In the ghetto stands a run down house. Broken windows,
shingles missing off the roof, front steps rotting in the weather. It has a
sign on it. ABANDONED.
There is a little old lady sitting in her rocking
chair in a nursing home on her birthday. No family singing happy birthday, no
birthday cake, no candles to blow out. She’s been abandoned.
A small child is taken into an office by a social
worker. As she looks around, confused and frightened, she hears the adults
whisper “she was abandoned”.
A wife discovers emails sent by her husband to another
woman.
A factory worker on the assembly line finds a pink
slip in his pay envelope after 25 years on the job.
Abandoned by family.
Abandoned by a spouse.
Abandoned by big business.
But nothing compares to being abandoned by God.
My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?
When Christ said those words, He had been on the cross
six hours. At nine in the morning a soldier held one arm while they drove a
nail thorough his hand, then the other, then thru both feet. When they lifted
the cross, they unknowingly put Christ right where He belonged. Between mankind
and God.
Jesus hardly spoke while on the cross. But when he
does, He forgives His killers. He answers the prayers of a thief and asks
soldier for a drink, and gets vinegar.
Matthew 27: 46-47 In the Amplified bible says:
And about the ninth hour (three o'clock)
Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?--that is, My God, My
God, why have You abandoned Me?
We have to ask; Why did God sacrifice his Son? Why not
a murderer? Evildoers? The perverts and the people who cause pain. Abandon
them…not your SON!! Why did God abandon the only sinless person that ever
walked the earth?
Because at that moment, Jesus was anything but sinless.
But His sins were not his own.
1 Peter 2:24 says
“He
himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to
sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
Christ carried ALL OUR SINS in His body. Just for a
moment let’s think about our pasts. Our times of anger, perhaps even rage. Our greed,
thievery, lies, gossip, drugs, drunkenness and I’m sure some of us can add
other things.
Suppose our pasts were made public? Suppose you stood
on a stage while a video of your every secret thought and all your deeds was
shown on a big screen behind you. And nobody could stop the video. Would you
not want to hide somewhere? Drop thru a crack in the floor?
Then maybe you would become aware of a sin-hating God.
Then maybe you would feel just a fraction of what Jesus felt on the cross.
Jesus was suffering a million time more as He hung
there and screamed” why have you abandoned me?
He carried ALL the SINS of mankind to the cross. Past,
present and FUTURE. He carried YOUR sin to the cross.
So when you see Jesus on the cross, you are seeing a
murderer hanging there. A bigot, a wife beater, a drug addict, a thief Adolf
Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Jeffery Dahmer.
You may think that I shouldn’t be lumping Christ with
all those evil doers.
But I didn’t…HE DID! He put Himself in their place.
And yours and my place.
Nailed to the cross, he asked God “to treat ME
as you would treat THEM”! And God did.
And God gave all the people who ever lived, a gift.
The Lamb of God who took away our sins.
MY GOD MY GOD…Why have you abandoned me?
Why did Christ scream those words?
So you will never have to!
Prayer
