The Triumph of the Cross

     "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?"  Those words from Psalm 22 are very familiar to most of us because they are the words Jesus quoted while he was dying on the cross, and although we commonly think of there being seven last words of Christ on Good Friday, in Mark's Gospel these words are the only ones that Jesus is quoted as having said.
     "My God my God why have you forsaken me?"  shock us and confuse us. We ask ourselves, "how could Jesus say such a thing?" If ever there was a man who had a close intense relationship with God, it was Jesus. In fact, as Christians we confess that Jesus was God, in the flesh. It doesn't make any sense to us at all that Jesus would ever say such a thing.
     That's what makes Good Friday such a troubling day of the year for us who follow after Jesus, because in spite of the fact that we say, "Jesus came into the world to be the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," the fact is that he died a horrible, excruciating death, being falsely accused and unjustly convicted,  surrounded and mocked by his enemies, and totally abandoned by his disciples.
     In contrast to Mark's Gospel, John's account of the passion of our Lord does not even mention Jesus ' cry of dereliction. The closest we get to any personal expression of suffering is just one single word John does include: " I thirst."  Indeed, after all that Jesus went through, we do not doubt that Jesus suffered a painful death. But when we hear the psalmist's words on Jesus lips, as Mark tells the  story, we come much closer to the reality of what his suffering was really like.
      As we ponder the mystery of the cross we wonder what it must have been like for him  to be forsaken by God? What must it feel like to be forsaken by God? The psalmist's experience gives us some insight into those types of feelings.
      It is one thing to have never known God at all or to have no memory of God having touched your life, but it is far worse to be "abandoned " by the one you had relied upon for everything good. That sense of loss increases the pain we feel and leaves us feeling completely isolated and cut off from everyone. Our desolation leads to desperation, and that leads to despair and hopelessness. No one in their right mind wants to be there.
     But that's exactly where Jesus was on Good Friday. He was isolated, desolate, desperate, despairing, and hopeless.
     We don't like to knowledge this fact about Good Friday. It is much more pleasant for us to meditate on Jesus words "Father,  forgive them, for they know not what they do," or "Today you will be with me in paradise," or "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," or "I thirst," or even "It is finished."
     But when we hear Jesus cry out, "My God my God why have you forsaken me?" we should not be filled with despair, because those are words that give us real comfort when we think about them.  We realize that if Jesus could feel that level of intense pain and abandonment, then there is no pain or disappointment or despair that we could possibly experience in our own lives that could ultimately destroy us and separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
     Isn't that what St. Paul was referring to when he described us as being united with Christ in a death like his? Our union with Christ and his death and resurrection is something that gives us all a source of hope, for, as Paul goes on to say, "if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."
     That is a triumph of the cross for all who believe and are baptized. Apart from Christ's resurrection the story of the crucifixion of our Lord is the ultimate sign of weakness and foolishness. It is sheer hopelessness and despair for us. But, because God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day, his cross becomes for us the true sign and symbol of God's wisdom and power.
     And that means that no matter how difficult life can become for us, no matter how intense the suffering we may have to  endure may be, no matter how overwhelming a challenge we may have to face, we still have hope and we will still overcome because Jesus borethe cross for us. Paul tells us, "he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him."
     "My God my God why have you forsaken me?" Is in the and a very profound prayer arising from the depths of our human experience. But in the cross of Christ we discover that in the end, like the psalmist, we who fear the Lord will praise him, glorify him, and stand in awe of him because he has not hidden his face from us, and he will always hear our cry.
     It is that victory in Christ that makes this a "Good" Friday for us and for all the world.