My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi,lama sabachthani?" — which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

The first time I ever came across the word “forsake” was when I saw the old black & white western movie, “High Noon.” You’ll remember that it starred Gary Cooper as a US Marshall who single handedly has a gunfight with four gunslingers whoa re out to get their revenge. As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, it’s also Gary Cooper’s wedding day and his bride, played by Grace Kelly is thinking about deserting him.

The title song of the movie, sung by Tex Ritter, is called “Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darling,” and it more or less tells the whole story of the picture. It’s a wonderful song and I learned it completely as a child. If I had the time, I could sing to you from start to finish.

So I learned from that movie that the word ‘forsaken’ means to abandon someone in the midst of deep trouble and possibly life threatening circumstances. When I later came across the passage from scripture where Jesus shouts out from the Cross, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” all that I could think of, was how abandoned Jesus felt by His Father.

It must have been both a terrible and terrifying moment for Jesus. As His life is fading away and the pain is most excruciating, it’s as if the Devil chooses this weak moment to tempt Jesus into believing that the situation is hopeless and that God can no longer bear to watch what is happening. Only the night before, Jesus pleaded with God to take this cup of sacrifice away from Him. He didn’t personally want to go through with it, but eventually Jesus surrendered Himself to God’s will.

As Christ calls out these words, beneath the Cross His beloved Mother is also going through the same agony, second by second, tear by tear, blood drop by blood drop. Jesus’ words must have pierced her heart and I imagine that Mary must also have felt forsaken by God and the promises that Gabriel had given to her before Christ was born. But perhaps she also remembered that another name was given to Jesus – that of Immanuel – which means God is with us. Mary could do nothing for her Son at that time, except to hold on to the promise that God had not forsaken them, but was still in the midst of the suffering.

As each Easter comes and goes, we all experience loss and grief, separation and suffering, pain and anxiety. During those moments, sometimes despair will rend our hearts and bring chaos to our minds. On Good Friday, we recall the suffering of our Savior, the heartbreak of His Mother, and the holy presence of the God who suffers with us. We are not forsaken nor forgotten by God. We are supported, embraced, and completely loved.