Torridge Coastal Mission Community

Reflection from Nigel Price

Psalm 22. 1-5

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. (NIV)

Reflection

Some words that Jesus cried as he hung in agony on the cross. We do not know but he may have recited the whole of this Psalm – the Gospel writers record only the start and end. This cry is not just one of pain, but a cry of hope from the depths of the heart. These words are taken from a Meditation service I wrote for St Mary’s Appledore in Holy Week some years ago.

Although Jesus knew these words by heart, this is no Sunday morning Bible reading; it is a cry of pain as deep as any human heart will know, as Jesus bearing the immense weight of human sin on his shoulders hangs in agony and darkness on the cross. How many times might we ourselves have cried these words, or wanted to cry them, when we receive no answer to our prayers? How often has the harsh reality of pain and suffering brought forth these feelings of abandonment? But our Saviour’s cries are not directed at the watching crowds, as if to say ‘God has let me down’, but direct to his own Father, the one who has saved before and will save again.

Rowan Williams, former Archbishop, challenges us with these words: “In Gethsemane Jesus says to his Father, in effect, ‘I accept from your hand whatever happens. Nothing can break our communion, however little I see of feel it; I am ready to give myself to you, whatever the cost’. And what happens is Calvary, Calvary where God virtually disappears … To take Jesus’ cross means to enter into this; a commitment to God for his own sake, whatever happens.”

This Psalm gives us permission to be real. This prayer of desertion resounds with us in times when we feel deserted and for those we meet who do not yet know the fulness of life that Jesus offers. In what way does Jesus recite these words? Is it in accusation, or bafflement, in ager or in lament. Or are they recited in trust; in complete and utter trust in his Father … and ours?

Let us pray:

Eternal God, in the cross of Jesus we see the cost of our sin and the depth of your love: in humble hope and fear may we place at his feet all that we have and all that we are, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Additional collect for Good Friday)

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