Abandoned

The week before where I was down with gastric flu, I felt 'abandoned' as no one was at home. Parents were off for functions & my siblings were busy with their church activities. The complete quietness was deafening...

Abandoned by family? Abandoned by a spouse? Abandoned by big business. But nothing compares to being abandoned by God. On the Cross, Jesus cried out a loud shout, "Eli Eli, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "My God my God Why Have You Forsaken me?" [Matt 27:46 NASB] Our Father in Heaven abandoned His Only Son [Earth's only sinless soul] so that we can live through eternity! God loves sinners but hate sins, thus Jesus was the only way out for our salvation! Oh how Great is our God Amen?!

Abandon. The house that no one wants. The child no one claims. The parent no one remembers. The Savior no one understands. He pierces the darkness with heaven's loneliest question: "My God, My God, Why did you abandon me?"

In this hour Jesus is anything but righteous. But His mistakes aren't His own. "Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so we would stop living for sin & start living for what is right" [1 Peter 2:25 NCV] Christ called all our sins in His body...

May I get specific for a moment? May I talk about sin? Dare I remind you & me our past is laced with outbursts of anger, stained with night of godless passion, & spotted with undiluted greed? Suppose your past was made public? Suppose you were to stand on a stage while a film of every secret & selfish second was projected on the screen behind you?

Would you not crawl beneath the rug? Would you not scream for Heavens to have mercy? And would you not feel just a fraction...just a fraction of what Jesus felt on the cross? The icey displeasure of Sin-Hating God?

Jesus carried all our sins in His body...See Jesus on the cross? That's a gossiper hanging there. See Jesus? Embezzler. Liar. Bigot. See the crucified carpenter? He's a wife Beater. Porn addict & murderer. See Bethlehem's boy? Call Him by His other names - Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden. Hold it Godwyn, Don't you lump Jesus with evildoers. Don't you place His name in the same sentence with theirs! I didn't. He did. Indeed He did more. More than place His name in same sentence, He placed Himself in their place. And yours...

With hands nailed open, He invited Jesus,” Threat me as you would treat them!" And God did. In an act that broke the heart of the Father, yet honored the holiness of Heaven, sin-purging judgment flow over the sinless Son of the ages. The lamb of God who took away the sin of the World...

"My God, my God, why did you abandon me?" Why did Christ scream those words? So we'll never have to.

Inspired by:

Max Lucado