I’ve attended Seven Last Word Services on Good Friday since my teens. I’ve preached at them also. Several times I have volunteered to preach on the fifth word, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That’s a difficult text to preach on. Why does the Father forsake the Son? So many times I have heard the text eviscerated by the preacher noting that these words are a quote from Psalm 22 which includes this act of faith:

I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

See, Jesus crying out about being forsaken isn’t what it seems. He was just saying his prayers.

Nonsense!

Jesus dies as the God-forsaken. On the cross the Son experiences what had not been experienced before–separation from the Father. There on the cross the sinless Christ experiences what all of sinful humanity experiences. On the cross Christ completes the process begun with his incarnation. As Paul explained to the Philippians, Christ “Emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death–even death on a cross.”

Most holy Savior, when we experience ourselves abandoned, remind us by the example of your dying as the God-forsaken that you are one with us even in our most desperate moments.

Read Mark 15:34-37  and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne