Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Who are we choosing to abandon, exclude, and ignore?

At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Mark 15:34

                How would it feel to be forsaken? Some of us know how it feels to be forsaken. Some, more than others, have been forsaken to varying degrees and at different times in life. In this cry, Jesus refers us to Psalm Twenty-two, to get a sense of how He felt while on the cross: abandoned, excluded, ignored.

                God promised, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). This is a promise we can trust! But what if something happened to make us feel the promise had been breached? We are the hands and feet of Christ, commissioned to extend this promise to the people around us.

                Who are we forsaking? Who are we, intentionally or unintentionally, choosing to abandon, exclude, and ignore? Christ might ask us the same question He asked our Heavenly Father, “Why are you forsaking me?” Are we forsaking those for whom Christ died? In Matthew 25, Jesus emphasized how we have treated the least among these, among us, as how we have treated Him.

                "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani."

Prayer by Steve Milam: 

                Heavenly Father, we come to you today and thank you for the great and incredible sacrifice that you made for us. As we struggle and suffer through this life, we pray that you help us remember we are not forsaken. We think of the great sacrifice you made for us, and we are grateful. We come to you in prayer, and we pray that you would help us and guide us to live each day in a way that is pleasing to you. We pray that in Christ’s name, Amen.

from the Marshall County United Methodist Good Friday service 

at Calvert City UMC, March 30, 2019.