My God, My God, Why?

Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday B, March 28, 2021
Is.45:21-25     Ps. 22:1-11
Phil. 2:5-11   St. Mark’s Passion Gospel

Lectionary Link

The following text in was found on a basement wall in Cologne, Germany.  It had been written by someone hiding from the Gestapo.

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.  I believe in love even when feeling it not. 

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.  I believe in love even when feeling it not.

I believe in God even when God is silent.  I believe in the silence.

  

 Since last year:  A pandemic, the severity of which was denied by our leaders, poorly responded to, leading to the deaths of more than half a million in our country and many more in our world..  My God, my God, why have you forsaken us?

The financial ruin of vast number of people because of the pandemic while a very few became exponentially more wealthy as our country and world have difficulty regarding the common good:  My God, my God why have you forsaken us?

Multiple killings of Black persons through bad policing and targeting of people of color, resulting in extensive social revolt to protest for the equal value of the lives of Black persons: My God, my God, why have you forsaken us.

Multiple mass shootings, including the targeting of Asian Americans,  coupled with the increase in the number of sales of military rifles for the civilian population and a government that can legislate on seat belts, baby crib safety, but cannot do anything about military weapons in the hands of the general populace:  My God, my God why have you forsaken us?

And in one year these are all in addition to our normal natural disasters of wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and winter extreme freezing.

My God, my God why have you forsaken us?

Jesus on the cross before he died, is believed to have used an expression from Psalm 22.  "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me."  News Flash: The Divine Son reports that his Heavenly Father Abandoned Him.  It is a rather serious accusation that a Son might make against one's Father, especially one's Heavenly Father.

This cry is the cry of Jesus showing complete identity with human suffering.  And it is the cry which happens even when we know why.  Jesus knew why and we also know why.  But knowing does not comfort us much in the moment of feeling the forsakenness so poignantly.

What do we know and what did Jesus know?  We know and Jesus knew that life is valuable because of genuine freedom.  From the sub-atomic particles through human beings, life is an expression of freedom.  And the free conditions result in the clash and conflict of systems because in timing, things collide.  Freedom is more valuable for human beings because we have higher conscious and deliberative freedom.  It also means that we are more culpable for what we choose to do.  We can't hold a tornado responsible for hitting our house, but you can hold a person responsible for burning your house down.  This is the common sense of how freedom works.  If freedom is the highest value of life, God must be pure Freedom, but God does not interfere with the lesser freedoms which people and things bearing the divine brand have.  And Jesus on the cross was subject to the freedom that the human authorities had to put him there.

The church believes that Jesus cried, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me," because we believe that Jesus was one who knew that he was in God's plan and timing and he knew that being God with us meant full identity with the human experience.

But for you and me, I would like for us to change the big "Why" question by asking, "O my fellow people, why have we forsaken each other?"  

The horrible Holocaust, the killing of millions by Stalin, Pol Pot and all of the current and past cruel dictators, and the wars of humanity.  "O my fellow people, why have we forsaken each other?"

The racial mistreatment of Black persons, Brown persons, Asian persons and Native American people.  "O my fellow people, why have we forsaken each other?"

The inequities in housing provision, sustainable wages, access to affordable health care, equal treatment of women.  "O my fellow people, why have we forsaken each other?"

You and I are not like Jesus; we cannot just state that people being inhumane to each other is part of God's grand plan.

What is God's grand plan?  The witness of the Jesus from the Cross is to say to us, "Please don't hurt each other anymore.  Please do no harm to each other.  Please celebrate your wonderful freedom by doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with your God, and with each other."  This is the way in which we honor the glorious value of freedom in our lives.  And I believe that this is what the cry of Jesus from the cross is trying to teach us today.  Amen.