Forsaken

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Good Friday Meditation

 

    “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? *
and are so far from my cry
and from the words of my distress?

2

O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer; *
by night as well, but I find no rest.

3

Yet you are the Holy One, *
enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

4

Our forefathers put their trust in you; *
they trusted, and you delivered them. “

 

Jesus spoke on the cross these words from Psalm 22. Matthew 27:46  . When he was arrested he said to Peter, “ the cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?” John 18:11

 

 He obviously also heard Peter’s denial of him. “ Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, "You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not."”  ( from John)

 

Can we enter into how our Lord felt with these words from the Cross?  Can we know a little bit of what it means to be left out, abandoned and without hope?  Jesus prayed that the cup would pass from him if possible.  His comfort and ours in trials is that God has a plan .  “ O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Matthew 26:39

 

My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?  In this time of sorrow we know that Jesus suffered all the penalty and sin of the world for us.  How do we repay Him?  We can never do that.  We can do His Will now .

 

I close with a comment my great-grandfather made about WWI.  “ The church must stand confronting the nation, herself strong in the faith, strong in her courage, profound in her conviction of the established Throne of God, and the infinite rectitude of the Divine government, and the profound compassion of the Divine heart; and by the dignity and heroism of these spiritual hosts of wickedness which poison life at the springs of thought and conception , and make calamities more terrible than the bloodshed on the battle.”   A Treasury of G Campbell Morgan.

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