“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
”
Without this last trial of all, the temptations of our Master had not been so full as the human cup could hold; there would have been one region through which we had to pass wherein we might call aloud upon our Captain-brother, and there would be no voice or hearing: he had avoided the fatal spot! The temptations of the desert came to the young, strong man with his road before him and the presence of his God around him; nay, gathered their very force from the exuberance of his conscious faith. “Dare and do, for God is with thee,” said the devil. “I know it, and therefore I will wait,” returned the King. And now, after three years of divine action, when his course is run, when the giving up of the ghost is at hand, when friends have forsaken him and fled, comes the voice of the enemy again at his ear: “Despair and die, for God is not with thee. All is in vain. Death, not life, is Thy refuge.” “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” the Master cries.
The foreseen horror has come; he is drinking the dread cup, and the Will has vanished from his eyes. In agony, the Will of Jesus arises, perfect, and of itself, unsupported, declares—a naked consciousness of misery hung in the waste darkness of the universe—declares for God, in defiance of pain, of death, of the blackness within and around it; calls aloud upon the vanished God. This is the Faith of the Son of God. God withdrew that the perfect Will of the Son might arise and go forth to find the Will of the Father.
Commentary
by James House
“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”
Oh, has He!
And therefore, He offers to us the opportunity to find and meet the Will of the Father, through his strengthening Grace. He has given us his gospel to guide our lives into happier paths - and to be freed from all pains, sorrows and loneliness.
He has promised his Peace to us as we seek to do the Father's Will. He keeps his word. His love, mercy, and grace are unfailing. We can find a large amount of peace and strength now, today. It is my personal testimony that this is true - I have felt the reality of it.
As we take hold of his continually outstretched arm, and pray to our Father in Jesus' name, he will lead us to the Will and Love of the Father.