April 15, 2022

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1)

Poet Christian Wiman once said that these words from Psalm 22 – spoken by Christ on the Good Friday cross – were the words that restored his faith in God. This moment showed him that Jesus relates to the deepest traumas and the most intractable quagmires of human need and pain.

Although, like Christ on the cross, you may feel alone, you are not alone. God did not forsake His Son. God has not forsaken you. Mavis Staples sings Jeff Tweedy’s song: “A broken home, a broken heart / Isolated and afraid / Open up this is a raid / I wanna get it through to you / You're not alone.”

I want to get it through to you, you’re not alone.

“Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Good Friday – BCP)