The Psalter of Jesus: Abandoned to Death // Psalm 22

Our God is a consuming fire. He is dangerous, fearless, fully alive. And he will stop at nothing to make persons of that same cloth. Look at the heroes of our faith: Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab. Who among them lived in quiet safety? None. They were murdered, displaced, mocked, threatened, and abandoned. They died in faith, having not yet laid hold of the promises they hoped for. Yet in death, they escaped exile in this world that they might enter the city God had prepared for them. This is the life of faith, experiencing the abandonment and alienation of this world in hope for a new world to come. We are consumed in fire here that we might live in fire there. Jesus cried from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." And this author and finisher of our faith now cries those same words through us. Our head has broken through. Surely, his body will follow.