“Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Mk 15:34).
The question “Why?” is one of the simplest yet profoundest petitions sent heavenward by multitudes of people through the ages. This question has two parts. “Why…You?” and “Why…Me?” More often, we ask a third or fourth iteration of the query: Why this? or Why now? Psalm 22 gives answers to the first two. Why You? “But You are holy” (v 3). When our Savior was to be made sin for us, God the Judge had to turn away. And why Me? “But I am a worm, and no man” (v 6). Oh the mystery of it all! Identifying so closely with that “worm Jacob” (Isa 41:14) and his ilk, that we would read such a description of the Messiah.
Clearly, it is not wrong to ask our Father “Why?” It is unhelpful to wonder why me; why not me? But to ask why this, and why now, if asked humbly, can be the gateway to grasping His will in our life.