29 MARCH 2002
PSALMS 22:1-11
SALEM EV. LUTHERAN CHURCH, MILWAUKEE, WI
JOHN L. HOH, JR.
Dear fellow Redeemed, bought by the blood shed on that awful cross on Calvary:
What is it like to be forsaken? What feelings go through an abandoned person?
A few months ago, about midnight on a Sunday night, I heard some screaming from the hall outside our apartment door. As it continued, I decided to check out the situation. Outside in the hallway was the three-year-old boy from the unit across the hall. The door to his unit was closed. Another neighbor also came out to check. We knocked on the door; no answer. We asked the boy if he knew his phone number. He pointed to a "No Smoking" sign, but there was no number to be found. We finally decided to call the police. When they came, they asked us if we heard any signs of a struggle. We responded all we heard was the little boy's screams. The police tried the door-it was unlocked. They drew their guns and entered. They came out soon and said the mother wasn't to be found. The little boy seemed abandoned and was likely frightened being alone for a long time.
Just last Sunday some of us here heard Matthew's reaction when I came to help Pastor distribute communion. He thought Daddy was "forsaking" him! He screamed out for his daddy!
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Was one of Jesus' seven words on the cross. As we review the events of that Good Friday-an ironic term when you consider the day commemorates a death-we could come to the conclusion that this execution was a gross miscarriage of justice, a travesty of politics, or an innocent caught up in a power struggle. But let us look closer and see, as we've seen this whole Lenten season, that Jesus' death was actually A PART OF THE PLAN. Jesus willingly took on our punishment. He was forsaken so that we wouldn't be forsaken. He died so that we wouldn't die. And he rose again on the third day so that we too would be raised from the dead.
Jesus willingly took on our punishment. He was forsaken so that we wouldn't be forsaken. At times in our lives we have felt forsaken. Maybe it happened when our parents left for the night and had a baby-sitter watch us. It might have been the time our "first love" informed us he or she didn't believe the relationship was going to go anywhere. Maybe we were in a store as a child and wandered away and soon found ourselves separated from our parents and in a panic sought them out. Remember that feeling? Maybe even now at times we go through trials and cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
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