© 2024, Dr. Tamilio
Jesus was crucified for sedition, for being a traitor against the state. The Jewish leaders saw him as a threat to the religious power they held, so they convinced Pilate that he was going to lead a political rebellion. After all, his followers referred to him as a “king.” When Jesus hung on the cross, he spoke seven times. The Gospels report what he said, and Christians today referred to these statements as the seven words from the cross. Each Good Friday we reflect upon these statements. One of those statements comes from the Psalm we read this morning: Psalm 22, often referred to as the Psalm of the Cross.
I find it interesting that so many Christians know the 23rd Psalm by heart, but are not conversant with the one that immediately precedes it. Many of us learned the 23rd Psalm in Sunday School when we were kids. It is a Psalm of assurance — letting us know that whatever happens in life we have the Lord as our shepherd who will guide and protect us. However, just before this Psalm, we read words of despair:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
Is this your cry? Has it ever been your cry? Have you ever hit the proverbial wall? Have you ever felt as if you’ve tried everything, but you’re getting nowhere?
Now, extend such despair to the world writ large. Look at the state of things. In Florida, they are dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Milton and the devastation it has wrought. We are less than a month away from a contentious Presidential election, which, regardless of who wins, we will see civil unrest throughout this nation. The war between Russia and Ukraine continues. The war between Israel and Palestine has grown to include Iran. Although there has been a bit of a reprieve regarding the eastern longshoremen’s strike, we are not out of the woods yet. Cindy and I went to BJ’s Wholesale Club the other night (that big warehouse store) and noticed that toilet paper and bottled water supplies are starting to diminish. Add this to a long list of other global crises that are unfolding, and it doesn’t take much for the nonbeliever to ask, “Where is your God in the midst of all this?”
The state of the world is a precarious one. If Jesus felt forsaken, we have license to feel the same way. “Where are you, O God, in the midst of all these disasters, wars, and turmoil?”
Jesus’ Psalm is our Psalm. It is the old theodicy question: why do bad things happen to good people? It’s a fair question. If God is just, then why isn’t this sphere of existence, which he created, just and fair as well? We must remember that not only have we fallen short of the life God intended for us, but the entire creation is broken, too. As Paul told the Romans, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (8:22).
Have you ever planned something that did not go the way you intended. You planned a party — and no one showed up. You slaved over the stove for hours and hours preparing a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast for your extended family, only to have the day devolve into a heated argument. You came up with a great idea to brighten the office and heighten morale, only to be met with snarls and stares. You look at the mess around you and wonder, “Why bother?”
It would be totally understandable if God looked at us and threw up his hands, too. It would not be surprising if God decided to scrap the whole earth-human enterprise. You can almost hear him: “I created them out of love to love one another, and all they do is kill, torture, and steal. They are guided by avarice, animosity, and prejudice. Why bother?” God promised he would never destroy the earth with a flood again, but he said nothing about fire! Maybe those nuclear devices we constructed will turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Feeling utterly abandoned when you are in the throes of grief is normal. In an article written about eight years ago, Jared C. Wilson looks at this very issue and mentions how (quote): “The holidays can exacerbate this grief…the outward cheer and romance of the season [can be] that much more painful due to the internal anguish of strained relationships or depression.”[1] I bring this up, because the “holidays” will be here before you know it. Even though we are about two-and-a-half weeks away from Halloween, people are already making their Thanksgiving plans and are decorating for Christmas. Again, for those who do not know, the Christmas season technically begins with the first Sunday of Advent, which happens to be December 1st this year. However, I am not Mr. Scrooge. I allow it to begin the Friday after Thanksgiving — no sooner! The point is simply that the holidays, which are supposed to be celebratory times, remind many people of the losses they suffered.
Back to grief and the feeling of being abandoned by God. Remember what Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said. Bonhoeffer was the German theologian who was hanged in a Nazi concentration camp (just before the Allies liberated the camps) because of his involvement in a plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer once said that Christianity without the cross is not Christianity. Didn’t Jesus tell his followers to pick up the cross and follow him? Didn’t he tell them that those who wanted to save their lives must lose it? Didn’t he tell them that they would be rejected, hauled into court, and persecuted for the sake of the Gospel? Who ever said the Christian faith would be all sunshine and rainbows? If that is how we understand Christianity, then we will certainly feel abandoned by God from time to time. For some, it may feel more often than not.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This was Jesus’ cry when he was in deep despair. It is our cry, too. It is the cry of many of the people whom we pray for each Sunday, you just may not hear them say it. It is the cry of the mother who has lost her child; or the victim of child trafficking; or the alcoholic who has tried everything, but just can beat it. It is the cry that echoes off the walls of sanitoriums, prisons, and crack houses.
Allow God to hold your pain. It’s a blessing to have him as the ultimate balm of mercy. Why wouldn’t you place your cares in his hands? Why wouldn’t you trust him to see you to the other side of the chasm of terror? He will hold you. He will love you, just as he loved his Son when he was on the cross. Actually, Jesus being God incarnate is God shouldering our pain on the cross!
- When you cannot carry it alone, there is Jesus.
- When you cannot lift your head to see the sunrise, there is Jesus.
- When you cannot see any possible way out of whatever predicament you are mired in, there is Jesus.
- Jesus felt the pain first.
- His love is enough.
Amen.
[1] Jared C. Wilson, “When You Feel Forgotten, Abandoned, and Unloved,” taken from The Gospel Coalition (online). Published December 15, 2016.