Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Jesus uttered these words on the cross to God; “My God, my God—why have you forsaken me?”

Why did God forsake Jesus on the cross? Was it because he couldn’t bear to see his son hanging there? That’s reasonable. Was it because he couldn’t bear to look on the sin of the world Jesus took to the cross? That could be.

But the Bible doesn’t really say God forsook Jesus. We can assume from what Jesus said, that he really, down to the core of his being, felt forsaken by God. And he had never known that feeling before. He had never sinned and therefore had never felt the pain of being separated from the most Holy God.

But sin always separates us from God. We know that. We’ve all been there. Sin is like the cloud that hides the sun. The sun doesn’t change, but it sure feels different on a cool day when the clouds gather and we’re left in the cold. But the sun doesn’t change. It is only hidden by the clouds.

God never forsakes us and he also wouldn’t forsake Jesus. When sin comes into our lives it feels like God is a million miles away only because the sin comes between us and him. We feel helpless, as if there were nothing we could do about it. That’s how Jesus felt, hanging there on the cross with all of my sin, and yours, and the sins of the whole world—a burden too big for any mere human to carry. But Jesus wasn’t a mere human. He carried those sins to the cross and died to gain the antidote for our sin poison and the sin poisons of the whole world. He was the only divine-human Being who ever was and he was the only he could do it.

I think God was right there looking on and wanting to help, but he knew this time the Son had to be on his own. The Father had to stand aside and let the Son do what only he could do. Jesus had to get through the pain of feeling forsaken by the Father in order to provide us with an antidote for the poison of our sin. I think God was there cheering him on, but Jesus didn’t know it because of the sin he carried for us.

When you feel forsaken by God because of sin, just remember that the forsakenness you feel is not real. God is waiting for you to ask for the antidote his Son provided when he died on the cross. God is pulling for you! Jesus, himself, is interceding for you as well. When you ask in faith, God gives his help lavishly—always adequately for your salvation. In fact the antidote is adequate for all the sins of the entire world.

Let our prayer for this planet today be that every person on earth will turn to God, receive the antidote for sin’s poison, and thus remove the cloud of sin that separates us from God’s unconditional love. That’s what “Resurrection Sunday” (usually called Easter) is all about.

Go to church somewhere this Sunday and celebrate what God has done for you! And for everyone in the entire world!

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.