In today’s society, we have a growing problem, even with all these new tools that are supposed to keep us closer than ever, we find ourselves often feeling abandoned, and unfortunately all too frequently it’s not just a feeling it’s physical, it could be by your parents, family, a spouse or even one of your closest friends’.
It is never easy dealing with this, even still there are times where it is even harder, in the midst of a personal crisis, a death in the family, marital issues or during an intense struggle; be it financial, personal, emotional and most of all spiritual.
What I see happening more and more, is what I would like to call “Wal-mart Syndrome,” – is you aren’t completely satisfied return it, buy a new one, get rid of the old one; this is a relationship thing, where parents, after trying what they believe to be everything to deal with something that’s “wrong” with their child, its off to Grandma’s house or away to school or sometimes its just out of the family completely. Personally I can connect with this, and the scary part is there are millions of people out there that can.
One thing that gives us all hope though, is that Jesus Christ, our LORD and Savior has experienced abandonment, and unlike when we go through it, His experience was truly at the worst possible because it involved family, friends, physical and mental struggle, even though He knew that it wouldn’t be for long, it still happened a second at a time. Having all power, and the ability to make time speed up – to end it sooner or even just skip it completely, He chose to take it a moment at a time, exactly how we as His beloved would have to endure it here on earth
There are a few cases in the Bible, where Christ is abandoned, we’ll look at three pretty monumental events, the first by some of His disciples, the second by one if His closest friends and the other by His Father, however there is a little catch with what happened with God.
In the garden, when Christ was in agony – to the point of not even being able to stand, having the entire worlds burdens on His shoulders, even verbalizing His distress to Peter, James and John saying “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (excerpt Matthew 26:38). He asks them, to sit and pray while He goes a little farther – how far can you throw a stone? Because that’s about how far Jesus was from them, crying out to His and Our Heavenly Father, in complete and consuming anguish looking for another way to save us from our sins, and an hour later, all three were asleep, they had abandoned their post, abandoned their instructions, their support of their Savior, not once but three times! Not that I can put myself in Christ’s place here, but I know if I asked my three closest friends to watch over me for an hour while I struggles to the point of death and they had done this, I’d feel pretty alone, pretty abandoned.
In Matthew 26, Jesus is talking to His Disciples explaining that they would scatter when man would strike Him, and Peter takes offense and tells Him that there was no way that He would deny (lets substitute abandon) his Savior, Jesus replies that he won’t just do it once, but three times. What Peter doesn’t know is that Jesus knows what’s coming and that it won’t be on a normal day, but in the time of Christ’s first judgment by man. The pain was already there when Jesus told Peter this, and sure as God loves us, in the temple courtyards it happens, this would be a huge blow to Christ, after all they had spent three years together and they grew to love one another.
The third example is most likely the one we can all connect most with, because it involves family, in today’s society, if you don’t like your spouse – you have an affair or get divorced. If you don’t like your parents (more for the teens) you run away, leave home, or rebel against one of the most loving relationships you can have, making it all that much worse for your parents. If your parents can’t deal with you, or get fed up what happens; they disown you, kick you out of the house or turn their backs. This happened to Jesus – not because God The Father couldn’t deal with Him, or was fed up, but because God can’t stand sin, and Jesus did just take our sin He BECAME our sin, so He willingly, at the time where He needed His Father’s love the most, had God The Father abandon Him – using the same verses as ‘Loss of a loved one’ we can see it
Luke 23:34 – Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do”
Mark 15:33-34 – Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice says, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which is translated “My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?”
Luke 23:46 – And when Jesus cried out with a loud voice, He said “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” Having said this, He breathed His last.
Jesus actually cries out “My God, My God why have You FORSAKEN Me?” According to the Oxford Dictionary – forsaken is – to abandoned or desert. I don’t think it can get any more clear-cut then that.
Abandonment is something that everyone, at some point in their life will deal with on earth, luckily for us God says explicitly “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, Deuteronomy 31:6). However God knows what it’s like, because of the trinity, because Jesus is God, He knows the pain and the stress and the deep hurt that comes with having someone abandon you in a time of need, no matter how great the need. Connecting with our Heavenly Father is never heard, sometimes we just need to rehash the scriptures and think about it from Christ’s perspective instead of reading it like a story. In doing so we can know that even though Jesus is the Son of God, The Lamb without spot of blemish, He still knows what it feels like….
