“…Eli, Eli, lema sabaktanei?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
How should we think of these excruciating and shocking words, which sound so different from anything Jesus said throughout his ministry?1
- It is now 3pm, and He’s been on the cross for hours. He’s doubtlessly in a lot of pain–every kind of pain imaginable. So, these words must be read from this point of view, and we shouldn’t be quick to dismiss this as an ordinary recitation of a Psalm (Psalm 22).
- The passion narrative began with Jesus’ passionate prayer from deep grief in Gethsemane (Matt 26:38-39). Now, He is in that dreadful hour, experiencing the drinking of the cup He had earlier prayed would pass.2 Any suggestion that this is just a recitation misses at least these two important contexts.
The words are indeed from Psalm 22, but is this a mere quotation, without the experience of the abandonment that the Psalm talks about? I think not! I believe this cry of abandonment had to be about the cup He was praying would pass over Him. Luke even records that the thought of the cup (the feeling of this exact moment) caused Him to sweat blood! Jesus clearly feels abandoned and, as a righteous man, uses the words of scripture to express His feelings. This is not a cry of pain alone, but an anguished prayer to God which reveals for a moment something of the mental and spiritual torment of the “cup” He had accepted in Gethsemane. 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. Now, 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 undoing the estrangement our sin has brought upon us, then He must Himself take on 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 bears 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.”3
Jesus stands alone, forsaken by all, and now He feels and is forsaken even by His Father.4
I do not doubt that His heart took courage from the words of scripture. Psalm 22 is not only a psalm of lament but also a Psalm of trust. 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.5 He has become the sin offering, and at this dark moment, God must turn away from sin.6 In this cry of desolation, the horror of the world’s sin and the cost of our salvation are revealed!7
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.8 Have you entered through Jesus Christ?
- Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. ↩︎
- Donald A. Hagner et al., Matthew 14-28, Volume 33B (Zondervan Academic, 2018), https://www.perlego.com/book/727794/matthew-1428-volume-33b-pdf. ↩︎
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew (Zondervan Academic, 2009), https://www.perlego.com/book/558137/matthew-pdf. ↩︎
- Grant R. Osborne and Clinton E. Arnold, Matthew. ↩︎
- D. A. Carson, Tremper Longman III, and David E. Garland, Matthew. ↩︎
- Grant R. Osborne and Clinton E. Arnold, Matthew. ↩︎
- D. A. Carson, Tremper Longman III, and David E. Garland, Matthew. ↩︎
- Donald A. Hagner et al., Matthew 14-28, Volume 33B. ↩︎
