My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me
INTRODUCTION
Do you already think about the motive for which Jesus
said: MY GOD, MY God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Psalm
22.1). For you understand the problem: many people say that
the Father forsook Jesus. However, Jesus said:
·
“And he that sent me
is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things
that please him.” (John 8.29).
·
“Behold, the hour
cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and
shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” (John 16.32).
By the way: taking the opportunity, why Jesus said
that His disciples would leave Him alone, being that John, supposedly, would stay
beside Him (John 19.26,27)?
And even that we accept the idea that the Father
forsook Jesus, why Jesus would ask such a thing, forasmuch as He well know the
answer? Many people say that Jesus, although knowing this, thus spoke so that
we knew the gravity of our sins (like Jesus did in
John 11.41,42). If so, then why did
Jesus speak in strange language?
Many people associate this phrase with Psalms 22.1,
saying that Jesus said this to combat the theology of prosperity gospel.
Some say Jesus wasn't praying, but preaching a message.
At this case, “it was not uncommon for rabbis to reference a portion of
Scripture with just the opening line, knowing that the people knew the full
reference”. This, of course, would only benefit to rabbis who knew, by heart,
the Sacred Scripture and was able to understand the language used by Jesus.
What do you think about this?
UNDERSTANDING THIS EXCERPT
Certainly
Jesus wasn’t forsaken by God. It’s true that Jesus bear our sins:
·
“Who his own self bare
our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live
unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1Peter 2.24).
Nevertheless,
if the Father had forsaken Jesus for this motive, then we would not be sure
that He loves us and is always with us. His love would be conditioned to what
we make. In addition to Him being corruptible, as we are flawed, He would pass
the most of the time angry with us.
Lamentably,
we are seeing the Eternal as a cruel tyrant. We inherited this from the heathen
religions. Notwithstanding, the Eternal isn’t served by men’s hands, neither
receive glory from men (John
5.34,41).
Fortunately,
He doesn’t receive us because He expects to get something from us. Instead of
this, He receives us because He desires to manifest His love for the neighbor
through us and want to show His love for us through the neighbor.
It’s true
that there are some passages in the Sacred Scripture that seem to suggest that
He breaks up with us when we sin. For example:
·
“And the LORD said, I
will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast
off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My
name shall be there.” (2Kings
23.27).
·
“Thus saith the LORD,
Where [ is ] the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or
which of my creditors [ is it ] to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities
have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” (Isa 50.1).
·
“I will scatter them as
with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the
face, in the day of their calamity.” (Jer 18.17).
·
“And I saw, when for all
the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away,
and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not,
but went and played the harlot also.” (Jer 3.8).
·
“And the LORD said unto
Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up,
and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go [
to be ] among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have
made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I
will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be
devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say
in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God [ is ] not among
us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they
shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.” (Deut 31.16-18).
Nevertheless,
see what the Eternal said in other passages:
·
“( For the LORD thy God
[ is ] a merciful God; ) he will not forsake
thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he
sware unto them.” (Deut
4.31).
·
“Thus saith the LORD; If
heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out
beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have
done, saith the LORD.” (Jer
31.37).
·
“Thus saith the LORD; If
my covenant [ be ] not with day and night, [ and if ] I have not appointed the
ordinances of heaven and earth; then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and
David my servant, [ so ] that I will not take [ any ] of his seed [ to be ]
rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their
captivity to return, and have mercy on them.” (Jer 33.25,26).
·
“I say then, Hath God
cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of
Abraham, [ of ] the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which
he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession
to God against Israel, saying,” (Rom
11.1,2).
·
“Remember these, O Jacob
and Israel; for thou [ art ] my servant: I have formed thee; thou [ art ] my
servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.” (Isa 44.21).
·
“But Zion said, The LORD
hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking
child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they
may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the
palms of [ my ] hands; thy walls [ are ] continually before me.” (Is 49.14-16).
How does it
resolve this impasse?
What it
happens is that, when somebody resist to the Spirit of Jesus, He ceases to
contend with them:
·
“For I will not contend
for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me,
and the souls [ which ] I have made.” (Isa 57.16).
When this
come to pass, this is what the Eternal does:
·
“For this cause God gave
them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use
into that which is against nature:” (Rom
1.26).
·
“And even as they did not
like to retain God in [ their ] knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” (Rom 1.28).
·
“And now go to; I will
tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and
it shall be eaten up; [ and ] break down the wall thereof, and it shall be
trodden down:” (Isa
5.5).
·
“For Israel slideth back
as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large
place.” (Hosea
4.16).
The Eternal One
maintains His Way (Jesus
– John 14.6).
·
“[ Concerning ] this
house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute
my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform
my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father: And I will dwell among
the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.” (1Kings 6.12-13).
When somebody
go out of this Way, He tries to call him back. If he continues to refuse, the
Eternal One leave him loose till there is place of repentance in his heart (Heb 12.17).
·
“Yet many years didst
thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets:
yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the
people of the lands. Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not
utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou [ art ] a gracious and
merciful God.” (Nehemiah
9.30,31).
·
“In a little wrath I hid
my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy
on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.” (Isa 54.8).
The Eternal One was like the father of the spendthrift
son: always waiting for the slightest feeling of repentance to “ran, and fell
on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke
15.20; see also Luke 15.4-6).
Nevertheless, he never left of being his son.
Likewise,
although the Eternal isn’t speaking with Israel (to provoke them to jealousy – Rom
11.11) they continue to have an important role in His plan.
Just think that Israel is the key
to God's prophetic calendar (in particular, of
the seventy weeks of Daniel):
·
“Seventy weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the
transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for
iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision
and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” (Dan 9.24).
After all,
the people of Daniel is Israel and his holy city, Jerusalem.
In the same
way, the Eternal didn’t abandon Jesus:
·
“Save me from the lion's
mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.” (Psalms 22.21).
·
“For he hath not despised
nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from
him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.” (Psalms 22.24).
His prayer
was heard:
·
“Who in the days of his
flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and
tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he
feared;” (Heb
5.7).
And Jesus
Himself said:
·
“And he that sent me is
with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that
please him.” (John
8.29).
·
“Behold, the hour cometh,
yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall
leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” (John 16.32).
Even if the
Father wished to leave Jesus, He couldn’t. After all, Jesus and the Father are
one (John
10.30):
·
“Jesus saith unto him,
Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he
that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou [ then ], Shew us
the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that
dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I [ am ] in the Father, and
the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.” (John 14.9-11).
If the
Eternal One had forsaken Jesus because of our sins, this would mean, consequently,
that He also would abandon us when we sinned. This would make of Jesus a liar,
forasmuch as He said:
·
“Teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [
even ] unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matt 28.20).
Fortunately,
our infidelity can’t make of none effect the faithfulness of God? (Rom 3.3,4).
Why Jesus quote Psalms
22.1?
Again:
how can the Eternal One make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy (Rom 9.23) if, when the sin abound, He run
away?
Firstly,
Jesus was associating this psalm with Himself. The idea is that everbody
perceive the severity of the sin, what the sin does to those who submit to it,
as well as the price that cost to the Eternal ransoms us. Jesus did something
similar in other occasion:
·
“Then they took away the
stone [ from the place ] where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up [ his ]
eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou
hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said [ it ],
that they may believe that thou hast sent me.” (John 11.41,42).
So that
nobody thought that Jesus was resurrecting Lazarus by Himself, He prays to the
Father.
Similarly, Jesus
quote Psalms 22.1 so that whoever desires to understand that sublime moment
could.
One of the
thing that Jesus wished to combat is the theology of prosperity. Such as the
Job’s friends, the great majority of the Jesus’ followers believes that the
blessings are the result of our fidelity.
If this was
truth, besides we receive only evil (even
our righteousness is like filthy rags – Isaiah 64.6), the Eternal
One would be manipulable, selfish. Nevertheless, He is benignant even to
ungrateful and bad people (Psalms
145.9; Matthew 5.44,45).
Here, in particular,
Jesus shows that the righteous suffer, but always is heard by God, wins and
guides many people to the Eternal One. To who belong to the Eternal One, the
important is to glorify the Jesus. The more daring is the experience, better.
After all, the power of the Eternal One is
made perfect in weakness (2Cor
4.10,11; 12.9,10) and the
grace much more abound where sin abound (Rom 5.20). Therefore,
the greater the sin, the more there is space for the mercy of Jesus to manifest
itself, saving us (Lam
3.22,23), and more we will be loved when forgiveness to reach
the person (Luke
7.47).
In addition:
“it was common for rabbis to reference a
portion of Scripture with just the opening line, once that the people knew the
full reference (given that it was
required for them to memorize the Holy Scripture)”.
In citing
this psalm, Jesus was bringing to memory of all who had intimacy with the truth
what really was happening. After all, in this psalm is shown what He was going
to pass, the prayer that He did for all of us (remember that He was feeling in His
flesh the pain of our sins. He didn’t pray for Him, but like our representative), what He would
be able to do for the Father’s name after winning (Psalms 22.22). In other words,
this psalm shows the sufferings of the Messiah, but shows Him being heard and
leading many to God.
You can ask:
but if it was for everyone to understand, why does Jesus exclaimed in a strange
language? The difficulty of understanding isn’t in the language used for Jesus.
With the revelation from the Spirit of Jesus in us, even if the message was
written in our language, even so we don’t figure it out. And even if we get it,
we will not be able to carry it out (see
Matt 11.28-30; John 6.44,45; Eph 4.20,21; 1Jo 2.27).
Beyond this,
if our heart was dirty, we will understand all distorted (Titus 1.15). Just think
that, to who didn’t have commitment with the truth, Jesus was calling for
Elijah (Matt
27.47). When the heart of the person is focused on the wrong
thing, they don’t get to understand, even if Jesus shows up himself clearly.
See:
·
“And when she had thus
said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was
Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She,
supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him
hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.” (John 20.14,15).
·
“And it came to pass,
that, while they communed [ together ] and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near,
and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” (Luke 24.15,16).
·
“Father, glorify thy
name. Then came there a voice from heaven, [ saying ], I have both glorified [
it ], and will glorify [ it ] again. The people therefore, that stood by, and
heard [ it ], said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him. Jesus
answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.” (John 12.28-30).
This come to
teach us that, if we were with the heart dirty, we cannot understand the Jesus’
message for us or worse: don’t recognize Jesus coming to us:
·
“Then shall he say also
unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no
meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me
not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me
not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an
hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did
not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto
you, Inasmuch as ye did [ it ] not to one of the least of these, ye did [ it ]
not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the
righteous into life eternal.” (Matt
25.41-46).
At finally,
forasmuch as the Jesus’ Spirit reveals the truth (1John 2.27), this isn’t
hindrance to somebody understand the word. The truth only doesn’t arrive to us
if we hinder it (see
Rom 1.18).
Eventually, what
do the meaning of the prayer that Jesus did within Himself (contained in the
Psalm 22. Jesus speaks only part of the verse 1, but in his heart He prays the verses
1 to 22 and part of the verse 25)? Considering
that He was bare our sins in his own body on the tree (1Peter 2.24), therefore
He was praying our prayer. After all, when the fights come, the first thing
that we think is that Jesus forsook us. In other words, Psalms 22 is the
fulfill of Romans 8.26:
·
“Likewise the Spirit also
helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:
but the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
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