My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34]
There is nothing quite like the terror of a child lost in a crowd, desperately seeking her parents.
There is nothing quite like the shame felt by a boy who’s just been ditched by the kids he hoped would be his friends.
There is nothing quite like the coffee shop conversation where she tells him she’s breaking up with him.
There is nothing quite like the empty closets and the note on the bed, with the wedding ring beside it, saying he no longer loves her and has found someone new.
Abandonment. It’s our greatest hurt, our greatest fear. It’s worse than death.
When God said, “It’s not good for the man to be alone” [Genesis 2:18], he meant it. After all the good, good, good of this exquisite creation, there was one thing that was not good: loneliness. We were not made to be alone. But abandonment forces it on us, telling us we are not worthy to belong, that we deserve to be alone and rejected.
The Scriptures are clear on this: We have abandoned God. We’ve turned our backs on him, rejected him, forsaken him. But the Scriptures are equally clear on this: God has never turned his back on us, but instead pursues us at great cost and pain to himself.
But Jesus knows what it is to have God turn his back on him. Jesus is the only truly God-forsaken one. We shudder at his cry of abandonment on the cross. We may feel it, but he knows it. Yes, he knows it far more deeply than we ever will.
This shudder-inducing cry is amazingly the source of our great comfort and joy, because Jesus endured the abandonment which should have been ours. The Father turning his face away from the Son is the Father turning his face toward us.
Who has abandoned you?
Whom have you abandoned?
Jesus has been rejected by his people, betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, abandoned by his disciples, and forsaken by his Father. How does it help, knowing that he has experienced the same (and even worse) as you’ve experienced?
Listen to his words to you: “I will never leave you or forsake you” [Hebrews 13:5]. Take some time to respond to him.