These are some of Jesus’ last words. Single people can sometimes feel that God has forgotten us. Yet, despite His questioning, Jesus’ attachment to His Father did not change. A beautiful lesson for us today.
It was in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus began to feel God’s silence. Until that moment, He prayed and received His answer. The dead had even come back to life, and an audible voice from heaven had presented Jesus as the beloved Son of God. Spectacular! But in the Garden, Jesus experienced a moment of profound anguish, and God did not seem to respond. He prayed three times, even asking for support from His friends, and received no response. So, Jesus is well-placed to understand our pain when we are distressed by a situation in our lives when we hold the hand of a loved one lying in their hospital bed. When we receive a notice that we are fired just as a financial challenge has begun. We ask our friends to pray with us, but the anguish is still there. So is the silence. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke indicate that an angel came to strengthen Jesus, just as a hymn or a beautiful verse can also bring us comfort. But not the answer.
For Jesus, this moment of anguish was not the end of His torment. There was much worse to come: Judas’ betrayal, Peter’s denial, and, of course, the unimaginable suffering of the cross. No wonder Jesus said on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mark 15:34 NCV).
But just as Jesus showed us how to love our neighbor, how to forgive those who hurt us, and how to be generous, respectful, welcoming… On the cross, He showed us what to do when we seem to be suffering from God’s silence. Jesus freely expressed to God how He felt, but He didn’t begin to doubt God’s plan. He didn’t stop believing in God’s love and His promises. Faced with silence, this is sometimes what we are tempted to do. While we suffer, we wonder if God is truly concerned. Does He really have a plan for our lives? Sometimes, we even come to doubt that God really exists. Which is, of course, the direction the enemy wants us to take.
On the contrary, Jesus showed us the words to speak, after expressing our disappointment. “Father, I give you my life” (Luke 23:46 NCV). That is what we must do in the face of what seems to be God’s silence: surrender to Him. We must move from the disappointment of “Where are you, God?” to “I surrender myself to you” (not “I no longer believe”).
Jesus spoke these words just before taking His last breath. And it’s a beautiful image for us. It’s when we choose to let go of prayer, to place this situation in His hands, that we truly find rest. It’s not about giving up on our dream, but about placing our dream in God’s hands. It’s about letting the Lord act in His time and His way. It’s when we let God be the God of this circumstance that we truly find peace for our souls. It’s not just about choosing to wait for God to answer, but about waiting on God—that is, about waiting for His guidance, letting Him be in control.
When we live in the anguish of unanswered prayer, when we think God is silent, Jesus understands us perfectly. He comes to hold our hand in our time of prayer. His life encourages us to trust in God’s Plan.