Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me
MUSIC BLOG
02-29-2024
Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?
There are days where the sun shines very brightly, both actually and figuratively. It would seem that nothing, no, nothing is standing in our way for success that seems to be imminent. Every step you take feels more like skipping or hopping. You can’t stop smiling. Life is good. Then we have those other days. Instead of sunshine bathing your steps, it seems that you are under a moving cloud of drizzling rain. Nothing seems to be going well, and you can’t remember when things were positive. Every step you take feels like you’re walking in mud or wet cement. Your feet feel like chunks of lead. You see nothing in your future. No hope. Dark. Death.
One of my favorite children’s books was, Alexander’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Here’s how it started:
From the moment Alexander woke up, he noticed the bubble gum that was in his mouth when he fell asleep had now gotten stuck in his hair. Then, when he got out of bed, he tripped on his skateboard. In the bathroom, he accidentally dropped his favorite sweater into the sink while the water was on. His brothers, Anthony and Nick, find prizes in their breakfast cereal boxes, whereas Alexander finds nothing . . .
It goes from bad to worse without relenting. Most of us can relate to having days like this. We feel alone and forsaken. Yet, no matter what we go through: loneliness, sickness, sorrow, loss, pain, it is nothing compared to our Savior’s ordeal on the cross. Even people who have been through the ordeal of deprivation and torture in a prison camp cannot grasp the excruciating suffering that Jesus endured on the cross for us. In all our trials we can never claim that we are alone. The Word of God has promised us that He will NEVER leave us nor FORSAKE us. Yet that is exactly what happened to Jesus. It was in that moment of being utterly alone, bearing the pain and separation that sin demands our Savior, Jesus, cried out on the cross.
Matthew 27:45-47
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” That is to say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus not only understands our temptations, our struggles, our failures; He was in fact the very remedy those things demanded. When we look at the cross, if we don’t see ourselves on that cross, we are indeed amiss. We don’t fully understand or appreciate what transpired that day and in that hour. The moment Jesus cried these words was the very moment the transaction for our sins was accomplished. This was the reason He came. He came to die and at such a cost to Him. This was done to fully demonstrate how deep, and wide, and tall and broad was God’s love. There is no sin too foul, no deed too evil no sickness too vile, no wound too festered that His payment cannot reach to heal, mend, bless and overcome.
If you are in the throes of self-doubt and self-pity let me encourage you to take a step back, pause and reflect, drop to your knees and ask for forgiveness if you must, but don’t go another minute in doubt and frustration.
Your penalty has been paid and it was paid in full.
Blessings,
Marty