The word forsake means to abandon, to break off from. In the crucifixion of Jesus Christ - the second person of the one Triune God - our Lord was at once the only sacrifice worthy to bear our sins, and the holy Son of God. God cannot look upon sin - He cannot have sin in His holy presence. Jesus at that moment was rejected by His Father God with whom He had been One for all eternity past. Why? Because He was bearing the sins of the world.
On earth, all who were once His disciples and had accepted His teaching had turned away. Even the few who stood by Him only knew Him as human and believed His crucifixion was the end.
Jesus experienced this loneliness at the very core of His being. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mk. 15:34) No one understood Him - who among us could comprehend an eternity with God suddenly torn away from us, except one who had their heart physically torn from their chest and shown to him as he looked on it in horror, only to die in the next moment. And even that horror does not describe what our Lord was experiencing.
- Emptiness
- Abandonment
- Loss
All can be attributed to these last hours of Jesus' obedient fulfillment of our salvation. How do we rejoice in the life He gave us, knowing what He suffered?
With a loud cry, Jesus breathed His last." (Mk. 15:37)