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Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie recently delivered a heartfelt Easter message, reflecting on the profound suffering of Jesus Christ, as she grapples with the ongoing disappearance of her mother, Nancy Guthrie.
“Good morning, everyone. Happy Easter,” Guthrie greeted attendees at Good Shepherd New York’s virtual Easter service on April 5, as reported by Variety. “Easter is indeed a joyful occasion filled with flowers, pastels, baby bunnies, sunshine, happiness, and hope. It’s about rebirth, second chances, new beginnings, and fresh starts. For those of us who believe, it’s the most significant day of the year, even more so than Christ’s birth or death. His resurrection, his transition to eternal life, is crucial to our faith. Today, we celebrate the promise of a life that triumphs over death.”
She added, “However, as I stand here today, I must confess that at times, that promise can feel distant, especially when life seems more challenging than death itself. Many of us will face moments of profound disappointment with God, feeling utterly forsaken. Those times will inevitably come.”
Since her mother, the Guthrie family matriarch, went missing on January 31, Savannah Guthrie has spoken about enduring her own “season of trial,” drawing parallels to the trials faced by Jesus Christ.
Savannah shared how her faith has been a source of strength during the ongoing search for her mother, Nancy. “My faith remains strong and unwavering,” the 54-year-old anchor revealed during a conversation with Hoda Kotb on the March 26 episode of the Today show. “But early on, I felt—and I heard…”
“Jesus, in his short life, experienced every single emotion that we humans can feel,” she continued, before she openly “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.”
Nancy and Savannah Guthrie Courtesy of NBC News
“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,” Guthrie added. “Where did his soul and his spirit go in those days in between? And what was he thinking? Did he think his time in the grave would be a day or two, or 1000 years in the grave? Does his agony seem indefinite to him? That torment of uncertainty, the way indefinite pain can feel eternal. Perhaps he did know this feeling after all.”
Guthrie, who is scheduled to return to the Today show on Monday, April 6, then openly questioned if her pondering was “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,” she added. “It is the darkness that makes this morning’s light so magnificent, so blindly beautiful. It is all the brighter because it is so desperately needed.”
Shortly after Savannah’s mother was reported missing, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos announced that authorities believe the 84-year-old was kidnapped from her home. Despite multiple so-called ransom letters, home security footage featuring a possible intruder and potential clues left at the scene of Nancy’s Arizona home, no suspects have been identified in the ongoing case.
Savannah Guthrie will share more insight into the disappearance of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, in a new interview more than 50 days after the 84-year-old went missing. During the Wednesday, March 25, episode of the Today show, host Craig Melvin introduced a clip from Savannah’s upcoming sit-down with Hoda Kotb, marking her first interview about […]
Savannah and her siblings — Camron Guthrie, 61, and Annie Guthrie, 56 — have been outspoken since their mother’s apparent kidnapping, pleading for her return via multiple social media posts. Their most recent statement came on March 21.
“We are deeply grateful for the outpouring from neighbors, friends and the people of Tucson. We are all family now,” the family shared in a news special, which aired via Tucson’s local KVOA-TV News channel. “We continue to believe it’s Tucsonians, and the greater Southern Arizona community, that hold the key to finding resolution in this case. Someone knows something.”