The despair in these words is difficult for me to take in. Drowning in suffering and sorrow, sinking into the muck with nothing to cling to, utterly overwhelmed by wave after wave of heartache and no relief in sight. Yet there have been times in my life – not many, thank God – but there have been times in my life when these feelings were my own. Utter devastation. Shock and fear and hopelessness and loss… loss so excruciating that I had no idea how I would survive. I know what it is to be weary with crying, unable to speak for all the wailing I’d done. I know what it is to search and search and search for comfort, and all in vain. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”Just as the psalmist suffered and as we have suffered, God in Jesus suffered too. And as strange as it may seem, this is the place we will find comfort and hope – right there on the cross. After all, if Jesus had not suffered like that, would we trust God to know what it’s like to endure excruciating pain, and to suffer with us? Would we feel the love of God envelop us in the midst of our grief? Would we count on God to know our own indescribable ache? Would we turn to God in our own suffering?
Hanging there on the cross, Jesus kept company with two mere mortals who hung on crosses too – just like He keeps company with us when we hang on our own. That is indeed Good News! Not that God wills us to suffer – suffering is not God’s will. But that when we do suffer – in those times of utter devastation that we fear we will never survive – the God who knows our suffering, experiences that suffering deeply. And taking it all in, God transforms our suffering – redeeming and resurrecting and turning it all into ever more love.
—The Rev Karen Haig
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