Wednesday, March 27, 2024 – Holy Week: Jesus Asks! Tough questions for a Lenten Faith

At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15; 34, New Revised Standard Version)

            Here it is – the culmination of the Lenten season, ending in the most human of agonized cries in the most extreme form of terrible human suffering, “Why God have you abandoned me?”

Where is God when our world is falling apart? Where is God when our loved ones are dying from cancer and diseases?  Where is God when there are children dying in wars? Where is God when we can’t get out of our deep anxieties and despair? Where is God when we are caught in some spiral of self-destruction? Where is God when others abuse us, hurt us, use us, shame us?

 Why, O Lord, won’t you do something? You are omnipotent; so, fix it, change it, remove it, transform it. Where did you go? Where are you hiding? Why are you ignoring us? Why have you forsaken us?

“O Lord, how long will this go on?  Will you hide yourself forever?”  (Psalm 89: 46, New Living Translation)

Jesus speaks for all humanity from the cross. He identifies with our deepest pains, sorrows, sufferings, failures, dying and despair. From the cross, Jesus also looks for answers, relief, some divine response that might make sense of it all. “Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.” (Hebrews 2: 18) Yet, like Job of the Old Testament, we are still left with questions about the relationship between God and ourselves when we are suffering.

There are no easy, simple, black and white answers. “My heart is troubled and restless. Days of suffering torment me.” (Job30: 27) Like Jesus, Job refused to let God off the hook and so persisted in questioning God’s motives, God’s purposes, God’s fairness. I think we are encouraged to persist in our conversations or even arguments with God when we are most in need of God’s intervention and intercession. Remember the persistent widow who wouldn’t allow the arrogant judge to ignore her. Jesus sassed, “So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly!” (Luke 18: 7-8)

The crowd taunted Jesus that first Good Friday: “Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!” (Matthew 27:40) But that wasn’t to be. This was not the way it would end, for now. The cross was Jesus’ destiny, his work, his sacrifice. It must have pained God greatly to see his beloved Son in such agony. Yet, he allowed it for our sakes. “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” (Romans 5:6) He suffered for us, in our place, so that we would have hope in the midst of our own human losses and sufferings. “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.” (Romans 8:18)

No one enjoys suffering of any kind. Not physical pain. Not mental anguish. Not grief. Not loss. Yet it is a part of our experience. No one gets through life unscathed. Wealth can’t protect us. Science can’t save us. Technology can’t help us. We are called upon to deal with suffering as best we can. For some, the existence of suffering becomes an argument that God doesn’t exist. But for us who believe, we hunger for God even in the midst of pain and suffering. We cling to God despite our questions or our fears and our confusion. We see Jesus in the moment of his agony and there, but with the grace of God, go you or I. But because of Jesus, even our crosses, our sufferings, our dying do not have the ultimate power to defeat us.

It is never easy to suffer. It will leave us with many questions and scars. Yet, hear Job who complains, out of the heart of all his anguish, when he needs help and no one answers; yet he fearlessly, boldly declares, “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!” (Job 19: 25 -27) Or Paul who echoes Job, “But I am not ashamed of it (suffering), for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return. (2 Timothy 1:12)

Jesus Christ identifies with us from the cross. He is not silent. He is not resigned to his death. He is not simply meekly submissive even though he knows this death is his ministry for the world. He cries out for us all that God will hear and open the way to God’s Love and compassion.

“Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.” (Psalm 10:17)

Dale