"The Loneliest Soul"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"The Loneliest Soul"

    If John 1:1 could be considered the most important verse in the Bible, as suggested in yesterday's message, Matthew 27:46 might qualify as the most solemn and somber.

    "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?!"

   The Lord Jesus Christ uttered this most mournful of laments as He hung on the cross of Calvary.  Thereupon He suffered physical and emotional agonies beyond all imagining, being "marred more than any man" (Isaiah 52:14).  Doubtless we all bow head and heart upon every remembrance of our Savior's experience of human pain such as we know.  "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4).  However, the greatest grief and the most keen sorrow involved the wrath of God poured out in such fury that the Father and Holy Spirit forsook and turned away from the Lord Jesus.  Indeed, the Holy One who had forever before known only the love of the triune Godhead suffered its rejection as "He was made to be sin for us" (II Corinthians 5:21).  What could such darkness have meant in a perfectly righteous and morally pristine heart, and in a soul so devoted to the love of the Father and the Spirit?  We can only know that we will never know.  And we can be sure that to the degree the Lord Jesus was forsaken on the cross, His promise will ring eternally and perfectly true: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5).

My God, My God,

why hast Thou forsaken Me?

For I cry into this night

but no answer comes from Thee.

Oh I long to see Your face,

to know again Your heart's embrace.

My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?

Holy Father I come to Thee

by the way of this bloody tree.

And in the darkness of this hour,

I feel Your wrath poured out on Me

for the ones I came to save,

to rescue from sin and from the grave.

Holy Father I come to Thee, 

Your face I long to see.

My God, My God, oh hear Me now,

As My head and heart I bow.

I am Thine for Your will,

as in death My life is stilled.

But I know You will not leave

 My soul to perish, My heart in this grief,

My God, My God, 

why hast Thou forsaken Me?

  

     Many statements made by our Savior during His earthly lifetime reveal His knowledge for why He came into the world, and why He would one day suffer and die alone.  Why then would He have cried out, "Why?!"  We do not know, and perhaps cannot know.  Perhaps, however, the agony of spiritual grief known as the Lord Jesus died in forsakenness may so overwhelmed His spirit that He could not beckon the Truth to the surface of His consciousness.  His was the loneliest soul that ever was, or ever will be.  "Why art Thou so far from helping Me?" (Psalm 22:1).  His cries ring through the centuries, bearing witness to agonies of a heart ravaged and a spirit bereft.  

    Let us close now.  Perhaps our best response involves the realization that mysteries abound regarding Calvary's dark hour beyond our understanding.  Thus, we do best to let our Lord's "Why?" lead us to worship, and to the awed admiration and adoration of One who must love us so very much more than we will ever know…

"We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God… He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities… the Lord hath laid on Him the inquiry of us all."

(Isaiah 53:4; 5; 6)

"The love of Christ… passeth knowledge."

(Ephesians 3:19)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "O God, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee."

 (Psalm 63:1).

  

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