‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46)
There has been nowhere, nor will there ever be anywhere, more isolated than the cross. On those cruel beams Jesus hung alone and bore the weight of sin and shame.
Jesus had dwelt with the Father since before time began and enjoyed intimate fellowship with His Father during His earthly life. He did only what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). He regularly set aside time to pray and be with His Father (e.g. Luke 5:16). Even from childhood it was clear that Hid priorities lay with His heavenly Father as He asked His parents, ‘Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ (Luke 2:49). The pattern of prayer He modelled and taught His disciples began with the intimate, ‘Abba’, translated ‘Our Father’ but meaning ‘Dad’ or ‘Papa’ (see Matthew 6:9). In that most tortuous of prayer times in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus pleaded with the Father to let the cup be removed from Him (Mark 14:36), but in that struggle realised that the way of the cross was the only way available.
When read in the light of this background of eternal fellowship and intimacy with His Father this cry of dereliction and forsakenness resonates with heartrending isolation. This is extreme aloneness. Devastating separation.
Jesus was actually quoting from the start of Psalm 22. But the fact that the words had been written by someone else does not lessen the fact that the One who enjoyed perfect fellowship had to face this step alone, for the Father could not be in fellowship with sin. The Holy One was unable to dwell alongside transgression.
And so, as the time draws near for Him to become the sin offering, to carry the weight of all our transgressions as God Himself ‘laid on Him the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53:6), Jesus’ bitter cry pierces the darkness: Eli, Eli, lema sabachtani? – My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
Only Jesus could tread this path. Only Jesus could drink this cup. And in this valley of suffering He was alone. Isolated.
But in His isolation He trod a path that led to victory. Through His suffering He brought about salvation. The forsakenness and abandonment was temporary and, ‘for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, scorning the shame’ (Hebrews 12:2).
What comfort this speaks to us: He understands. He has been more isolated than any of us can ever dream of, and yet the Father welcomed Him home. The Giver of Life raised His Son from the dead. The cup was not drunk in vain.
The isolation was painful and lonely. But from isolation came eternal joy, and the reunion is gloriously victorious!
The Sharpened Sword 