Not Forsaken

6 min read

33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

—Mark 15:33-34

What Jesus said here is the first line of Psalm 22. In the Jewish faith, the first line of a psalm serves as the title to the psalm. So Jesus is not simply saying, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus is announcing the title to Psalm 22. It’s as if I were preaching a message and then announced the title of a song—”Amazing Love,” say.

Of course, His situation is infinitely more significant than my preaching a sermon. But the point is, I’m not simply saying that God’s love in Christ Jesus is amazing. I am recalling and referring to the lyrics of the song and all that it means in a given context.

Psalm 22, written by David, prophesies the suffering that Jesus, as the Son of David, is experiencing on the cross. At the same time, Psalm 22 expresses absolute trust in God’s deliverance and in His great plan of salvation for the entire world, so that all the earth will worship Him.

And so, Jesus is proclaiming, as He hangs dying on the cross, “God will save Me, even though I die in the most horrific way possible. And through His deliverance, God will fill the earth with His glory through the worship of His people, even ‘all who go down to the dust’” (Psalm 22:29).

God will always be faithful to His great plan of salvation for the world in Christ Jesus, and God will always be faithful to deliver those who trust in Him, even as we ourselves face great suffering and even death.

I don’t often follow the implications of my faith to this final conclusion. I always want God’s faithfulness to me to be revealed in THIS life. I always want God to deliver me in THIS life. But the deep and powerful truth about my faith is that God will deliver me even if I die. In fact, He will deliver me especially when I die.

And I understand fully how completely radical and unhinged my reflection will sound to most people. To the very core of my being, I truly do not have some crazy death wish.

And praise God! The implication of this truth is not that I should seek to die for Christ. The implication of this truth is that I must worship Him and trust Him with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind in THIS life.

But that implication is also too radical for most people to even fathom.

Honestly, God does not want us to live out our lives as crazy-eyed Jesus freaks carrying around signs that say “REPENT OR PERISH!”

Rather, God wants us to approach every relationship with a kind of love that recognizes that God will always deliver us when we put our complete trust in Him. That’s basically it.

Father, why do Your ways seem so radical and unrealistic to me? Are You not the one to created this world and created me? Help me to live according to the truth of Your word. Help to live according to the eternal life that is given to me in Christ Jesus. In His name I pray. Amen.