My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

—Matthew 27:46

The famous last words of dying men and women are most intriguing and, in many cases, quite revealing. Some people have left this world reluctantly. Elizabeth the First said, “All my possessions for just one moment of time.” Voltaire died with these haunting words on his lips: “I am abandoned by God and man. I will give you half of what I am worth for six months of time.” Others, though, spoke final words that reflected a soul at peace. At his execution Sir Walter Raleigh said, “So the heart be right, it matters not where the head lies.” Dwight L. Moody put it like this: “I see earth receding, heaven is opening, God is calling me.”

Arguably, no one’s dying words have been more memorable or more quoted than those of Jesus of Nazareth. Nailed to a Roman cross, in agonizing and excruciating pain, He spoke seven times. After a long night of betrayal and arrest, illegal trials and false testimonies, cruel mockery and a bloody scourging, Jesus was nailed to the cross and dropped with a thud into the ground. It was nine o’clock in the morning, and He was still hanging on that instrument of death at noon when a strange and mysterious darkness covered the earth for three hours. Shortly thereafter Jesus died. He had, however, spoken from the cross three times in the morning hours, once from the darkness, and then three more times in rapid succession after the darkness broke.

Jesus’ first word was a prayer: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). Jesus died praying for others. What He had earlier preached on a grassy green hill in Galilee—“Love your enemies . . . pray for those who . . . persecute you” (Matthew 5:43–44)—He practiced on the lonely hill of Golgotha.

Next came a promise: “Today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). He spoke this word in response to the thief hanging next to Him who recognized his own sin, acknowledged the sinlessness of Christ, and then called out to Him with “Lord.”

Then came a pronouncement : “Woman, behold your son!” (John 19:26). Seeing His mother, Mary, standing alongside His disciple John, Jesus commended her into John’s care. Yes, Jesus died taking care of others. Significantly, He referred to her as “Woman,” an indication that He was now severing all earthly ties. He would no longer be her son; now He would be her Savior.

Then came the darkness that, after three hours, was pierced with the haunting words of a prophecy: “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Psalm 22:1).

And after the darkness, three quick words. First, a plea: “I thirst!” (John 19:28), revealing the human side of our Lord. Next came the proclamation: “It is finished!” (John 19:30). The Greek word means “to be paid in full.” Jesus didn’t go to the cross to make a small down payment for our sin; He paid our sin debt in full. Finally came His last word, a profession: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). And Jesus died.

Our question in this chapter has perplexed believers throughout the centuries: “My God . . . why have You forsaken Me?” I doubt there is a sadder, more haunting word in our English language than forsaken. Many people know all too well the raw heartbreak that comes with being forsaken. Some once stood at a wedding altar and heard a lover promise to never leave or forsake them. That promise was broken, and now life is lived with the reality of being forsaken. Countless children who have been abandoned by fathers or mothers live for years in the dark shadow of being forsaken. But does God forsake His own people? Never! Did He forsake Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in a fiery furnace (Daniel 3) or Daniel in a lions’ den (Daniel 6)? No! Then why this loud cry, this strange question from the dry, parched lips of our Lord as He hung from the cross?

We are reminded in Habakkuk 1:13 that God the Father is so holy that He cannot even look upon sin. This truth is why, on the cross, the words of Isaiah 53:6 became reality: “All we like sheep have gone astray . . . and the LORD has laid on Him [Christ] the iniquity of us all.” The apostle Paul put it like this: “[God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the cross Jesus took our sin in His own body, suffering shame, hurt, humiliation, pain, agony, and death—the consequences that we deserved. God the Father could not look upon the sin His Son was bearing, so He turned away. Darkness enveloped the earth as Jesus fought our battle with Satan on the cross. His words “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” come directly from Psalm 22:1, as though Jesus, quoting this prophecy, was saying, “I will endure this separation so that any and all who come to Me will never have to be separated from God and will never experience the pain of being forsaken by their heavenly Father.”

Is it any wonder the Bible says, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)? On the cross instead of giving up, our Lord reached up. In place of giving in, He reached in. And in place of giving out, He reached out. What a Savior. And, yes, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

Q & A: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Why did the Father forsake Jesus? The simple yet significant answer is that Jesus was forsaken so that we might never have to know separation from God. Jesus paid in full our sin debt. He died our death so we could live His life. He took our sin so we could take on His righteousness. Jesus was forsaken so we might never be forsaken. Read all four Gospel accounts of the crucifixion this week and meditate on Christ’s redeeming and radical love.