Lutheran Devotional 30 March 2026, Monday Message
TOPIC: Darkness
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 27:45-46
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Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:45-46)
I am glad Jesus cried out to God as He did, saying, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Because I think every one of us who lives long enough will go through a time when our hearts say the same. When we lose someone we love to death or a broken relationship—when we get a terrible diagnosis—when we’ve had a year full of evil stacked on evil stacked on yet more evil, and we just can’t take it anymore. Then we cry out to God in our darkness, because we have nobody else to cry out to.
Jesus knows our darkness, because He shared it. He, too, knows what it is like to pray and get no answer, to feel the absence of God just as strongly as we’ve ever felt His presence. He knows it as we know it—by experiencing it. And He gave words to it, the words of Psalm 22.
This comforts me, because if Jesus could say those things, it cannot be wrong for me to say them, too. If He can have those feelings, I can have them. And even when I’m in the darkest time of my life, I know that God Himself—God incarnate as a human being, has been here before me. He is with me now, even when I cannot see or sense Him. And He will not let me fall.
WE PRAY: In my darkness, Lord, speak for me and stay with me. Amen.
Reflection Questions:
- Why do you think Jesus says, “My God” here, and not his usual “Father”?
- Read Psalm 22. What in it reminds you of Jesus?
- In your darkest times, who was there for you?
Today’s Readings: Deuteronomy 17-19; Luke 5:17-39
Lenten Devotions were written by Dr. Kari Vo.
