Never Abandoned

At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Mark 15:33-34

JESUS MUST HAVE BEEN meditating on Psalm 22, written a thousand years before he was born, as he hung on the cross. In it he found the words that expressed his own agony of soul. Up to this point Jesus had been beaten and whipped, and he’d had thorns pressed into his temples and nails pounded into his hands and feet. Yet he had said nothing. And then suddenly from the cross, he cried out these words from Psalm 22. He was experiencing something infinitely more painful than even his physical agony —he felt the spiritual agony of having the familiar presence of God withdrawn.

At the cross Jesus became sin for us. And because God cannot look upon sin, the Father had to turn away. Out of hatred for sin and love for sinners, the Father cast aside his beloved Son. Yet Jesus was not abandoned for all time. Once the wrath of God had burned itself out in the very heart of Jesus, Jesus spoke again from the cross, shouting the words of Psalm 31:5: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46, ESV). The price for sin was paid and the relationship restored.

Though it pains and perhaps confuses us to think of God turning away from his own Son, we must see that this abandonment was purposeful and profitable. Because God turned aside from his Son on that day, you and I need never fear that God will abandon us or our children. Jesus experienced the separation that we deserve to experience forever so that we will never have to experience it. While we may sometimes feel abandoned by God, we have never been and never will be. Because Jesus was alienated from God as our substitute, we can draw near to him. Because God turned his face away from Jesus, we can be confident that he will never turn away from us.

Lord, I am the one who deserves to experience this agonizing abandonment by God. I’m the one who has sinned. Yet you bore not only my sin and my children’s sin, but also the abandonment of your Father that we might experience his presence forever. Thank you for your extravagant love for ________ and for me, which cost you everything and gives us all our hearts truly long for!