By Mark Grace, CCCNZ Ambassador
E toku Atua, e toku Atua, he aha koe i whakarere ai i ahau? he aha koe i matara atu ai ki te whakaora i ahau i nga kupu hoki o taku hamama?
Lo‘u Atua e, lo‘u Atua e, se a ea le mea ua e tuulafoai mai ai ia te ‘au, e taumamao ma lo‘u faaolataga, o upu foi o lo‘u faataio?
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
Psalm 22:1
25 years ago, I was going through a very painful period in life.
I remember I was driving to see a friend. It was a very wet, cold, overcast Palmy day in the depths of winter. I can’t remember anything else he said that day, but I remember he said this: “Mark, never make life-altering decisions in the middle of winter on a rainy day!”
That painful period in my life was a winter experience. Winter experiences are times in our lives of deep pain, real sorrow and much suffering.
The psalms of lament are in a sense “winter” prayers.
In Psalm 22, David’s requests bear all the marks of someone who has reached the end of themselves. His prayer is:
Blunt. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (verse 1)
Simple. “Do not be far from me.” (verse 11)
Direct. “You, Lord, do not be far from me.” (verse 19)
Urgent. “Come quickly to help me.” (verse 19)
Specific. “Deliver me from the sword; Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.” (verses 20 and 21)
In David’s own life, God answered his prayer and delivered him. But God ultimately answered this prayer by allowing his Son to take into himself all the forces of sin, death, and evil that lead to the winter experiences in our lives.
In Jesus’s death and resurrection, these winter forces are defeated. In Jesus’s death and resurrection, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have intimately experienced the worst of winter.
In the worst of our winter moments, the God who loves us, the one who died and rose for us, the one who lives in us by his Spirit, is with us.
