On the Last Words of Christ

Agnostic reflections from the holiest month of my life (Pt. 3)

This is the third piece in what will be a four-part series, featuring my reflections on the importance of prayer (Pt.1), the Passion of Christ (Pt.2), His death, and resurrection.

The Holiest Month of My Life (Pt. 2)

Photo by author: Zion National Park, 2020

Good Friday

The reading on Palm Sunday closed with Jesus's last words: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" And that stumped me. I asked myself, Did Jesus lose His faith at the moment of His death? Wouldn't that invalidate His good work? Then, at the end of mass, the church advertised the rest of their Holy Week programming, and I added Friday's to my calendar: Meditation on the Seven Last Words of Jesus Christ.

Christ's seven last words are more like verses He said at the end of His life, from the various accounts of His crucifixion in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.¹ Each is powerful and conveys its own lesson, but I'll focus on the fourth of the seven words because it holds the mystery I attended this service to solve.

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

I enter the the Good Friday meditation intending to answer one question: How could Christ have fulfilled His mission if He lost faith in the Father at the moment of His death?

Accompanying the seven words are commentary, hymns, prayers, and a slideshow of images depicting Jesus on the day of His crucifixion. Sitting in the pew with my notebook, I pay close attention to it all, eagerly awaiting the answer to my question — the big reveal of the meaning behind the fourth word: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

On the surface, those words are a faithless curse of agony and disdain. "How could you do this to me?" they say. "Save my from this suffering." But in this Good Friday service, I learn that they are, counterintuitively, a deep profession of faith and an acceptance of the will of God.

With His final words, Jesus references Psalm 22, the Old Testament prophesy of the Messiah. These are the first lines:

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?
O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
And in the night season, and am not silent.²

This is the common interpretation: Jesus choses these as His last words so that He can speak directly to His followers. Everyone who worshiped with Him would have known Psalm 22 and would have understood the reference.³ And to those who renounced Jesus, these words were exactly what they would expect. The crowd mocks Him, like bullies saying, "Where's your daddy now?"

This is why He quotes Psalm 22. Jesus points to His crucifixion as evidence that He is the Son of God. He assures His followers that He will fulfill His messianic mission, as it is prophesied:

For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots. (Psalm 22)

Jesus's final words also communicate how He feels on the cross, at the moment of His death. God has forsaken Jesus and has turned away from Him, for Jesus becomes sin. For the first time, Jesus's unity with the Father is broken. He is forsaken; He feels forsaken, but He holds steadfastly to His faith.

Jesus accepts the reality of death and, despite His unimaginable agony, faces it without fear. These are the hopeful, faithful lines at the end of Psalm 22, which Jesus invokes with his last words:

[God] has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from Him;
But when He cried to Him, He heard.

These were the two lessons I took from the meditation:

1. Fearlessness can only come from faith.

2. Death is a meaningful part of life.

To face death without fear, you must have faith that your life has been worthwhile, that it has been enough. Your faith doesn't have to be in God, but without faith, it would be impossible to be fearless in the face of death. Jesus's crucifixion also shows that death is not something to run from; it's a reality to prepare for and accept. Death is inevitable, and it is part of what makes life meaningful.

Springboard:

Is there a belief or idea that helps you accept the hard truth of your mortality? What helps you feel more comfortable with the reality of death?

The Holiest Month of My Life (Pt.4)

1. Here are all seven words, in the order of the Good Friday mediation: 1) "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." 2) "Amen, I say to You, today You will be with me in Paradise." 3) "'Woman, behold, your son'…Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother.'" 4)"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 5) "I thirst." 6) "It is accomplished." 7) "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

2. Psalm 22 – New King James Version, Bible Gateway

3. "Why Jesus Cried 'My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me'" – Larry White, Bible Study Tools