My God my God, Why have you forsaken me?
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“My God my God, Why have you forsaken me?” Jesus quotes, while nailed to the cross. The Psalm continues unspoken, yet resonating in the hearts of those that heard it. “Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; by night, but I have no rest.” (Psalm 22:1-2, NASB)
This small phrase is among the last words that Jesus spoke during his final breaths. This is what Jesus felt in that last hour, in those last few days. Forsaken. The feeling of being abandoned or deserted. During the last week before Jesus’ death, the week we now call the Holy Week, Jesus knew that His disciples and His followers were going to betray him, disown him, and abandon him. And during that final hour, it even felt like God had forsaken him. This was not a moment of celebration, at least not for the disciples or other followers. Perhaps there were cheers, from the hearts of the Pharisees and Priests. Only they, during this moment, were relieved that Jesus had been crucified. Good, they think to themselves, another rebellion averted.
Often during Holy Week people spend most of their time, energy, and thoughts remembering the saving works of Easter Sunday, and throughout the whole week and the weekend, we spend time celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. We have palm branches made in Sunday school out of construction paper, and we sing “Hosanna in the highest!” We get excited just as the crowds did thousands of years ago. Jesus has come! We say as we cheer. He has come to save us! This can be wonderful and can make this time feel a lot like Christmas. The season of Advent (the weeks leading up to Christmas day) is a season of anticipation and preparation for the birth of Jesus. We spend time in Advent decorating trees, hanging lights, and putting out nativity scenes, which can be outward acts of our inward hope. But during the season that leads up to Easter, the season of Lent, we ought to spend our time differently.
I agree that this is a season of hope as well because for us we have the complete story: birth, death, and resurrection. But the season of Lent has an altogether different purpose, one that is sometimes forgotten or simply not practiced. During Lent, Christians spend time “suffering” alongside Jesus so that we can share, in a small way, the pain that He experienced for us. We choose to sacrifice activities or foods like coffee, or gum or watching TV or Netflix, as outward expressions that we wish to be closer with Jesus, and come alongside Him. This isn’t quite a season of anticipation, like Advent, but rather it is mainly a season of lament. To save us from our deadly sins our God decided to become incarnate and die an excruciating death. Thus, to empathize with our Lord and Savior, let us use this time to connect with the humanity of Jesus. Both God and Human, yet died for the world so that we may be again united with God.
Holy Week, the final days before Jesus’ death, are then a time where this lament comes to its climax. Because of how uncomfortable this can be, we normally brush over it. Standing, sitting, soaking in the sadness that is the death of Jesus is tough. We can also justify speeding past it by quickly pointing at the resurrection and saying “See! It’s okay, it was only a few days.” But I fear that when we do this, we are missing out on something greater. We may miss out on a deeper and perhaps more clear understanding of just how much our God loves us. We have the honour (and dare I say obligation) to spend time in remembrance of the greatest sacrifice ever known. So let us honor God by going by trying to see this week, perhaps even just one or two days, through a different lens.
Let us think of Holy Week in this way: no one that knew Jesus thought that He was going to be raised from the dead. No one believed Jesus when He prophesied that His death would be followed by His resurrection (Mt 16:21, 17:22-23, Mk 8:31). They knew of his power over sickness, and even nature, because of his previous miracles. They even knew he had power over death when He raised Lazarus from the dead just a few days before. But they did not think that Jesus was capable of raising himself from the grave. For the miracle of resurrection had happened before such as in the days of Elijah and Elisha (1 Kgs 17:17-34, 2 Kgs 4:18-37; 13:20-21). But not yet had someone risen themselves. So the disciples lost hope, and therefore they deserted him.
The night before Christ’s death, Maundy Thursday, is a day we can focus on two of Jesus’ actions; the washing of the disciples' feet, and the last supper. In the spirit of lament, let us look at these two acts slightly differently. Jesus decided that on the night before His death that He was going to serve His disciples. Not serve as a host or hostess might, but instead go far beyond that and makes himself their ‘slave’ in the way he acts. He changes His role from master and teacher to a servant (John 13:13-14). He washes their filthy feet, a role reserved for the lowliest of the low, before he shares in fellowship with them as friends. All of this He does while knowing full well that: Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny him, and the others would disassociate from Him. Not only was He about to be publicly shamed and brutally killed, but he was also abandoned by those that were closest to him.
So let us sit in this. Sit in this lowering of ourselves as Christ did. Sit in this betrayal, this forsaking, for as long as you can bear. Think over, meditate, and perhaps empathize with all the forms of suffering Jesus went through in those final days. Not only physical excruciating pain but also the hurt from being disowned by His closest and only friends. To have done so much for them, only for them to claim to have never known Him.
With this heavy on our hearts, thoughts of remorse and sorrow, I think we are ready to enter into Good Friday, and only once we have fully mourned the weight of the Cross and what led to it can we even begin to think of Easter. Only once we have shed ourselves from the pretense that we would’ve done better, or the lie that it wasn’t all that bad, can we come to the foot of the cross. It was for our sake that Jesus was crucified. It was for our sin that he was rejected, forsaken, and killed. As a Church, as a global collection of believers, we remember with sorrow His sacrifice that takes place tomorrow. So let us lament the death of our Lord.
“For dogs have surrounded me; A band of Evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.”
