“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
These are pain filled words. These are words that many of us have uttered (or at least thought) in some form or another. “God, why didn’t you . . .” “If God loved me, he would not have . . .” “Why does God seem so far away from me?”
God, why have you forsaken me?
But has God, “forsaken me”? No, not me or you. In fact He has promised, “Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.”
This sense of forsakenness is a matter of perspective. Let me give you an example: I used to say when I got hungry, “I’m starving.” It’s a pretty common figure of speech. Then I went to Haiti on a mission trip. I saw starving children, held their hands, looked them in the eye when they begged for food, and turned my eyes away because I had nothing to give. I don’t say, “I’m starving,” anymore. And when I hear others say it the thought boils to the surface, “No, you’re not!”
Forsaken? No you’re not. But Jesus was.
The one who so firmly stood before His accusers, knowing the cross was coming because He knew His purpose and His Father’s love had that love ripped away from Him on the cross. In everything Jesus experienced that day, here is His first and really only complaint. The beatings, the nails, the mocking, the humiliation and the slow death were worth it, He could bear them. When the Father turns His face away from His Son, and leaves Him alone on the cross bearing the weight of every sin – yours and mine – Jesus truly and fully experienced Hell.
The scary thing in this is: We deserved what Jesus got. You and I would have been destroyed in this moment. But Jesus bears it, and finally utters a loud cry and breaths his last.
That cry sounded like death and defeat, but it was a victory cry. At that very moment the curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies – the place where it was said that God’s glory dwelled – was torn in two. The separation between God and man was taken away.
Yes, there are times that we feel forsaken. Yes there are times when life is hard. There are times when it is terrible, unjust, brutish, and wretched. But even in those times – especially in those times! – God is with us. He never forsakes us.
Look at the price that Jesus paid so that we could be with Him and the Father. Look at the love that moved Jesus to endure so much – including being forsaken. That love will not toss us aside! That love will never give up on us or leave us to our own devices and destruction.
I don’t know what you are going through today, but I will be thinking about Jesus’ love, and when I feel forsaken, I will turn my eyes to the cross and see the truth. “He did that to win me. He’ll never leave me!” And then I’ll carry on in faith, that there is better that Jesus has prepared for me.
These are pain filled words. These are words that many of us have uttered (or at least thought) in some form or another. “God, why didn’t you . . .” “If God loved me, he would not have . . .” “Why does God seem so far away from me?”
God, why have you forsaken me?
But has God, “forsaken me”? No, not me or you. In fact He has promised, “Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.”
This sense of forsakenness is a matter of perspective. Let me give you an example: I used to say when I got hungry, “I’m starving.” It’s a pretty common figure of speech. Then I went to Haiti on a mission trip. I saw starving children, held their hands, looked them in the eye when they begged for food, and turned my eyes away because I had nothing to give. I don’t say, “I’m starving,” anymore. And when I hear others say it the thought boils to the surface, “No, you’re not!”
Forsaken? No you’re not. But Jesus was.
The one who so firmly stood before His accusers, knowing the cross was coming because He knew His purpose and His Father’s love had that love ripped away from Him on the cross. In everything Jesus experienced that day, here is His first and really only complaint. The beatings, the nails, the mocking, the humiliation and the slow death were worth it, He could bear them. When the Father turns His face away from His Son, and leaves Him alone on the cross bearing the weight of every sin – yours and mine – Jesus truly and fully experienced Hell.
The scary thing in this is: We deserved what Jesus got. You and I would have been destroyed in this moment. But Jesus bears it, and finally utters a loud cry and breaths his last.
That cry sounded like death and defeat, but it was a victory cry. At that very moment the curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies – the place where it was said that God’s glory dwelled – was torn in two. The separation between God and man was taken away.
Yes, there are times that we feel forsaken. Yes there are times when life is hard. There are times when it is terrible, unjust, brutish, and wretched. But even in those times – especially in those times! – God is with us. He never forsakes us.
Look at the price that Jesus paid so that we could be with Him and the Father. Look at the love that moved Jesus to endure so much – including being forsaken. That love will not toss us aside! That love will never give up on us or leave us to our own devices and destruction.
I don’t know what you are going through today, but I will be thinking about Jesus’ love, and when I feel forsaken, I will turn my eyes to the cross and see the truth. “He did that to win me. He’ll never leave me!” And then I’ll carry on in faith, that there is better that Jesus has prepared for me.
Comments