By Judy Villanueva
My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)
An incredible question considering it came from the mouth of our Savior. Jesus felt forsaken! Imagine this moment…Jesus had always enjoyed God’s presence throughout His life and ministry. In fact, He had for all of eternity. But, at this moment, hanging on the cross in pain…torn from His Father, bearing the weight of sin on His back, and facing the darkest night imaginable, His soul bellows for God with a “What’s going on?” “Where are You?” cry! Left. Alone. Abandoned. Jesus actually asks “Why?” He knows why, right? But, in the hour of truly being forsaken, His heart is pierced with a devastating sorrow and He cries out for comfort…for His Father! To be sure, the pain of the cross was physical torture…but, I wonder if the worst of our Savior’s nightmare was when His Father turned His face away!
Jesus identifies with those times when life gets so painful that we cannot see or feel God near. He understands. And, when we cannot see through our suffering and circumstances to God, Jesus keeps seeing for us! He knows how it feels to be so engulfed in suffering and sorrow that nothing much makes sense. He knows how it is to feel forsaken. For Jesus, however, it was a devastation like we’ll never have to know because in that moment when all sin was laid on Him, Justice demanded that God turn away and separate from His beloved Son…the Son with whom He’d shared intimate and joyous communion since before the beginning of time! For our sake! The Father and the Son endured the ripping apart of their union so that we would never have to be…forsaken!
The beauty of Love’s sacrifice for my sake brings me to tears…to my knees in gratitude and wonder. And yet, there are days when I take for granted this gift of Love. Days that are tiresome or painful or sad or just plain busy when I forget that God so loved me that He gave His only Son. I don’t want to forget…not for one moment! I am grateful to Jesus for enduring the cross and staying until His work was finished…I am grateful to the Father for allowing His heart to be broken for me…and, I am grateful to tears that no matter what I’m going through or what I have done, God will never turn His face away from me. He will never abandon me…He made sure He’d never have to!
“Words cannot say thank you sufficiently! Your Love poured out on the cross baffles me to the core…so great and powerful a Love! Thank you for being forsaken for my sake…for loving me unto death. Help me to honor you with my life and never take for granted the gift You’ve given me. Amen.”
What about you?
Do you ever feel forsaken?
When you feel lost, do you forget that God is always near?
Can you receive the good news that God will never leave nor forsake you?
Jesus gave His life for you. He loves you. He always has a plan. Spend time remembering His love today.
