Reflections
“My God, my God, why have you
abandoned me?”
David writes this psalm almost as
though it were planned to be part
of the Passion of Christ. In fact
the psalm becomes the prayer of
Christ at the time of his crucifixion
and speaks of the suffering that our
Savior experiences on our behalf.
People are the same today as they were
back then, when Jesus was being led to
the cross. We scoff at him; we mock him;
we wag our heads and hurl insults at him.
Why?
Because he becomes contemptible in
our eyes. He reminds us that we are a
sinful people; he convicts us; he catches
us in the lie; he embarrasses us; he
exposes us; he accuses us of being
hypocrites.
He holds us to a higher standard;
He speaks directly to God;
He claims to be God's Son;
and we reject him for this; and mock him.
We do not move to assist him.
Let God rescue him –
“He relied on the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, if he loves him.”
These words of the psalm are the same
words used by those who conspired against
Jesus when he was dying on the cross.
They did not realize that the suffering and
death of an innocent servant would restore
life for sinful man. The words they spoke
were to be fulfilled, not by Jesus coming
down from the cross, but by sinful humanity
like us being delivered, forgiven,
and lifted up.
We are reminded by St Paul in today's second
reading that Christ takes the form of a slave,
obedient even to death for our sake.
(Philippians 2:7-8)
Isaiah in today's first reading speaks
about the Messiah long before his birth and
predicts that he will be beaten, and his beard
will be plucked. (Isaiah 50:4-7)
But the servant does not rebel (as Isaiah tells us).
He knows that he will not be put to shame.
God the Father is not far off, even when Jesus lies
hanging on the cross. The psalm describes the
Passion of Christ, and we know that what seemed
like a moment of weakness for Christ became a
source of strength for sinful humanity.
Ultimately God reverses this righteous man’s
condition. As our psalmist says, “But you, O Lord,
be not far from me; O my help, hasten to aid me.”
Hope returns, the righteous man is delivered, and he
celebrates his deliverance – “I will proclaim your name
to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will
praise you: You who fear the Lord, praise him.”
Amen
Discussion Questions for Reflection
1. Were you part of the crowd of evildoers who closed in on Christ, that our
psalmist speaks about? Tell of what part you play even today in mocking Christ.
2. The psalm asks, 'My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?' Do you
2. The psalm asks, 'My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?' Do you
believe that our Lord was truly abandoned by the Father?
God is the source of perfect love. He IS love. By definition of who he is, he is incapable of abandoning his precious son Jesus. Moreover, he can never abandon any of us, ever. He is eternally present.
ReplyDeleteWhile we might know this truth, our flesh is weak. An hour of suffering can feel like forever to us. While receiving disturbing results from a medical exam, or struggling to undo the knot of a contentious relationship, we can feel that God is absent. In the moment, we might cry out to God, asking where he is. Why has he abandoned us.
In reality, even we know that these are passing outbursts that lead us to conclude that God really is still with us. We just need to walk through the valley first before emerging in the sunlit ground of trust in him.
Psalm 22 is formulated in a similar way. The Psalmist first endures feeling forsaken and mocked, with evildoers circling in... before he starts to shift in tone. V.20 says, "But you, O Lord, be not far off! O my help, hasten to my aid!" Thereafter, the Psalm praises God and instructs the reader to do the same.
While on the cross, Jesus models this journey from utter despair to endurance to conclude the will of the Father. He is strengthened to fulfill God's plan until he can faithfully say, "It is finished" and "Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit."
I truly enjoyed Psalm 22 and the message therein. When we witness how Jesus was in such horrible physical and even more so - emotional pain, and when he cried out "My God, my God, why have you
ReplyDeleteforsaken me?" We can feel the agony in Jesus's voice & even feel the pain he is suffering, to cleanse the sins of
man...He feels abandoned by his Father....and there are times in our lives when we feel abandoned by God, but
our faith carries us through and we must not let go of the knowledge that God loves us immensely and is sad
when we are sad...So a sense of being forsaken is not unique to Christ or rare for the believer, rather it is a
regular and frequent struggle for believers. When we think we are forsaken by God, we Christians must reach to embrace by faith the grace of God which is hidden from the eye of sense and reason...
The ardent praise of the Psalm is for the success of the cause of God, the failure which seemed certain at the beginning of the Psalm seemed certain, but is now swallowed up in Victory & Praise for the Lord, who never really abandoned our psalmist at all..
This reminds me of the famous poem "Footprints in the Sand"; a man is walking along the beach with the Lord; the man's life scenes are flashing in the sky in front of them, and there are 2 sets of footprints in the sand,
but the man notices that during the darkest and most troubling scenes of his life, there is only one set of footprints.
The man then turns to God and cries out "why did you leave me when I need you most"?! And God told the man
that during those tumultuous times, God carried him; hence, only the one set of footprints in the sand..
This is one of my favorites!