God is There
Psalm 22[1]
As we conclude the season of Lent with the remembrance of Jesus’
suffering and death, we may recall that Jesus quoted the first line of Psalm 22
in his agony on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps.
22:1). The very idea is unsettling: that the God who promises never to forsake
us would in fact do so. And the prospect that he abandoned his own Son at the
moment when he fulfilled God’s saving purpose most completely can be shocking.
I think Jesus knew he had to die. Yet he cried out “My God, My God, why have
you forsaken me.” I believe Jesus trusted that God would raise him from the
dead. Yet he cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” What
troubles me is the question where God was while all this was happening.
I know the standard response: “he had to turn away because Jesus
took all the sin of the world on himself and God cannot look upon sin.” That
just doesn’t cut it for me. I want to know where God was during the awful
silence that followed Jesus’ prayer. It is a prayer after all, addressed to
God. Jesus wasn’t just acting out some sort of elaborate play. This was the
real thing. And when the agony of the cross overwhelmed him, Jesus cried out
one of the most heartbreaking prayers of the Bible. And God’s response was … silence.
Did God really forsake Jesus on the cross?
Maybe we’re looking at this in the wrong way. We tend to equate silence with abandonment.
But sometimes we’re silent with those who are suffering because we are
suffering with them. I believe that’s what was going on at the cross. Rather
than abandoning his Son, God was right there with Jesus, experiencing all the
anguish his heartbreaking prayer expresses.[2] God
was silent because God was suffering with Jesus. While the idea of God
“suffering” might seem strange to us, at the cross God made it clear once and
for all that his suffering has become our redemption, and his apparent weakness
is in fact a demonstration of his powerful love.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in all of this that the cry “My
God, My God, why?” can actually be an expression of faith. What we have to
notice is that the Psalm takes an abrupt turn. The psalmist cried out to the
Lord, and the Lord heard his cries and delivered him from whatever was causing
his trouble. And he confirms that God is the one who is on the side of those
who suffer: “[God] did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he
did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him” (Ps. 22:24). The
point of this is that even in the midst of suffering, God is there, paying
close attention to those who are suffering, hearing their every cry for help.
Unfortunately, the idea that those who suffer must be undergoing
punishment for some kind of wrongdoing is something that has become ingrained
for many of us. I think this pattern of thinking can be most harmful when we
encounter suffering ourselves. When hardship strikes us we tend to think, “What
did I do to deserve this?” And yet if we can take the Psalmist’s perspective,
perhaps instead we can trust in God’s unfailing love despite any hardships we
encounter. We can take this step of faith because at the cross God demonstrated
once and for all that he is the one who is there with all the afflicted in
their suffering.
When
we wonder where God was while Jesus was suffering on cross, the answer is that
God was right there suffering with him. And that answer also applies to each
and every one of us when we may wonder where God is in our moments of anguish.[3]
God is just as present with us as he was with Jesus. God will not abandon us
any more than he abandoned Jesus. If God seems silent, it is not because he is
ignoring us, it is because he is suffering with us. That’s where God always
is—right beside us, walking with us every step of the way, supporting us in
ways that are sometimes unseen and unfelt. But they are real nevertheless.
Wherever you find any suffering or heartbreak or anguish in this world, God is
there, pouring out his love to bring healing and new life.
[1]
© Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 4/9/2020 at Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2]
Cf. Jürgen Moltmann The Way of Jesus
Christ, 173: far from abandoning his Son, “in the surrender of the Son the
Father surrenders himself too.”
[3]
Cf. Martin Marty, A
Cry of Absence: Reflections for the Winter of the Heart, 174 “God participates in the life of the people
[who suffer] and suffers at their side.”
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