Has there been a time in your life
when you have felt left behind, cast off, totally abandon, forgotten, rejected,
forsaken? Maybe you are feeling that way
right now as we go through this pandemic and social distancing.
As you think about a time like that
in your life, what did it feel like?
What things were racing through your mind?
I remember a time when I was a
little girl, shopping with my Mother. I was
playing around, hiding in the clothing racks, enjoying a little game of hide-and-seek. My Mom was not amused. She kept scolding me to stay close, saying that
she wanted to know where I was, so I didn’t get lost. (Honestly, I kind of enjoyed having her look
for me.) The game went awry when I came
out from behind a rack of dresses and she was no where to be seen. Fear and panic rushed over me. In those next few seconds, my mind was racing!! "What if I really am lost? What if she
got so annoyed with me that she just decided to leave me behind? What if I am left alone forever?"
Did you hear how those thoughts progressed? First the fear of being lost, which is terrifying
enough. But then creeps in the feelings
of guilt and shame that say, “See what you have done? Now you are getting what
you deserve!”
Good Friday, the day we remember
what Jesus did for us on the cross, is depicted in today’s reading. The details of His crucifixion and suffering
are spelled out in great detail. The verses that follow tell us very little about
what his followers did the next day, Holy Saturday.
I am sure that while they
grieved the loss of their Master, they were reflecting on all the things that
had happened. Their minds must have been
racing through all the details of things Jesus and done and said to them during
their time together. Now, they felt hopelessly lost, abandon, forgotten,
rejected and forsaken.
That is why I find these words of
Jesus from the cross so powerfully poignant. Perhaps this one phrase from the
previous day’s events stuck out in their minds.
“About three o’clock, Jesus shouted
with a mighty voice . . . ‘My God, My God, why have you turned your back on me?’”
God’s own Son, who had lived a
perfect life, their long-awaited Savior, cries out in the deepest anguish of
soul known to humankind, feeling rejected and abandon by God.
Did He deserve it? Did He get what was
coming to Him? No! But He exchanged places with US. He took was we deserved. He nailed all our failures, sin and shame to
the cross that day and paid for them with His life. In return, He has offers to us the peace that
comes from knowing we have been loved with an eternal, everlasting love that
can NEVER be taken away.
We need never fear being abandoned
again!
