Remembered by the Forgotten

John 19:26-27 and Matthew 27:46

Excruciating pain washed over Jesus as He hung on the cross. Every breath took great effort and yet even then Jesus’ incredible love and His compassion never failed. As He waited for death, His thoughts were not on Himself, but upon His mother and what would become of her when He had gone. He was thinking of home and how she would manage without Him. He was thinking of her sorrow rather than His own.

Mary and a few other women had come to the cross to be with Jesus in His last moments and the disciple John was also there. John records in his Gospel in chapter 19:26-27 that when Jesus saw His mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, He spoke a third time from the cross saying: “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” We are told that “from that time on, this disciple took (Mary) into his home.” The salvation of the world was at hand and yet we find that even then Jesus was concerned for those who depended on Him. He did not want His mother to be abandoned!

The hours slipped by and at three o’clock in the afternoon, at the time that the High Priest would make the evening sacrifice at the Temple, the full weight of mankind’s sin settled on Christ’s shoulders. Jesus spoke again, this time crying out in Aramaic: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which Matthew 27:46 tells us means: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”.

It was at that moment that something significant happened in the spiritual realm as God the Father turned His face away making Christ  “… who had no sin to be sin for us”  (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Isaiah 53:4-6 puts it this way, prophesying about Christ’s suffering:

“Surely He took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.”

Jesus bore the penalty that our sin deserves in order to bring us back to God the Father. He was separated from God so that we would not ever have to be!

Whenever you face painful circumstances that cause you to wonder if God has perhaps forgotten you, remember that Jesus will never forget you. There is no depth we can sink to, where Christ has not gone before! He knows the pain of abandonment. In fact, in the hour in which He experienced the most excruciating abandonment, anyone could suffer, He remembered His mother and made sure she would not be forgotten. And He will do the same for you…

 

Blessings on your day!

Michele