“I still believe,” Savannah said in the message, which comes one day before she is set to return to ‘Today’
Credit: Good Shepherd New York/youtube;savannahguthrie/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- Savannah Guthrie got candid about questioning her faith in an emotional Easter message amid her mother Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance
- The journalist said she wondered if Jesus ever experienced the “uniquely cruel injury of not knowing” that she has amid Nancy’s disappearance
- Savannah ended the message — shared a day ahead of her Today return — with a message of hope
Savannah Guthrie reflected on recent moments that have made her question her faith in an emotional Easter message, shared days after the search for her missing mother crossed the two-month mark.
The Today co-anchor, 54, recorded the message for Good Shepherd New York, her Lower Manhattan church, which uploaded an Easter livestream on Sunday, April 5. It is the latest in a handful of appearances the journalist has made since stepping away from Today after her mom Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson, Ariz., home on Feb. 1. It also comes one day before Savannah is set to return to the NBC program.
Savannah began the message by wishing viewers a “Happy Easter,” before acknowledging that while the annual Christian holiday is known for “baby bunnies,” "joy" and “hope,” she has found herself questioning her faith during her recent “season of trial.”
Credit: Don Arnold/WireImage
“We celebrate today the promise of a new life that never ends in death. But standing here today, I have to tell you, there are moments in which that promise seems irretrievably far away. When life itself seems far harder than death,” she said. “These moments of deep disappointment with God, the feeling of utter abandonment. For most of us, there will come a time in our life when these feelings hold sway.”
She went on to explain that her recent trials have led her to question the Christian teaching that Jesus “experienced every single emotion that we humans can feel.”
Recently, the broadcaster said she has “questioned whether Jesus really ever experienced this particular wound that I feel, this grievous and uniquely cruel injury of not knowing, of uncertainty and confusion and answers withheld.”
“In those darkest moments, I have thought bitterly and perhaps irreverently that I have stumbled upon a feeling that Jesus did not know,” Savannah said, explaining that despite Jesus’ suffering, he “knew” what would happen. “And so I thought he never suffered this excruciating not knowing."
Credit: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
But the Today co-anchor said moments of questioning and “wrestling with God” such as this lead to a revelation — one she said she experienced amid “my spirit's utter darkness.”
“Suddenly, I remembered the grave. I remembered three days in the grave,” Savannah said. “No one talks much about that. We focus mostly on Easter. Of course we do. We cut to the happy ending and the joy of Sunday morning. And yes, we do observe the Friday before the agony of crucifixion. We mourn by candlelight that darkest night. But after Jesus died, after he breathed his last, what did he actually know?”
“On the cross, he cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ That is the anguished cry of someone who does not know the answers,” she continued, calling back to her own search for answers amid her mom’s disappearance.
The journalist later ended her Easter message by acknowledging that her statements are “dark,” but said that it is necessary to celebrate the holiday in full.
“Perhaps this is too dark a message to share on Easter morning, but I have long believed that we miss out on fully celebrating resurrection if we do not acknowledge the feelings of loss, pain, and yes, death,” Savannah said in the livestream. “It is the darkness that makes this morning's light so magnificent, so blindingly beautiful. It is all the brighter because it is so desperately needed.”
“So, I close my eyes this morning and I feel the sunshine,” she continued. “I see a bright vision of the day when heaven and earth pass away because they are one on earth as it is in heaven. When we celebrate today, this is what we celebrate. And I celebrate too. I still believe. And so I say with conviction: Happy Easter.”
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Credit: Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
Savannah’s mom Nancy was last seen going into the garage of her home at 9:50 p.m. local time on Jan. 31 and was reported missing by her family at 12:03 p.m. on Feb. 1 after she failed to join friends to watch a virtual church service. Surveillance footage from Nancy’s Nest doorbell camera shows a masked intruder walking up to the front door of her home the night of her abduction.
The Guthrie family is offering a reward of up to $1 million for any information leading to Nancy's recovery, and the FBI's reward of $100,000 also remains active. No suspects have been identified in the case.
Anyone with information about Nancy's disappearance is asked to please contact 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900.
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