« The Third Word: “Dear woman, here is your son.” (John 19:26) | Home | The Fifth Word: “I am thirsty.” (John 19:2) »
The Fourth Word: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mark 15:34)
By Mark D. Roberts | Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Permalink to this post / Permalink to this series
|
|
So-called “God’s Tear” from The Passion of the Christ.
Reflection
As Jesus was dying on the cross, he echoed the beginning of Psalm 22, which reads:
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.
Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief. (vv. 1-2)
In the words of the psalmist Jesus found a way to express the cry of his heart: Why had God abandoned him? Why did his Father turn his back on Jesus in his moment of greatest agony?
This side of heaven, we will never fully know what Jesus was experiencing in this moment. Was he asking this question because, in the mystery of his incarnational suffering, he didn’t know why God had abandoned him? Or was his cry not so much a question as an expression of profound agony? Or was it both?
What we do know is that Jesus entered into the Hell of separation from God. The Father abandoned him because Jesus took upon himself the penalty for our sins. In that excruciating moment, he experienced something far more horrible than physical pain. The beloved Son of God knew what it was like to be rejected by the Father. As we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (NIV).
I can write these words. I can say, truly, that the Father abandoned the Son for our sake, for the salvation of the world. But can I really grasp the mystery and the majesty of this truth? Hardly. As Martin Luther once said, “God forsaking God. Who can understand it?” Yet even my miniscule grasp of this reality calls me to confession, to humility, to worship, to adoration.
Questions for Reflection
Have you taken time to consider that Jesus was abandoned by the Father so that you might not be? What does this “word” from the cross mean to you?
Prayer
O Lord Jesus, though I will never fully grasp the wonder and horror of your abandonment by the Father, every time I read this “word,” I am overwhelmed with gratitude. How can I ever thank you for what you suffered for me? What can I do but to offer myself to you in gratitude and praise? Thank you, dear Lord, for what you suffered. Thank you for taking my place. Thank you for being forsaken by the Father so that I might never be.
When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown.Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” by Isaac Watts (1707)
Topics: Holy Week & Easter |
13 Responses to “The Fourth Word: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mark 15:34)”
Comments
Thanks for your willingness to make a comment. Note: I do not moderate comments before they are posted, though they are automatically screened for profanities, spam, etc., and sometimes the screening program holds comments for moderation even though they're not offensive. I encourage open dialogue and serious disagreement, and am always willing to learn from my mistakes. I will not delete comments unless they are extraordinarily rude or irrelevant to the topic at hand. You do need to login in order to make a comment, because this cuts down on spam. You are free to use a nickname if you wish. Finally, I will eventually read all comments, but I don't have the time to respond to them on a consistent basis because I've got a few other demands on my time, like my "day job," my family, sleep, etc.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Dear brother in Christ,
Greetings in His most precious Name.
As I was reading this passage a beautiful thought came (inspired by the Holy Spirit), that when Jesus experienced this apparent seperation from God the Father, the pain of separation was more than that of physical. So His eagerness to save mankind would have doubled at that precise moment. If He being part of the Godhead sufferred this much, how can mankind take this pain? So with a redoubled vigour He executed the Father’s plan of Redemption of mankind.
Praise be to Him alone.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Why would God turn from or forsake Jesus??
Deuteronomy 4:31
2 Chronicles 15:2
Psalm 37: 25,28
By His own word God could not abandon jesus…
March 19th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I do not think the Father in any way rejected or turned his back on the Son. In my very humble opinion Jesus was answering his critics by quoting psalm 22 because in verse 24 the Psalmist said,
“For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him;
I am sure the Jews thought Jesus was abandoned by God, but by quoting Psalm 22 he was telling them the Father had not abandoned him.
J. Oliver Buswell’s systematic theology has a good section on this issue as well as Jesus in the garden.
Your blog is such an incredible blessing, and I use it daily in my pursuit of Jesus.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Mark,
I came across your web site while I was preparing for a Good Friday sermon. We are missionaries on the island of Roatan and this was kind of a last minute request. Thank you for what you have written, there are a couple of ideas I want to flesh out in my sermon. However I am having a hard time finding an illustration that can show the repulsiveness of our sin. Thanks for your work, it is thought provoking.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Dear All,
what sin are we talking about…!The theological sin! the sin we are taught that which was born with us right from childhood ! No… you are a magnificient masterpiece…a unique signature of God. but where is God !! dont search him for outside he is in you. Your concious is & God speaks to you thro that. In simple words Jesus is like you and me a masterpiece of God for a purpose but not God.Havenly Father is God and Jesus has shown how to reach out to him by his life. Theological explanation was later modulated to justify a claim - Out of a mental deppresion on separation from my family (my wife and daughter)I was scrooling for solace and stumbled upon this site - If you can pray for us to be united - A confused life for material wants - from a SINNER
July 20th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
[…] Roberts offers a reflection on the words of Jesus from the cross. “My God, why have you forsaken me?” and “I am […]
December 13th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I have just read the article above and in my opinion there is some truth to it but I don’t think God rejected Jesus.
As we all know God loves man kind regardless but sin separates man from God. Inorder for God to save us mankind He atoned our sins by laying them on Christ. Because of that we obtained what Jesus had Redemption and became closer to God while he took our sins and became sepatared from God. If you really think about it you’ll understand why that has been called the ultimate sacrifice.
Once you get to know God and develop some level of a relationship with Him no matter how big or small that relationship is we come across a loving God and what we experience is so beautiful that we hold on to that belief. Now Jesus didn’t just have some relationship with God but Him and God were one but through his sacrfice he agreed to break that link He had inorder for us to have it.
In my opinion that spiritual separation from God must have been so painful that He cried out “My God My God why have you abandoned me”
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:47 am
“My God, My God, Why have you abandoned me?” - These words Jesus spoke were the words of all manind - crying out for God’s forgiveness of our collective sin. Jesus had no sin - he was (and is) God - he was perfect … “Yet God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son”. Only Jesus, both Man and God could possibly understand the torment of dying for mankinds sins. We cannot understand … we can only marvel! “To those who believe, no explanation is necessary, to those who do not believe no explanation is possible.”
I love God, and I NEED God in my life - Please pray for me!
November 9th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
I have heard most of my life that God turned His back on Jesus because, Jesus took on the sins of the world. It was vaulted from the text that tells us, “You (God) are too holy to look upon sin. This point seems to be lost when you consider the Satan, the very escense of evil was in the presence of God debating the temptation of Job.
The more plausible idea behind Jesus statement of, “My God, My God why have You forsaken me” comes from the Psalm Jesus is qouting. Psalm 22 is a psalm of triumph. These were the Jewish songs, which everyone at the foot of the cross would have known. Verses 11-18 are a vivid description of what was happening before them. Verse 23 calls for praise, glory, and awe for God. The 24th verse says, “For you have not despised nor abhored the affliction of your afflicted one; Nor has He hidden His face from him.”
The point that Jesus was trying to get across to those peole at the foot of the cross is in the final two verses of Psalm 22. “A seed will serve Him; It will be told of the Lord to the coing generation. They will come and declare His righteousness, to a people yet unborn, that He has performed it.” Jesus was trying to get them to understand that as black as the moment seemed this was God’s doing. The Jews weren’t winning. The Romans weren’t winning. This is God at work!
Jesus on that cross was God’s plan, before the foundations of the world. Before God ever created, He saw His Son hanging on that cross, on that hill, and on that day. I am sooo glad to be one of the “yet unborn” who has blessed to be told that “God has performed it!”
November 9th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
I have heard most of my life that God turned His back on Jesus because, Jesus took on the sins of the world. It was vaulted from the text that tells us, “You (God) are too holy to look upon sin. This point seems to be lost when you consider the Satan, the very escense of evil was in the presence of God debating the temptation of Job.
The more plausible idea behind Jesus statement of, “My God, My God why have You forsaken me” comes from the Psalm Jesus is qouting. Psalm 22 is a psalm of triumph. These were the Jewish songs, which everyone at the foot of the cross would have known. Verses 11-18 are a vivid description of what was happening before them. Verse 23 calls for praise, glory, and awe for God. The 24th verse says, “For you have not despised nor abhored the affliction of your afflicted one; Nor has He hidden His face from him.”
The point that Jesus was trying to get across to those peole at the foot of the cross is in the final two verses of Psalm 22. “A seed will serve Him; It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and declare His righteousness, to a people yet unborn, that He has performed it.” Jesus was trying to get them to understand that as black as the moment seemed this was God’s doing. The Jews weren’t winning. The Romans weren’t winning. This is God at work!
Jesus on that cross was God’s plan, before the foundations of the world. Before God ever created, He saw His Son hanging on that cross, on that hill, and on that day. I am sooo glad to be one of the “yet unborn” who has been blessed to be told that “God has performed it!”
March 31st, 2010 at 2:53 am
He was sent astray just for me and through divine grace He was brought back to glory by His Father. God is Love and Jesus Care’s.
April 19th, 2011 at 6:21 am
Dear Mark:
Peace be with you.
The Lord is with you.
Thank you for your posting on this site.
“How long must I suffer you!” Jesus said of his chosen friends!
amen
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” is the despairing cry that the 22nd psalm begins with. But if you read it through to the end it is really just like the much more famous 23rd, in that it ends in glory!
Psalm 22 faces the darkest desperate side of ignorant human experience, abuse, injustice, cruelty and suffering even unto death, but bears them all and still ends in unconditional affirmation, just as the more soothingly pleasant 23rd does.
The human form of Jesus had been unjustly accused, abused, handed over to the mercy of the blood-thirsty insanity of the mob and condemned to death. He was tortured, utterly disgraced and crucified. All the offences listed in psalm 22 were performed on him. He was killed but not defeated.
Unlike today when few know or read scripture, in Jesus’ day there were no easily available books, but many knew the psalms. Some knew them all by heart. Jesus certainly knew them. Invoking the 22nd while he was dying was in no way a cry of despair, as I personally thought it was for most of my life! It took me 40 years to learn that the anguished cry of the first line was the start of a dark but glorious song of lamentation and praise!
Thank God! I was lucky, blessed to have this enter my awareness. Until that moment it was to me a terrible anomaly in the glorious story of Jesus. It ate at me. Why would our spiritual ideal and eternal friend seem to yield to human despair at the crucial final moment? It really subverted my faith.
Today, very few have any idea of scripture or psalms. What was immediately obvious to Jewish witnesses and early friends of Jesus is hidden and veiled to us.
We need to do our homework! We have to ask, seek, and knock, just as we have been advised to! If we neglect the discipline we cannot receive the result. We need to prepare the way. We need to pray. We need to conceive, believe, and perceive the vision of the divine as a real and present rapture delighting in being. Our great sin is ignoring the obvious and complicating the simple. We are so sophisticated we outsmart ourselves and keep ourself separate from the divine simplicity that is timeless and omnipresent.
When Jesus was pressed by his chosen friends about who he really was, he deconstructed the notions about the Messiah and ended it all by affirming divine being. “…before Abraham was I am.” he said.
He affirmed that of God in everyone and always answered it. Even now. That answer and affirmation is deathlessly eternal and divinely real, are you?
It waits.
“Jesus wept.” It weeps at our darkness and suffering.
Orthodox scripture as we now know it leaves out a vital part of the story of Jesus. It reflects his spiritual gift of humour. Jeus laughed. Not in ridicule or nervous tension, but in the delight of being. The Christ spirit silently, ecstatically delights in our light…
amen amen amen
Pax. Shalom. Salaam. Go in peace. Be happy. Be one with The One.
Shanti. Shanti. Shanti
In friendship
Jon Karsemeyer
April 19th, 2011 at 8:04 am
“NEW & IMPROVED!”
Dear Mark:
Peace be with you.
The Lord is with you.
Thank you for your posting on this site.
Please pardon the error and omissions of my previous letter. It was sent in haste. I now repent in leisure.
Please enjoy the edited version below. “How long must I suffer you!” Jesus said of his chosen friends!
amen
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” is the despairing cry that the 22nd psalm begins with. But if you read it through to the end it is really just like the much more famous 23rd, in that it ends in glory!
Psalm 22 faces the darkest desperate side of ignorant human experience, abuse, injustice, cruelty and suffering even unto death, but bears them all and still ends in unconditional affirmation, just as the more soothingly pleasant 23rd does.
In the scriptural account, the human form of Jesus was unjustly accused, violently abused, handed over to the blood-thirsty insanity of the mob and condemned to death. He pointedly offered no resistance to torture, disgrace and crucifixion. All the offences listed in psalm 22 were performed on him. He was killed but remained impossibly and majestically undefeated.
Unlike today when few know or read scripture, in Jesus’ day there were no books. There were a few carefully protected scrolls that were hand-copied by trained and designated scribes, but all practising Jews knew the psalms. Some knew them all by heart. Jesus certainly knew them. Invoking the 22nd while he was dying was in no way a cry of despair, as I personally thought it was for most of my life! It took me 40 years to learn that the anguished cry of the first line was the start of a dark but glorious song of lamentation and praise!
Thank God! I was lucky, blessed to have this enter my awareness. Until that moment it was to me a terrible anomaly in the glorious story of Jesus. It contradicted everything else in the story! How could Jesus subdue The Tempter as he did after fasting in the wilderness -and then yield to despair at the final most critical hour! It mocked me. It ate at me. It really subverted my faith.
Today, very few have any idea of scripture or psalms. What was immediately obvious to Jewish witnesses and early friends of Jesus is hidden and veiled to us. But the rules of spiritual being and the human condition have not changed, and will not change.
We need to do our homework! We have to ask, seek, and knock, just as we have been advised to!
If we neglect the discipline we cannot receive the result. We need to prepare the way. We need to pray.
We need to conceive, believe, and perceive the vision of the divine as a real and present rapture delighting in being.
Our great sin is ignoring the obvious and complicating the simple.
We are so sophisticated we outsmart ourselves and keep ourself separate from the divine simplicity that is timeless and omnipresent.
When Jesus was pressed by his chosen friends about who he really was, he deconstructed the traditional beliefs and notions about the Messiah and ended it all by affirming divine being. “…before Abraham was I am.” he said.
He affirmed that of God in everyone and always answered it. Even now.
That answer and affirmation is deathlessly eternal and divinely real, are you?
It waits.
“Jesus wept.” It weeps at our darkness and suffering.
Orthodox scripture as we now know it leaves out a vital part of the story of Jesus. The missing part reflects his spiritual gift of humour.
Jesus laughed.
Not in ridicule or nervous tension, but in the delight of being.
The Christ spirit silently, ecstatically delights in our light…
amen amen amen
Pax. Shalom.
Shanti. Salaam.
Be happy.
Be one with The One,
just as Mary, just as her son.
In friendship
Jon Karsemeyer