This is audacious to say -- even more so because I am such a recent convert. But for the last few hours I've been looking up the highly detailed, highly "descriptive" explanations for why Jesus said on the cross: "My God, my God, why hath you forsaken me? Why art thou far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?"
There are entire essays written about how this was because the "this" or the "that" or whatever was "separating" from Jesus. It's so confusing I can't even explain it properly. I have an entirely different theory as to why this is in the bible.
One day, when things are not going your way, and you feel like God is ignoring you, or you feel like you've been abandoned, or you even feel in doubt. Try reading the passage in that mindset.
THAT I believe is why it's in the bible: why Jesus Christ said those words. I don't believe he was saying them for himself: but to cast himself as a symbol of the human doubt of God, and the feelings every single one of us must have had at least one point in our life. When you find yourself doubting God, I think those words exist to show that, when God sent his own son down to die in the flesh, in that moment, he expressed doubt too.
There is comfort in that. That you are not a bad person because you have doubts sometimes. Even Jesus had doubts, and Jesus is our Lord and savior. I just don't think that these incredibly detailed "play-by-play" explanations are necessary and I think they might even over-complicate what, when taken in its own context, is a surprisingly simple feeling being conveyed in a way that resonates with (or I believe with) just about anyone.
Who hasn't wondered if God has abandoned them? Who has never doubted? I believe Christ said these words as an example of the salvation that comes even with the doubt.
There are entire essays written about how this was because the "this" or the "that" or whatever was "separating" from Jesus. It's so confusing I can't even explain it properly. I have an entirely different theory as to why this is in the bible.
One day, when things are not going your way, and you feel like God is ignoring you, or you feel like you've been abandoned, or you even feel in doubt. Try reading the passage in that mindset.
THAT I believe is why it's in the bible: why Jesus Christ said those words. I don't believe he was saying them for himself: but to cast himself as a symbol of the human doubt of God, and the feelings every single one of us must have had at least one point in our life. When you find yourself doubting God, I think those words exist to show that, when God sent his own son down to die in the flesh, in that moment, he expressed doubt too.
There is comfort in that. That you are not a bad person because you have doubts sometimes. Even Jesus had doubts, and Jesus is our Lord and savior. I just don't think that these incredibly detailed "play-by-play" explanations are necessary and I think they might even over-complicate what, when taken in its own context, is a surprisingly simple feeling being conveyed in a way that resonates with (or I believe with) just about anyone.
Who hasn't wondered if God has abandoned them? Who has never doubted? I believe Christ said these words as an example of the salvation that comes even with the doubt.