A Reflection for Palm Sunday 2025

My God, My God, Why Have You Abandoned Me? This, today’s psalm, is Jesus’ cry of anguish and pain to His Father while He is alone in the desert.

He feels forsaken, forgotten and abandoned. The words express a profound sense of sorrow and a feeling of being far from God’s presence.

Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes for a moment.  Think of Jesus and what he was feeling. Can you recall a time that you felt the way Jesus felt?

Maybe when you were a child or even when you were an adult that you felt so alone and the person you needed wasn’t there for you.

Recall how you felt at that moment. Take the emotions that come up and give them to Jesus. He wants our pain and our suffering, so that we can be freed of them in order that we may be open to the joy of the Resurrection!

As you listened to the psalm this weekend, think about how the music made you feel. The refrain sounds sad, yet simple, because Jesus is asking His Father a phrase made up of simple words, but rich with meaning asking where are you, why are You not here with me in my greatest hour of need?

The psalm goes on to the verses where Jesus describes what the soldiers are doing to Him in great detail. It is here that the music becomes dissonant, uncomfortable, almost jarring as it grabs our attention saying, you need to listen, to experience the emotions embedded in these words as they foreshadow the gospel. 

Psalm 22 is about the events that took place while Jesus’ journeyed to Golgatha; these sacred events are the same events which are in the Gospel’s account of the Passion of our Lord. Right before Jesus died on the cross, He said “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?””

Today, as we enter into the Holiest week of the church year and the close of our Lenten Journey, let us ask Jesus to walk with us, to hold us close in His arms as we walk the journey to Good Friday with Him, experiencing the fullness of His faithfulness and love.