God Forsaking Jesus on the Cross?

You Know Better

from Pixabay by Karen .t using AI

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Click “play” to hear about 100 seconds about no such thing as a simple lifeform or a universe.

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About 3 in the afternoon, Christ cried out,

"My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46

Jesus Confused?

For me, a disturbing situation, since the sinless Christ was hanging on the cross and he seemed confused about being forsaken. 

God’s most obedient Son, Jesus himself told the disciples that He would never leave or forsake them but God, the Father, was forsaking Jesus?!?

It seems Jesus is more faithful than God.

But all of this is based on the obvious assumption, as the Romans would have had at the foot of the cross, that Jesus felt God had deserted Him. 

You Know Better

Doesn't this oppose everything we know about Jesus determination to go to the cross? Doesn't this oppose everything good Jesus said about God, including that he who has seen him (Jesus) has seen the Father? Doesn't this oppose all that we witness in scripture about the unity of Jesus and the Father, like we read in John 17?

Of course, your gut is right, but we cannot defy the scripture because it doesn't fit our ideas, theology, or our comfort zone. 

Song Titles

What Psalm is this? "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want"

What song is this? Amazing grace how sweet the sound" 

The Old Testament and the Psalms had no numbers, no chapters, no verses. What we call Psalm 23, was called "The Lord is my Shepherd" during the time of Jesus. The first line of a song is often the title.

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" is the name of the Psalm we now call Psalm 22. Jesus' cry may have seemed a desperate sense of abandonment just as He was dying but those who knew scripture knew very well, Jesus was declaring a prophetic song/Psalm. 

Declaring Tragedy as Prophecy

Psalm 22 embodies a fulfilled prophecy "... they pierce my hands and my feet" something unknown in the time David wrote this.  

If you have two Bibles, or a Bible and a Bible app, I strongly encourage you to play detective and open one Bible to Psalm 22 and the other Bible to Matthew 27.

If you don’t do this, you will always say “I read that about Psalm 22” But if you just look for yourself, you will OWN IT.

Look for these in both places: Matthew 27 and Psalm 22

• All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:

• He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself!

• Let God rescue him now

• He trusts in the LORD, let the LORD deliver him; let the LORD rescue him, since He delights in him.

• they divided up his clothes by casting lots

More Details of Jesus Experience

And Psalm 22 has phrases that might provide more insight into what Jesus was experiencing:

• For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me;

• My heart is like wax; it melts away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

•  I can count all my bones; they stare and gloat over me.

God’s Wonderful Faithfulness

The Psalm tells more, in fact the opposite of being abandoned:

• He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help. (verse 24b)

Jesus Tells Them They Should Worship

Jesus, knowing the fulfillment of the cross and confident in His own resurrection and all that it represents, uses the song/psalm to prompt people to worship in verses 22 & 23:

I will proclaim Your name to my brothers; I will praise You in the assembly. You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All descendants of Jacob, honor Him! All offspring of Israel, revere Him!

then verses 25 & 26:

My praise for You resounds in the great assembly; I will fulfill my vows before those who fear You. The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise Him. May your hearts live forever!

This Event Will Impact the Future

Though the prophecy by David was being fulfilled precisely as Jesus cried out, unfulfilled prophecy about the future is declared in the same song (Psalm 22):

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD. All the families of the nations will bow down before Him. v 27

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before Him—even those unable to preserve their lives. v 29

Posterity will serve Him; they will declare the Lord to a new generation. v 30

They will come and proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn—all that He has done.

Wow. What a tremendous ending to the song and the prophesy.

Effective Communicating While Dying

All of this delivered to those who knew the Word by simply crying out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”

Since When Can God Not Look at Sin?

Many times in my life, I have heard teachings that God really did forsake Jesus because "A holy God could not look at sin". 

Huh?? 

We see all the horrors of this world but God is so fragile He cannot look at sin?

Satan is afraid of God. God is not afraid of Satan. There is no one as powerful in all the universe as God. God sees everything.

Hebrews 4:13 “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Job 28:24 “For he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.”

Psalm 66:7 “He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations…”.

Jesus is Not More Faithful than the Father

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:8

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. Hebrews 1:3a

Based on scripture, I would therefore conclude God has never forsaken Jesus for 1 second, and Jesus knew it. You should decide for yourself, but this is worth knowing.

We are invited to this beautiful love, trust, and unity. Jesus prayer below:

“And I have made Your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love You have for Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:26

Have a wonderful week.

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