“My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?”
(Psalm 22:1, Matthew
27:46)
The Psalmist’s words of desperation become
the Savior’s cry of isolation. Wrongly
accused, beaten, cursed, humiliated, abandoned by his friends, Jesus hangs on
the cross, near death. The taunting
crowd has grown weary of the sport and some have, no doubt, gone back into the
city. The few “bystanders” as the NRSV calls some of those who remain, think he
is calling Elijah. They wait in cynical
anticipation to see if Elijah will come, but no one comes to rescue him. Once more he cries out, then “breathes his
last.”
Few are left now to witness the end. A Roman centurion, having observed it all, in
stunned reverence says, “Surely this was the Son of God.”
How could it end this way?
How could it end any other
way?
Prayer: I can never understand fully the
depth of your love, O Christ, enduring such pain and abandonment to pay my debt
of sin. Surely this was the Son of God.
Amen.
Jim Abernathy
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