My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

On this Good Friday, we explore the meaning behind some of Jesus' most famous words

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?

I have always been confused by this line. Jesus knew what His mission on earth was. He knew that He would die. He knew when he would die. Leading up to His arrest, He told the apostles precisely what they would do. So why was Jesus angry at the Father? In my weakest moments of faith, this line made me doubt Jesus’ divinity. It just didn’t make sense.

But one time, while in adoration, I decided to read the Passion story. It was a Tuesday, and I had just prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries, so I figured I’d stick with the theme and read about Jesus’ death. Again, as always, I was confused by this line.

I found myself reflecting on this line during the rest of my time in adoration. I was suddenly reminded of the story of Job. When I first read Job, I was confused. Job spends nearly the entire time angry at God, cursing God for all the troubles coming his way. But God finds favor with Job in the end, despite Job growing increasingly furious with God. I wondered what I was supposed to get from it. After talking to friends and reading more about it, I realized the greatness of Job is that he never lost faith in God. Despite his anger towards God, Job always believed God was in charge. His faith held firm. In the face of his struggles, Job never doubted God’s existence. He never doubted that God had a plan for him; he just didn’t understand why that plan included immense suffering.

Then I thought about CS Lewis’ book Mere Christianity. In the book, Lewis asks and answers why God had to come down to earth. The short answer is that He came down to show us how to properly suffer. The longer answer is that everything we do that is good in this life comes from the help of God. Lewis uses the analogy of a parent teaching a child to write letters—the parent holds the child’s hand and forms the letters for the child.

In the same way, God holds our hand and shows us how to love and how to care for others. All good that we do here on earth is because God is holding our hand. But one thing God couldn’t do is hold our hand and show us how to suffer. Suffering and death are not a part of God’s world. So, God made it a part of His world by coming down to earth. And because He is God, He went through His suffering perfectly. He provides an example of how to suffer, and how to die, in the perfect way.

So now to tie this all together. Job was great because he never lost his faith through his suffering. Jesus, while undergoing the worst death imaginable, asks God why God abandoned Him. And Jesus did this while dying the perfect death. It was perfect because, like Job, Jesus doesn’t show any doubt about God’s existence.

But what does this mean for us? It means that it’s okay to question why bad things happen. It’s okay to question why God lets these things happen. We don’t have to be like the author of 2 Maccabees, who said that God’s punishment of the Jewish people was a “sign of kindness” before thanking God for that punishment. Instead, it is okay to be angry. It is okay to ask God why. As long as you don’t lose faith that God is in control, your natural emotions are okay to have, and to bring to God, when you go through pain.

In a way, asking God “why” is asking how your pain fits into His plan for you. It’s perfectly okay to ask these questions. It’s perfectly okay to feel your feelings. It’s perfectly okay to show God those feelings. Jesus did all of these things, and He died the perfect death.