My God, My God Why Have You Forsaken Me? I Mark 15: 34

And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

Had God the Father actually forsaken his Son? I believe it was our sin that caused the Father to look away from Jesus. Sin is the only thing that causes God to withdraw from anyone. A Holy God cannot stand in the presence of such vileness of sin. Since Christ was sinless and perfect, it was not His own sin that He was being crucified for or that caused God to forsake Him, it was our sin that He took upon himself that caused God to forsake Him. My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me? What a heart breaking cry of separation.

Have you ever felt alone and rejected as if everyone had forsaken you. When those we love reject us, it is very difficult because rejection is one of the hardest emotions we will ever have to bear. We feel insignificant, unwanted and that we have no value.

Jesus understands what it feels like to be deserted, alone and rejected. He knows our distress and our despair and that sometimes the darkness of being forsaken makes it impossible to see what is before us.

But Jesus chose to be separated from His Fathers love so that we would not have to be.

He fully paid the price for us, he was the atonement for our sin, he took our sin and went all the way to the cross; now we can come into the presence of God unashamed.

Many times the troubles that we go through cause us to feel forsaken but remember the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

What was his response? Nothing can or should drive us away from Gods love: Romans 8:37-39 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. [38] For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Remember this, Jesus knows your hurt, he knows the pain of being forsaken and because He knows that pain He is interceding for you just like he did on that dreadful day when he accomplished the work of saving you. Now you can stand in the presence of a Holy God because of what Jesus has done– accepted, loved and forgiven.

Psalm 94:14 “The Lord will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “He extends compassion and comfort to you, which in turn, you can give to others.”

If you seem to find yourself in a ditch of rejection, acknowledge your pain, give it to God and then let him give you a hand up. Remind yourself that you are valuable to God, so valuable, that he let Jesus take your place.

Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Today commit to forgiving those who have rejected you and caused you pain just as Jesus Christ forgave those who rejected him and then go and encourage someone else today. Extend that same compassion Jesus extended to you.