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 NRSV)
What’s the sign of a close relationship?
Well, no-doubt there are many, but surely one of the hallmarks of a close relationship is honesty. Friends and acquaintances usually receive an edited transcript of our feelings. Our loved ones occasionally experience them in Technicolor and surround-sound!
Sadly, we quite often treat God as if he were an elderly relative or a friend from a genteel neighbourhood. It’s as if we don’t feel able to tell God just how we are feeling.
But it is ok to shake your fist at God in times of grief and anguish: first of all because the Creator of all that exists can cope with our tantrums; secondly because there is an honourable history of those who have shouted at God in their suffering; and thirdly because being honest with God is a sign of a close relationship, not a weak faith.
The collection of poems, hymns and prayers in the Old Testament Book of Psalms has many examples of people expressing their anger at God, from a position of deep faith. Jesus would have known well the words of Psalm 22, from which his own words are taken. It is a prayer which begins with complaints of bitter anguish and deep depression, but it ends as a hymn of praise.
As Jesus shared the human experience of agonising desolation it would be natural for him to turn to familiar words to cry out in pain.
But God had not abandoned him in his hour of need, as the resurrection demonstrates. Nor does God abandon us in our times of desperation either. He is present despite the sense of isolation, of crucifixion.
I hope that you never experience such times; but let’s face it, most of us do. For many, it is that close relationship with God, expressed in raw words of pain at the darkest moments, which helps them to see the dawn light later on.
Jesus,
You shared our humanity
in all its fullness
and its limitations.
Teach us, me,
to grow in faith
and in honesty of relationship with you,
the human face of God.
Amen
Just a Thought . . . 