{"id":107,"date":"2017-04-27T21:22:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T02:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/?p=107"},"modified":"2017-05-27T22:19:18","modified_gmt":"2017-05-28T03:19:18","slug":"where","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/?p=107","title":{"rendered":"Where?"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2017\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

He has not disdained the suffering of the afflicted one\u2026 but has listened to his cry for help.\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 Psalm 22:1, 24<\/p>\n

At supper, they are all there. Perplexed, but confident. Sure of themselves, celebrating Passover. Yet Jesus is solemn. He serves the bread and wine of God\u2019s promises, and says: \u201cthese are my body and blood, to nourish you.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Gethsemane, Jesus is overwhelmed with grief. They\u2019ve never seen him like this. \u201cStay here with me?\u201d he asks. But they sleep. \u201cIf possible, take this cup from me,\u201d Jesus pleads with his loving Father. Not the cup he has shared with friends, this cup is God\u2019s judgment on Unlove. Untruth. Greed. Arrogance. Violence. Jealousy. \u201cNot what I want; what do you<\/em> want?\u201d prays Jesus.<\/p>\n

Three times Jesus returns to draw strength from his sleeping friends. At his arrest his friends run for it. Leave. Get lost. Except Peter. He sneaks into the place where Jesus is questioned, accused, spit upon. Where is Peter? There in the courtyard, swearing: \u201cI don\u2019t know the man!\u201d<\/p>\n

When nails are driven into his hands, Jesus\u2019 friends have fled. Scattered. Those he has taught and healed are sheep without a shepherd. And Jesus is forsaken. Alone.<\/p>\n

Isaiah said he would be: God\u2019s beloved Son would carry our<\/em> pains: \u201call the things wrong with us<\/em>. \u2026 It was our sins that \u2026ripped and tore and crushed him\u2014our sins!<\/em> He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.\u201d (Isaiah 53:5-6, The Message<\/em>).<\/p>\n

As Jesus identifies totally with our sin\u2014yours and mine\u2014he is cut off from God. \u201cMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d <\/em>Where are you? Since he was a child, Jesus has revelled in God\u2019s love. Now, at the moment when he fully embodies<\/em> God\u2019s love, Jesus finds himself God-forsaken. Lonely to the core.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the strange truth: in Jesus, God himself has waded into our<\/em> loneliest moments. Our darkness. In our sorrow, our failure, our fear, our suffering, where was God?<\/em> He was there. Jesus is Emmanuel<\/em>, \u201cGod-with-us.\u201d On the cross. <\/em>He does not deny his faithless friends. In effect, he says: \u201cI know them. I love them. I am here<\/em>. For them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus is there. Lifting our burden. Going the distance. By his wounds we are healed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d begins Psalm 22. It paints Jesus\u2019 death in stunning detail. And then it envisions an unfathomable turn-about. A rescue to set the world rejoicing.<\/p>\n

In his song, You were on the cross<\/em>, Matt Maher writes:<\/p>\n

And where were You when all that I’ve hoped for, \u2026when all that I’ve dreamed
\nCame crashing down in shambles around me?
\nYou were on the cross, my God, my God, alone
\nYou died for us, alone, alone.
\nYou were on the cross, victorious, all along, all along
\nYou were there in all of my suffering
\nAnd You were there in my doubt and in fear
\nI’m waiting on the dawn to reappear.<\/em><\/p>\n

Denise<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2017\u00a0 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u2026 He has not disdained the suffering of the afflicted one\u2026 but has listened to his cry for help.\u00a0\u2013 Psalm 22:1, 24 At supper, they are all there. Perplexed, but confident. Sure of themselves, celebrating Passover. Yet Jesus is solemn. He serves the bread and … Continue reading “Where?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ststephensottawa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}