I think that the hardest part for us as Christians is not the belief in the birth of Jesus but is instead the belief in resurrection and going along with that the availability to have complete forgiveness from our sins.
It seems to be one thing to say that Jesus forgives us of our sins and yet a completely different thing to say Jesus took on our sins and explain to people this concept. As a pastor, I am always confronted by someone who just wants to belittle this and use this as proof that we Christians don't know what we are talking about. I find however, that some of the facts that we accept easily with our beliefs are the hardest to unpack - especially for others.
In a society where there is more secular then Christian, we have now come to a place where more and more everyday Christians are meant to answer these theologically packed and loaded questions that even those of us with degrees have a hard time wrapping the answers up.
So...I have been thinking about this lately. About how Jesus died for our sins, taking on the sins of the world. and I have come to the conclusion that in order for him to have taken on the sins, he must have experienced them. But does that mean he must have committed them all? By all means NO! The idea "sin" is really the things that separate us from God - the things that keep us from having a full relationship with the Divine.
As I was reflecting on Jesus' final moments and the difficult part of Jesus' death in which he exclaims "My God, My God why have you forsaken me?" Albeit a quote directly from the psalms, still a pretty eerie thing for Jesus to say in his final moments. Wasn't this God's plan? Didn't Jesus understand the need for his death? But there is SO much more here: it is here in these moments that Jesus is FULLY HUMAN and experiencing true sin so that we may be forgiven. It is here in these few lines and this chilling call that Jesus truly understands what it means to have sin - to be separated from the divine relationship for here he accuses God of leaving him - of allowing him to suffer such pain.
And perhaps he has a point in the later, but God never leaves us. It is in our own sinful actions that we separate ourselves from God. It is when we let the world, society or whatever we covet in it, consume us - leaving our relationship with the Holy to suffer. It is then that we feel alone, or worse abandoned by God. And Jesus had to feel this way, had to fully and truly be human in all our flaws in order for his death to bring us true salvation - true grace.
You see Jesus wasn't perfect, I am sure I shared or at least will share some of the other places in the Bible that Jesus doesn't follow the "will of God" and strays from the Divine's plan, but we all do. In order for Jesus to truly be our savior, his humanity had to be real and authentic. That doesn't take away from his real and authentic divinity but it makes a good point at reminding us that Jesus wasn't a saint when he walked the Earth, he was a real "Joe." If he wasn't then how could all of us real "Joes and Janes" expect to be saved through his life?
I hope this post brought new meaning behind "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" That you come to realize that in those moments, Jesus truly took on the sins of the world and yet when we in our deepest pain, in our grief and in our times of shame when we come before God believing that God has abandoned us, we can find solace in knowing that not only is God still there (for Jesus' divinity never left him!) but that God truly understands and knows our pain and took it on so that we might find peace. Know that God never truly leaves us, it is us who leave the Holy. Know that the Divine understands our humanity and yet still wants to offer us grace! A pretty amazing thing!
