Why, God, Why?

Reading: Mark 15:33-39

At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?" Mark 15:34
Saint Mark records one and only one word from the cross:
"My God, my God, why?" Mark seems to be in a hurry.
He leaves only 15 verses for the entire crucifixion narrative
and Jesus speaks only once, this cry of despair. Does that
one cry make the whole story "good news"? Mark seems to
say so.
Notice how he reports an answer to this cry. It does not come from the one Jesus calls "my
God." It is instead the centurion carrying out the death sentence who tells us why. Why was
Jesus God-forsaken? Why, because "truly this man was God's Son!" God's true Son joins
sinners all the way down to God-forsakenness, down to cries of despair, even despair of God.
Earlier the bystanders had taunted Jesus: "If you are God's son, come down from the cross." But
since Jesus really is God's son, he stays there. Phoney messiahs, pseudo-sons of God, don't do it
this way. They avoid the cross at all costs. They leave their fans to do the crying, the despairing,
the dying .
Not so this Son of God. He goes to the very pits, so that we will be rescued when we hit the pits.
When we ourselves cry out: "My God, why?" the one who truly is God's Son speaks to us: "I've
been there myself--in the Big Pit. And since I have been there, you will not stay there." We
have his word for it and that gets us out. Truly!
Prayer: (from Isaiah 53) In your suffering, Lord Jesus, you were wounded for our
transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon you was the punishment that makes us whole,
and by your bruises we are healed. Truly you are your Father's Son, and we are truly grateful.
Amen.

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