Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen.
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
Psalm 22:1-2
I’m so very glad that these words are in the scripture. Even more, that they’re on Christ’s lips as He dies alone on the wood. Otherwise, how could I hold on to hope when it’s really gotten that bad? Sometimes we have a weak picture of Christ, that somehow, because He was also God, that His suffering was less. As if He were play acting a predetermined drama or His divinity was some eternal tylenol. That would mean these words were lies to me.
The truth is, in His innocence, and in the breaking of His relationship with His Father, that all of eternity and time were being shaken. And His grief was like no other. That’s what it must mean. When we feel low or depressed, when we are suffering, we often feel alone. And honestly, in some ways, we are tasting the tiniest bit of those words. That’s why it hurts so much. But we will never be alone like He was. In fact, we can never be alone again, because He knows how our sadness feels. There is always One who knows your pain and more beyond it. That’s really something. And in the end, it’s “my God.” The tender words of owning and loving the Father who has wounded Him. We are people who know grief. This is a part of what it is to be a Christian. But that grief will never be the final word to us. Take your suffering now to Jesus, because He’s yours. Even the suffering of not finding Him. He even understands this pain and bends His whole heart to His every child crying out in the darkness.