A Word that Expresses Forsakenness

“And around the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying [in Aramaic], “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? Which is to say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?””—Matthew 27:46

It’s around 3pm. Jesus Christ has been hanging on the cross, dripping blood, suffering in agony. The skies have been shrouded in thick darkness for around three hours now. It is at this point in time that he utters this cry of forsakenness. Notice that He feels forsaken by His Father. But He does not say, “My Father, my Father,” but “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

One of my mentors, visited a certain place in North India where little girls are sold into sex slavery by their own mothers. An organization there works to free these little girls. Describing all the heartbreaking details he saw, on one of his trips he described a look into this world as “lifting the lid to hell.” You cannot bear to look into such a place because of all the sin.

As all the sin of the world, the sin of all who would believe is laid upon the holy Son of God, the Father cannot bear to look, and turns His face away from the Son. God, the Father, forsakes God, the Son. It is an unimaginable forsaking. If you have ever truly loved someone and that relationship is severed even for a while, you know the pain of loss and distance. It feels like death. Here, a love relationship between Father and Son that was unbroken from eternity past has now been severed for a brief moment and not only did it feel like death, it was very death.

Jesus was forsaken temporarily so that we may be accepted eternally. Hence His parting words to His disciples are, “Look, I am with you to the end of the age…” Matthew 28:20

Kenny Damara