The Cry of Desolation– Simply Put

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt 27:46)

If you read Matthew’s gospel account chronologically and get to this verse, I bet you’ll pause. Never has Jesus talked like this. He was always in control. Always wowed with His words. In Matt 7: 28-29, everyone was amazed because “He taught as one who has authority”. But here, He sounds like someone going through a lot, someone in excruciating pain, and He was both. He had not had a break since the previous night, and it’s 3 pm in the afternoon! 

I have always been fascinated with these utterly shocking words and wanted so badly to understand them growing up. Some have argued that Jesus was merely quoting Ps 22. It’s a quotation, they say, nothing more. Yes, it’s a quotation, but why is He quoting it? Why not quote Ps 121:1? A man in pain can quote Ps 121:1, and it would be appropriate, so why not that? Well, one thing we now know about Jesus, if you’ve read Matthew’s account chronologically, is that He always had the right words to say at the exact right time. I don’t doubt that these are the only appropriate words to use at this time. My burning question is why? And how am I to understand this?

Let me start by saying that the passion narrative began with Jesus’ passionate prayer from deep grief in Gethsemane (Matt 26:38-39). It’s important not to skip how deeply grieved He was the night before because of what lay ahead. Now, He is in that dreadful hour He prayed three times to be taken away. He is drinking the dreadful cup of wrath meant for you and me. One which, if we held for a second, not to talk of drinking, we would have to do it away from the presence of God with tears, sorrow, and in darkness. Any suggestion that this is just a recitation misses at least these important contexts.

The words are indeed from Psalm 22, but what I don’t agree with is that it is a mere quotation, without the experience of the abandonment that the Psalm talks about.

I believe this cry of abandonment was precisely because He was now drinking the bitter cup He was praying would pass over Him in the garden. Remember that Luke goes as far as to record for us that the thought of the cup, just the thought (the feeling of this exact moment), caused Him to sweat blood! What do you think would happen when He finally drinks it? A cry of desolation, of course! I believe Jesus clearly feels abandoned and, as a righteous man, uses the words of scripture to express His feelings (which is not a bad thing). 

But I don’t want you to go thinking– oh, Jesus was in pain and cried! This is not a cry of pain alone; the psalm He quotes is a prayer, and this too is a prayer, in anguish, yes, but a prayer to God nonetheless, which reveals for a moment something of the mental and spiritual torment of the “cup” He had accepted in Gethsemane for you and for me. He was expressing a very human emotion, an emotion that He experienced by virtue of His human nature and living as a man.

But it wasn’t just a “feeling” of being abandoned; Jesus was indeed abandoned. Yes, abandoned, actually! But allow me to clarify what I mean. In His eternal state as God, that relationship cannot be broken. But in His post-incarnate state as man, in terms of this human condition, it is possible for Him to be abandoned by His Father. If He is indeed (and not metaphorically) drinking God’s wrath thereby undoing the estrangement our sin has brought upon us, then He must Himself take on (not merely recite) that estrangement, that abandonment. For us to be restored into fellowship with God, Jesus had to be abandoned.

This does not mean He is alienated from His Father as God, but here lies the mystery– that the Son is abandoned as man, in His humanity, that He took upon Himself to accomplish our salvation (Matt. 1:21; 20:28; 26:28). That in His Humanity, He bore the divine retribution and punishment for our sin, as the Father’s cup of wrath is poured out on him in divine judgment. Not only does Jesus bear the load of humanity’s sin, but He becomes sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). He became cursed by God for us, “for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” (Gal. 3:13). Hendriksen says this beautifully well: “as our Substitute, [Jesus] suffered most intense agony, indescribable woe, terrible isolation or forsakenness. Hell came to Calvary that day, and the Savior descended into it and bore its horrors in our stead.”

Jesus indeed felt and was forsaken by His Father.

I do not doubt that His heart took courage from the words of scripture. Righteous men take courage in times of distress from scriptures’ words. Psalm 22 is not only a psalm of lament but also a Psalm of trust in its original context. We must note that, though abandoned, Jesus still cries, “My God, My God.” He still addresses and trusts God. Jesus’ trust in the Father does not lessen the reality of present abandonment. Trusting God and being abandoned are not mutually exclusive– not in David’s experience (Ps 22) and not in Jesus’ experience. He had become the sin offering, and at that dark moment, God must turn away from (abandon) sin. In this cry of desolation, please see the horror of our sin and the cost of our salvation revealed! See what my sin and yours did to Him!

Friends, we are the reason for the cry of desolation. But the cry, after all theological arguments have been said and done, points to something more profound– the supreme sacrifice for our sin has been offered, though at the cost of His pain to the point of abandonment. And now the way to the presence of God is free and ready.

The most pressing question now is: Have you entered God’s presence and Kingdom through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

His robes for mine, God's justice is appeased
Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father's pleased
Christ drank God's wrath on sin, then cried, "'Tis done!"
Sin's wage is paid, propitiation won

Chorus: I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God
Bought by such love, my life is not my own
My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone

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