PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Mark 15:33-37
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)
Along with the excruciating pain, Jesus suffers from God’s betrayal.
When the one you love, and you think loves you, turns against you!?
Jesus was not just quoting scripture (Psalm 22:1) to fulfill it.
He was genuinely expressing what he felt, what this felt like.
Many people throughout the ages have felt forsaken by God.
I still meet with people like this, who’s struggles are too much to bear.
They feel that God has either abandoned them, or turned against them.
Their ‘Why God, why???’ isn’t disrespectful – it is gut-wrenching real.
Some, like Jesus, have breathed their last breath never getting an answer.
I cannot answer the question, but I take some comfort in this scene.
Jesus shows us that God is with us (Immanuel) in birth and in death.
God is for us, not against us, which is why Jesus goes through this.
When it seems God is furthest from us, God is actually closest to us.
And stays with us through the cross… to the resurrection that follows!
PRAYER
Lord, your excruciating misery does not make our suffering easier, but it does assure us that God is close, not far from us in our times of misery.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is really hard for me to fathom. Jesus who is God as well being forsaken by the Father? The how is difficult! I know the why – why it had to happen – the sentence of death on mankind had to be paid to meet the just requirements of God’s justice. I think that not understanding the how is okay with me – I have limits in my scope of thinking – but what I do take away is the extreme seriousness of the sin of mankind – my sin included – that in the trinity of God there had to a separation to meet the demands of the law – and that those were met when Jesus – the son of God/son of man was forsaken by the God the Father, the creator- which is death! And Jesus then because He is God could not be kept away – but broke the separation – wiping away the sin barrier – restoring our relationship with the Father – the Creator. Jesus being forsaken was the final blow! It literally is the ‘crux’ of the matter! Now we can be resurrected with Jesus!
There are times when I too ask, where is God in all of this? In times of joy, we see the Lord’s blessings or may even forget the joy of the Lord. But in our struggles we too cry, Why Lord? Yet He gives the strength for us to walk through the dark valley. He has promised that. And that is only a reality for those in Christ Jesus. At all times I know that I am in His hand for that is where my help comes from, in this life and the next. That’s His promise and I need to serve Him always.
O Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end;
Be Thou forever near me,
My Master and my Friend;
I shall not fear the battle
If Thou art by my side,
Nor wander from the pathway
If Thou wilt be my Guide.
2
Oh, let me feel Thee near me;
The world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle,
The tempting sounds I hear;
My foes are ever near me,
Around me and within;
But, Jesus, draw Thou nearer,
And shield my soul from sin.