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

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

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Darkness has descended and the Son of God hangs between heaven and earth. The gospel of Mark reports that Jesus breaks hours of silence with these gut wrenching words of forsakenness. The Lord of Glory has passed through these many hours alone feeling forsaken by his friends and now revealing a deeper forsakenness. And the onlookers mock him without pity. He who was compassion incarnate experienced no compassion in death.

In the midst of a sober and dark moment in time Christ cries out and the history of mankind is changed forever! The centurion saw it in his face. The temple veil could not stay in tact. Existence on planet earth was taking a radical turn upwards. A divine seed was being planted and forsakenness was being turned inside out. No longer would mankind be alone in suffering. He who is compassion incarnate would transcend death and be with us forever!

Alleluia! Death could not hold you! I am not forsaken! Compassion is with me today!