The Seven Last Words of Christ: Why Have You Forsaken Me

by Daniel Burton

It can be a difficult thing to think that someone has turned their back on you. Being forgotten can be one of those loneliest feelings a person endures. At a point we were special to a person and on the forefront of a persons mind. Yet, when we endure trial, difficulties, or other times when we need a person who isn’t readily available, the feeling of forsakeness creeps in. Jesus was no exception. God sent Jesus to carry the burden of the sins of mankind on His shoulders. Everyone knew what this would mean as well. Sin required that blood would be shed, there would be no getting around that. As He hangs on the cross, the life gIving blood draining from His body, He cries out to God in anguish.

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

– Matthew 27:45-47, NIV

Jesus cried out for His Father in Heaven to rescue Him. Christ, being fully God, understood that it would have been a simple task to bring a miraculous rescue to this excruciating circumstance. Yet, the Hand of God stayed. Jesus would die on the cross. The consequences of sin would fall on Him. The Father sent the Son explicitly for this purpose. Mankind would be better for it. Yet, Jesus experiences the weight and separation that came with sin. Because He endured our punishment on the cross, we will never have to experience that same punishment.

The Weight and Separation of Sin

Sin demands sacrifice. Plain and simple. There is no alternative to maintain the fabric of creation. Unholiness can not bear to stand before holiness and sin cannot exist in the presence of perfection. In order for mankind to return to the presence of God the issue of our sin needs to be dealt with and summarily resolved. For us, we are unable to bear the burden of that same sin. Nor would my death do anything effective for the salvation of mankind. My death can only pay for my sins as they are sins earned. It is only through the punishment of an innocent person that could wipe away the sins of another. Jesus was beyond perfect, He was Holy. Thus, for the whole expanse of mankind to be saved, the sins of the unrighteous must be placed on the righteous and the weight and separation of sin would fall on the perfect.

The death was a brutal death and the recipient innocent. Beyond that, Jesus endured the feeling of being forsaken all so the ones He loved would never need to feel the same. Click To Tweet

Jesus endured this punishment. He cried out to God asking why God had forsaken Him. For a brief moment, the person of God was spread out across life, death, and everything in-between. Jesus touch every area of creation and impacted the whole of the physical and spiritual realm by bearing the consequences of sin and sickness. Death would fall on Jesus Christ and then lose the whole of its power. No more would people be unwillingly subjected to the burden of the eternal consequences of a spiritual death. The separation from communion of God was placed on God in the person of Jesus Christ so that we would not be required to pay the cost that we cannot endure and we would be able to approach the throne of God. The death was a brutal death and the recipient innocent. Beyond that, Jesus endured the feeling of being forsaken all so the ones He loved would never need to feel the same.

A Consequence Never Seen

For all of the agony that Jesus felt beyond the physical, this is the one portion of the ministry that we, as followers of Christ will never experience. Sin separates us from the goodness of God, putting a deep chasm between God and His Beloved creation. Furthermore, the punishment of sin is the fullness of the wrath of God (a fullness nonetheless). Yet, as we entertain sin in our lives, we drifted further from the light of God. This only because the intervention of Christ in our lives. Christ pursued us even when we were against Him and we were never alone in God’s pursuit of us. As we invited Christ to be the Lord of our lives, the Spirit entered our lives and tabernacled within us and thus, we were never alone. For those who comes to Christ, at no one can we with any reasonable truth claim that God has forsaken us. The whole of scripture and the nature of God speaks of a God who will not leave His people alone.

We may not always feel as though God is with us, but His presence goes before us, after us, and with us all the same. Click To Tweet

We may not always feel as though God is with us, but His presence goes before us, after us, and with us all the same. God is not bound by our feelings and his presence does not depart simply because we do not feel it. He is an omnipresent God, seeking a constant communion with His people. For whatever difficulties we face, whatever trials present themselves to us, we are never alone. Christ was slain before the beginning of the world so that His presence and His Spirit could follow us wherever we go. Therefore, we can stand firm in the purpose and direction that God has for our lives knowing that the responsibility to perform rests on the God who guides us and gives us His strength.