Messiah's Last Words | 7 Easter ReflectionsSample

Never Forsaken

At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, . . . “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” –Matthew 27:46

When my grandfather was dying, I went to his care facility to say goodbye. The halls were empty, and his room was sterile: fluorescent lights, linoleum floor, one potted plant, one family picture. The whole place smelled of vinegar and lemon. I’d never seen a person die before, but I heard the death rattle in his breathing and saw his sunken eyes. I wanted to tell him goodbye. I wanted him to know (though I don’t think he was conscious) that even in this gloomy place, he wasn’t alone.

What could be worse than feeling alone in your darkest hour? Yet Jesus felt this very sorrow. From the cross, He cried: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Matthew 27:46). He wasn’t only expressing His own dereliction, but He was also voicing the agony of the whole world. Christ wasn’t speaking off the cuff but evoking one of Israel’s prayers (Psalm 22:1). He echoed Israel’s dread that God might forsake them, and He was also praying with us, speaking the same dread each of us face in our own moments of despair. When we lose a child or a marriage fails, we fear God’s absence.

However, it’s precisely Jesus on this lonely cross—and the resurrection soon to follow—that answers our distress. We may feel forsaken, but Jesus reveals the truth: God is always with us, even into death’s valley. We’re never forsaken. –Winn Collier

Where have you felt forsaken? How has God met you in that forsaken place?

Dear God, I know what it is to feel forsaken. Because of You, I know I’m never alone.