Before we step into the second half of this conversation, let’s remember where we left off: Jesus endured real silence from God, but not because the Father abandoned Him. Now in Part 2, we’ll see why Jesus had to face that silence. We’ll look more closely at what Jesus was doing in that moment, what the crowd would have understood instantly, and what God was actually doing behind the scenes.
In Jesus’ day, all the Hebrew boys in the villages went to their local synagogue school for daily training around age five. The first book they memorized was Leviticus. They also memorized the Psalms. The common practice was to say the first line of a Psalm out loud, and then everyone else would silently recite the rest of the Psalm in their minds, almost on autopilot.
In His most horrifying moment, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It was actually prophesied that Christ would utter these exact words. But these words are also the first line of Psalm 22!
He chose those words not only to fulfill prophecy but, I believe, to bring comfort in the midst of His horror. One of the things I love most is that when I read the crucifixion account in the Gospels, I now imagine the entire crowd silently reciting Psalm 22 in their heads, because they couldn’t help it. Imagine the weight of realizing what they had done.
Up until that point, all the crowd saw was a tortured man that was now dead. Good riddance would have been the common thought. But look what God does immediately after Jesus “gave up his spirit”…
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
Why is it important that God waited to demonstrate His presence until after Jesus died?
Jesus faced the silence of God. Jesus faced darkness. All Jesus had to comfort Himself in His horror was the same resource we have to comfort ourselves, the Word of God. That’s what makes Him a real man, not a super man. He died the way a tortured human being would die, even though He was God in the flesh.
Since God allowed Jesus to endure those moments without miraculous intervention, Jesus is the one we can go to in our own horror, because He gets it. He is our sympathetic and faithful High Priest who has been tested in all ways as we are yet without sin.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted (the Greek word, pepeirasmenon, can also mean “tested”) as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:15
Does Silence Equal Absence?
We know that God is ever present, so His silence does not indicate His absence. His silence can be seen in the lack of answers to our questions:
“Why didn’t you answer our prayers for healing when we begged and begged You?”
“Why didn’t you intervene when my boy killed himself?”
“Why do you heap suffering upon suffering? Haven’t we suffered enough?”
“Why do you bring us to the end of ourselves when all we need is encouragement?”
All of these questions can be summed up in THE question: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” And in asking that we are in good company, because Jesus asked the same thing. Did you know that as you walk through Psalm 22 you can see how Jesus answered His own question?
Walk verse by verse through Psalm 22—looking at what Jesus might have been meditating on during His agony, and how those same truths can bring hope in our own suffering. To continue to read more, I invite you to join me in our online community: https://survivingchildloss.mn.co/landing/
Dear God, You’re not going to answer me, are you? There are some things I just don’t get to know and that has to be enough. Even when it hurts me more, not to know! That’s what I think. Maybe you know it would hurt me more if you gave me the answer. Is that why you’re waiting until heaven to give me the inside scoop on all this? Some say in heaven it won’t matter to us, but it will matter to me. Because I want to see all the ways you used Tristan’s story. In heaven, you can miraculously show me all the ripples outward from that horrific event and how you redeemed it. Thank you for letting me serve you, although sometimes I would rather just die. I guess that’s okay since Job, Moses, and Elijah also felt that way at times. Can you stare into Tristan’s eyes the way I used to and say, “THERE, that’s from your mom!” Help me to wait until I can do that myself. In Jesus name, amen.
