The Prayer of the Righteous - Matthew 27:45-46

The Prayer of the Righteous - Matthew 27:45-46

In this passage, the Lord Jesus Christ offers an immortal prayer, as He is dying on the cross.  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?”  Actually, Matthew’s quotation is an abbreviation of Psalm 22, which some biblical scholars believe Jesus recites in its entirety.  Nevertheless, He prays as a righteous man submitting to death unjustly; having been betrayed by a close associate and denied by many others.

This prayer ideally captures the sentiment of our hearts when we juxtapose extensive evil in the world although we believe in an all-powerful, all-kind, ever-present and all-knowing God.  Why does He allow evil to flourish and the righteous to experience pain and suffering?  If God is just, then He will intervene and reverse this trend.  With the great Russian author, Dostoevsky, we cannot comprehend the misery to which children are subjected.  I recall one winter in New York City in which every weekend a baby was abandoned by someone.  In fact, some of these babies were left in garbage dumps in sub-zero temperatures.  Others were left in gym bags in parks.  Countless children in the foster care system are often abused, neglected and mistreated by people whom the State entrust with their care.  Innocent children do not deserve any oppression and cruelty that befalls them.  In response to such tragedy, one asks, “Where is God?” 

The words of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross, “My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me,” are “The Prayer of the Righteous.”  We utter this prayer in our own words when we stumble in darkness.  We cannot make sense out of our predicament.  We endeavor to rightly relate ourselves to God; yet, as victims of very difficult circumstances, we fall prey to the temptation of believing the bleakness of our situation eclipses God’s righteousness.

This text is puzzling!  Here we have a man who studied the great teachings and teachers of his religion, who gives common persons a new appreciation for Almighty God whom the Law reveals.  This carpenter from Nazareth possesses a unique ability to love everyone, particularly the downtrodden.  With the power of the Spirit of God, he preaches about the coming kingdom of God in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.  He teaches crowds of people about God’s limitless love that undergirds the Law.  In fact, he summarizes the entire law with two commands: first, love God with one’s entire being and second, love one’s neighbor as one’s self.  He heals innumerable people of myriad diseases and afflictions.  Zeal for the house of God consumes Him.  During the Passover festival, He enters the Temple courts and drives out the moneychangers who made the house of God equivalent of the New York Stock Exchange.  Nonetheless, this righteous man’s final hours find him bleeding to death on a cross.  As a consequence, He prays the words of the opening verses of the twenty-second psalm.

As it relates to the setting of the cross, the evangelist tells us “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land.”  In these three hours of darkness, it appears God turns His back on this righteous man.  There are times in our lives when it seems God turns His back on us.  Martin Buber, in his commanding book, I and Thou, posits God recedes within the shadows of our challenges.  Nevertheless, in these trying times of adversity, the righteous simply pray.