Where Is God? :pstrmike
It is the third Sunday of dispersion. I taught last night on the three hours of darkness while Jesus was on the cross. During that time of darkness, Jesus says nothing. It’s a time of silence, a time of isolation, which brings with it a sense of longing and waiting for the season to be over. Much has been said about those three hours, although the crucifixion narratives do not give us an explanation. My thought is that several things were happening during that time.
Where is God during this time? Paul tells us that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2Cor 5:19). God was in the darkness, in the silence, and present in the isolation.
Some time around the third hour of darkness Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me” (Mat 27:46)? We’re are not given the insight into what was going on in Jesus’ heart which provoked His question. Most us do know of times in our own life when we have asked the same question. It is so difficult to be in a situation where you cannot change things and then feel that you have been abandoned by God. I can’t speak for Jesus here, but for many of us, such feelings often follow those times when we are earnestly searching for answers, and they do not come. How many times have I heard, “this situation would be bearable if I at least knew why it was happened!” Yet God is silent.
The veil in the temple is split in two, and Luke tells us that Jesus then prays, “into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). It’s a prayer of surrender. A friend told me that during difficult times, we waste a lot of energy wanting to know why, when these times are often allowed as an invitation to connect deeper with God. The torn veil allows us access to God in a deeper way, but we must first pray, “into Your hands I commit my spirit.” Connecting deeper to God usually means I have to set aside my quest to understand and surrender to living in the tension and uncertainty. God is in the darkness, in the silence, and present in the isolation, and it is in that place that He invites us to “come boldly before the throne of grace” (Heb 4:16).
pstrmike
The question “Why?” is always the heart of the mystery. Many thanks for this…
Thanks Duane. “Why” is always at the heart of mystery. It is a tension that makes most of us very uncomfortable. I think we are more conditioned by a modernist mindset that not only seeks the answers, but believes that all things are knowable. A quest for such knowledge gestures toward our desire to have mastery of these things which are beyond our finding out (Rom 11:33).
Thank you Pstrmike…beautiful words to meditate on.
I loved the verse 2 Cor 5:19… perfect application… will think on that..
Blessings of Holy Week to you, friend.
I think we are more conditioned by a modernist mindset that not only seeks the answers, but believes that all things are knowable.
I totally agree. The modernist mindset seems to disdain mystery and wants everything to
be visible, on the operating table to be examined, as it were. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad impulse in and of itself. I’d much prefer a world where modern medicine is practiced, for
example, than the horrors of past centuries.
“If there was any other way, this wouldn’t be happening.”. I think when we have no answer, when we are puzzled or hurting more deeply than we ever thought we could that we can trust that IF there was a suitable alternative, God wouldn’t allow us, His children, to go through the pain or the mystery . Some things just do not have an answer that our mortal minds can sort through…
Be still and know that I. Am God… I used to carry that in my wallet.
Hope the above doesn’t come across platitdinous…. God keep. 🙏
Thanks Paige. A blessed Holy week to you and yours.
Hi bob1,
I don’t think modernism is necessary bad, either. I’m thankful for what science has produced. Both science (the material) and the mystery (the transcendent) has it’s limitations. We can always attempt to balance, in some circumstances, one has priority over the other.
blessings
Thanks Em.
Often we try to attach meaning to situations when they are beyond our understanding. It’s a hard place to live, but I think we are much better off than telling ourselves narratives that are essentially shots in the dark and incongruent with what God is doing. To do so invites arrogance or a myopic nearsightedness which truncates our spiritual growth.
Peace.
It’s nice to have this on line reflection and study leading up to Easter. I just read in the LA Times that a Calvary Chapel Pastor in Thousand Oaks, California, who is also a city council member there, held SUnday church services and gave out communion today at Godspeak Calvary Church in Thousand Oaks, despite the county’s ban on gatherings of people over the amount of ten for any reason. They had county sheriff deputies on hand to make sure people were more than 6 feet apart. I’m sure that those deputies had other, more important things to do than monitor unruly Christians. This is a sad witness for Christ in our southern California community. I attended Calvary Chapel for over 30 years and this is why I left – the complete and utter disregard for neighboring communities. I was a public school teacher in California and Calvary Chapel demonized the schools in our community, which led to a dismissive and callous attitude towards our communities young people. Calvary has turned so inwards that they are becoming a destructive element in our communities. They are not a witness of God’s heart any longer. So sad.
pstrmike Thanks for such a beautiful word of hope in suffering. “The torn veil allows us access to God in a deeper way, but we must first pray, “into Your hands I commit my spirit.” As you wrote, this is the price of admission to the Holy Place where God is…surrender. Surrender to our sufferings, and giving them to Him. Blessings!
That’s sad about the gathering at GCC. As if Christians haven’t enough condemnation from the world. That is ridiculous. They’ve failed Satan’s temptation to cast themselves from the temple. Didnt they hear about the CV-19 deaths from the choir group?
Ecclesiastes 7:17
BOC,
That is a terrible witness. It also seems really selfish.
Sacramento County estimates a third of coronavirus cases are linked to churches.
https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2020/04/01/sacramento-county-coronavirus-church-gatherings/?fbclid=IwAR1adr-om3AkHadNm7wX8cHZQjo3OR0s5JN_OWLNumbTeNum3LCLSf6srKc
Sac-town, a hive of scum and villany. Who knew there were Christians there? /sarcasm
Foolish ones apparently.
pstrmike, you blessed the Phoenix peeps with a thoughtful and thought provoking post today – thank you
MikeE thanks. Most of the time God does His deepest work in us during times of darkness.
TNV – I lived in Sactown for about 11 years. It was a formative time in my life, but also a place that I have moved on from both physically and spiritually.
Em – thanks blessings to you. Stay healthy.
Jesus of Nazareth was and is the nexus of all things visible and not visible. Of all dimensions and of all worlds. Of all spaces and the folded spaces in between the spaces. There was no ‘solar eclipse’ (not possible on Passover). The fabric of creation itself began to unravel as he died, and light itself was the first to go…
This was excellent Mike. Thank you.
Thanks Nick. Blessings to you.