My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” –Matthew 27:45-47
The Problem of Evil
The most vexing question humans have ever asked is related to the origin of evil. It is often phrased as a logical conundrum:
If God is Loving and Good, all Powerful, and all Knowing, how is it possible that Evil exists. Why would God allow, or worse, create it in the first place?
Many solve this logical seeming contradiction by denying the sovereignty of God over His creation. Others deny God’s intervention in the created world, preferring instead to embrace a God whose creation is out of His ultimate control or some impersonal forces of light and darkness. Many secular-minded people have just given up on belief in God, period.
The problem of evil is a problem because there really is no good answer to the question of the origin of evil. We will forever be both intellectually and emotionally dissatisfied with answers when we contemplate human suffering, disease, natural disasters, tyrannical rulers, human holocausts and the like.
So when Jesus asks,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
He is asking the universal unanswered question of human suffering: “Why?”
Whenever you or I ask that question the answers never seem to satisfy.
As a Chaplain at the St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, I ministered to a man sitting by the bedside of his wife who lay in a coma. He was grieving deeply. He shared that as he sat there he often had people who would come in and tell him what he called Platitudes. The examples he gave were: “Perhaps God is teaching you something.” or “This experience will help you grow.” “Maybe a greater good will come from this tragedy.” or “God must have needed her more.”
This man then said something I will never forget. He said, “Platitudes never make the person hearing them feel better, only the people uttering them.” That is so true. Much of the human suffering that we experience in life makes absolutely no sense. We are really uncomfortable with that! So we make up reasons to solve the emotional and intellectual gap in our minds and hearts caused by evil.
The cry of Jesus from the Cross teaches us that the problem of suffering does not make sense at all! It leaves us with a huge hole of an unanswered question: “Why?!?” There is no good answer. Jesus affirms our human limitations in that from the Cross.
Do you know someone in your life who is struggling? How do you minister to them in the midst of their pain? One thing you can do is be an intercessor with their heart’s questions. Rather than giving them pious platitudes to make you feel more comfortable, sit with them in the mystery of their problems.
The post ABANDONMENT: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? appeared first on St. Peter’s Lake Mary.