Why hast thou forsaken me?

"My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?"

I guess there might a lot people asking the question "why did Jesus cried out these words?" When I was a young boy, I did asked the same question not just once. And the usual follow up question to this is "Did God really abandoned Jesus [His One and only beloved son - Luke 3:22] when He was suffering on the cross?" Also during that time, people who mocked him baffled and said, "He saved others; he cannot save himself!" Matthew 27:42

As I eagerly tried to discover and learn the real message behind these words, it all summed up to one compelling reason.. God's love for us.

What is the significance of this cry and why did Jesus uttered those words if He knew what would happen to him in the first place? (please see Matthew 16:21 and Mark 10:33-34, where he predicted his own death). Actually, the exegesis of these words of Christ from Matthew 27:46 is two-fold. We can observe that (1) Jesus was in real agony and that (2) He was quoting from the scripture, i.e. the first verse of Psalm 22. I'd like to think that the former is about Jesus' real emotion from sufferings, and the latter is about His wisdom. Okay let's try to dissect this a bit and see how we can relate to it.


Jesus in agony
If a friend of yours have a hammer and he suddenly bashed your big toe with it, how would you react? You might cry in pain and ask the big WHY?!? Hehe, okay let's try not to be brutal here. Suppose someone is terminally ill or maybe experiencing great adversity; as humans, people under these circumstances might cry out and speak one of these phrases, "Why is this happening to me?" "When will this come to an end?" "Why did God forsaken me?"

Jesus was just like me and you when He lived here on earth. A being. A word that became flesh and made his dwelling among us. He faced humiliation. He felt the pain. There were blood coming out of His wounds. He even got thirsty Jn 19:28. And the difficult part was, he carried the entire burden of mankind. Following these, we can deduce that it was not just physical pain brought about by the lacerations on his weakening body on the cross and crown of thorns on his head, he was also in emotional pain. He was so concerned about his people that he even humbly asked God to forgive them for being caught unaware of their wickedness Luke 23:34. So it's not but normal that any beings undergoing such sorrow is likely to utter the same throbbing words. Jesus was in agony when he said those words.

And as written, this had to occur in order to fulfill God's redeeming grace for us, his people. God did not totally abandoned Jesus, it was all in accordance to his divine plan. Isaiah 53:10


Jesus quoting from old testament scripture
Read through the entire passages in Psalms 22:1-31 and you will discover that the words of King David transpired during Christ's crucifixion. Was it a prophecy? According to bible scholars it was a prophecy.

6 ..scorned by mankind and despised by the people
7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
16 ..they have pierced my hands and feet
18 ..they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots

Did King David really experienced this? Or it was just a cry of his grieving heart, sort of like an anguished prayer from suffering unjustly? But the real turn of events of what was written here ensued during Christ's sufferings. Jesus hands and feet were literally pierced. "And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots." Matthew 27:35. We all know that being crucified means being NAILED to the cross Acts 2:23. So we can also conjure that King David's prayer to God narrated in Psalm 22 was merely prophesying about the Messiah's fate.

So when Jesus shouted in pain "My God, My god, why hast thou forsaken me?" He was somewhat declaring to the people, by quoting from the first verse in Psalm 22, that the sufferings of Christ that was written has come true on that day at the calvary.

Jesus' last words were.. "it is finished" Jn. 19:30
Notice that the last phrase in Psalm 22 is.. he has done it!

To conclude my seemingly long blog, hehe, about these significant words of Jesus, well I strongly believe God did not forsake his son.. He did all these to fulfill his plan to redeem the world of our sin. God loves us! "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Jn. 3:16

God knows our feelings and our concerns. So when you feel like asking the same question to Him, please remember that He's not turning his back on you. And I believe it's okay to tell God how we feel even in the form of WHY questioning. BUT we must also try to seek wisdom from Him so that we'll not disintegrate, instead remain strong, knowing victory is just one step away.

Thanks for reading and may you all have a blissful and meaningful week.

ciao! c",)