MOS533

Eli, Eli, L’mah Sh’vaktani?
“My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?”
— Matthew 27:46

These words strike deep. Even Jesus — the Son of God — cried out in anguish. Forsaken. Forgotten. Alone.

I’ve felt that. Maybe you have too. So many men today feel it — the weight of abandonment, isolation, and invisibility. In a world moving fast and forgetting the soul of man, too many brothers are walking silently with heavy hearts. And some… some explode. A young man picks up a weapon not just out of hate, but out of a desperate need to feel something. To feel seen. Even infamy feels better than being invisible.

And we see Jesus on the cross… crying out. Was He broken? Was He abandoned by His Father? If He could feel forsaken, then maybe there’s no hope for the rest of us… right?

But wait.

Look closer.

That cry — “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” — wasn’t just a cry of despair. It was a reference. A signpost. A direct quote from Psalm 22, written by David centuries before.

“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?” — Psalm 22:1

And down in verse 16:

“They pierce my hands and my feet.”

David was never crucified. His hands and feet weren’t pierced. This wasn’t about David. It was prophecy — a shadow of the Messiah.

Jesus wasn’t crying out because God had truly forsaken Him. He was proclaiming, even in agony, that Scripture was being fulfilled. That everything was going exactly as planned.

Because look at how Psalm 22 ends:

“For He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” — Psalm 22:24

Read that again. God did not turn away. He heard.

So what do we do with this?

We remember that Jesus knows what it feels like to be human. To hurt. To feel left behind. But we also remember that even in that place, He was fulfilling the mission. He was not abandoned — He was anchoring Himself in the Word. Declaring hope in the middle of pain.

Men, we are not forgotten. We are not alone. The same God who heard His Son on the cross hears us in our silence.

Christ was not forsaken — and neither are you.

— AS