Friday, Jerusalem, Circa 33 AD

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34; Psalm 22:1

This from Jesus? This from the Son of God who prayed and fellowshipped with God? Yes, this from the one who knew implicitly that the cup could not be spared Him. It is a cry of utter despair from the human (Son of Man) Jesus, who in that moment felt far away from the Father who sent Him.

Written some 1,000 years earlier, Psalm 22 foreshadows the experience of Jesus at His crucifixion. The Psalmist opens with the same despair:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? Psalm 22:1 NIV

But the psalm closes with triumph and hope:

The humble will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise Him. May your hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD. All the families of the nations will bow down before You, for kingship belongs to the LORD; He rules over the nations. All who prosper on earth will eat and bow down;
all those who go down to the dust will kneel before Him — even the one who cannot preserve his life. Their descendants will serve Him; the next generation will be told about the Lord. They will come and declare His righteousness, to a people yet to be born they will declare what He has done. Psalm 22:26-31 HCSB

#Easter2023, 19/42