Text: Psalm 22:1-26, Isaiah 53:1-3, Luke 22:63-65, John 19:1-5
Any day now, I’m going to have a baby.
Birth is one of those elemental moments in life: I’ll get to really yell and really cry. I love birth because I just can’t control it; I’ll go into labor when the time is right. One day soon I’ll be folding laundry, or lounging in a co-worker’s nice leather chair, and SOMETHING will HAPPEN—I’ll go into labor. Don’t you just love it with something happens?
So many days follow suit, one after another—but when something really happens we all stop and stare, or yell, or get out our phones to make videos. We really pay attention in these elemental moments of pain. Folks are always asking me to prophesy WHEN the baby will be born, and I keep dodging with, “I’m not going to miss it.” That’s just it. Some things in life are so big, and so intense, it’s not possible to miss them. When the baby comes, I won’t just sleep through it.
Intense moments grab our face on both sides and force us to pay attention. In my moment of need, I will be center stage. My husband will rub my back, my facebook friends will pray for me, my church is already preparing casseroles for me, my doula will speak encouraging words, and my midwife will attend me like a queen. It’s true. These people who love me will drop everything and turn their faces to me.
But for Christ, in His moment of greatest intensity, when SOMETHING is really HAPPENING, we see that people are turning their faces away from Him.
We are painfully aware of the human side of Christ in these passages. He is in agony (Psalm 22), He is alone and isolated (Isaiah 53), He is mocked (Luke 22), and He is rejected (John 19).
In Jesus’ darkest moment, His best friends—those disciples who are like brothers to Him— deny and abandon Him. They look around for places to hide.
The law turns its back on Him. Pilate finds no reason to punish Him, but allows Him to be taken away in spite of justice.
And finally, most painful of all, His Father turns away from Him.
When Jesus feels the sharp crown of thorns pressed into His head, He is alone. At a time when we all should be there, lovingly attending Him, we turn our faces away. Although Jesus was 100% God, He was also 100% man, and this isolation was real for Him. Everyone He loved left Him to suffer the hardest moment of His earthly life alone.
Let this moment grab you by the face. Yell if you have to. Turn your face towards our Lord and see the cost of our sin piled on His sacred head.
O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.
What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.
What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.
“O Sacred Head Now Wounded”
attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, 1153
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103 thoughts on "“Hail, King of the Jews!”"
All that Jesus went through for us…. Wow he loves us so. So much love does our Savior have for us.
It’s hard to look at the suffering of the cross and the previous torture leading up to it, difficult to fathom the complete abandonment of Jesus by God. It’s desperate and uncomfortable. And then to realize my sin and depravity led Him to make the choice to die on my behalf. -I can’t even wrap my mind around it without being completely flabbergasted. So I will look at the cross, weep in repentance, accept this mercy and grace and give thanks. Praise be to God!
Thank you for all of your prayers! I just had to leave it up to God and our prayers were answered! My daughter Natalie Luciana was born on 3/25 at 11:34am 6 pounds 6 ounces via Csection because baby was breech and wouldn’t move, come to find out she had 4 nuchal cords wrapped around her neck! Thank the Lord everything went ok with her delivery!!!! We are headed home from the hospital today!!! Thank you all again your prayers have been so amazing during these anxious times!!
This passage hits me very closely. I’m 38 weeks pregnant and the baby is breech. I’m going into the hospital at 6:30am tomorrow for an attempt to flip the baby. If it doesn’t work I’ll have to have a C-section. The umbilical cord is overlying my cervix and there’s risk of prolapse if my water breaks! Please keep us on your prayers! Thank you!
Sending prayers for you and your family, Pamela!
Thank you! It feels like these anxious moments pale in comparison to everything Jesus went though during his crucifixion. I need to leave my trust in God!
praying for you tonight!!!! that He would bring peace and wisdom to the doctors helping you!
I am praying for you Pamela, praying for peace and comfort fort you. Wisdom for your doctors and over your precious baby.
Praying for you! Keep us posted
Thank for this devotional today of all days. I have been trying for a while to find a way to start a devotional life, with something that is relevant along with the Bible. My coworker/mentor recommended this site to me last Thursday, but it took me until today to open up my Bible again. Today's theme of Jesus being abandoned and the Luke passage were what we went over in the Bible study for internationals that I help teach today. We mainly focused on his physical pain, but as a believer I think what you expressed here hits me even harder. There are times when I forget that Jesus was human, but when you get to passages like these along with his prayers in the garden, it is so humbling.
So I think what I was trying to say was "thank you". Thank you for writing this devotional about the emotional pain that our Savior went through to save us. Thank you most of all to the God who loves us enough to put His own son in the kind of pain that would restore His tainted and broken creation to Himself.
am I missing something here? reading these passages makes me feel guilty and shameful to be a part of the human race that once crucified our savior who came to save us and bring peace. yes, I am incredibly thankful, but this just frustrates me so much. How is this passage supposed to make me feel peaceful?
I'm not sure we are supposed to feel "peaceful' about it– but like you said, humbled, grateful, thankful. Praising Him that He would give His life and allow us to treat Him so, all for love. What grace and mercy He shows us.
Maddie, to feel something is good…it means you care, and enough to know we are sinners….but here's the thing….This was Jesus' gift to us…Jesus' arrest, trial, (if you can call it that), His being crucified had been prophesied since the time of Isaiah, if not before…even down to them distributing His robes..This here sacrifice, had been planned since time, immemorial…Jesus's sacrifice and subsequent resurrection had to happen for us to live,…to know freedom, for us to be redeemed, forgiven, to have hope…for us to have a glimpse and know eternity in Him…So yes, we for sure, can be peace- filled, and mindful, and thoughtful on what the Lord Jesus has done for us… but the deal is that WE in no uncertain terms know that Jesus did this for us because He loves us so very much..He really does…Amen…x
May we never forget what Jesus went through for us so that we may choose to have that everlasting relationship. It is so easy to forget because many don’t fully grasp the intensity and heartbreak that He went through. I pray that I never forget. If I do, I pray that He will constantly remind me of the true cost of His grace.
I definitely needed this after the end of a very long day! Thanks to SRT team and community!
Thanks for joining us, Abby! We love having you in our community!
xoxo-Kaitlin
I am just so thankful for the inclusion of hymns in our study pack. So blessed and moved by truths found here.
This Lenten season I gave up “idle time” and replaced it with devotions. I grew up going to the church that my babysitters went to. You name it I have been probably attended.
I went to a Catholic church with one and I participate in Lent and gave something up for 40 days and didn’t really get it. I just would try and find something I could live without.
Then as an adult I quit. It wasn’t really practiced in the church I attended. All those times it was “all about me”. A few years ago the new church I was at decided to participate in Lent. “I got this” was my thought…I Wil give up TV I don’t watch it much anyways. Needless to say I gave up. Each year they did.
This year was different. I have been ill not knowing what really is going on. Brain surgery, MRI, CT, and all kinds of testing. I received the first email about Lenten Devotionals. I said to myself this year I am doing it! I am all in. I try to be as destruction free as possible (except right now I have my little cat meowing, purring , and wanting to play). I want to use the terms surrendered. I surrendere my idle time (what ever was placed before my God is an idle) being I had so many free hours how could I not have one for Him?
I know this long bare with me. I learned this season what Lent was about and what it is not. It is about Jesus. It is not about us. I found my self repenting and renewed. He finds us and loves even in our brokenness. His life Something HAPPENED and nobody was there. We can’t say he doesn’t know how scared we are or hurt we feel…because he felt the ultimate aloneness. Thank you for touching my heart strings. Thank you for listening to our Father and writing what needs to be said for those of us reading. Yes, sometimes Something Happens! Good and bad and men and women need to know the ultimate something was his sacrifice.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I identify with a lot of what you said/experienced minus the health stuff but in regards to Lent for sure. Thank you
We have to recognize the awful gravity if our sin to begin to recognize the awful/horrendous suffering Jesus endured ….. For me, so unworthy, and at time ungrateful.
“What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain; Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain”. Jesus lived the life that I could not live because I was dead. Then He died the death I deserved so that I could live! Both aspects must be accomplished for redemption to be complete. He did it. Betrayed by men. In the plan of God. To redeem me.
Thankyou for helping me turn from self reflection to the Lord himself, on the cross, bearing my sin. That’s the place to look!
This is my challenge today; thank you for bringing it to me: set my face TOWARDS the cross. Know that by nature I would turn away and hide, but today, to choose to look upon my Saviour and know the price He paid for me. To look upon His pain and know that by His stripes I am healed.
On a liter note, I love your reply to comments about “when will that baby get here??” Made it lol when you said “I’m not going to miss it!” Im a doula and will definitely be sharing that word with my clients!! Praying for your birth!
Made me*
Wow, yeah great devotion today. Loved the tangible connection to childbirth. That was amazing, thanks!
Oh my Word. Today’s devotion is literally bringing me to tears. I am overwhelmed with joy at your description of childbirth…that is just the way it should be (and was for me). And then brought so low by Jesus’ pain, for us. For me. Thank you Lord Jesus.
Couldn’t agree more, Bonnie! I feel the same after reading.
I couldn´t identify more with your words, as I am also having a baby any day from now. First, thinking how the words of Isaiah became truth for our Lord. He WAS truly rejected when He -been 100% man – needed his friends (and his Father!) more than ever.
Second, it also makes me think of the idea you started with…. been born. It happens and we just CAN´T control it. And it applies to both terms of birth. Jesus uses just the right words when He told Nicodemus: “ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can´t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can´t explain how people are born of the Spirit”
There is so much truth in these words. It gives me gratitude, but also hope. Hope that all the people that I´ve been praying for, will, if God grants it, stop turning away from Him and turning TO Him to be "born of the Spirit". So, I feel comfronted by your words, as well as hopeful.
May my Jesus help me turn my face to Him everyday!
First of all, I’m THRILLED to have caught up with everyone on this study! I’m sweaty and out of breath but finally on the front lines with everyone else ;) and also this is just so deeply good. I recently had a baby and it’s true how the whole world slows to attend to and encourage and protect you. But for Jesus, not so. Oh dearest friend Jesus, may I never outlive my love for you!
How I needed to be reminded that grace has a cost. But more than that, Jesus paid that cost so that we didn't have to! To Him be all glory, the Risen Savior!
Amen! Thanks for the extra reminder, Hannah! So glad you joined us today!
xoxo-Kaitlin
To look upon the cross of Jesus. I will never be the same. God open my eyes more to what makes your heart cry. Open my eyes more to what happened on that good Friday years ago that changed everything.
What a great, great love for us. To endure, to be willing to take on all of that suffering so I can know him. So I never have to know what it is like to be separated from my Father and my God. My heart is filled with sorrow for what he endured but also making me forever grateful. There aren't words but this is unfailing love. How painfully beautiful!
Rebecca! Whew! Thank you for really reminding us today to not turn our faces. I sometimes tend to allow myself to forget that Jesus still felt the feelings any human would feel since He is, in fact, 100% man and 100% God. Setting aside the physical pain from the flogging and the cross, the emotional pain of denial from his friends and ultimately for a time, from His Father…all for us. Oh, I won't turn my face today. Thank you, Lord!
Yes! I too Sarah completely "forgot" that Jesus was 100% human as well. I actually teared up when I read that part. He is no stranger to isolation, ridicule, emotional and physical pain, etc. It helps me to remember that I am never alone when feeling some of these things myself, Christ our Savior knows first hand what it feels like! We are not alone! What a great promise!
In agony. Alone and isolated. Mocked. Rejected. Check, check, check & check – I have felt all of these lately. Transitional periods are tough. And as I transition into another new place, though now not so new yet still painful nonetheless, I can’t help but feel disconnected and so I withdraw. I become semi-reclusive and idle. I wait to heal. To fully fix my face on Him. To wholeheartedly surrender. And the point, the meaning in this time, this mess? I’m somewhat uncertain, but reading that Jesus suffered these same feelings (in a much, much more excruciating way) really opened my heart and mind to His humanity. And maybe God is showing me that He truly does understand my heart and know me, even now.
Thank you, Jesus for willingly taking on these very human emotions. For becoming one of us. For suffering for us. That we might be free.
Praying to draw near to Him and the freedom He offers me today, and every day.
I'm going through similar circumstances. As painful as it all is right now, I see the gravity of the cross more clearly. The true weight of sin and the cost it took for Him to bear it. I understand a bit more fully the pain God feels when we turn our backs on Him (a daily occurrence).
Praying for you today.
Thank you for sharing this greater perspective, Katie. Praying for you today too.
This study has caused me to step back and take a solid look at what actually went on in the days up to and including the resurrection. Just exactly what this amazing love cost and meant. Jesus was Savior, and earthly man. That is how I know that he truly understands ALL my emotions. He created them and he felt them. As did God. Father and Son. Best friends.
I received a call one night from my youngest child who was 3000 miles away from home. From me. Something had happened that broke her heart to the quick. I will never forget how brave I tried to sound over the phone, it will be fine, there will be other babies ( and there are) husband is with you, all will work out. The minute I got off the phone I became a instant mess. Crying from so deep in my soul, she needed me and I couldn't get to her. I felt almost unhinged in my grief. I couldn't see her, but I heard her. The grief, fear, hurt.
God heard and saw and felt hurt because he knew what he had to do. Perhaps He cried, felt completely at a loss, just as all heaven did I do not doubt. What kind of love is that? One that I have no concept of. Much more than any amount of mothers love that I may possess.
All though our Heavenly Father and Jesus our Savior are not human they have done an amazing thing that I do not deserve, you do not deserve, no human deserves.. They loved us.
And Jesus in his humanness cried out "Why have you forsaken me!" Not in his heavenly but human form. Just as I have cried out to him so many times.
Thanks, Nana C! Love that you wrote that He created our emotions and felt them. He knows us which can be so easy to forget at times. His love is so good.
Thankyou for sharing this, it really puts the mammoth love of Christ into perspective when we anguish as mothers, yet even this is a minute grasp on His love for us. X
This devotional really stirred me this morning. Of all the Lenten readings to this point. The analogy she gave of birth and the turning towards the person in pain versus the turning away from Jesus. It reminded me of the grief I felt when I realized for the first time what Jesus actually did for me on the cross and what my response had been. And then the wonder of capturing the true meaning of GRACE right on the heels of that grief….thank you Jesus for your obedience to the cross… That while I was yet a sinner you died for me.
I'm so grateful for the Lord's sacrifice. That we have a God who suffered for us. That He truly understands the times when we are lonely, or in despair. He is a God who has been through it and can comfort us even as He was not comforted.
Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice to save me! I am so sorry Jesus that my actions, words & judgements pushed the crown of thorns deeper. I’m sorry You suffered for me & You suffered alone. I will choose You everyday, just as You were chosen to save me .
Jesus took on pain, suffering, and death for our sins. He loves us, forgives us, and leads us to his father. But Jesus still feels pain everyday by all the sins of this world. He loves us so much it would be impossible for him not to hurt seeing our sins and suffering. He suffers because of the darkness and rejection of our world. We need to console the heart of Jesus by leading lost souls back to him. Keep praying sisters it consoles our saviors heart!
Thank you Rebecca for writing today . Beautiful and it grabbed my heart . I've just started with your website a few weeks ago and I'm loving your Lent Season's writing and quotes .
Congrats on your new baby coming too , what a blessings !!!
Hi Michelle! We're so grateful you joined us today! Blessings to you!
xoxo-Kaitlin
A song that I think reveals Jesu love for us. “Weeping ” by Alanna story. “You were weeping over us for we know not what we do. Your heart is breaking. . . Feel the weight of the cross that You bought for me.” A beautiful yet heart breaking view/song of the love of our Jesus. When we/I turn my back He still choose to die for this sinner. Rejected and alone He took on my sins so that I can live.
You can find on I tunes
To have experienced moments of intense suffering in my life and to have been surrounded by love in those moments makes it all the more incredible that Christ endured the most intense suffering of all, ALONE.
I’ve turned away from God so many times
I think how many times I turn away to avoid confrontation or me being uncomfortable! This really hit home!
What verse says that the “Father turned away from him”? I’m not exactly sure if this is biblical.
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34 ESV)
And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ). (Mark 15:34 NIV)
The punishments for sin in death and damnation. In my belief Jesus had to descend into hell for the burden of our sin. A complete separation from God. I am sure the physical pain He went through the was terrible. On the same hand their have been martyrs for Christ that have endured great physical pain. It is Jesus knowing He is going to have to suffer Hell itself that make my heart cry out. Lord, help me not turn away from you!
Shawn, I had the same thought. I don’t believe God turned away from Jesus. In reference to the scripture where Jesus says God why have you forsaken me, God did not respond directly yet I believe His response is in Christ’s resurrection; God was always there. It was throughout the strength of God in the Holy Spirit that Jesus was able to tell His mother do not be afraid while He carried the cross. Through the strength of the Holy Spirit He was able to tell one of the criminals you will be with me in paradise. By Jesus saying God why have you forsaken me, I believe He is sharing that even when we feel alone and feel rejected that God is there right beside us ready to lift us up from our pain and restore us.
Amen!
This is a good explanation of the Biblical basis for this idea. If the Father did not fully turn away from the Son, then our salvation would not have been accomplished.
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabitian…
Whenever I read about Jesus and His pain while He suffered for our sins, I cry big, ugly tears. He knew what He had to do but I hate that He was alone. Thank you Jesus for Your great sacrifice.
Wow, that was so profound Joanne. Thank you for sharing.
I see my sin. I see His face. I see His sacrifice and I still turn away. And I recognize that there are far to many “I’s” in this post already.
Help me to look at you. Help me to want to know you more. To see you in all your glory and to leave “I” behind. Less of me and more of Him.
Let everyone see CHRIST and not me. Cuz I am wretched and ridicules and blah!!! But you…you are beautiful and majestic and more.
You are more. More in life. More in death. More to gain.
And all of this. This that surrounds me daily. This is less. And this doesn’t matter.
Help me to know you more. Praise you more and simply look at you more.
And leave the wretched, stained me behind.
Thank you for sharing.
"Leave the wretched, stained me behind." That's beautiful Caroline! My prayer too! ~ B
So humbling. Lord – help me look to Your face – not just when it is in glory, but when it is covered with my sin.
Thank you for sharing this, Joanne. Truly humbling, indeed. Seeking His face at all times.
What an image Joanne. Frightful and humbling. Thank you for sharing this! ~ B
I'm tired, in ALL ways tired, and I don't want to do the dishes, let alone anything hard right now. I just want to sit and rest and sit and rest. I want to escape from the world and just focus on comfort, but here it is humbling. My escaping, my "sit and rest" is turning away from the cross. At least in the capacity I want to do it right now. I know rest is ok and God calls us to sit quietly, but I know that my heart is just absent in the rest I long for. I look at this cross and am moved because Jesus didn't rest, He took on all the pain, all the sin, He was denied, rejected and tortured and He didn't fall into the arms of a couch, He fell upon a cross. Willingly, while the rest of us, myself included, lounged in our sin, He wept for this world…. I am prayerful this morning, that even in my rest I am productive for the Kingdom, that I seek Christ and that I look at the Cross….that I see my sin, every last inch, nailed to it and that I call to Jesus, that I love Him in ALL my actions …. that I turn my face *to* Him and truly rest. ~ B
Prayers for rest and restoration for you B……snuggle in and rest today…. <3
Thank you Heather for your thoughts to me and your prayers. I know it helped. Although yesterday wasn't a day that my responsibilities enabled the rest I long for, I did find peace in my "busy" and I know that to be the best type of comfort. Thank you so much! ~ B
Praying you find rest in Him, B.
I can't say enough how thankful I am for the prayers from you ladies yesterday. It helped me move from a place of physical tiredness that had me down to a place of rejuvenation and that made all the difference. Thank you Beverly! ~ B
I love the hymn O Sacred Head. Love it. I love the rich, sorrowful words, and the minor sounding melody.
And I LOVE birth analogies. (I'm a doula-wannabee.) But I've never thought of birth in this way. Thank you for sharing this insight. Yes, in our moment of need we want support. So did Jesus. But His friends turned away. Turned away. Whoa. This is a new way of looking at Jesus' pain of abandonment for me.
I'm speechless and in tears especially after watching this video right after I read today's devotion….
ALL FOR LOVE — http://youtu.be/EjJNEsDJPFk
What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;.. My gain..
Mine, and mine alone, was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I, (Tina ) deserve Thy place;
I am humbled, my Jesus, humbled, to falling on my knees…for what you have done for me..
Look on me Lord God, with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.
What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, Dearest Friend, what can I say, what can I do…to say THANK YOU. THANK YOU….
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, Lord…, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never, never outlive my love to Thee.
Thank you Jesus…Thank you for everything…you have suffered, done, given, endured…for me…
That brings me back to…Sundays memory verse…
…But He was pierced for our (my) transgressions; He was crushed for our ( my) inequities; upon HIM was the chastisement that brought us (me) peace, and with His wounds we (I ) are healed…saved,.. redeemed.., forgiven,..loved, .. purchased ….We live….Thank you Lord Jesus…Thank you…
A New day…New mercies, New graces, New beginnings….Lord, I pray we see them as the gifts you purchased for us…by your wounds…Thankful for this new day and you my sister's here at SRT.. God bless you abundantly…xxx
Grateful for your steadfast hope and prayers, Tina.
His Father didn’t turn away from Jesus in the last moment. How could that be even possible? It is not coherent with His loving and faithful character! The things is that under the weight of all our sin that Jesus took on the cross He felt separated and far from God. It’s like when we are in sin, we feel like God is far from us, however He is near, we just can’t feel it cause we’re so concerned by our sin. God Father never leaves us and never turns His face away from us. It is only our perspective that makes us think He left us. Sin separates us from God, but He never separates Himself from us!!
Thank You, Jesus, for your sacrifice, pain and suffering. For through You I can live today.
But there is something I don’t understand and I’ve been asking this myself the past few days.. I know every christian speaks about how loving god is and what good things he has done and I’m not denying this because I have definetly felt his love in my life. But if he is so loving, how can he accept all this pain our humanity is going through?? So many deaths, terror and whatsoever. I’m a Jesus freak but the fact that he is letting all this go through is something I can’t take responsibilty for. I googled everything about this question but all I have found are about 100 bible verses but that won’t help me.
Our pastor spoke about this a few weeks ago. He said that sometimes the best thing a parent can do for their child is to say no. The same is true for our relationship with God. Sometimes, it is best for him to say no to our requests. We cannot learn and grow without struggle. We cannot understand true joy without a concept of pain. Overwhelming pain and suffering in the world indicates that there is also the existence of overwhelming joy.
Also, we live in a fallen world…bc of what took place in the garden of Eden, life on this earth will be filled with sin, hurt and suffering. Thankfully we are not here for forever and while we are here we have Jesus to turn to.
@Julia: I think it´s the freedom of choice he grants us. Of course he could speak a word and end all the terror an hate we experience. But as a loving father he gives us freedom – even if this means that we´ll do things that hurt others.
Just my humble thoughts … :)
Yes of course I understand the whole thing with freedom but what about our health issues? I have a friend who now has cancer and she's dying and she has kids. Where is god??? He would only have to snip his finger and she would be healed. Of course what Adam and Eva did influenced the whole history but why do we then call God as a loving father in that case concerning the pain and suffer in our lives?
Yes, I struggle with that also … A befriended family lost their six year old son last year. And yet. This is our perspective. We only see this moment, this situation. God has the whole picture and knows what is best. This family I told you about has a strong faith and in their suffering they were and are a great model for the parents they met, who are in a similar situation.
I was 24 when my own mum died in a car accident. It was a hard blow and yet I never experienced God´s presence more real than during this time. I knew and deeply felt that he was there and I had an inner peace and strength I never knew existed …
Hi Julia, I recommend the book “Letters From a Skeptic” by Dr. Gregory Boyd. While we may not know everything this side of Heaven, I think he does a great job of explaining these things in more detail.
I have wrestled with this for years….with my mom's death, my dad's and my step-dad's, my kids' illnesses and other major crisis….for me, God is in the good…..there is the pain, the sorrow, the hurt…..no denying that, but He is present in the friends, the love poured out….He is RIGHT THERE….thru it all. I have never felt more close to Him than when I was ripped apart with fear and grief when my youngest had meningitis….He was there to lift me up and comfort me.
My best friend passed away from cancer nearly a year ago, leaving her husband and three young children. Her rock through her sickness was “It Is Well,” a hymn that acknowledges both the horrible circumstance and the fact that God is still trustworthy – simultaneously. These are not mutually exclusive, no matter how much our logic says they should be. My wonderful friend both hated every minute of her struggle and was SO thankful for the ways that God revealed himself in it. It’s the image God comforts us with of Christ’s experience in the garden – my human heart begs for anything different; my soul surrenders to You, even in agony, even if the different option doesn’t come.
That trust does not remove the pain – but at the same time, there’s grace unrelenting and unfathomable around every corner – His love unending in the space of a broken world steeped in death. Her life still radiates and touches those she loved, even those she never knew – and seeing His hand of love on those whose hearts are broken for her is an amazing and humbling and daily reminder of His character. He is big enough to hold both at the same time, to be beautiful and loving and present even in the deepest darkness, or the eye of the hurricane, or the fiery furnace.
What I have been surprised to learn in the midst of total heartbreak is that pain isn’t the opposite of joy. It’s the clay from which joy is formed – from the stone rolled away to these moments in each of our lives, He is always, always, always about life from death, beauty from ashes. When Christ breathed His last, covered in blood and spit and surrounded by sounds and smells we cannot fathom, his mother and friends believed it was over. Believed with everything in them that the ugly and horror and suffering were the crash and burn end of the story. Who wouldn’t? Because who could make something good, something beautiful, of THAT?
But that horror and ugliness was ordained to become the moment of the world’s most profound beauty – and that’s the God who made us and who loves us and whom we are given the privilege to know. The maker of good from bad, of life from death, the redeemer of all, from the moment He breathed His breath into our dirt-made forms, gave us the choice to love, covered Adam and Eve in their nakedness, and ultimately covered all of our ugliness with his outstretched arms – bruised, bloody, horrifying, wonderful, redeeming, carrying arms. From the start, His story is taking what looks broken beyond repair and building a beauty beyond imagining out of the ugly, painful, tear and bloodstained pieces. We don’t get to see around the corner to what that beauty could be, will be, and the impossibility of our humanness imagining it is what makes it feel unlikely, unreal, impossible. But – He gives us His story of faithfulness so that we can rest in the fact that, because He has never left a thread hanging as a loose end, never failed to bring spring after winter, never failed to give us dreams bigger than we could dream, we can trust that this road – even the dark, horrible parts – is a road to Somewhere. He is in the business of resurrection – in the big and the small, forever and always.
Thank you so much for speaking these words from your heart. A heart that has obviously bled and sung at the same time. I will share this with others, as well as take strength myself.
Awful things happen because there is still sin in the world, if we believe in God, we must also believe in Satan.
Julia, if I may, and please hear this in love….we will never or can ever explain or understand why things, bad things happen…but, what we are promised and assured of in God's Word is that He will be with us, that He will never leave us, nor forsake us…no matter what WE have done, or not done…in our trials..He will walk through…go through with us, whatever we are experiencing..He is our strength to put one foot in front of the other, ….He is our peace, when all around us is noisy…He is our anchor, to keep us stable…He is with us, through thick and thin….
You are right…it doesn't seem fair for your friend who has cancer, and little children…but I pray God's amazing love, peace, and healing right there into that family…into that confusion…and into their lives…and into their hearts…And yours….
God be with you my Sister..x
Thank you for all your mesasges it's a really great community! I now must let these thoughts sink in and have my quiet time with god…
God bless all of you!
Julia, I respect you for your honesty in asking this question. I think this is something we struggle with! I have no idea why God doesn't change the things we so desperately ask Him to. Why does He let terrible things happen? I don't know. I do, however, take refuge in the knowledge that He suffers and grieves and cries right along with us. He experiences the pain of His children. Why doesn't He take it away? I don't know- something to do with sin like the other ladies have talked about. I find that this does not satisfy me, but I have to just trust in the knowledge that He stays with us and grieves right along with us. Maybe someday I will come to a better understanding…
“It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by his hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, nor sent to me by his arrangement of their weight and quantity.”
– Charles Spurgeon
I find comfort in knowing that our suffering is not random, and that in the midst of our suffering The Lord gives us Himself to guide, comfort, refine and sustain and that He is at work for His glory and our good in all things. I don’t say that lightly, I have had a journey of great suffering and have found hope and peace only in Him, He is good.
Someone once said: "God answers prayers 1 of 3 ways: 'Yes,' 'No,' or 'Grow.'" Sometimes we don't always get the answer we want, but it's usually what's best for us in the scheme of God's bigger plan.
We're currently studying through the book of Ruth in my church. My pastor mentioned how awful Naomi's life must have seemed to her at the time. She moved to a foreign land, lost her husband and both her sons, and was left alone with 2 daughter's-in-law. We are fortunate to have the hindsight of 3,000 years, so we know that God had a much bigger plan for her and Ruth, but she sure didn't know that. But He did make a way for them despite all of their hardship. I also have a hard time wrapping my head around all the awful things that happen to people in this world, and how our "loving" God can just sit idly by and let them happen. But studying this book has put my heart a little more ease.
Hi Petrah, thanks for that perspective. I think the most important thing which you and Rebecca note, is the separation from God. The fact is that God is holy and cannot abide sin so I guess whether He turns away or we turn away is probably not so relevant as much as the fact that either way, there is a separation because of our sin. And the only reason Jesus experienced that was because of us…because of me. But you’re right, all we can do is thank Him for so willingly paying that price just so we could be redeemed – it truly is amazing! xxxx
I read the explanation that in Matthew 27:46 Jesus doesn´t say "My Father, why have you forsaken me?" but "My God …". The author wrote that God didn´t forsake Jesus, his Son, but Jesus, the man – because of the sin he bore. I think it´s difficult for us to understand that Jesus was God and man. Of course Jesus was still God´s Son, when he hung at the cross. But with all the sin loaded upon him, he could´t approach the Holy God. Hope this makes sense …
I wonder though if this is so important … Isn´t the main thing, that he took our punishment? I´ll never get all the details. What I can grasp is that he offered himself for me. That´s enough to ponder on … :)
Good morning, Petrah! I agree that God is loving and faithful, and that our sin separates us from God. However, God is holy. He is without sin and cannot be in the presence of sin. Jesus knew when He came to this earth what His purpose was going to be…. to take the sin of the world, past, present, and future. Can you imagine all the horror, all the pain, all the ugly on His shoulders at that one moment? Before a God who does not abide nor allow sin into His presence? It must have been horrifically black and dark and sickening. I struggle with what our sin on Jesus' shoulders had to look like. I believe God did turn His back on Jesus, not because He didn't care, but because He could not look upon the sin Jesus bore. And His turning away was faithful. It was temporary. His turning away from the sin that was covered by Jesus' blood on that cross was deeply entwined with Jesus' purpose. If God had not turned His back on sin at that moment, then He would be turning His back on us in eternity when this life is over. Jesus' blood shed on our behalf is what allows us into His presence when He gives us the faith and power to believe and trust Him. The pure blood of Jesus covering our sin is what makes His turning toward us possible. I'm sure this is not a thorough response. I think, though, that when we begin to see God in light of who we are, rather than considering Him from the never-complete perspective of Who He is apart from us, we downplay our own sin and cheapen the gift accomplished at the cross, the sacrifice Jesus willingly made, and the perfect plan God had in mind all along. In our human thinking, we cheapen grace. I lived too long with cheap grace, and it's a fight not to take it back up again. I want to accept what's hard to believe over what my mind can wrap itself around.
I echo your thanks for the sacrifice, pain, and suffering of Jesus. Amen that through Him I live today. Have a blessed day!
Hi Petrah!! I do believe God could turn His face away; he had to in order to align with His character. He is holy, just, righteous. He is loving and faithful to keep His promises. Jesus being fully God and fully man came for one purpose to bring glory to the Father’s Name. “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” (John 12:27-28 ESV). As the sins of the world were laid upon Jesus the Father had to turn away because Sin is contradicts His character. Our separation from God was caused by sin and only one who is righteous, holy, and true could pay that price with His blood. Jesus said on the cross…”it is finished!” As believers we rejoice in knowing that the price has been paid once and covers the sins of those who He calls into His presence. Jesus suffered and died to bring glory to the Fathers name; God the Father sent His son to pay the price for our sin so His name would be glorified and so we could know of His great love for us!! I look at all the suffering in the world and my heart breaks for the pain that we see both locally and internationally; I oftentimes have to remind myself…that God did something about the suffering we see in our world today when Jesus was on the cross. He is working even now to draw people to know Him. He is so good, kind, loving, faithful, and just. Praise God that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
But God’s character is also holy and just and he cannot tolerate our sin and could not look at our sin on Jesus. He had to turn away from Jesus and pour out his wrath on him so it would not be poured out on us.
Rebecca, thank you. I am moved to tears by your writing. “When something was really happening, they turned AWAY.” I read and I wept and I will meditate upon this throughout the day. Psalm 22 has been a favorite Messianic psalm of mine, but now it has become even more rich. Thank you.
I was moved to tears too…..it really hit me this morning….