4. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mat 27:46)
"The forth word is a cry that seeks despairing hearts, a cry from human life’s deepest abysses of misery and pain. It witnesses to the depth of Christ’s sacrifice. When the pain increased, not even the inner peace remained. Both body and soul languished. The soul languished in impotence and darkness. No powerful hand stretched out to carry him. No refreshing hand of the Spirit to comfort his heart. It was an abyss of distress, anguish and horror. This cry that today echoes from the cross out over the congregation, comes from such deep distress, that it demands the hear who himself tested the depths of distress in order to understand and give security.
But you who have been or are in distress, listen! Do you hear a tone of faith or victory in this cry of despair? Not: God has forsaken me. But My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? So cries a man for whom all is darkness, all is peril, everything is inconceivable, a single great why? And who still knows God is there, that God wills it. From the blackest depth comes such a cry to God. There in already lies victory. In his cry, Jesus cites the beginning of the twenty second Psalm and it finishes as a psalm of victory and faith. Remember this next time your soul languishes, all everything is mysterious and dark. Look at the cross. Complain to God. Christ understands you, receives your prayer and carries it to God." (Bo Giertz)
Forgive me this morning. I received some good news last night. So I slept harder and better than I have since September. I was late getting up and had nothing prepared for the blog this morning. But I have been working on a sermon Bo Giertz wrote for Good Friday. I thought I would just share this section of it.
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