief priests with the scribes were mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! 32 Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe.” Even those who were crucified with him taunted him. 33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” 35 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “See, he’s calling for Elijah.” 36 Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, fixed it on a stick, offered him a drink, and said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down.” 37 Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last.
I – The Darkness We Cannot Explain (v.33)
Throughout the gospel accounts, Jesus remained mostly silent before His accusers, except for a few pointed comments to Pilate and the Pharisees. According to Mark’s careful chronology, the nails pierced His hands and feet around 9 in the morning, and He endured three hours of suffering, bearing the physical pain with every breath along with the mocking remarks of everyone passing by. But then, something supernatural occurred. Starting at noon and lasting until three in the afternoon, the sky grew dark.
This was more than just a natural event like a solar eclipse. Solar eclipses don’t cover entire lands, and besides, Passover’s full moon makes an eclipse impossible. A supernatural light proclaimed the coming of Christ at Jesus’ birth, and now, a supernatural darkness signals the fulfillment of His role as the sacrificial Lamb of God. Creation itself responds to Jesus’ mission—not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.
This darkness indicates that something more profound than physical pain is occurring right now. A suffering that Jesus has never experienced has started.
“He who knew no sin became sin for us…” (2 Cor. 5:21)
The sinless Son of God is bearing the sins of all His people: past, present, and future, and He is taking on the Father’s wrath in their place. All the guilt, shame, and punishment your transgressions earned are being placed on Jesus during this brief, veiled period of three hours, where no one could witness God the Father crushing His Son. The physical darkness was merely a small, visual sign of the spiritual darkness Jesus was experiencing.
II – The Shout We Don’t Expect (v.34)
We have heard the words, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit,” and “It is finished,” but before those final words are spoken, Jesus says something else, and it is quite possibly the darkest moment in Jesus’ earthly life… maybe in all of human history. Although Jesus suffered greatly, when He said, “It is finished,” it was a cry of victory and completion. While “It is finished” would be a cry of victory, these words are a raw outcry of pure anguish.
“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Why are these words so devastating?
1. First, God hates sin and must eliminate it. Never before in history has the Father done this to the Son. In the past, other provisions for sin were made where animals die for the sins of God’s people, but He never laid them on His Son and poured out His righteous wrath on His bloodied and marred body. As God, Jesus was fulfilling the plan set from the beginning of the world, but as a man, He was experiencing the wrath of the Almighty God, who was also His loving Father.
2. Second, and this is crucial, from eternity past, nothing has ever separated the members of the Trinity. They have always enjoyed perfect fellowship—Father to Son, Son to Spirit, Spirit to Father. Their relationship has always been marked by perfect unity. So, imagine what it would have been like for Jesus— for the first time in all eternity— to feel His Father abandon Him. He even foretold this moment when the Spirit inspired the Psalmist to write Psalm 22, but He hadn’t yet experienced it. Physical pain is terrible. The emotional pain of His disciples, earthly family, and covenant people turning their backs on Him was undoubtedly deeply wounding, but none of that compares to the pain He felt when He uttered those words, experiencing for the first time separation from His beloved Father.
And you need to feel the weight of this moment because it was your sin and mine that made the darkest moment in human history necessary.
We sometimes feel forsaken by God, but as believers, we are never truly alone. Jesus took that burden so we wouldn’t have to.
III – The Silence We Fear (v.35–36)
But the silence from heaven continues. There is no reply from the Father. The people below misunderstand what is happening and act based on their misconceptions, but Jesus isn’t worried about that. What we need to observe is the absence of any divine response.
While Jesus was still alive, He was still bearing the weight of our sin, so the Father was still acting as Judge. As Isaiah prophesied:
Isaiah 53:10 ESV
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt…
It did not please the Father to see the Son suffer or to make Him suffer… It pleased Him to save sinners through that suffering and the redemption it would accomplish. But, until that was finished, the silence had to continue in a way that no other person in Mark’s gospel had to endure.
Consider Jesus’ experience throughout Mark’s Gospel:
• God speaks at Jesus’ baptism
• Jesus speaks to His disciples in the storm.
• Jesus commands the demons to flee from His image-bearers.
• Jesus performs miracles and heals people from among the crowds
But here, there is nothing. Heaven is silent while the Son suffers.
This is the silence we all fear. We don’t want God to be distant during our struggles. We don’t want to pour out our prayers only to hear the void of silence in return. When we pray, we want a yes… we can even struggle through a no, but what we truly fear is silence… because we interpret silence as abandonment.
So we cry out with Jesus: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
But, praise God, the silence would end.
IV – The Death That Changes Everything (v.37)
Why did Jesus have to die? Because only in His death could our sin be fully atoned for. Only when the penalty was completely paid could heaven’s silence end.
“Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last.”
This loud cry was not a cry of defeat, nor a cry of unfair cruelty… It was a cry of intentional surrender and total victory.
Here we see the beautiful exchange: Jesus enters the silence of the Father so that we might never be abandoned. The Son experiences separation so that we might have eternal fellowship.
🔥 Application:
So what does this mean for us tonight?
When you feel abandoned by God, remember this moment. When your prayers seem to hit the ceiling, and heaven feels silent, remember that Jesus has already entered the ultimate silence on your behalf.
When suffering overwhelms you, and God seems distant, know this: You are never truly alone. The silence Jesus experienced was real and complete, so yours never has to be.
The silence of the Father in the suffering of the Son means salvation—and presence—for you and me.
You may feel forsaken, but you are not. You may sense distance, but God has not abandoned you. The cross guarantees that the ultimate separation—eternal separation from God—will never be your experience.