45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” [ee’ly-ee’ly-lah’muh-suh-bahk’thuh-nee] (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). 47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” 48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” 50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.” (Matt. 27:45-50 TNIV)
In our text we find Jesus in the worst circumstances which life could bring a human upon earth. They are the darkest circumstances possible. Just look at this darkness.
There is, of course, the physical hurt of the crucifixion. It was such a brutal form of death that the Gospel writers, Matthew included, do not pause to contemplate its horrors. Matthew simply writes When they had crucified him (Matt. 27:35 TNIV). It’s as if crucifixion was so inhumane that the writers want to get past even the word “crucified” as quickly as possible.
But there’s more darkness. One author notes that we have in this account the entire world mistreating Jesus. In this text everyone in the world mistreats Jesus. In Matt. 27:27-30 we have Roman soldiers-that is, Gentiles-mocking and rejecting Jesus. While they kill time before the crucifixion these Gentiles take a soldier’s cloak and place it on Jesus like a royal robe. They take a bamboo cane, the one used for beating Jesus, and place it in Jesus’ hands like a royal scepter. They take a thorny plant and weave a crown of it. These Gentiles reject Jesus.
And so do the Jews. In Matt. 27:38-44 there are Jewish people ridiculing Jesus as he hangs on his cross. In that day most viewed the world as made of Gentiles and Jews. Matthew wants us to know that both Gentiles and Jews rejected Jesus. In addition, both high society and low society mistreat Jesus. In Matt. 27:41 it is men in the highest positions in the Jewish world. In Matt. 27:38 it is condemned criminals. Both groups taunt Jesus. The whole world-Jew and Gentile; high and low-rejected him. Everyone mistreats Jesus.
But there’s more darkness. Jesus has been abandoned by his friends. Not a single friend stands by. Jesus cannot carry the crossbeam to the place of execution. We might expect one of his disciples to lean in and help, to offer a hand. But there is none. The soldiers have to pick a stranger named Simon to carry the crossbeam. Jesus is abandoned by friends.
But there’s even more darkness. Jesus feels abandoned by God. He feels forgotten by God. He feels God is absent. The situation is so dark that Matthew records From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land (Matt. 27:45 TNIV). Things are so dark that even the sun has lost voltage. Things could not be darker.
Though no other circumstance in Scripture can compare, Scripture is full of people in dark times. The writers of the Psalms use the word “pit” to describe those times in life when it’s dark. David writes in Ps. 69:15 Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me. Another writes states, You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. (Ps. 88:6 TNIV). Sometimes life is like standing at the bottom of a dark pit.
What is your most recent dark time? A friend of mine just lost his job. There’s darkness. Another friend is struggling with very serious health problems. There’s darkness. One of my daughter’s friends wept at Summer Camp because of some family issues back home. There’s darkness. Another friend of mine had to take a leave of absence from her job because of her health. There’s darkness. Some of us are defined by a dark moment in our lives: our parent’s divorce, a spouse’s unfaithfulness, a friend who died in an accident, or an opportunity lost. Most of us know some dark times.
And here’s the question: How do we pray in the dark? I don’t have any scientific studies or comprehensive surveys to back up what I’m going to say now, but as I’ve been with people in dark times, it seems that many of us go in one of two directions. First, some of us pray irregularly in the dark. That is, we simply stop praying, or almost stop. We get so hurt, so angry, and so disappointed that we simply don’t pray. A friend of mine who is working through the grief of losing someone close to him was at this point a few weeks ago. He told me that he hadn’t prayed in weeks. He was so traumatized that he could not talk to God anymore. And that is how some of us respond to the dark. We pray irregularly.
Others of us pray dishonestly. I don’t mean we try to lie in our prayers. But some of us went to the school of prayer that says “If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything.” Some of us went to the school of prayer that says “No complaining allowed.” We feel, because of a very high view of God or a very low view of ourselves that all prayer must be positive. So we keep praying in the dark, but we force the prayers to be positive. We’re dishonest about the situation. We tell God it’s not so bad. We tell God things could be a lot worse. Or we don’t even talk to God about the situation. We act like the darkness isn’t even there. We just keep on praying for our sick aunt and for our food and we don’t even talk to God about our darkness. We’re dishonest about the situation. Or, we are dishonest about our feelings. We don’t let God in on how badly we feel. We hold it all inside. And we don’t talk to God about it. My friend struggling with grief was at this point not long ago. I encouraged him to get all this stuff out on the table and be honest with God about it. But he hesitated. He wasn’t sure he really should.
Jesus, however, models a better way to pray in the dark. Let’s listen to this prayer again: 45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). In Matthew and Mark these are the only words spoken by Jesus from the cross. The only thing Jesus says on the cross in these two Gospel is this prayer. But what a prayer! If you had a chance to have recorded for all time the last prayer you would utter before you died, would you pray this prayer? If I knew a journalist was going to record the words of the last prayer I uttered before I died, I’d try to make it a positive and polished prayer. Something that might inspire others. Some of you may have seen the movie “Braveheart.”
It was based on the true story of William Wallace, a Scottish rebel who leads an uprising against a cruel English ruler named Edward the Longshanks. In the end Wallace is captured and tortured to death. There is a scene at the end of the movie where he is about to die from his torture. He tries to speak. Those presiding at the torture urge the crowd to be silent. It’s the darkest moment of his life. What will he say in the dark? Wallace shouts with his dying breath “Freedom!” With his final word he wanted to inspire people to fight for freedom. In Matthew’s gospel, here is the dying breath of Jesus: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Perhaps not what we expect.
But Jesus teaches us some very important things about praying in the dark. Notice how honest this prayer is. Jesus does not try to ignore the pain or pretend the pain isn’t that bad. Jesus is honest about how dark things are. He is honest about the circumstance. He is honest about his feelings. He does not pray here for those around him or for his disciples, as if his circumstance wasn’t that bad. He does not pray “Thank you God for this cross.” He prays in a brutally honest way: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Jesus has “borrowed” this prayer from somewhere else. This prayer is found in Ps. 22. It’s verse 1 of that Psalm. Ps. 22 is part of a group of Psalms which can be called “laments.” They are brutally honest prayers from people praying in the dark. Sometimes it is one person praying in the dark. Psalm 13 is an example: 1 How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? 3 Look on me and answer, LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, 4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. (Ps. 13:1-4 TNIV). Sometimes it is a whole group of people lamenting. Ps. 44 is an example: 9 But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies. 10 You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us. 11 You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations. (Ps. 44:9-11 TNIV). The book of Psalms is filled with these laments. And when Jesus searches for a way to pray in the dark, he reaches for a lament Psalm. There are two times recorded in the Gospels when Jesus prayed a Psalm. In both cases, it was a lament Psalm (Lk. 23:46). Jesus is transparent and honest with God. About the circumstance. And about his feelings. Ps. 22 does go on and end with statements of trust and assurance. That is one of the purposes of the lament Psalms. They help us to be honest about the situation and our feelings. But they also help us to remember that God is still there and that God still cares. Nonetheless, that doesn’t soften Jesus’ prayer here. When Jesus reaches for words to pray, of all the words in Ps. 22, here’s what he prays: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
What is Jesus teaching us about praying in the dark? First, he is teaching us to pray consistently in the dark. The darkness is not a time to stop praying. It is a time to keep praying. The only words from Jesus on the cross in Matthew are a prayer. That’s significant. The most fundamental thing Jesus’ use of lament teaches us is to keep praying. Too many of us, when we hit darkness, try to deal with it through inadequate coping mechanisms. Some turn to pornography to dull the pain. Some turn to drugs or alcohol. But the only effective coping mechanism in the dark is prayer. The best thing you can do in the dark is to just keep praying.
Second, pray honestly in the dark. Lament Psalms like the one Jesus uses are an act of bold faith about reality. They insist that we experience the world as it really is, not in some pretend way. They insist that nothing is out of bounds when it comes to prayer. God is big enough to handle your harshest words and your darkest emotions. If the lament prayers like the one Jesus used teach us anything, they teach us to bring it all out on the table and be honest with God about the situation we are in and how we feel about it. That is, I believe, why God has preserved the lament Psalms for us. They are the words we’d like to pray but are afraid to pray. One of the best ways of praying honestly in the dark is to simply pray through a lament Psalm. There are dozens of these in the Psalms. I’ve listed some in the link that I’ve found most helpful. Praying through these is like therapy. It brings the hurt out in the open where it can really be dealt with. It directs the hurt to God who is the only one who can truly heal it. Pray honestly in the dark.
Third, pray hopefully in the dark. As I mentioned earlier, the lament Psalms like the one Jesus prayed don’t just leave us in the dark. They ultimately point us to the fact that God is still there and that God still cares. Ps. 22 ends with the hopeful line of For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. (Ps. 22:24 TNIV). The Psalm ends in a hopeful way, seeing some light in the dark. God has not forsaken him. God has listened. God is still there. Ps. 13, a model lament prayer that all of us ought to learn, ends in this way: But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me. Even in the dark, the one praying is able to eventually realize that God’s love hasn’t failed. In spite of the dark, God’s love hasn’t failed. And, in spite of the dark, there are still good things in life which come from God. With his use of a lament Psalm, Jesus enables us to pray hopefully in the dark, recognizing that even in the dark, God is still listening, God is still working, God still cares.
[i] Craig S. Keener A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Eerdmans, 1999). [ii] Ibid., 674-675. [iii] Craig S. Keener A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Eerdmans, 1999), 673. [iv] “Braveheart” (1995) starring Mel Gibson. [v] Walter Brueggeman Spirituality of the Psalms (Fortress Press, 2002), 27.
