April 17th: The Plan, all along
Matthew 27:46, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus’s disciple Matthew tells us that around noon, darkness began to consume the land. At around 3pm, Jesus, being six hours into His crucifixion, cries out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Did the Father really abandon His Son? Why was the Son of Man feeling forsaken? Jesus, here, is quoting the opening words of Psalm 22, which were written by King David. David, when he wrote this Psalm was also feeling forsaken and abandoned by God, and that his prayers were not being heard; he was clearly suffering and felt alone.
We have to remember that Jesus said in John 16:32 that His disciples would abandon him, but His Father would never abandon Him. It seems that Jesus, like David, knew that his concerns and pain mattered to the Father, and the honesty of voicing that pain was not an absence of faith, but an expression of it. In this moment of great anguish as the Son takes on the wages, the consequences of sin, He looks into the eyes of the only one who can do anything, and His Father does nothing, and He dies, not alone, but submits to the will of the Father. What was the motivation for this? Jesus’s love for those who would be redeemed by Him, you and I.
Forsaken then could mean, not that the Father turned His face away or hid Himself, but that the Father did not deliver Him, because this has always been the plan for redemption, even before creation (1 Peter 1:19-21); this was as much the Son’s decision as it was the Father’s and the Spirit’s, as Jesus willingly laid down His life to save us from our sins. We too are invited to voice our pain to God, knowing that God sees and hears us, as we are reminded that one day our pain will cease and we will live in God’s presence forever.
Jesus’s disciple Matthew tells us that around noon, darkness began to consume the land. At around 3pm, Jesus, being six hours into His crucifixion, cries out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Did the Father really abandon His Son? Why was the Son of Man feeling forsaken? Jesus, here, is quoting the opening words of Psalm 22, which were written by King David. David, when he wrote this Psalm was also feeling forsaken and abandoned by God, and that his prayers were not being heard; he was clearly suffering and felt alone.
We have to remember that Jesus said in John 16:32 that His disciples would abandon him, but His Father would never abandon Him. It seems that Jesus, like David, knew that his concerns and pain mattered to the Father, and the honesty of voicing that pain was not an absence of faith, but an expression of it. In this moment of great anguish as the Son takes on the wages, the consequences of sin, He looks into the eyes of the only one who can do anything, and His Father does nothing, and He dies, not alone, but submits to the will of the Father. What was the motivation for this? Jesus’s love for those who would be redeemed by Him, you and I.
Forsaken then could mean, not that the Father turned His face away or hid Himself, but that the Father did not deliver Him, because this has always been the plan for redemption, even before creation (1 Peter 1:19-21); this was as much the Son’s decision as it was the Father’s and the Spirit’s, as Jesus willingly laid down His life to save us from our sins. We too are invited to voice our pain to God, knowing that God sees and hears us, as we are reminded that one day our pain will cease and we will live in God’s presence forever.
REFLECTION
Do you ever feel abandoned by God, or that your prayers are not being heard or that His face is hidden from you? (Psalm 13:1). What encouragement can we take from Psalm 22, and Psalm 139?
PRAY
God loves it when we cast our desires and cares before Him, because He does love us and He does care. Ask God to remind you of His love, displayed through His Son on the cross, and that even in moments of pain and feelings of desperation, He will never leave you or forsake you (Deut 31:6-8).