Today, in honour of Good Friday, Nieucommunities is putting on a multimedia Theodrama of the Passion of Christ. It was with no surprise that I was selected to play Jesus, with the flowing locks and the gentle Shepard eyes, ahem! The particular version we are doing I don’t say too many
lines. However one that has really struck a chord in me is Jesus’ cry at the time of his gruesome crucifixion, “Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani, my God, my God why have you forsaken me?” I wish I could say that I cannot relate to Jesus’ cry. I can. And I am sure most of us either can relate to this on some level in our own lives or tacitly believe in some way that our world (or at least parts of it) has been forsaken by God.
Playing the role of Jesus,I was trying to imagine what Christ experienced in that moment. What was he thinking and feeling? Amidst all these ponderings an insight began to bring itself into sharp focus in my mind. I began to realise that In my experience of Godforsakeness I am bound up with the experience and sufferings of Jesus or to say it in a more theologically provocative way. God, through Jesus has experienced the same Godforsakeness many of us have experienced in our own life. We often fear that sense of Godforsakeness because it is such a lonely and isolated experience but we might miss a great spiritual gift that lies hidden within it. We miss that the cry of forsakeness leads us into the very wounds of Christ. We identify with Christ and Christ identifies with us. We are not alone in our Godforsakeness for Christ is there with us crying out to God with us. Our voices in harmony and agony.
Have a blessed easter weekend.
I wish you peace and rest.
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