Wednesday, April 2, 2008 @ 8:14 AM

Quoted from "My God Why" by Rev.Leo Douma

This post is for those who are feeling 'abandoned', 'lost' and 'lonely'...

Here goes..

One of the biggest fears of any human being is being abandoned by those we love, being left alone. In our crowded cities of millions, loneliness is what many struggle with. Many look so successful but feel lost inside.

An English doctor once conducted an experiment to study the effects of isolation on people. He built a sound proof room 3x3 meters and suspended it by nylon ropes. Each participant wore padded fur gloves and heavy woollen socks to eliminate the sensations of touch. Special translucent glasses limited their vision. After just 1 hour of isolation, some people found it impossible to concentrate. This was followed by feelings of anxiety and panic. Many just could not stay in that room for more that five hours.

We human beings are social creatures, just like God who is a social being, three in one. We were never meant to be alone. We do not cope with being abandoned, being isolated. That’s why solitary confinement is so tough for prisoners. It’s why children are petrified if they feel lost or abandoned by their parents. It’s why we find divorce, death, migration, all forms of separation, so tough. We need people to share our stuff with. But however we feel about being left alone, no one, but no one has felt the loneliness that Jesus did on the cross, especially when he cried out “My God, my God why have you forsaken me.”

This is the language of complaint, desperate grievance, protest; objection. This is not like the previous words of Jesus on the cross. This time it’s not a prayer of forgiveness or kind words to a thief or his mother.

This time it’s a scream. It is a cry of anguish. It is a complaint, a demand directed at God. This complaint came at the end of a long dark silence. We might think that the crucifixion lasted about an hour- but it took a large part of the day. Jesus’ hands and feet were nailed and tied to the cross at about 9am. At midday everything went black. It was completely dark and silent for three hours. All those hurling abuse were scared into silence. You couldn’t see anything and no one said anything. In the utter silence all you could hear was the struggled breathing of the three crucified men as they slowly suffocated to death. And then at the ninth hour, at 3pm, the silence is broken by a horrible sound as Jesus screams out, almost
roars! It is a deep cry of anguish. It’s a bitter complaint directed at God. There was violence in Jesus’ voice. He exerted himself to raise his voice.

We may have had those very difficult times when we felt forsaken by God, abandoned by God and left in the lurch. There have been times when some of us may have raised
the fist in the air and yelled “God, why”. But we cannot compare those experiences with that of Jesus. Although we may have appeared to have been forsaken by God, in reality he never let go.

“Footprints in the sand”
We look back and see two sets of prints in the sand. But during our most difficult time we see one pair of foot prints instead of two and assume God left us for a while, that he abandoned us when we needed him most. And we ask ‘why God, why leave us when it was tough?’ But in fact during the hard time God was carrying us. God in
his love may put us through hard times for our good, for our spiritual growth, to bring us closer to him. It may not feel that way in the middle of our suffering- but later we see and feel God’s grace as we cling to him. God needs to do this to us from time to time. For the reality is that often we forsake him!

Far too often we abandon God and forget him. Sometimes in our actions and thoughts we outright deny him! And God says ‘My child, why have you forsaken me? Why have you left me out of your life? Why do you forget me so often or push me out?’ Then God has used that harsh experience to bring us back to his loving arms.

But this was not the case with Jesus. Christ did not just feel rejected. He was rejected. Jesus was not going through a psychological experience; he was utterly abandoned. Let’s get it clear. Jesus was completely and totally rejected by God. God had turned his back on his son and abandoned him. God was not just teaching Jesus a lesson; ‘this is for your own good’.

Christ was bearing the full brunt, the entire force of God’s anger and justice. There were no loving arms for Jesus to reach out to. Jesus had never known a time, even before the universe was created that as God’s Son he was not his Father’s delight. Their fellowship had never been broken. The unity of the trinity is an
intimacy beyond human understanding. So often in his earthly ministry Jesus would be in prayer, speaking for long times with his father. But now, this is not the act of fatherly love, but of anger and hatred. Yes hatred! For God hates sin and evil. He loathes it. For sin opposes and rebels against everything God stands for. And Jesus
had become that sin. He had identified himself with the human race, its sin and its evil. He stood in our place.

All the sin of humanity was gathered in a pile, so to speak, and heaped on Jesus. Jesus had never forsaken God as we do. He had never sinned as we always do. He had always been completely obedient and loving to his father. Yet Christ is regarded
as ‘the sinner’.

We were the cause of his complaint. It was our sin that caused him to scream out those words, ours, and that of the rest of the world. We should have been the ones to suffer, not he.

And yet, yet, at the same time grace! There are in these awful words of Jesus cause for hope and praise. Did you notice them? These words of Jesus do not only make clear the extent of our sin and the punishment we deserve. The words also show us God’s answer for our salvation. Listen to them again, carefully: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Christ was completely forsaken by God his father. But Jesus never forsook his God and Father- not even in hell itself. Even from the pit, in the midst of total evil, rejected by God, Jesus still reached up and called for God! My God! The suffering his father caused him is almost beyond him. But Jesus does not rebel or curse or turn against God. He still calls out “My God, my God…” In the midst of complete evil and total rebellion Jesus is still obedient!

Never will he abandon us. Now it will not always feel that way. In fact even in our own congregation there are too many who feel alone, lonely, battling on their own. In faith they know Jesus loves them and will never let go. But we need to know that truth from the body of Christ as well in our daily lives.

Remember, we the church are the voice of Jesus to express his love, we are his hands to provide his care. If we don’t speak and act in Jesus’ name, as substitutes for the substitute, then there will be those who do not hear Jesus.






It is time to go back to God..