As Jesus hung dying on Calvary’s cruel cross, He called out four agonizing words which have perplexed the world ever since.  How easy it is to misunderstand these words is immediately apparent in that some thought that they heard Jesus call for Elias the prophet to help him.  Of course, it is so characteristic of humans to miss the voice of God.  After all, there were those who mistook the audible voice of God affirming His son for thunder. (John 12:28-29)  Obviously, this is why there is a repeated admonition that those who have ears to hear should hear what is being said to the church; many people simply do not have ears which are tuned in to hear the voice of God.  Yet even those who heard and understood the words had difficulty interpreting their meaning.

The traditional understanding of Jesus’ cry, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” has been to accept the passage at face value and justify it with some explanation that the Father had to turn His back since Jesus had taken the sin of the world upon Himself.  The explanation continues that this is because God cannot look upon sin.  I’m not sure how this explanation was developed, but I do know one thing — God has never been known to overlook or turn His back on my sins.  On the contrary, I’ve found Him to always be quite observant every time I’ve disobeyed His commandments!  A second interpretation which has been advanced is that this rejection by the Father was the ultimate step in the death of Jesus — spiritual death, or separation from God.  Yet this explanation seems faulty as well in that Jesus concludes the ordeal on Golgotha by commending His spirit into the hands of the Father. (Luke 23:46)  How could these two utterances from the cross be consistent with each other?

Even a cursory look through scripture gives us an insight into the nature and actions of the Father which seems to discredit these interpretations.  On almost every page, we find narrative that affirms that God is not in the business of forsaking.

The first members of the human race spared no time in rebelling against their Creator; yet, He did not forsake them.  In fact, He showed up that very evening to keep their regularly scheduled appointment for a stroll through the garden.  It was not God who stood up Adam and Eve, but they who jilted Him.

The next member of the human family was Cain who allowed jealousy and a spirit of murder to enter his heart because his brother’s sacrifice was more pleasing to God than his own.  Yet God did not reject him.  Instead, he offered restoration to him by asking, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” (Genesis 4:7)

There’s barely a page in the Old Testament which does not repeat this theme as we read such stories as those of Ishmael and Hagar who, even though they were cast out of the home of Abraham, were not rejected by God who created a well of fresh water to sustain them in the desert; of Joseph’s wicked brothers who sold the boy into slavery only to discover that God was using their cruelty as the key to preserving their lives; of the people of Israel who thought that they were forgotten and forsaken by God only to discover that He never let His covenant promise to them out of His heart and showed up to deliver them from Egyptian slavery with a mighty hand and miracles; of Jonah who sailed in exactly the opposite direction in an attempt to flee from the presence of God but found that God was still with him when He prepared a great fish to save him from drowning in the stormy waters of the Mediterranean; of Job who from all appearances was forsaken by the Almighty yet somehow knew that God had not forsaken him and that he must not turn away from Him; and of a shepherd boy who, even though he was neglected by his own father when Samuel came to review candidates for the throne of Israel, was not forsaken by his Heavenly Father.  The theme seems to be summed up in I Samuel 12:22, “The Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake.”

Turning to the New Testament, we see the same message preached loudly in the life of Simon Peter who was one of the closest friends of the Lord Jesus yet when the chips were down blatantly refused even knowing Him.  Yet Jesus refused to reject him; instead, He warned the disciple of his coming confrontation by saying, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.” (Luke 22:31-32)  Every person in the New Testament knew God’s character that defied rejecting His own.  Jesus affirmed it in Luke 21:18 when He said that God would not allow even one hair from His head to perish.  Peter proclaimed it in his Pentecost sermon. (Acts 2:27)  Paul wrote about it when he said that he was persecuted but not forsaken and cast down but not destroyed. (II Corinthians 4:6)  But no one proclaimed it so adamantly as the author of Hebrews who used a triple negative in the Greek to affirm and doubly reconfirm that God will never leave us nor forsake us under any conditions or circumstances.

Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!] (Hebrews 13:5, AMP)

Since it seems biblically sound that God did not forsake His Son as He hung on Calvary, then why did He cry out, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me?”  The answer seems simply that Jesus was trying to draw His disciples’ attention to a well-known Old Testament passage, the twenty-second Psalm.  By crying out the opening line and title verse to this psalm, Jesus was able to awaken the memory of the entire passage in the hearts of His followers just as He could have made them remember the full twenty-third Psalm by muttering the words, “The Lord is my shepherd.”  By drawing their attention to this amazing psalm, He was helping them understand what was happening to their leader.  Here, in a prophetic word recorded nearly a thousand years before crucifixion was invented was a perfect description of what was happening just outside the gates of Jerusalem on that first Good Friday.  The ridiculing and mocking, the piercing of the hands and feet, the exposing of the bones, and even the wagering for the garments — they are all there in explicit foretelling of Jesus’ day at Calvary.  And if we stay with the passage, we find in verse twenty-four a seemingly contradictory statement, “He hath not despised nor abhorred the afflictions of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.”  Yes, the situation may look like God has abandoned you (verse 1), but God has not taken his eye off of you for one second (verse 24)!

The message of this cry from the cross is that when it looks as if even God has given up on you — don’t give up on God.  He is there just ready to deliver.  Your present situation may simply be the Good Friday that must precede your Easter Sunday.  It may be the death of the seed that paves the way for the plant to sprout and produce a harvest.  Most of all, this message is an injunction to view your present situation, no matter how bad, as exactly what God is looking for — an invitation for Him to intervene.  “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” (II Chronicles 16:4)