Complaints and the Cross

There are two sides to every complaint. There is the complainer and the complained-to or complained-about or complained-against. Pastors get to be the latter often, but don't think for a moment think they are never the former. All of us, pastors or not, tend to think that our complaints are reasonable, but the complaints of those who complain to us or about us or against us are not. Isaiah 53:10a in the NASB says this:  

"But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief..."

"The LORD" is the Father and "Him" is Jesus Christ, His Son. Did Jesus complain? No. Did He suffer? Yes. Did He ask to be spared the suffering? Yes. Really, didn't He complain? I can't find it. "I thirst" doesn't count. He accepted and submitted Himself willingly to His destiny, including His death, not only as God's will, but as God's pleasure. He died to please His Father BEFORE He died to save us. He obeyed. It seems that complaining - what God's people did in the desert so often, for instance - and obeying are different. They can be opposed.

If I complain to, about, or against God, I may not be seeing Him or approaching Him as God. (This may not be true in all cases, but consider it.) I may see Him instead as my Heavenly Customer Service Manager. At worst, I may see Him as my servant. Here's an odd problem. If I have a complaint, this means something is wrong. When something is wrong, I need God to be God for me. If I put my complaint between myself and God, it may block me from getting to God at all. But I'm a Christian. This means I can bring my complaints to the Cross. Jesus connects me to God through His Cross. This is where I bring my sin, my bitterness, my anger, my complaints. This is where I bring myself, with His Holy Spirit's help.

In the garden after their sin God asked Adam, "Where are you?" This is the question of complaint and disappointment. We ask it of God when we are disappointed with Him. Our perspective is skewed by our pain. He's right there and we are circumstantially blind to it. God asks it of us when we truly are lost. His perspective is our way out of the pain and its cause. It is manifest in the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross.