My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
So I know that these words are also found in Psalm 22, verse 1. Identical. And I know that Psalm 22 also ends in victory.
But none of that softens Jesus’ words.
In the dark, He suffered. He shouted. Questioning the Father. Out loud, where it would be heard by everyone nearby and recorded for everyone since.
Why have you forsaken me, God? Abandoned me? Deserted me? Left me alone? Are you even there – because if you were, wouldn’t you do something?
I know this prayer. I’ve prayed it this way:
“I did everything you asked me to do, God. I checked and doublechecked to make sure I was following you. I carried out the plan carefully and obediently. And you led me here? To this place? Where things don’t end up as I wanted? Where life doesn’t turn out like it should and everything doesn’t have an instantly happy resolution. Where are you, God? Why have you left me here alone?”
The Bible is chock-full-of characters who asked the same questions. Moses, Elijah, David, Jeremiah, Paul & Peter – they all ask this question in one form or another. The Bible records all of this. God doesn’t shy away from questioning. And He’s not offended by it. I think he knows we feel this way. Job put it this way, “Why is life even given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?”
The answer to Job’s question comes in the New Testament: “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God; and when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Wow.
So I take great comfort from Jesus’ raw emotion. It must be okay to feel this way. And part of how my life is hidden with Christ in God is that He felt what I feel.
From these last words, I am convinced anew that Jesus knows my frame and remembers that I am dust.
And so, from these words, I am persuaded that I am not forsaken. It’s so interesting to me now that the antonym of forsaken is “cherished, held dear, treasured, wanted.”