I don’t know which feels worse: A son yelling out to his dad, “why did you abandon me?” or the dad who is having to listen to his son say it.

I pray to God that that won’t be true of me and my daughters. I can’t imagine one of my daughters yelling out to me as to why I abandoned her. I think I’d rather die than to see my daughter feel that way….

So, who felt worse on that fateful day when Jesus yelled out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The Son or the Father?

The Bible says that Jesus “cried out in a loud voice.” It’s the cry of a desperate and hopeless child who knows there’s no answer yelling out the question. He is simply expressing his sense of rejection, abandonment, loneliness, and worthlessness. And as expected, there is no answer from the Father… How pitiful. How melodramatic!

Yet, it is the truth. And it happened between the cosmic Son and the Father for you and me. The Son was abandoned for your sake. And the Father had to bear the agony of His Son being abandoned for my sake.

Do you understand how much God loves you? No. You don’t. I don’t either…

The cross means, “We are more wicked than we ever dared believe, and yet we are more loved than we ever dared hope.” (Tim Keller)

Take time this Good Friday to focus on the Son and the Father. Recreate that scene in your mind (Matt. 27:46). Let whatever worries you fade into oblivion as you meditate on the loss of the Father and the Son for your sake and mine…

PH