A Week to a New You: Day Four

Day Four of the Cool Chic and in Christ 7 Sayings of Jesus on the Cross series and we have reached Maundy Thursday, a day forever commemorated by Leonardo Da Vinci’s beautiful painting ‘The Last Supper’ and recreated in church’s everywhere in the form of Communion.  AsH

What would you eat, for your final meal? Would it be Seafood Platter with an unlimited supply of champagne to add a celebratory tone to proceedings? Maybe a steak washed down with a vintage Bordeaux red? Or a slab masquerading as a slice of chocolate cake with a mini mountain of ice cream as an accompaniment? And how would you feel that in the already frightening knowledge that this would be the last time that you ate anything at all that those whom you loved would be central to your betrayal and would indeed abandon you? Jesus knew all those things as he ate with the disciples at the Last Supper and although we do not know whether flat bread and red wine were his own personal favourites, we do know that Judas would betray him a few hours later and that the rest of the disciples would abandon him in his hour of need. In fact today’s words said on the cross point to a still greater abandonment.

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) Mark 15:34

In order for us to have any sort of chance of life anew, Jesus took the ultimate hit of feeling abandoned by God, His Father. The words here are from Mark’s gospel (the earliest of the four in the bible) but they are reiterated in Matthew’s Gospel too. It is this total absence of God’s presence, this taking on of all our past, present and future failings and misdemeanours that causes Jesus to cry out. In other parts of the Passion, we see Jesus bearing his pain and the insults in relative silence neither complaining nor rebutting the false charges brought against him. He does this so that there is a window of opportunity for us. So that we who have many reasons to be abandoned by God for our ability to repeat-to-fade mistake-dom, will have a chance at a relationship every bit as encompassing as the one Jesus has with God.

The phrase ‘God Forsaken’ is often used to express a place or situation where there is an absence of hope or chance of improvement .Wanting a new life, can often feel beyond the realms of possibility; just that little bit too hard and unbelievable. Some prayer points might now feel like they belong in the realms of childish fantasy and don’t have any scope for fulfilment. In other instances, attempts at improving a situation may have consistently failed to hit the mark, exhausting and demoralising one in the process.  But the truth is there is always hope, and we are neither alone or abandoned in our efforts, triumphs, hiccups and f-ups. We have a friend, a brother, a suffering servant and a redeemer, and his name is Jesus.