Luther commenting on Psalm 8:5:
There is no doubt that in the Spirit David is here looking at Christ as He struggles with death in the garden and cries out on the cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” For that is His real, sublime, spiritual suffering, which no man can imagine or understand. In the garden He Himself says, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” [Matthew 26:38]. This is what He wants to say: “I have such sorrow and anguish that I could die of sorrow and anguish.” He withdraws from His disciples about a stone’s throw [Luke 22:41], kneels down, and prays. In the prayer He begins to struggle with death, and He prays more fervently. His sweat becomes like drops of blood that fall on the ground. David is talking here about this sublime, spiritual suffering, when Christ fought with death and felt nothing in His heart but that He was forsaken of God. And in fact He was forsaken by God. This does not mean that the deity was separated from the humanity- for in this person who is Christ, the Son of God and of Mary, deity and humanity are so united that they can never be separated or divided- but that the deity withdrew and hid so that it seemed, and anyone who saw it might say, “This is not God, but a mere man, and a troubled and desperate man at that.” The humanity was left alone, the devil had free access to Christ, and the deity withdrew its power and let the humanity fight alone.
… The Man and Son of Man stands there and bears the sins of the world [John 1:29], and because He does not give the appearance of having divine consolation and power, the devil sets his teeth over the innocent Lamb and wanted to devour It. Thus the righteous and innocent Man must shiver and shake like a poor, condemned sinner and feel God’s wrath and judgment against sin in His tender, innocent heart, taste eternal death and damnation for us, in short, He must suffer everything that a condemned sinner has deserved and must suffer eternally.
… But He does this for our great benefit and for His own great joy.
[Martin Luther, Luther’s Works (12.126-127)] http://www.facebook.com/wolfmueller
