Eli, eli lama sabacthani........

And about three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which       means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Matthew 27:46

The image of Jesus hanging on the cross suffering beyond description and near death haunts me. My imagination fills my ears with a voice crying out in loudly in pain and distress. I hear the voice of a man convinced that he has been forgotten. In comparison, I think of how my children sounded when they awoke in the night beset by night terrors. Even a simple recollection of those heart rending sounds sorrows me to this day.

I have begun to consider, however, that I have gotten in wrong. I recently learned that it was expected that an observant Jew likely memorized the entire Psalter and much of the rest of sacred scripture and that when he might refer to a particular Psalm to make a point, he would not need to recite the entire Psalm but would only need to mention the first line and whoever he was talking with would instantly be able to recollect the entire Psalm and understand the meaning of what he was being told.


Psalm 22 is clearly a lament. It begins with a plaintive cry to God in sorrow for being abandoned and it continues to paint a picture of a soul under oppression for several stanzas but then focus from abandonment changes to one of hope. The desolation changes to optimism and a recognition of God’s mercy.

The last verses read:
And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you.


The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.

What was Jesus really telling us? That he had been abandoned and left to die a horrible death? In hearing the rest of the Psalm it becomes clear that he is telling us much more. We should not focus on the present moment in which he is suffering beyond belief but we should think of the future and what his death with will mean for us. The point of Psalm 22 is not that we have abandoned by God. The true meaning is that we should rejoice for the deliverance to come.

I now image that Jesus is crying loudly, not in pain, lamenting his present situation. Instead I hear a strong voice crying out in resolve reminding us that we will be delivered. He is telling us to live for the Lord and to teach our descendents to proclaim the deliverance from abandonment he has brought us. Our enemies will not prevail.

Psalm 22

I have spent some time since Ash Wednesday reflecting on Psalm 22. The first sentence of the Psalm is what Jesus uttered on the Cross, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabacthani’ or “My God, my God why have you abandoned me.” The rest of the story relates to not how the Psalm begins but rather how it concludes:

                And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you.

The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.

Jesus surely chose this Psalm for good reason. It begins with a long description of complete and utter despair but the Psalm concludes with optimism and prophecy of what was to come on the third day after the death. Jesus was not calling out to us not to call attention of what was happening to him but to encourage looking ahead to what was to come. Observant Jews of the time would have instantly understood what he was saying because they would have been as familiar with the Psalm as we are with Psalm 23. Jesus was not telling us he was abandoned. He was telling us to look ahead with great joy.

John of the Cross - about sin

John of the Cross wrote, “Just as water extinguishes a fire, so love wipes away sin.” Sometimes I think of forgiveness as a subtle act, when forgiveness is present sin, regardless of character, gently ebbs away from us. John suggests  there is nothing subtle about God’s love for us or what happens we are forgiven of sin. When we turn to God for forgiveness his response is active: God's love wipes away sin. Our sin.  St. John of the Cross, pray for us, pray that God will wipe our sins.

Lessons From Young Heros

I recently served as volunteer court official at city basketball tournament hosted by the local business community. The gym I was assigned to was where teams consisting of 4th and 5th grade boys were scheduled to play. One of the early games featured a team named the Rebels, consisting mostly of 4th grade boys that were matched up against a team called the Hawks, a team of boys mostly in the 5th grade. The difference in size and skill levels was pronounced. The tallest boy on the Rebels appeared to be shorter than the shortest boy on the Hawks. When the score four minutes into the game was 12-0, I resigned myself to being forced to watch a massacre. The game preceding this one also featured a similar mismatch and the score ended up 63-9. I was not hopeful for the Rebels.


I was wrong. The Rebels has something going for them that I did not immediately recognize. They had a coach who knew how to coach. At first I felt that he was being overly assertive and vocal almost to the point that I was being nudged by the score keeper and time keeper to consider asking him to tone his approach down. Rather than taking immediate action, I decided to observe for a time before taking action. As I listened I became more and more mesmerized by the coach and how he was interacting with his boys..

His complete focus was on what the team needed to be doing next. If they missed a shot, traveled or lost a ball out of bounds, he did not even acknowledge the event had happened. He did not shout out anything like, “Do better next time” or “Tough break.” Instead he instructed them on what do next, saying things “Follow your shot” or “Move to the post.”

The result was the boys did not have a chance to get down on themselves. There was not time to dwell on what they did wrong or what did not work for them. The amazing thing is they listened to him and tried complete whatever he asked. They hustled up and down the court and played aggressive defense. From the opening tip off until the final buzzer they played as though they had a chance of winning. They never gave up, they did not quit, there were no tears or displays of anger or despair.

I wish I could tell you that the best coaching performance I ever experienced carried the day and that guts, hard work and pluck overcame a superior force. I can’t. The Rebels lost by 20 points. I admire the Hawks because they played well enough to win and they were also well coached. He could have kept his best players in for the entire game and run the score up on the Rebels but he shuttled players in and out and gave everyone on his team a chance to play.

It is an American tradition, however, to root for the underdog and I found myself rooting for the Rebels even though I officially had to be neutral since I was a tournament official. They played so hard that I decided to let them have the full measure of the game and did not instruct the time keeper to just let the clock run down. They deserved to play to the last second. This was not a defeated team that needed the mercy of a quickly ended game. They did not lose, as the cliché goes, they ran out of time.

After the game, I walked up to the coach, gave him a hug and told him that I had never witnessed a better coaching effort and that he should be proud for what he accomplished. When it was clear he did not really appreciate what I was saying, I laid it out for him. His response was amazement because all he was trying to do was to keep them in the game. His coaching style was not deliberate or pre-planned. He just did what he thought was right.

There is a life lesson to be learned here and it is, I think, a big one. God is much more interested in what we do next in life than in the mess-ups we have in the past. If we spent more time focused on doing the next right thing, our relationship with God will become natural and comfortable and it will be just what God wants for us. He does not want to punish us or rub our nose in our mistakes. He just wants us to do right to the best of our ability. He does not even expect us to win the battle with achieving perfection only to do better next time.

There will be a time when it is important for the coach of the Rebels to review the game with his team. There are things they can learn that could bring them closer to victory in the next game. We also need to take time to review our day to learn where could do better in the future but our focus should not be on what we have done but on what we should do next.

The Rebels did not play like boys being beaten. They played with enthusiasm and great cheer. They remember that basketball is a game played for fun. They ended up beating a better team later in the day so they won third place ribbons. I learned that heroism can be packed into small packages and you can learn great lessons from those you should be teaching. I am glad the heroes went home with ribbons but they were already blessed by God for giving them such a fine coach. God blessed me by allowing me watch and gain some deeper understanding about what we are called to do, not just in games but in life.