November 18, 2025 • 29 mins
Some questions crack the heart wide open. We sit with the most jarring line in Scripture—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—and refuse to rush past it. I share a fresh loss, the strange numbness that followed, and the ordinary moment that finally let grief speak. From Jesus’ Aramaic cry to an old voicemail in a dark car, we trace how honest lament moves us from denial into deeper presence.
Together we explore the Psalm 22 backdrop, why tidy explanations often fail the hurting, and how despair can act as a doorway rather than a dead end. Drawing on Kierkegaard and Jürgen Moltmann’s Crucified God, we challenge the image of a distant, unmoved deity and consider divine solidarity—God with us not just in theory, but in the raw places we would rather avoid. We revisit Elie Wiesel’s Auschwitz scene and ask where God is when the world breaks. The answer we lean into is not a neat syllogism. It is a Presence found on the gallows, at the cross, and in the valley of the shadow.
This conversation won’t hand you a quick fix for suffering. It offers something truer: permission to cry out, to feel what you fear, and to find that God does not abandon the abandoned. If you’ve stood at the edge of the abyss—mourning a parent, aching over a fractured relationship, or carrying questions that won’t resolve—this is a companion for the road and a blessing for honest lament.
If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs language for their pain, and leave a review so more people can find this space of courage and comfort.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Thanks for your presence here and for this
beautiful morning.
Thank you for the sunshine andfor the crisp autumn air.
And would you pray, God, as weenter into this time of or as
we've entered into this time ofworship, would you continue to
give us eyes to see and ears tohear?
Would you speak to us by yourspirit this morning?
And as we collectively sort ofstand at the edge of this abyss
(00:20):
and peer down, would you lead usand guide us?
Would you comfort us and give usuh a sense of your presence?
And uh yeah, God, may we behonest with ourselves as we
explore this text and and uh behonest with the text itself.
And would you yeah, have yourway and your will done in our
lives this morning in every way?
And we pray these things in yourholy and precious name.
Amen.
(00:41):
I mean, you can be seated.
How are we doing?
Good, good to see you,everybody.
My name is Ryan, I think I'vesaid that already.
I'm the pastor here at Central,and we are in the middle of our
almost at the end, actually, ofour sermon series called This
Isn't Rhetorical.
We're examining several of thequestions that Jesus asks.
He asks over 300 of them in theGospels.
And today's is that we're we gotthis week and then the
(01:03):
following, and then it's alreadyAdvent.
So by the way, be thinking aboutsome friends of yours who might
want to be invited to to comehang out.
That's at Advent.
I think a lot of folks could usesome good news in their lives
this Advent season.
So bring them.
Advent's always fun.
We got decorated, you know, wegot trees up and lights
everywhere.
It's pretty sweet.
So bring them to uh Central forAdvent.
But um, this is the questionthat Jesus asks.
(01:24):
And he asks this question uh allof these ones we've been talking
about so far are questions thatJesus asks to his followers or
those people who are around him.
And then I've been encouragingyou to like ask this same
question of yourself.
So like week one, Jesus asks hisfollowers, hey, what do you
desire?
What do you want?
And I encourage you to ask thatsame question of yourself, or
let Jesus ask you that question.
(01:44):
This week, though, it'sdifferent.
Jesus asks this question of God.
And I would encourage you to askthis question also of God.
Now, this question, I had toinclude it.
I didn't want to initially, thisis really a Good Friday sermon,
but I it's like one of the mostprofound, I think it's the most
profound question asked in allof Scripture.
Theologically, there's a lot tounpack here.
It's like I think the mosttheologically poignant scripture
(02:07):
in all of the Bible.
I really do.
And um, and so this morning, mayyou not hear Jesus ask you this,
but may you ask God this.
Jesus asks this question of theFather, the Father whom he loved
and trusted and whom he knewdeeply, intimately well.
And I encourage you to also askthis question this morning of
God the Father.
My God, my God, why have youforsaken me?
(02:29):
And here it is, uh, as you heardread, about three in the
afternoon, Jesus cries out in aloud voice.
Actually, my friend Peter justreminded me, too, that this is
in Aramaic that he cries outthis cry.
And Aramaic was the sort of theevery man's tongue.
It was sort of the the languageof the street.
It wasn't in Greek and it wasn'tin Hebrew, he's speaking here.
This was like everyday ordinarylanguage that somehow from the
depths of his heart in hisnative tongue, Jesus cries out,
(02:53):
Eli, Eli, Lemasabactani, whichmeans my God, my God, and why
have you forsaken me?
So this morning I do want togive you permission to ask this
same question from the deepestparts of your heart of God.
My God, my God, why have youforsaken me?
I think I told many of you, butabout a month and a month and a
week ago or so, my dad died.
My my dad, his name was Fred.
(03:14):
And um we flew down there, I didanyway.
My I flew down there, my sisterand my brother, my stepbrother
flew down to Texas to visit mymy mom and my dad as he was
dying.
And uh I got there on a Saturdaymorning, I think it was.
I got into town, and by the timeI got there, he was already
pretty drugged up, he was prettysedated.
He he'd had MS since he was uhin his 30s.
And as you know, maybe MS, asyou if you get it when you're
(03:37):
younger, it sort of progressesmore slowly.
But the last couple of yearshave been really hard.
And the last couple of months,and then of course the last few
weeks before he died, it wasreally, really tough.
And um, and when I got there, hewas already sedated under
medication because he was insuch severe pain.
And I realized I'm like, oh, Iprobably won't ever hear his
voice again at this moment.
And and um, which reminded me ofback the week prior, and I th it
(03:58):
took me a while to figure itout, but I had to think about
when when did I last talk tohim?
Did I hear his voice?
And it was a phone call I hadwith my mom and him, and they
would often call me on like, youknow, they'd be on the same
phone together, and then I'd inthe same room, and I'd be on the
other line on the other end.
And we were talking, and my momwas like, Yeah, we're having
hospice come and take care ofhim, and we were kind of joking
around, and my dad always had agood humor about dying.
(04:19):
And he uh and I said to him,Now, Dad, I said, Don't let her
shove you off the cliff toosoon, okay?
We're not ready to go yet.
And he laughed and we all had alaugh, and and uh, but that was
the last conversation I reallyhad back and forth with him.
Uh because when I got there onthat Saturday morning, he was
already pretty, pretty druggedup.
And uh it was a weird week tosay the least.
Uh and I, you know, we did a lotof things that week.
(04:40):
He died on Tuesday night, butSaturday, Sunday, Monday, and
then on Tuesday, we we sat withhim a lot.
We prayed together, uh, welaughed some, we cried some.
We actually watched the Broncosgame that Monday night together.
And uh it was me and my brother,and then he was in bed laying
down there, he was sleeping, butand um we kind of ebbed and
flowed in and out of laughingand crying and praying, and and
(05:00):
uh but it was a weird week.
And maybe you've been presentwith someone like that when they
have died, but it's like thewhole week was kind of this
foggy experience for me.
And even when I got down there,I didn't really know how to
feel.
It's like I didn't know what tohow to make sense of any of
those things that werehappening, and you're kind of
waiting for this person to die,but you also don't want them to
die, but you also know theywon't get any better.
And so you're just kind ofwaiting, and every day unfolded
(05:22):
like the day before.
We had no plans, we just satwith them and waited.
And and um, I didn't sleep awhole lot.
I my sleep was kind ofinterrupted.
I I had a pull-out couch I wassleeping on, and I swear those
things are invented by someonewho likes to torture human
beings because there's like abar strategically placed right
under the back, like it's rightthere.
It's you're like you got thisbar in your back and you can't
really sleep at all.
(05:43):
And so I was already kind of inthis foggy, hazy kind of way
because I couldn't sleep a wholelot and didn't sleep really
well.
And then, of course, because umbecause he was dying.
And so it was a weird week.
And I remember thinking likethis week, it was just a month
ago or so, like I didn't, Idon't, I don't remember feeling
anything.
If I'm honest, I just rememberfeeling quite numb.
Like I didn't feel anything.
I mean, I I think I felt sadnessin here and there, but I just
(06:05):
remember being present with themand my dad, and and I just felt
overwhelmingly numb.
Which then, of course, if youknow me, I started getting in, I
got into my own head about this.
Why do I feel numb?
Why don't I feel anything?
Why don't I feel more sad?
Why am I not crying?
And I started to try to work itout in my head and rationalize
all of this, which only makesyou not be able to feel even
more.
You know what I mean?
Like the more you go into yourhead, the less you can kind of
(06:26):
feel in your body.
And I just got even numberbecause I couldn't feel and I
didn't know how or why Icouldn't feel, and I couldn't
make sense of any of it.
And um, part of the confusionwas he was actually my stepdad.
My mom and he met when I wasabout six years old, right at
the tail end of the divorce withmy birth father.
And um so I'd known him since Iwas six or seven years old.
They didn't get married, theydated for a long time, on and
(06:47):
off, and so he was presentthroughout my whole life until
I, you know, from when I was sixuntil I was until now.
But they didn't get marrieduntil about 02.
And at that point, I was alreadykind of a grown adult, but but
he was there for a lot of mylife, and I knew him very, very
well.
But I was always kind ofconfused, like, what is he to
me?
Is he like my dad?
And should I call him dad?
He's a stepdad, but is he myreal dad?
And what does it mean to have areal dad?
(07:08):
What does it mean to be a realparent?
Do you have to be a biologicalparent to be a real parent?
And what does it mean?
And all these questions are kindof going through my mind, and
like, who was this man to me?
And I know it was somethingdeeply profound and impactful,
but like, what was it exactly?
And who was he, and why couldn'tI feel anything?
And then he died on Tuesdaynight, and um, they came and got
(07:30):
him that night and took him uhto the uh to the the place
called Neptune, and and then uhI stayed the next day.
My sister and my stepbrotherflew home on Wednesday morning,
and I was able to be with my momfor about another day and a
half, and I flew home Thursday,got home and kind of got back to
normal life here, but I juststill couldn't settle in.
Maybe you've been there too, andjust couldn't really figure out
what I was doing and didn't knowhow to feel, still couldn't feel
(07:51):
a whole lot.
And then Katie, my wife, waslike, I'm gonna fly down to uh
Texas uh to be with your mom.
And so Katie, excuse me, um, Ithink on Sunday flew down there
and and was gonna be with my momfor a few days.
And so she did, and then youknow, Katie's kind of like my
anchor.
So when she left, I was likeeven more discombobulated, like,
what am I doing and what's goingon?
And I had to go to work.
And and then Katie flew back, Ithink it was on Wednesday,
(08:13):
Wednesday night.
And I got home from work onWednesday.
I was pretty tired.
Like I just was feelingoverwhelmingly tired and just
like exhausted.
And like I had been tired for along time.
And so I'm like, I'm gonna laydown for just a minute.
And my girls were at home, and Ihad to go pick up Katie up.
I'm like, I'm gonna leave ateight o'clock to be there by
nine o'clock, because her flightlanded before that.
I'm like, I'll be there at nineo'clock and I'll leave at eight
(08:35):
o'clock, and so I'm gonna sleepup until eight.
If I sleep at all, I'm like, I'mjust gonna lay down though,
because I was so, I was just sotired.
And I laid down and my girlswere in the room, and then the
next thing I knew, um, they hadleft, they went to go get some
culvers or something like that.
And the next thing I knew, theywere waking me up.
And I was in this deep sleep.
Like, Dad, aren't you supposedto go get mom?
(08:58):
Yeah, I'm gonna leave at eight.
I've got to be there at nine.
And they said, Dad, it's nineright now.
I was tired.
Okay, I was tired.
And the technical term is like,oops.
I was like, oh gosh.
So I jumped up and I and theywere like, she's on the phone.
I'm like, I had no time to talk.
I ran out the door, grabbed thekeys, and got in the car, and
(09:20):
like I was racing down to theairport, and I was again, I was
in this fog.
I it it was the sun was up and Iwent to bed, or when I laid down
and then it was dark and I wokeup, which is like you're like,
when that happens, it's like,what planet am I on?
And and I was half awake, I wastrying to wake myself up because
my body was just like my bodyjust felt tired to the core.
And I drove to the airport anduh and I called her on the way.
I'm like, Katie, I'm sorry, I'mI'll be there.
(09:42):
I just fell asleep, I don't knowwhat happened, and I was just
exhausted.
And got there and she wasextremely graceful and and uh
got in the car and we drovehome.
And she was talking about theweek and how it went with my mom
and how she's doing and how theypacked up some things of his and
kind of organized the life alittle bit.
And then she said, Um, yeah, westarted talking about some old
voicemails that he had left her.
(10:02):
And she's like, I've got some.
Do you want to hear some?
I was like, Yeah, I'd love tohear that.
And if you know Katie, my dadloved Katie.
SPEAKER_02 (10:08):
My dad met her when we started dating.
SPEAKER_01 (10:14):
And um he loved her like a lot.
And if you've ever been loved bysomebody unconditionally, you're
like, what a gift that is tohave someone love you for no
reason.
And um, so yeah, he loved herthat way.
He was fond of Katie, and Katiewas of him too, for those
reasons, and he was just so goodto her.
And so she had kept these oldvoicemails from him.
I was like, Yeah, yeah, let'slet's hear it.
(10:34):
And all the while it's it'sdark, my emotions are probably
right down in here somewhere,and I've been feeling numb for
over a week.
I'm exhausted, and it's we'redriving home, I had to race down
there, and and she startsplaying these voice messages for
me of him talking to her.
And like all of a sudden, wham,it just hit me.
And I started crying, likecrying, like hard crying.
(10:58):
And I was like, oh my gosh.
And it just like all the thingsthat were down there just came
up.
And I kept crying, and Katie puther hand on me and was like, Are
you all right?
And I started like bawling, likebawling and bawling and bawling
to the point where she was like,Hey, do you want to pull over?
You alright?
You alright?
And I was actually thinking thesame thing, maybe I should pull
(11:19):
over and like what is going on?
And like all this stuff justsort of started coming out.
And uh, we made it home safely,and then that night went to bed,
and next day or the next fewdays, I forget which, I was in
the office here at work, and Iwas in my office, and just all
of a sudden, again, wham, justoverwhelmed with something.
And I started crying again, andKatie walked into the office and
(11:40):
like, You all right?
Like, I don't think I am.
I remember talking to mycounselor, and my counselor
finally nailed it.
He goes, You know, Ryan,whatever you think of him, I
think that he was the mostsignificant man in your life.
I was like, Yeah, that'sprobably true.
And I said, I told my counselor,I go, I thought there's like
this abyss, um, like down inhere somewhere.
(12:01):
And like down in there is likelike all the sadness I've ever
experienced, and like lonelinessand despair and existential
angst and uh like darkness, likethis abyss, it's just down
there.
And I was on the edge, and thenFred dying to sort of like kick
me into the abyss.
And I was like, I don't want togo in there because I don't know
what's down there.
(12:22):
Like, what's down there?
Except for nothingness andbrokenness or emptiness or
nothing or absence.
Like, what's down there?
And my counselor was like, Yeah,yeah, yeah, you you gotta go
down there.
Whatever emotions, whateverfeelings come, you gotta let
them come.
Let them come.
And you've gotta go down thereand see what's down in there.
(12:42):
What's down in there?
Yeah.
And maybe you've felt like thisbefore.
Like on the edge of this abyssof sadness or or emptiness or
brokenness or darkness ordespair.
And you can like peer over theedge into this abyss, and what's
(13:03):
down there?
What's in there?
And it feels like nothingness,absence, maybe even the absence
of God.
And I've learned in my time as apastor, I've been a pastor for
about 10 years now, I've learnedthat this is a very, very common
experience for all of us.
Most of us, and if you haven'tyet, get ready, have experienced
(13:26):
some level of this kind ofsuffering or pain or lostness or
loneliness or despair or whatSoren Kierkegaard calls
existential despair or anxietyor angst.
And like this abyss of justnothingness.
And it's sort of part of ourexperience that we have staring
off in this abyss.
(13:47):
And my counselor told me, yeah,that's what it means to be a
human, Ryan.
This is part of the humancontract that we have.
That somehow, for some reason,part of life is like this, it's
feeling these kinds of things.
And the more you try to avoidthem, the more you're actually
denying your own humanity.
And folks who don't feel thesethings are not truly fully
human.
(14:08):
It's part of the humanexperience, this lostness, this
loneliness, this existentialdespair or angst, looking into
the abyss.
And he says the only way to dealwith this is that you gotta
confront it.
You gotta kind of stare it inthe face and see what's down
there.
It's like life is an invitation,an ongoing invitation for you
(14:29):
and I to stare down into thisabyss.
As I mentioned, the great SwaranKierkegaard is a philosopher,
he's an existential philosopher.
He said that this is the onlyway to respond.
That despair, like this, is apathway to God.
He rejected sort of this uh thisuh naive failure or this naive
(14:50):
optimism that many of us want toadopt and want to sort of live
our lives by.
No, it's not really how life is.
Life is really this abyss, andyou have to go down there and
you have to confront it.
It's part of life.
Jesus from the cross cries out,My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?
(15:12):
My God, my God, why have youforsaken me?
Why have you left me?
Where are you?
Now, many of you know Jesus isactually quoting Psalm 22.
So back in the Psalms, Davidwrites this He says, My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helpingme?
From the words of my groaning?
Oh my God, I cry by day, but youdon't answer me, and by night,
(15:35):
but I find no rest.
Where are you?
Now, there are many scholars whobelieve that when when Jesus
quotes this psalm, he's quotingthe whole thing.
Now, Psalm 22 ends, not on thisnote of despair, Psalm 22 ends
with a note of triumph of himdeclaring his faith in God all
the same.
David ends this psalm bydeclaring his faith and trust in
God.
And some scholars believe thatwhen Jesus quotes this, he's
(15:58):
actually quoting the wholething, thereby giving like this
little bit of an Easter egg, andactually this declare of despair
that Jesus cries, it's really acry of faith in God.
But I no longer think that's howit is.
I don't know if I believe thatany longer.
Because if it was that, whywouldn't he have just said that?
Why wouldn't Jesus have justsaid, hey, I believe in you, I
(16:18):
still have faith in you, guys.
I you're gonna get me through,God, it's gonna be okay.
He doesn't cry that.
He cries, My God, my God, whyhave you forsaken me?
Why have you left me?
Why have you abandoned me?
I think the cry that Jesus yellsis real.
This sense of being abandoned bythe Father, this lost, empty,
(16:39):
lonely, despair, this cry isreal.
Jesus isn't being cute.
I don't think he's beingsentimental.
And though I love the poemfootprints, God doesn't lean
down and say, It was then that Icarried you, Jesus.
That's not what's happeninghere.
Jesus utterly feels lost,lonely, and abandoned.
(17:02):
My God, my God.
Why have you left me?
It's as though Jesus is standingover this abyss, crying out.
Oh, a quick side note.
This is an extremely complex andprofound theological question in
the Bible.
And I don't have time to givelike a theological treatise on
it.
I wish I did.
Uh, we'd be here for four ormore hours if I tried, though.
(17:25):
Uh, it's very complex.
And if you want to have coffeeand chat about the theology of
it, I'd love to do that becausethere's a ton of things we could
say about it.
Um, one of which read there's aguy named Jürgen Moltmann, he's
a German theologian, wrote abook called The Crucified God.
If this is sort of likescratching your itch, then get
that book and read.
It's an incredible book.
It's long, but it's really,really good.
But there's a ton of theologicalimplications and what does it
(17:46):
mean, and where did God and theTrinity?
But for now, I just want tooffer a pastoral response.
I will say too, though, that Idon't believe that this is God
punishing Jesus, that God is soangry at Jesus that he has to
turn his back on him because hecan't, I don't think that's
what's happening at all either.
To me, the cross, if nothingelse, is, and it's a bizarre
mystery, but it's it's aboutlove.
(18:07):
The love of the Father, the Son,and the Spirit.
It's ultimately about love.
He came to save the world, andthis is how he does it.
It's a it's it's a profoundmystery.
So I think sometimes our onlyresponse is one of awe and
reverence and sort of mysteryand holiness.
And I don't know what to say awhole lot about this, but I've
got 25 minutes to say a couplethings.
So I want to offer a pastoralresponse, if you'll let me.
(18:27):
Doing so with awe and reverencefor this moment when Jesus cries
out to the Father, Why have youleft me?
See, Jesus dies in agonizingdeath.
It was horrible.
Mark tells us he was greatlydistressed and troubled.
Matthew's gospel says he wassorrowful even unto death.
Yeah, the book of Hebrews saysthat uh says this well.
(18:51):
Uh he dies with loud cries andtears.
And then, of course, once morein Matthew's gospel, he dies
with a loud, incoherent cry.
Paul writes that somehow sin andevil and violence and all the
darkness of the world convergesonto Jesus in this moment.
And he's utterly overwhelmedwith this sense of God
(19:12):
forsakenness.
Many scholars call this thedarkest moment in human history,
and he expresses this extremelyprofound, horrific cry on the
cross.
My God, my God, why have youforsaken me?
(19:33):
Which makes me wonder.
Have you ever cried out likethis before?
SPEAKER_00 (19:38):
God, where are you?
Why have you left me?
Don't you care about me, God?
Do something, God, help me!Where the hell are you?
What's going on?
What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01 (19:58):
And Jesus has cried that same cry.
Where are you?
Do something.
SPEAKER_00 (20:06):
Help me! Don't you see me?
I'm in agony, I'm in despair.
Help me.
SPEAKER_01 (20:12):
And he cries out from the cross.
Jesus does, my god, my God.
Why have you forsaken me?
Maybe you felt the weight of theworld on your shoulders.
Maybe you've had a brokenrelationship that just did not
go how you'd planned, and you'releft in tatters.
Maybe you have a wayward childthat just confuses so much of
you.
(20:33):
Maybe you had an unloving parentthat just never could be what
you wanted them to be.
Could never give you what youneeded.
Maybe you've suffered abuse,it's unjust abuse.
And you've cried this outbefore.
Maybe you've been a victim ofviolence.
Or some other injustice in theworld.
(20:55):
Maybe you've lost a loved onetoo soon.
Too soon.
Yeah, and you've cried out, mygod, my god.
SPEAKER_02 (21:04):
Why have you forsaken me?
Where are you?
SPEAKER_01 (21:12):
The great Elie Wazell was a young Jewish boy
during the World War uh SecondWorld War.
And he was, yeah, a little boy,and he was in the Auschwitz
concentration camp as a littleboy, and he had a strong Jewish
faith going in, but actually inthe camps he sort of loses his
faith.
He wrote a book called Night.
If you ever have a chance, youcan read the book Night.
Uh it's deeply saddening.
But and he tells about hisexperience in Auschwitz.
(21:33):
And one of the days there arethese three people that get
caught stealing bread from thesoldiers, and they bring them
out and they hang them from thegallows in front of everybody to
watch.
And to make everyone watch.
And when they're watching,somebody cries out, My God,
where is God?
Where is God?
Sort of echoing the cry of Jesuson the cross.
Where is God in this moment?
(21:56):
And the crowd goes silent againas they all watch.
And the voice cries out again,Where is God?
It's a fair question.
Ellie, young boy, in that momentsays he l he loses his faith.
He said it was the death of Godin the soul of a child.
Because he responds in his ownhead, where is God?
(22:19):
There he is, he's on thegallows.
He's dead.
He's not coming to save us.
This has all been a sham.
And he experiences, in a realway, the death of God right
before his eyes.
There's no way God could allowit.
God's not here.
And as Ellie stares into theabyss, he looks down in there
(22:39):
and there's nothing down there.
Yeah, God is hanging there inthe gallows.
He's dead to me.
Years later, Jürgen Moltmann,this great theologian, this
German theologian, he takes thisstory and he requotes it in his
book, The Crucified God.
But he sort of flips it.
And I've read both, and I thinkthat I think that that uh Jürgen
(23:00):
Moltmann, with all due respectto Ellie Vizel, Jurgen gets it
right.
And he comes to a differentconclusion.
When he sees that God in thegallows, he's like, no, God is
there.
That doesn't mean that God isdead.
Rather, when Jurgen Moltmannhears the cry, where is God?
Jürgen Moltan says, Yeah, God isthere.
God is there, hanging from thegallows.
God is present right here, rightnow in the suffering.
(23:22):
God is with these people beinghung from the gallows.
And Moltman sort of points tothe fact that, like, no, God is
there.
God is there.
God is with us in the deepest,darkest moments of our lives,
even the God forsaken moments.
God is there.
He's the God hanging on thegallows.
That's what God is.
(23:43):
Yeah, that's where He is.
Yeah, that's exactly where Godis.
God is suffering with thesuffering.
When you cry, God cries.
When you weep from the deepestparts of your soul, God weeps
from the deepest parts of hissoul.
When you ache, God aches.
When you feel lonely, lost,despair, brokenness, and as you
(24:06):
stare into this abyss, yeah, Godis there.
God is present in the absencesomehow.
Which then reminds me of thePsalm 23, where David at the end
of it says, Even though I walkthrough the valley of the shadow
of death, the darkest valleywhere the shadow of death looms
over, and I'm terrified.
I can't see anything, eventhere.
You're with me, and you'll guideme.
(24:28):
I will fear no evil.
Yeah, there he is.
God is present there.
He's exactly there.
To the cross is God'sparticipation with human
suffering.
God is not some distant, aloof,disinterested, God doesn't care.
No, God is deeply involved tothe point of enjo of joining the
suffering of the human world onthe cross.
(24:50):
In this Godforsaken moment, Godis present in the suffering.
God Himself experiences Godforsakenness.
He experiences death fromwithin.
This moment of sheer abandonmentand lostness.
Yeah, this is divine solidaritywith human beings.
God knows.
(25:11):
God is present in the suffering.
See, God isn't distant.
He's the crucified God.
He's the one who knows.
He's present in the suffering.
Which means this.
A couple things.
It means this.
That God's presence is found inthe place of absolute
abandonment.
(25:32):
Yeah.
When you look into the abyss,you find God.
And this is Kierkegaard's onlyresponse to the despair and
anxiety in human life is thatthis nonsensical leap of faith
into God.
It's the only answer to thedespair in the world.
He might say the world really isas bad as we think it is.
(25:53):
And the only way to deal this isto jump into the arms of God.
Because God is there.
He's present in the places ofabsolute abandonment.
Which also means this that thecross means that God chooses
solidarity with thebrokenhearted.
God is always on the side of thebrokenhearted, the weak, the
poor, the oppressed.
(26:13):
He's close to them.
He's with them.
Which means that there's thisthen, too, that there is no
suffering in the whole humanexistence.
Even the God forsakenness thatvictims feel is held within
God's own heart and story.
There's no suffering that Goddoesn't know or isn't intimately
familiar with.
He knows.
(26:33):
God is there, he's present.
You know suffering.
And I know this is not the mostuplifting sermon I've ever given
before in my life.
But somehow it brings mecomfort.
Like, okay, this things that I'mgoing through, this edge of the
abyss, like the God has beenthere as well.
He knows what it's like.
He knows the depth of oursuffering.
(26:54):
And he's not like the Greeksused to think that God was this
immutable, impassable God whodidn't care, couldn't have
emotions, was never moved.
No, no, God is extremely moved.
He's moved to tears sometimes.
He's moved to anguish.
God is extremely involved andinvested in our lives and feels
the things that we feel.
Because God is the crucifiedGod.
(27:18):
Which of course raises thequestion, though, why?
Why does God allow this?
Why would God allow all thisstuff?
I don't know the answer to that.
But I love the response fromJohn Lennox, and I'll close with
this.
John Lennox has asked the samequestion.
This is the question that humanshave wrestled with for
centuries, if not thousands ofyears.
Why does God allow suffering?
(27:39):
And there's no good answer forthis, but here's the thing.
All of us have to wrestle withthis.
Christians, atheists, Buddhists,Hindus, Muslims, agnostics,
nihilists, existentialists, weall have to answer this question
of why is there evil andsuffering in a world like this?
And so John Lennox says, well, Iwant to flip the question around
(28:00):
and say it like this, maybe.
And say it like, and this iswhat he says he says, look,
let's just take it, let's takeit as a point that we do live in
a world full of suffering,granted.
Now he says, though, is thereany evidence of a God who cares
about it?
Who knows the suffering of theworld and wants to do something
(28:23):
about it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's the Christian story.
There is a God who cares.
And a God who knows.
(28:44):
Central, may you hear the cry ofJesus, the Son, on the cross to
the Father.
My God, my God.
Why have you forsaken me?
Why have you loved me?
Why have you abandoned me?
And may you feel permission thismorning to cry that same cry.
Where are you, God?
And may your cry somehow mix andmingle with Jesus' cry.
(29:08):
And the cry of David and the cryof Job.
And the cry of Jonah from thebelly of the whale in the
darkness, and the cry of Josephin the bottom of the pit in the
well.
And the thousands of millions ofsaints who've gone before us
who've also cried out, My God,my God, why have you forsaken
me?
And friends, as we explore thecross and look to the cross, may
(29:31):
you indeed see on the cross thepresence of God in the
suffering.
Amen.
Thanks for your presence here and for this
beautiful morning.
Thank you for the sunshine andfor the crisp autumn air.
And would you pray, God, as weenter into this time of or as
we've entered into this time ofworship, would you continue to
give us eyes to see and ears tohear?
Would you speak to us by yourspirit this morning?
And as we collectively sort ofstand at the edge of this abyss
(00:20):
and peer down, would you lead usand guide us?
Would you comfort us and give usuh a sense of your presence?
And uh yeah, God, may we behonest with ourselves as we
explore this text and and uh behonest with the text itself.
And would you yeah, have yourway and your will done in our
lives this morning in every way?
And we pray these things in yourholy and precious name.
Amen.
(00:41):
I mean, you can be seated.
How are we doing?
Good, good to see you,everybody.
My name is Ryan, I think I'vesaid that already.
I'm the pastor here at Central,and we are in the middle of our
almost at the end, actually, ofour sermon series called This
Isn't Rhetorical.
We're examining several of thequestions that Jesus asks.
He asks over 300 of them in theGospels.
And today's is that we're we gotthis week and then the
(01:03):
following, and then it's alreadyAdvent.
So by the way, be thinking aboutsome friends of yours who might
want to be invited to to comehang out.
That's at Advent.
I think a lot of folks could usesome good news in their lives
this Advent season.
So bring them.
Advent's always fun.
We got decorated, you know, wegot trees up and lights
everywhere.
It's pretty sweet.
So bring them to uh Central forAdvent.
But um, this is the questionthat Jesus asks.
(01:24):
And he asks this question uh allof these ones we've been talking
about so far are questions thatJesus asks to his followers or
those people who are around him.
And then I've been encouragingyou to like ask this same
question of yourself.
So like week one, Jesus asks hisfollowers, hey, what do you
desire?
What do you want?
And I encourage you to ask thatsame question of yourself, or
let Jesus ask you that question.
(01:44):
This week, though, it'sdifferent.
Jesus asks this question of God.
And I would encourage you to askthis question also of God.
Now, this question, I had toinclude it.
I didn't want to initially, thisis really a Good Friday sermon,
but I it's like one of the mostprofound, I think it's the most
profound question asked in allof Scripture.
Theologically, there's a lot tounpack here.
It's like I think the mosttheologically poignant scripture
(02:07):
in all of the Bible.
I really do.
And um, and so this morning, mayyou not hear Jesus ask you this,
but may you ask God this.
Jesus asks this question of theFather, the Father whom he loved
and trusted and whom he knewdeeply, intimately well.
And I encourage you to also askthis question this morning of
God the Father.
My God, my God, why have youforsaken me?
(02:29):
And here it is, uh, as you heardread, about three in the
afternoon, Jesus cries out in aloud voice.
Actually, my friend Peter justreminded me, too, that this is
in Aramaic that he cries outthis cry.
And Aramaic was the sort of theevery man's tongue.
It was sort of the the languageof the street.
It wasn't in Greek and it wasn'tin Hebrew, he's speaking here.
This was like everyday ordinarylanguage that somehow from the
depths of his heart in hisnative tongue, Jesus cries out,
(02:53):
Eli, Eli, Lemasabactani, whichmeans my God, my God, and why
have you forsaken me?
So this morning I do want togive you permission to ask this
same question from the deepestparts of your heart of God.
My God, my God, why have youforsaken me?
I think I told many of you, butabout a month and a month and a
week ago or so, my dad died.
My my dad, his name was Fred.
(03:14):
And um we flew down there, I didanyway.
My I flew down there, my sisterand my brother, my stepbrother
flew down to Texas to visit mymy mom and my dad as he was
dying.
And uh I got there on a Saturdaymorning, I think it was.
I got into town, and by the timeI got there, he was already
pretty drugged up, he was prettysedated.
He he'd had MS since he was uhin his 30s.
And as you know, maybe MS, asyou if you get it when you're
(03:37):
younger, it sort of progressesmore slowly.
But the last couple of yearshave been really hard.
And the last couple of months,and then of course the last few
weeks before he died, it wasreally, really tough.
And um, and when I got there, hewas already sedated under
medication because he was insuch severe pain.
And I realized I'm like, oh, Iprobably won't ever hear his
voice again at this moment.
And and um, which reminded me ofback the week prior, and I th it
(03:58):
took me a while to figure itout, but I had to think about
when when did I last talk tohim?
Did I hear his voice?
And it was a phone call I hadwith my mom and him, and they
would often call me on like, youknow, they'd be on the same
phone together, and then I'd inthe same room, and I'd be on the
other line on the other end.
And we were talking, and my momwas like, Yeah, we're having
hospice come and take care ofhim, and we were kind of joking
around, and my dad always had agood humor about dying.
(04:19):
And he uh and I said to him,Now, Dad, I said, Don't let her
shove you off the cliff toosoon, okay?
We're not ready to go yet.
And he laughed and we all had alaugh, and and uh, but that was
the last conversation I reallyhad back and forth with him.
Uh because when I got there onthat Saturday morning, he was
already pretty, pretty druggedup.
And uh it was a weird week tosay the least.
Uh and I, you know, we did a lotof things that week.
(04:40):
He died on Tuesday night, butSaturday, Sunday, Monday, and
then on Tuesday, we we sat withhim a lot.
We prayed together, uh, welaughed some, we cried some.
We actually watched the Broncosgame that Monday night together.
And uh it was me and my brother,and then he was in bed laying
down there, he was sleeping, butand um we kind of ebbed and
flowed in and out of laughingand crying and praying, and and
(05:00):
uh but it was a weird week.
And maybe you've been presentwith someone like that when they
have died, but it's like thewhole week was kind of this
foggy experience for me.
And even when I got down there,I didn't really know how to
feel.
It's like I didn't know what tohow to make sense of any of
those things that werehappening, and you're kind of
waiting for this person to die,but you also don't want them to
die, but you also know theywon't get any better.
And so you're just kind ofwaiting, and every day unfolded
(05:22):
like the day before.
We had no plans, we just satwith them and waited.
And and um, I didn't sleep awhole lot.
I my sleep was kind ofinterrupted.
I I had a pull-out couch I wassleeping on, and I swear those
things are invented by someonewho likes to torture human
beings because there's like abar strategically placed right
under the back, like it's rightthere.
It's you're like you got thisbar in your back and you can't
really sleep at all.
(05:43):
And so I was already kind of inthis foggy, hazy kind of way
because I couldn't sleep a wholelot and didn't sleep really
well.
And then, of course, because umbecause he was dying.
And so it was a weird week.
And I remember thinking likethis week, it was just a month
ago or so, like I didn't, Idon't, I don't remember feeling
anything.
If I'm honest, I just rememberfeeling quite numb.
Like I didn't feel anything.
I mean, I I think I felt sadnessin here and there, but I just
(06:05):
remember being present with themand my dad, and and I just felt
overwhelmingly numb.
Which then, of course, if youknow me, I started getting in, I
got into my own head about this.
Why do I feel numb?
Why don't I feel anything?
Why don't I feel more sad?
Why am I not crying?
And I started to try to work itout in my head and rationalize
all of this, which only makesyou not be able to feel even
more.
You know what I mean?
Like the more you go into yourhead, the less you can kind of
(06:26):
feel in your body.
And I just got even numberbecause I couldn't feel and I
didn't know how or why Icouldn't feel, and I couldn't
make sense of any of it.
And um, part of the confusionwas he was actually my stepdad.
My mom and he met when I wasabout six years old, right at
the tail end of the divorce withmy birth father.
And um so I'd known him since Iwas six or seven years old.
They didn't get married, theydated for a long time, on and
(06:47):
off, and so he was presentthroughout my whole life until
I, you know, from when I was sixuntil I was until now.
But they didn't get marrieduntil about 02.
And at that point, I was alreadykind of a grown adult, but but
he was there for a lot of mylife, and I knew him very, very
well.
But I was always kind ofconfused, like, what is he to
me?
Is he like my dad?
And should I call him dad?
He's a stepdad, but is he myreal dad?
And what does it mean to have areal dad?
(07:08):
What does it mean to be a realparent?
Do you have to be a biologicalparent to be a real parent?
And what does it mean?
And all these questions are kindof going through my mind, and
like, who was this man to me?
And I know it was somethingdeeply profound and impactful,
but like, what was it exactly?
And who was he, and why couldn'tI feel anything?
And then he died on Tuesdaynight, and um, they came and got
(07:30):
him that night and took him uhto the uh to the the place
called Neptune, and and then uhI stayed the next day.
My sister and my stepbrotherflew home on Wednesday morning,
and I was able to be with my momfor about another day and a
half, and I flew home Thursday,got home and kind of got back to
normal life here, but I juststill couldn't settle in.
Maybe you've been there too, andjust couldn't really figure out
what I was doing and didn't knowhow to feel, still couldn't feel
(07:51):
a whole lot.
And then Katie, my wife, waslike, I'm gonna fly down to uh
Texas uh to be with your mom.
And so Katie, excuse me, um, Ithink on Sunday flew down there
and and was gonna be with my momfor a few days.
And so she did, and then youknow, Katie's kind of like my
anchor.
So when she left, I was likeeven more discombobulated, like,
what am I doing and what's goingon?
And I had to go to work.
And and then Katie flew back, Ithink it was on Wednesday,
(08:13):
Wednesday night.
And I got home from work onWednesday.
I was pretty tired.
Like I just was feelingoverwhelmingly tired and just
like exhausted.
And like I had been tired for along time.
And so I'm like, I'm gonna laydown for just a minute.
And my girls were at home, and Ihad to go pick up Katie up.
I'm like, I'm gonna leave ateight o'clock to be there by
nine o'clock, because her flightlanded before that.
I'm like, I'll be there at nineo'clock and I'll leave at eight
(08:35):
o'clock, and so I'm gonna sleepup until eight.
If I sleep at all, I'm like, I'mjust gonna lay down though,
because I was so, I was just sotired.
And I laid down and my girlswere in the room, and then the
next thing I knew, um, they hadleft, they went to go get some
culvers or something like that.
And the next thing I knew, theywere waking me up.
And I was in this deep sleep.
Like, Dad, aren't you supposedto go get mom?
(08:58):
Yeah, I'm gonna leave at eight.
I've got to be there at nine.
And they said, Dad, it's nineright now.
I was tired.
Okay, I was tired.
And the technical term is like,oops.
I was like, oh gosh.
So I jumped up and I and theywere like, she's on the phone.
I'm like, I had no time to talk.
I ran out the door, grabbed thekeys, and got in the car, and
(09:20):
like I was racing down to theairport, and I was again, I was
in this fog.
I it it was the sun was up and Iwent to bed, or when I laid down
and then it was dark and I wokeup, which is like you're like,
when that happens, it's like,what planet am I on?
And and I was half awake, I wastrying to wake myself up because
my body was just like my bodyjust felt tired to the core.
And I drove to the airport anduh and I called her on the way.
I'm like, Katie, I'm sorry, I'mI'll be there.
(09:42):
I just fell asleep, I don't knowwhat happened, and I was just
exhausted.
And got there and she wasextremely graceful and and uh
got in the car and we drovehome.
And she was talking about theweek and how it went with my mom
and how she's doing and how theypacked up some things of his and
kind of organized the life alittle bit.
And then she said, Um, yeah, westarted talking about some old
voicemails that he had left her.
(10:02):
And she's like, I've got some.
Do you want to hear some?
I was like, Yeah, I'd love tohear that.
And if you know Katie, my dadloved Katie.
SPEAKER_02 (10:08):
My dad met her when we started dating.
SPEAKER_01 (10:14):
And um he loved her like a lot.
And if you've ever been loved bysomebody unconditionally, you're
like, what a gift that is tohave someone love you for no
reason.
And um, so yeah, he loved herthat way.
He was fond of Katie, and Katiewas of him too, for those
reasons, and he was just so goodto her.
And so she had kept these oldvoicemails from him.
I was like, Yeah, yeah, let'slet's hear it.
(10:34):
And all the while it's it'sdark, my emotions are probably
right down in here somewhere,and I've been feeling numb for
over a week.
I'm exhausted, and it's we'redriving home, I had to race down
there, and and she startsplaying these voice messages for
me of him talking to her.
And like all of a sudden, wham,it just hit me.
And I started crying, likecrying, like hard crying.
(10:58):
And I was like, oh my gosh.
And it just like all the thingsthat were down there just came
up.
And I kept crying, and Katie puther hand on me and was like, Are
you all right?
And I started like bawling, likebawling and bawling and bawling
to the point where she was like,Hey, do you want to pull over?
You alright?
You alright?
And I was actually thinking thesame thing, maybe I should pull
(11:19):
over and like what is going on?
And like all this stuff justsort of started coming out.
And uh, we made it home safely,and then that night went to bed,
and next day or the next fewdays, I forget which, I was in
the office here at work, and Iwas in my office, and just all
of a sudden, again, wham, justoverwhelmed with something.
And I started crying again, andKatie walked into the office and
(11:40):
like, You all right?
Like, I don't think I am.
I remember talking to mycounselor, and my counselor
finally nailed it.
He goes, You know, Ryan,whatever you think of him, I
think that he was the mostsignificant man in your life.
I was like, Yeah, that'sprobably true.
And I said, I told my counselor,I go, I thought there's like
this abyss, um, like down inhere somewhere.
(12:01):
And like down in there is likelike all the sadness I've ever
experienced, and like lonelinessand despair and existential
angst and uh like darkness, likethis abyss, it's just down
there.
And I was on the edge, and thenFred dying to sort of like kick
me into the abyss.
And I was like, I don't want togo in there because I don't know
what's down there.
(12:22):
Like, what's down there?
Except for nothingness andbrokenness or emptiness or
nothing or absence.
Like, what's down there?
And my counselor was like, Yeah,yeah, yeah, you you gotta go
down there.
Whatever emotions, whateverfeelings come, you gotta let
them come.
Let them come.
And you've gotta go down thereand see what's down in there.
(12:42):
What's down in there?
Yeah.
And maybe you've felt like thisbefore.
Like on the edge of this abyssof sadness or or emptiness or
brokenness or darkness ordespair.
And you can like peer over theedge into this abyss, and what's
(13:03):
down there?
What's in there?
And it feels like nothingness,absence, maybe even the absence
of God.
And I've learned in my time as apastor, I've been a pastor for
about 10 years now, I've learnedthat this is a very, very common
experience for all of us.
Most of us, and if you haven'tyet, get ready, have experienced
(13:26):
some level of this kind ofsuffering or pain or lostness or
loneliness or despair or whatSoren Kierkegaard calls
existential despair or anxietyor angst.
And like this abyss of justnothingness.
And it's sort of part of ourexperience that we have staring
off in this abyss.
(13:47):
And my counselor told me, yeah,that's what it means to be a
human, Ryan.
This is part of the humancontract that we have.
That somehow, for some reason,part of life is like this, it's
feeling these kinds of things.
And the more you try to avoidthem, the more you're actually
denying your own humanity.
And folks who don't feel thesethings are not truly fully
human.
(14:08):
It's part of the humanexperience, this lostness, this
loneliness, this existentialdespair or angst, looking into
the abyss.
And he says the only way to dealwith this is that you gotta
confront it.
You gotta kind of stare it inthe face and see what's down
there.
It's like life is an invitation,an ongoing invitation for you
(14:29):
and I to stare down into thisabyss.
As I mentioned, the great SwaranKierkegaard is a philosopher,
he's an existential philosopher.
He said that this is the onlyway to respond.
That despair, like this, is apathway to God.
He rejected sort of this uh thisuh naive failure or this naive
(14:50):
optimism that many of us want toadopt and want to sort of live
our lives by.
No, it's not really how life is.
Life is really this abyss, andyou have to go down there and
you have to confront it.
It's part of life.
Jesus from the cross cries out,My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?
(15:12):
My God, my God, why have youforsaken me?
Why have you left me?
Where are you?
Now, many of you know Jesus isactually quoting Psalm 22.
So back in the Psalms, Davidwrites this He says, My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helpingme?
From the words of my groaning?
Oh my God, I cry by day, but youdon't answer me, and by night,
(15:35):
but I find no rest.
Where are you?
Now, there are many scholars whobelieve that when when Jesus
quotes this psalm, he's quotingthe whole thing.
Now, Psalm 22 ends, not on thisnote of despair, Psalm 22 ends
with a note of triumph of himdeclaring his faith in God all
the same.
David ends this psalm bydeclaring his faith and trust in
God.
And some scholars believe thatwhen Jesus quotes this, he's
(15:58):
actually quoting the wholething, thereby giving like this
little bit of an Easter egg, andactually this declare of despair
that Jesus cries, it's really acry of faith in God.
But I no longer think that's howit is.
I don't know if I believe thatany longer.
Because if it was that, whywouldn't he have just said that?
Why wouldn't Jesus have justsaid, hey, I believe in you, I
(16:18):
still have faith in you, guys.
I you're gonna get me through,God, it's gonna be okay.
He doesn't cry that.
He cries, My God, my God, whyhave you forsaken me?
Why have you left me?
Why have you abandoned me?
I think the cry that Jesus yellsis real.
This sense of being abandoned bythe Father, this lost, empty,
(16:39):
lonely, despair, this cry isreal.
Jesus isn't being cute.
I don't think he's beingsentimental.
And though I love the poemfootprints, God doesn't lean
down and say, It was then that Icarried you, Jesus.
That's not what's happeninghere.
Jesus utterly feels lost,lonely, and abandoned.
(17:02):
My God, my God.
Why have you left me?
It's as though Jesus is standingover this abyss, crying out.
Oh, a quick side note.
This is an extremely complex andprofound theological question in
the Bible.
And I don't have time to givelike a theological treatise on
it.
I wish I did.
Uh, we'd be here for four ormore hours if I tried, though.
(17:25):
Uh, it's very complex.
And if you want to have coffeeand chat about the theology of
it, I'd love to do that becausethere's a ton of things we could
say about it.
Um, one of which read there's aguy named Jürgen Moltmann, he's
a German theologian, wrote abook called The Crucified God.
If this is sort of likescratching your itch, then get
that book and read.
It's an incredible book.
It's long, but it's really,really good.
But there's a ton of theologicalimplications and what does it
(17:46):
mean, and where did God and theTrinity?
But for now, I just want tooffer a pastoral response.
I will say too, though, that Idon't believe that this is God
punishing Jesus, that God is soangry at Jesus that he has to
turn his back on him because hecan't, I don't think that's
what's happening at all either.
To me, the cross, if nothingelse, is, and it's a bizarre
mystery, but it's it's aboutlove.
(18:07):
The love of the Father, the Son,and the Spirit.
It's ultimately about love.
He came to save the world, andthis is how he does it.
It's a it's it's a profoundmystery.
So I think sometimes our onlyresponse is one of awe and
reverence and sort of mysteryand holiness.
And I don't know what to say awhole lot about this, but I've
got 25 minutes to say a couplethings.
So I want to offer a pastoralresponse, if you'll let me.
(18:27):
Doing so with awe and reverencefor this moment when Jesus cries
out to the Father, Why have youleft me?
See, Jesus dies in agonizingdeath.
It was horrible.
Mark tells us he was greatlydistressed and troubled.
Matthew's gospel says he wassorrowful even unto death.
Yeah, the book of Hebrews saysthat uh says this well.
(18:51):
Uh he dies with loud cries andtears.
And then, of course, once morein Matthew's gospel, he dies
with a loud, incoherent cry.
Paul writes that somehow sin andevil and violence and all the
darkness of the world convergesonto Jesus in this moment.
And he's utterly overwhelmedwith this sense of God
(19:12):
forsakenness.
Many scholars call this thedarkest moment in human history,
and he expresses this extremelyprofound, horrific cry on the
cross.
My God, my God, why have youforsaken me?
(19:33):
Which makes me wonder.
Have you ever cried out likethis before?
SPEAKER_00 (19:38):
God, where are you?
Why have you left me?
Don't you care about me, God?
Do something, God, help me!Where the hell are you?
What's going on?
What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01 (19:58):
And Jesus has cried that same cry.
Where are you?
Do something.
SPEAKER_00 (20:06):
Help me! Don't you see me?
I'm in agony, I'm in despair.
Help me.
SPEAKER_01 (20:12):
And he cries out from the cross.
Jesus does, my god, my God.
Why have you forsaken me?
Maybe you felt the weight of theworld on your shoulders.
Maybe you've had a brokenrelationship that just did not
go how you'd planned, and you'releft in tatters.
Maybe you have a wayward childthat just confuses so much of
you.
(20:33):
Maybe you had an unloving parentthat just never could be what
you wanted them to be.
Could never give you what youneeded.
Maybe you've suffered abuse,it's unjust abuse.
And you've cried this outbefore.
Maybe you've been a victim ofviolence.
Or some other injustice in theworld.
(20:55):
Maybe you've lost a loved onetoo soon.
Too soon.
Yeah, and you've cried out, mygod, my god.
SPEAKER_02 (21:04):
Why have you forsaken me?
Where are you?
SPEAKER_01 (21:12):
The great Elie Wazell was a young Jewish boy
during the World War uh SecondWorld War.
And he was, yeah, a little boy,and he was in the Auschwitz
concentration camp as a littleboy, and he had a strong Jewish
faith going in, but actually inthe camps he sort of loses his
faith.
He wrote a book called Night.
If you ever have a chance, youcan read the book Night.
Uh it's deeply saddening.
But and he tells about hisexperience in Auschwitz.
(21:33):
And one of the days there arethese three people that get
caught stealing bread from thesoldiers, and they bring them
out and they hang them from thegallows in front of everybody to
watch.
And to make everyone watch.
And when they're watching,somebody cries out, My God,
where is God?
Where is God?
Sort of echoing the cry of Jesuson the cross.
Where is God in this moment?
(21:56):
And the crowd goes silent againas they all watch.
And the voice cries out again,Where is God?
It's a fair question.
Ellie, young boy, in that momentsays he l he loses his faith.
He said it was the death of Godin the soul of a child.
Because he responds in his ownhead, where is God?
(22:19):
There he is, he's on thegallows.
He's dead.
He's not coming to save us.
This has all been a sham.
And he experiences, in a realway, the death of God right
before his eyes.
There's no way God could allowit.
God's not here.
And as Ellie stares into theabyss, he looks down in there
(22:39):
and there's nothing down there.
Yeah, God is hanging there inthe gallows.
He's dead to me.
Years later, Jürgen Moltmann,this great theologian, this
German theologian, he takes thisstory and he requotes it in his
book, The Crucified God.
But he sort of flips it.
And I've read both, and I thinkthat I think that that uh Jürgen
(23:00):
Moltmann, with all due respectto Ellie Vizel, Jurgen gets it
right.
And he comes to a differentconclusion.
When he sees that God in thegallows, he's like, no, God is
there.
That doesn't mean that God isdead.
Rather, when Jurgen Moltmannhears the cry, where is God?
Jürgen Moltan says, Yeah, God isthere.
God is there, hanging from thegallows.
God is present right here, rightnow in the suffering.
(23:22):
God is with these people beinghung from the gallows.
And Moltman sort of points tothe fact that, like, no, God is
there.
God is there.
God is with us in the deepest,darkest moments of our lives,
even the God forsaken moments.
God is there.
He's the God hanging on thegallows.
That's what God is.
(23:43):
Yeah, that's where He is.
Yeah, that's exactly where Godis.
God is suffering with thesuffering.
When you cry, God cries.
When you weep from the deepestparts of your soul, God weeps
from the deepest parts of hissoul.
When you ache, God aches.
When you feel lonely, lost,despair, brokenness, and as you
(24:06):
stare into this abyss, yeah, Godis there.
God is present in the absencesomehow.
Which then reminds me of thePsalm 23, where David at the end
of it says, Even though I walkthrough the valley of the shadow
of death, the darkest valleywhere the shadow of death looms
over, and I'm terrified.
I can't see anything, eventhere.
You're with me, and you'll guideme.
(24:28):
I will fear no evil.
Yeah, there he is.
God is present there.
He's exactly there.
To the cross is God'sparticipation with human
suffering.
God is not some distant, aloof,disinterested, God doesn't care.
No, God is deeply involved tothe point of enjo of joining the
suffering of the human world onthe cross.
(24:50):
In this Godforsaken moment, Godis present in the suffering.
God Himself experiences Godforsakenness.
He experiences death fromwithin.
This moment of sheer abandonmentand lostness.
Yeah, this is divine solidaritywith human beings.
God knows.
(25:11):
God is present in the suffering.
See, God isn't distant.
He's the crucified God.
He's the one who knows.
He's present in the suffering.
Which means this.
A couple things.
It means this.
That God's presence is found inthe place of absolute
abandonment.
(25:32):
Yeah.
When you look into the abyss,you find God.
And this is Kierkegaard's onlyresponse to the despair and
anxiety in human life is thatthis nonsensical leap of faith
into God.
It's the only answer to thedespair in the world.
He might say the world really isas bad as we think it is.
(25:53):
And the only way to deal this isto jump into the arms of God.
Because God is there.
He's present in the places ofabsolute abandonment.
Which also means this that thecross means that God chooses
solidarity with thebrokenhearted.
God is always on the side of thebrokenhearted, the weak, the
poor, the oppressed.
(26:13):
He's close to them.
He's with them.
Which means that there's thisthen, too, that there is no
suffering in the whole humanexistence.
Even the God forsakenness thatvictims feel is held within
God's own heart and story.
There's no suffering that Goddoesn't know or isn't intimately
familiar with.
He knows.
(26:33):
God is there, he's present.
You know suffering.
And I know this is not the mostuplifting sermon I've ever given
before in my life.
But somehow it brings mecomfort.
Like, okay, this things that I'mgoing through, this edge of the
abyss, like the God has beenthere as well.
He knows what it's like.
He knows the depth of oursuffering.
(26:54):
And he's not like the Greeksused to think that God was this
immutable, impassable God whodidn't care, couldn't have
emotions, was never moved.
No, no, God is extremely moved.
He's moved to tears sometimes.
He's moved to anguish.
God is extremely involved andinvested in our lives and feels
the things that we feel.
Because God is the crucifiedGod.
(27:18):
Which of course raises thequestion, though, why?
Why does God allow this?
Why would God allow all thisstuff?
I don't know the answer to that.
But I love the response fromJohn Lennox, and I'll close with
this.
John Lennox has asked the samequestion.
This is the question that humanshave wrestled with for
centuries, if not thousands ofyears.
Why does God allow suffering?
(27:39):
And there's no good answer forthis, but here's the thing.
All of us have to wrestle withthis.
Christians, atheists, Buddhists,Hindus, Muslims, agnostics,
nihilists, existentialists, weall have to answer this question
of why is there evil andsuffering in a world like this?
And so John Lennox says, well, Iwant to flip the question around
(28:00):
and say it like this, maybe.
And say it like, and this iswhat he says he says, look,
let's just take it, let's takeit as a point that we do live in
a world full of suffering,granted.
Now he says, though, is thereany evidence of a God who cares
about it?
Who knows the suffering of theworld and wants to do something
(28:23):
about it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's the Christian story.
There is a God who cares.
And a God who knows.
(28:44):
Central, may you hear the cry ofJesus, the Son, on the cross to
the Father.
My God, my God.
Why have you forsaken me?
Why have you loved me?
Why have you abandoned me?
And may you feel permission thismorning to cry that same cry.
Where are you, God?
And may your cry somehow mix andmingle with Jesus' cry.
(29:08):
And the cry of David and the cryof Job.
And the cry of Jonah from thebelly of the whale in the
darkness, and the cry of Josephin the bottom of the pit in the
well.
And the thousands of millions ofsaints who've gone before us
who've also cried out, My God,my God, why have you forsaken
me?
And friends, as we explore thecross and look to the cross, may
(29:31):
you indeed see on the cross thepresence of God in the
suffering.
Amen.
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