Have you ever felt forsaken? Somebody you counted on turned their back on you? You were forgotten, left out, left alone, abandoned.
Jesus sure did. You may remember when he hung on the cross, he cried out:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46, NIV throughout)
It is one thing to be forsaken by a stranger, but your father … that is another thing altogether.
A View From the Lower Story
I was taught the moment Jesus took all our sins upon himself, the Father turned his face away from him. God, I was told, can’t look upon sin.
There is a beautiful hymn that reinforces this idea:
How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns his face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One
Bring many sons to glory.
This is how it appeared from the Lower Story.
What Are the Upper and the Lower Story?
What is the Lower Story?
The Lower Story reveals the here and now of daily life, the experiences and circumstances we see here on earth. In the Bible there are the individual stories of people like Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, David, Esther, Jesus, Paul, and Peter. The Lower Story is how things appear from our perspective — horizontal and limited.
But God has a higher agenda than our individual stories of survival and comfort. When we rise above the here and now, look beyond the daily grind, and view each of these stories in the Bible from God’s perspective, we see something much bigger — vertical and unlimited.
This is the Upper Story.
As we view the Bible through this lens, we see that God has been up to something amazing from the beginning. He has a vision, a big idea, and it is all good news for us.
A View From the Upper Story
Now let’s take a look at what Jesus said on the cross from the Upper Story. Here we discover something very different going on.
There is a teaching technique used among Jewish rabbis called remez that exposes what Jesus was really doing on the cross. The rabbi basically gives the student the first line of a section of scripture to help jar their memory and get them started.
Listen to the first line out of Psalm 22:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Psalm 22:1)
Jesus wasn’t crying out to God but leading the people back to Psalm 22. The people would have been prompted to say the second line of this petition:
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish? (Psalm 22:1)
This would have led them deeper into the psalmist’s lament. See if you recognize any of them and how they mirrored what Jesus was experiencing on the cross.
| Psalmist | Gospels |
| All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. [Ps. 22:7] | Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads. [Mt. 27:39] |
| “He trusts in the Lord”, they say, “Let the Lord rescue him.” [Ps. 22:8] | “He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now.” [Mt. 27:43] |
| My mouth is dried up like a potsherd. [Ps. 22:15] | Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” [Jn. 19:28] |
| They pierce my hands and feet. [Ps. 22:16] | “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” [Jn. 20:25] |
| They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. [Ps. 22:18] | And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. [Mk. 15:24] |
Jesus is pointing us to the Psalm that was written nearly one thousand years prior that has described everything that has just happened to him. In the Lower Story the Jews and Romans have come together to kill Jesus. In the Upper Story, this was God’s plan all along. He is fulfilling prophecy.
But the Psalm doesn’t end here. There is a declaration of praise for deliverance. Listen carefully:
For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
— Psalm 22:24
But before they could do anything about it, Jesus declared with one more thrust of air through his worn and beaten frame,
“It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:30)
The Jewish audience knew how Psalm 22 ended.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
— Psalm 22:31
“He has done it!” Sound familiar? In Hebrew it’s just one word as well, “hasah” and it means “accomplished/finished.” Jesus begins Psalm 22 with the first line and then finishes Psalm 22 with his last breath.
Jesus was not forsaken by the Father. Out of his deep love for us, even in intense anguish and pain, the rabbi is teaching us, showing us the way to the new garden.
The Challenge
When we are reading the Bible, we need to view it with a dual lens — the Upper and the Lower Story. These two storylines are unfolding from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter in Revelation.
- Lower Story wisdom and application give us practical counsel to live our lives.
- The Upper Story draws up above to see how God is weaving all our Lower Stories to tell his one grand story.
Next time you open the Word, be sure to look for both Lower Story application and Upper Story inspiration.
Embark on a year-long, full-Bible exploration of God’s grand design and how your life fits into his plan in Encountering God’s Love from Genesis to Revelation: A 52-Week Bible Study.
In this 52-week Bible study from Randy and Rozanne Frazee — designed so that you can start it at any point in the year — you’ll learn how to see and appreciate the Bible through two main lenses:
- The Lower Story — reflecting the human experience.
- The Upper Story — revealing God’s divine perspective and ultimate plan.
It’s the perfect Bible study for all those who have craved a deeper understanding of the Bible and wondered how its stories and teachings connect to one larger testament of God’s love.
Randy Frazee is a pastor at Westside Family Church in Kansas City. A frontrunner and innovator in spiritual formation and biblical community, Randy is the architect of The Story and Believe church engagement campaign. He is also the author of The Heart of the Story; Think, Act, Be Like Jesus; What Happens After You Die; His Mighty Strength; The Connecting Church 2.0; and The Christian Life Profile Assessment. He has been married to his high school sweetheart, Rozanne, for more than forty years. They have four children and two grandchildren, with more on the way! To learn more about his work and ministry go to randyfrazee.com.
