“And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’).” (Mark 15:34)
“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” (Psalm 23:6)
“1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? …24 For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help….30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. 31 They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!” (Psalm 22:1,24,30f)
“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30)
A reminder (as if anyone needed it!) that we are now on the ‘countdown’ to Easter 2024. We are all familiar with the liturgical countdown to Easter through Lent, through Holy Week, and finally to Easter Sunday morning. Yet the true countdown to the events of the Cross and the Resurrection began long ago and can even be glimpsed in the pages of Genesis. Psalm 22 – written a full thousand years before Christ’s crucifixion – is one of the most explicit and detailed of the prophecies relating to the events of the Cross. Indeed, Jesus shouts out the Psalm’s opening line from the Cross: the great cry of anguish, of desolation, of despair. But was this solely, as some witnesses thought, a cry of abandonment and defeat?
There is an interesting parallel in the way we ourselves often reference Psalm 23. We only need to quote the opening words, “The Lord is my Shepherd”, to instantly bring to mind the full sequence of the psalm. Recalling those opening words in our own despair as we traverse the darkest of valleys encourages us to look beyond the desolation to the glorious image of the psalm’s final verse: peace and triumph and safety. The point in quoting the first verse of Psalm 23 is the comfort of knowing Who accompanies us every step of the journey and of knowing where He is leading us ultimately. The psalm’s true focus is never the valley but always the destination: “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
The same can be done with Psalm 22. Yes – it is a cry of anguish, of hearts and hopes torn apart. But those with sore hearts longing for comfort, those with broken spirits desperate for healing, those with ears to hear, realise what Jesus is doing. For Himself and for those witnessing what was being done to Him at the Cross He is signalling loud and clear the whole sequence of the psalm. We only need to quote the opening words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, to look beyond the desolation and through the darkest valleys to the psalm’s climax. The psalm’s true focus is never the desolation but always the exaltation: “They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!”
And in those last words of Psalm 22 are the echoes of another of Jesus’ cries from the Cross: “It is finished.” (John 19:30). He has done it.
Hallelujah.