Abandoned

 Abandoned

At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

MATTHEW 27.46

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help?

PSALM 22.1

No, I will not abandon you as orphans — I will come to you.

JOHN 14.18

Have you ever seen a story on the news about a baby who has been left on the doorstep of a church or a hospital or a police station? For whatever reason, the baby’s mother couldn’t take care of the baby and abandoned him or her.

It’s hard to think about parents abandoning children they were meant to love. Now imagine God the Father abandoning his own Son. It’s even more difficult to understand, isn’t it? It sounds impossible, because we know how much God loves his Son. And yet there was a painful point in time when God turned his back on Jesus. Why would he do that? we wonder. And Jesus wondered too, crying out from the cross, “My God, why have you abandoned me?”

But God had to abandon Jesus. You see, all our sin — all the jealousy, anger, and rebellion, all the lying, stealing, and having bad attitudes, all the times we say things we know we shouldn’t — it was all laid on Jesus. And because God cannot look upon sin, he had to turn away.

But Jesus was not completely abandoned by his Father. Jesus spoke to his Father again from the cross, shouting, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” (Lk 23.46). Though Jesus was abandoned because of our sin, he was not abandoned forever. Once the price for sin was paid, he was welcomed into God’s presence. And because Jesus was abandoned, it means we don’t have to be. We, too, will one day be welcomed into the presence of God.