Christ Revealed

‘My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?’
6. The Cross
Read: Psalm 22
Matthew 27:46
It is dark at midday. In the midst of a
boisterous crowd Jesus is on his own.
People laugh, jeer and walk about,
but on the other side of the curtain
of noise there is emptiness. Utter
loneliness wraps the cross. Everybody
has left. Some scurried away with guilty
embarrassment. Some made the smart
move, switching to the winning side.
Some just weren’t there when the blows
began to fall. Jesus has been abandoned
by all. Even God is hidden in the safe
distance of heaven.
And so a cry pierces the veil of isolation
and in vain seeks to reach the sky. My
God! Why? It is the perennial question.
Even in moments of profound suffering
we still try to make sense of the world.
We want to understand. Why is this
happening to me? What is the point?
What is the reason?
his clothes. The bystanders strip him
of his dignity. They mock, shake their
heads and come up with witty jibes. No
wonder he thinks: ‘I am a worm and not
a human’ (Ps. 22:6). His body, his whole
being is disintegrating. The bones are
out of joint and his organs are melting
like wax.
On the cross Jesus entered fully into the
human experience of degradation and
abandonment. The cry ‘My God, why
have you forsaken me?’ is an outburst
of searing pain, all too well known to
people crushed by torture and a sense
of hopelessness. Now such people have
the Son of God in their midst. That
moment of pure despair tells us without
a shadow of doubt: God has truly
become one of us. He stands where we
stand. He can feel our pain.
There may be an answer to the question
‘why’, but it does not come as the
psalmist prays the prayer of Psalm
22. Instead, he remains the object
of continuing outbursts of violence.
Bulls, lions, dogs and wild oxen attack
him viciously. Robbers strip him of