Why Did God Forsake Jesus

Why Did God Forsake Jesus?

These remarks, delivered by Jesus while He hung on the cross at around the ninth hour, are reported in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, respectively. It is the purpose of this essay to investigate why God the Father would abandon His Son, Jesus Christ, as He suffered on the Cross for our sins at Calvary. “Thou hast abandoned Me, declares the LORD, and thou hast gone backward; therefore will I stretch forth My hand against thee and kill thee; I am tired with repenting,” Christ said on the cross as I read this scripture from Jeremiah.

My thoughts were immediately drawn to the phrase “Thou hast deserted Me,” which reminded me of Christ’s words on the Cross (Matthew 27:46; Mark.

I came to the realization that this text, as well as others like it, contained the solution to Christ’s query.

The Answer to Christ’s Question

The history of Israel and Judah has been characterized by continuous backsliding and transgressions. Occasionally, when God condemned His people, there were brief moments of revival during which the people repented of their wrongdoing and pleaded with God for forgiveness. Jeremaic times, on the other hand, were terrible. Apostasy and continuous sin had already brought about the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel, according to the Word of God. God was now bringing judgment on the southern kingdom of Judah.

  • God punished Manasseh for his wickedness, and the people turned away from their God as a result of his actions.
  • The people had turned their backs on the Almighty and His laws.
  • However, by the time Jeremiah attempted to intervene (Jeremiah 14:19-22), it was too late.
  • God’s patience has come to an end.
  • God responded to Jeremiah’s prayer by telling him that even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Him and intercede for these people (as they had done during their lifetimes), God would not spare them from their fate.
  • Mercy had passed its expiration date.
  • God had grown tired of deferring judgment and offering mercy to a people that continually reverting back to their old ways of living.
  • He would now abandon them to the wrath of God that they had earned (Jeremiah 15:6).

How This Applies to Jesus

Perhaps you’re wondering what this tale about Jeremiah and the wrath of Judah has to do with God abandoning Jesus and his followers. This narrative illustrates the ramifications of sin that goes uncorrected. God’s patience and kindness have a limit, as does his power. Those who continue to reject God will find themselves rejected by God. “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned each to his own way, and the LORD has placed on Him the iniquity of us all,” Isaiah 53:6 states. Everyone ends up at the wrong place.

  1. As a result, we all deserve to be condemned in the same way as the country of Judah.
  2. He was atoning for the sins of all people who had gone astray and left God in the past, as well as for the sins of all those who would do the same in the future.
  3. Those who continue to reject God are referred to as “atheists.” In order to bear the entire penalties of our sin, Jesus had to be abandoned by His heavenly Father, as the punishment for rejecting God involves being abandoned by God.
  4. Because of this, individuals who put their faith in Christ may be spared the punishment of being abandoned by God.

Have you placed your faith in Jesus to save you from your sin? Or do you intend to continue to turn your back on Him despite this? If you find this article to be useful, please SHARE it. If you like this piece, you may be interested in the following:

  • Jesus Christ’s Temptation on the Cross
  • His Triumph on the Cross
  • What happened to Jesus after He died? He has risen from the dead.

Why did Jesus say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

QuestionAnswer Jesus shouted out in a loud voice at the ninth hour, “Eli Eli lama sabachthani?” (Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? to express the sentiment “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” (Matthew 27:46, King James Version) This scream is a fulfillment of Song 22:1, and it is only one of many similarities that can be seen between the events of the crucifixion and the words of that psalm. It is impossible to see how God could have “forsaken” Jesus in any meaningful way. It is unquestionable that God approved of His creation.

  1. He had done nothing to disqualify himself from God’s favor.
  2. God could not possibly have abandoned Him in any of these ways.
  3. Rather, he was pierced for our trespasses, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was placed on him, and it was through his wounds that we were healed” (Isaiah 53:4–5, emphasis added).
  4. He was offered as a sin sacrifice, and He died in our place, on our behalf, in so that we may be brought closer to God.
  5. The anguish He underwent was owing to our sins, and it is through His suffering that we might be spared from an eternity of punishment.
  6. Having taken upon Himself the sins of all the world, God’s Son experienced the desolation of being unaware that He was in the presence of His Father for a time.
  7. (2 Corinthians 5:21).
  8. It’s possible that Jesus’ purpose in quoting Psalm 22:1 was to direct His listeners to that particular psalm.
  9. The people were being taught by Jesus even while He was suffering the pain of the crucifixion, demonstrating yet again that He was the Messiah and that He had fulfilled the Scriptures.

Questions regarding Jesus Christ (return to top of page) The reason why Jesus cried out to his Father, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”

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Did God Forsake Jesus on the Cross?

On the Interview Program, theologians shared their thoughts. You’ve Been Included In The Alphabetical List God is both above and below, according to the doctrine of the Trinity; God is engaged. Someone who dies on the cross must be as totally God as the Father in heaven for this to be possible. “God, my Father, why have you deserted me?” Jesus asks in response. As a result of this, not only must Jesus use the language of Psalm 22, the human sorrow of forsakenness that he puts on his own lips, but God himself must have adopted the form of a humanity distant from God, allowing atonement to begin in Bethlehem.

  • Torrance, one must return to the truth that the one who was born from the womb of Mary was born to take the human alienation, to accept the sentence of death, and that, in that sense, Jesus as the incarnate Son of God is a dead man walking.
  • No.
  • .
  • We do this in the shape of a narrative.
  • Their story includes their suffering, their losses, their anguish, and the questions they’re asking themselves, such as, “Where is God in my life?” That’s the story they’re telling.
  • Another narrative is found in the Old Testament, in which God declares, “I hear their cry.” They were heard in Egypt, according to me.
  • I intend to redeem them and bring them out, and they will serve as a symbol of my love for and willingness to include all of the families of the world.

The task of pastoral ministry is to bridge the gap between these two narratives.

In other words, God has taken on the nature of a sinner, which simply means that even if he has not committed any personal sin, God still has a death nature, and he is going to die of something, as a result of original sin.

That is a portion of the story of the Trinity at work, if you will, in a sense.

Ray S.

God’s kindness turns out to be far greater than we could have imagined, for God, rather than just conquering evil with a display of physical might, steps into the midst of the conflict and becomes a participant.

This is not a God who stands outside from us, outside the cosmos, manipulating our lives like a puppet on a string.

We are dealing with a God who is completely committed to us, who enters into the middle of our brokenness in order to rescue us.

In those moments when everything seems to be in darkness and we feel abandoned, we may take comfort in the fact that our brother Jesus, our glorious high priest, has said this on our behalf on the cross.

In the Incarnation, Jesus was born of Mary and received in that, because he was descended from Adam’s race, which was the race that had fallen, the gift of salvation.

As a result, he appropriated that which we truly are, which was a genuine humanity.

Many times, however, we imagine Jesus to be a kind of superman, who was exempt from the same mortal frailty as the rest of us, who didn’t really understand what it was like to live in this broken world, among people who believe God has abandoned them, or who didn’t understand the difficulty of temptation.

He had a serious chance of falling into sin.

As a lost and discarded human being who was clothed in perfect holiness and sinlessness, He understood what it was like to be among us.

However, the good news of the Incarnation is that our Father loved us so much that he sent his Son all the way into the world, all the way into our humanity, where we are, sent to find us in our lost and forsaken condition and to join himself to us in the midst of our brokenness, our lostness, and to heal us from the inside out.

  1. When the Son of God came to us, as the Torrances like to say, he penetrated into our state of being lost and deserted, or, as Douglas Sparrow puts it, he followed us all the way to the point of our sinfulness.
  2. In contrast to karma, which would ensure that everything is dealt out according to what we deserve, which would be bad news, the God of Jesus Christ, Jesus himself, is primarily concerned with grace.
  3. Gerrit Scott Dawson is an American author and poet.
  4. That’s what we hear from the crucifixion, when Jesus prays to God in those mysterious words, “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” It’s a petition to God that we hear from the cross.
  5. He is taking our sadness and presenting it to the Father, and in doing so, mending it.
  6. We are not alone in our sense of isolation.
  7. Jesus is lonely in our midst.
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So, despite the fact that this appears to be abstract discussion of vicarious humanity, it is in fact extremely intimate discussion.

We’ve formed a pact with him.

“My God, my God, why have you left me?” This is the plea that Jesus screams out on the crucifixion, quoting from Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” “Father, I surrender my spirit into your hands,” he says in his prayer.

Some academics speculate that Jesus may have recited the whole of Psalm 22 during his ministry.

When Jesus died on the cross, God was there in Jesus, working to bring us back together.

He didn’t respond to my question.

It is correct to say that he did not abandon his Son.

In the event that he had received the response immediately, God would have said, “I haven’t abandoned you.” “How did you find out?” you inquire.

When Jesus cried out, it was from Psalm 22 that he received his inspiration.

It’s a description of a cross.

It is not mentioned in the Gospels, although it is mentioned in the Psalms.

‘He has not despised nor abhorred the pain of the afflicted, nor has he concealed his face from him,’ says the author of verse 24.

These Psalms were well-known among all Jews.

When Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you left me?” he was referring to his God.

The fact that he raised the question “why did God desert him” 20 centuries later indicates that he must have believed that God had done so.

He did not abandon him, as others have said.

The Father never turned his back on the Son.

Is God becoming fragmented?

Those three persons have always been in that perichoresis, in that circle of love: father, son, and spirit.

I’m here to help you.” “I’m right there with you.” He’ll never leave us or abandon us.

To quote the theologian T.F.

It seems unlikely that the Word would have arrived all the way to us inside our human history unless he had genuinely become our totally human character.

The reason why Jesus was baptized, however, was not because of his sin, but because he took on our sin for us, and so his baptism marked the beginning of his living a human life of perfect obedience, which culminated on the cross, when he said, “Not my will, but thine be done,” and then experienced God’s abandonment.

  1. Christ, on the cross, takes our place and weeps in our place, just as we would.
  2. Psalm 22 is a psalm of praise.
  3. This is something Christ does, this is something Old Testament saints do.
  4. It’s important to remember that when Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he was probably well aware of how the Psalm ended, and that the Psalm ends with deliverance.
  5. Christ-followers in the early church considered it highly appropriate to interpret the second part of Psalm 118 as referring to Christ and the resurrection, as well as Christ as the one who sings praises to God in front of the congregation.
  6. Christ isn’t just putting on a show for his followers.
  7. He is truly suffering as a result of our humanity, and he is truly lamenting on our behalf.

It’s the part that’s encouraging.

Through the entire trip on Calvary, there is something that has been growing up within me.

The problem isn’t just a one-time occurrence that he quickly forgets about.

No.

“My God, why have you abandoned me?” he cries out in despair.

He bore the disgrace of the crucifixion in order to fulfill the pleasure that had been set before him, as it says in Hebrews.

What is the location of this God of the cross?

What happened to this God?

However, the church never assists them in articulating it.

There are times in our lives when we feel completely abandoned by God and that we are unable to turn back the clock.

God, I believe, becomes more concretely present in those moments.

So let’s go on a quest for God together.” and this is the paradox — “let us look for God in the entire experience of God-forsakenness, of God not being here,” which is this Christological aspect that opens up, as Moltmann eloquently illustrates, to the Trinity — that God knows death, that God understands what it’s like to be human.

  • When one is prepared to say, “God is not here,” but not as a nihilistic declaration, but rather as a confession of faith, there is something profoundly Trinitarian about it.
  • Andrew Root It is the teaching of the Incarnation that is at its core: Christ is aware of our shortcomings, takes our inquiries and uncertainties to himself (“My God, my God, why have you left me?”), and suffers alongside us in our pain.
  • We do not float above the surface of the planet, free of the worries of this world.
  • He knows even our sense of god-forsakenness at times, “My God, my God, why hast thou deserted me?” Alan Torrance Perhaps the most severe forms of judgment we see in the gospel come from the lips of Jesus, who is also the most merciful of all.
  • When we look at the cross, we may be tempted to downplay our own faults.
  • “You look at the cross, you look at the fact that sin was so serious that it required everything that God himself had to remove our sin and deliver us,” I tell people.
  • Sin is a very serious thing, but thank God that we have been rescued from its clutches.

We give thanks to God for the complete cleansing and deliverance that has occurred.

He loves us, and he is love in and of himself – it’s in his very nature to be loving.

He has taken our god-forsakenness and undone it, as well as removed the obstacles that stood between us and him and brought us all together in himself.

He has matured into a man in Christ.

He’s now a part of us, as one of us.

Walker is a writer who lives in the United States.

Oh, and by the way, you may put your faith in me.” We’re going, “Is there a disconnect here somewhere?

God was reconciling the world to himself through the person of Jesus Christ.

The fact that he says “into your hands I commit my spirit” shows that he doesn’t believe it’s real indicates this.

There is no such thing as abandonment in this case.

That represents such a ray of hope for some of us.

We’ve developed a theology in which you can’t put your faith in God because he’s turned his back on you and can’t look at sin.

Every father would abandon his son in the same way.

I’m a husband and a father.

William Paul Young is an American author and poet.

You might also want to check out Thomas H. McCall’s Forsaken: The Trinity and the Cross, and Why It Matters, which is available on Amazon (InterVarsity Press, 2012).

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When Jesus said somewhere that God had abandoned Him, what did He mean by that? This has always perplexed me, since if Jesus was indeed God’s Son, how could God forsake Him? This is something I’ve thought about a lot. Specifically, you’re talking to some of Jesus’ final recorded remarks, which were delivered while He was dying on the cross. According to the Bible, He “cried out in a loud voice. ‘My God, my God, why have you left me?'” (Matthew 15:34) What exactly did He intend by that? Do you think he was instantly overcome with self-doubt, wondering if he had misinterpreted what God had entrusted to him?

  • It was after all (according to some) that the multitude had turned against Him, and it appeared as though His ministry had come to an abrupt end.
  • In support of this position, they point out that when Jesus died on the cross, all of our sins were transferred to Him, without exception.
  • However, when He died, all of our sins were heaped on Him, and He was so designated as the ultimate and last sacrifice for our sins.
  • It was his weeping that brought this truth to light; he had to bear the separation from God that you and I deserved.
  • Because Christ died for us, we need not dread death or Hell or judgment!

God didn’t abandon Jesus, and He won’t abandon you. Make Him part of your life today.

“My God, my God, why have you left me?” was Jesus’ cries out. Many people have been perplexed by (Mark 15:34). Jesus is really reciting the first word of Psalm 22 and using it to illustrate His intense pain on the cross, which is a very powerful statement. The punishment for our sin is being carried out by him in our place. In the case of sin, death is the sentence (Romans 6:23). Death has two distinct dimensions: the physical and the spiritual. The separation of the spirit from the body is referred to as physical death.

  1. Since Jesus was dying on the cross in our place as our substitution, He was going through the pain of being separated from His Father.
  2. There is an incomprehensible mystery at play here.
  3. He could not suffer and die in the context of His divinity, but He could go through the anguish of separation from the Father and actually die physically in the context of His humanity, if He chose to do so.
  4. “We have all gone astray like sheep.
  5. It is forgiveness that we are in deepest need of, and Christ came to make that forgiveness possible.
  6. A person’s faith is more than just a notion in their head or even a conviction in their heart.

Allow God’s Word, the Bible, to serve as the foundation for your knowledge of God and His love for you. More importantly, open your heart to Christ and make a commitment to Him in your life. It is the single most essential move you will ever take in your whole life.

‘My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?’ Didn’t Jesus Already Know?

Transcript of the audio Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast. “Pastor John, I love the Lord sincerely and my faith continues to develop, but I’ve always struggled with Matthew 27:45–46,” says listener Bridgette in response to a podcast episode. Why would Jesus cry out to the Father, ‘Why have you deserted me?’ when he was well aware of the response? It was precisely for this reason that Jesus came – to be abandoned on our behalf! Could you perhaps shed some light on this for me so that this stumbling block in my faith might be removed?”

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Psalm 22

“My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” says the narrator. When Jesus is hanging on the cross near death, those horrific words appear in two different Gospels — Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 — and they are both recorded in the Bible. “Jesus appears to have been aware that the entirety of Psalm 22 was, in some manner, about him.” It states, “At around the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice,” which is incredible. How could he get up the strength to say it in such a loud voice? — “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” says the narrator.

  1. Remember that these are the very opening lines of Psalm 22, which is a very significant point to keep in mind when reading this passage.
  2. In the tale of his death, at least three additional sections of this psalm are referenced as well.
  3. As the psalmist puts it: “Why are you so far away from helping me, from the sound of my groaning?” O my God, I call out during the day, but you do not respond, and I cry out throughout the night, but I do not find rest.
  4. “All who see me ridicule me; they make their mouths at me; they wag their heads,” says the author in verse 7 — and those are the precise words.
  5. “They have wounded my hands and feet,” the psalmist writes in verse 16 of his poem.
  6. Now, why did he say it in the first place?
  7. What was he thinking when he said it?

Truly Abandoned

First and foremost, this was a genuine forsakenness. That is the reason. Using the phrase “My God, my God, why have you left me?” implies that he truly did. He did it on purpose. He is the one who bears our sin. He was subjected to our disapproval. In order to execute the judgment, God the Father was to pour out his anger on us; however, instead of doing so, he chooses to pour it out on himself. Obviously, this entails a certain amount of desertion. That is what it means to be filled with wrath.

We have no way of knowing what this might imply for the relationship between the Father and the Son.

The cry of the doomed is that they have been abandoned by God, and he was cursed for our sakes. As a result, he used these phrases because there was a genuine sense of abandonment. That is the first and most important reason.

Crying Out

Second, it appears to me that the why is not a query in need of a solution, but rather a means of communicating the horrors of abandonment. There are a few of grounds for my belief in this. “The judgment was for God the Father to pour out his anger on us, but instead of pouring it out on us, he pours it out on his Son,” the author writes. Jesus was well aware of what he was about to accomplish, what would happen to him, and why he was undertaking the task. This was something his Father had asked him to do.

  • And he had consented to attend despite the fact that he was well aware of what would take place.
  • (See also John 18:4).
  • As a result, he was aware.
  • He was well-versed in every subject.
  • It was an agonizing time for everyone involved.
  • They are a verbatim quote from the source material.
  • Your messianic calling is either present in you as the very essence of who you are, or it is not.

That appears to be at the heart of what is currently taking place.

It goes like this:I will tell my brothers about your name, and I will praise you in the middle of the congregation: “You who fear the Lord, praise him!” All you descendants of Jacob, exalt him and be in awe of him, as all you offspring of Israel should do!

To put it another way, this psalm concludes on a triumphant tone.

He had ingrained in his psyche both the horrors of the time of desertion and the desire for the joy that had been laid before him, according to his own words.

“He’s going to take me back.” As a result, he understands that this is not a last or ultimate scream on some level.

Because of the pleasure that was set before him, Jesus bore the cross, and the question “Why?” is not a call for a theological response. It is a genuine scream of spiritual despair, spoken in terms that came naturally to him since his entire life had been authored by God.

According to Plan

And, I believe, the final reason we should mention is that this psalm was his entire existence. The fact that these lines from this psalm were cried out automatically in anguish reveals that, as horrific as it is, everything was proceeding just as planned. According to the author, “crying out reflexively in anguish with these lines of this Psalm demonstrates that, as horrific as it is, everything was working just as planned.” Every aspect of it was a fulfillment of Scripture — even the most horrific aspects of it were fulfillments of Scripture.

As a result, he said the following:

  1. There was a genuine sense of abandonment for our sake
  2. He was expressing despair rather than seeking an explanation
  3. He was miraculously fulfilling Scripture in the midst of the misery of it all and bearing testimony to the completion of the plan of redemption

Why Have You Forsaken Me?

In a loud voice, Jesus shouted out, “Eloi, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (What is the ninth hour in Hebrew) at the ninth hour. (Matthew 15:34) In the account of Jesus’ crucifixion up to this point, the emphasis has been on the physical sufferings of Jesus: the flogging, the crown of thorns, and his immolation on the cross. But this is about to change. Six hours have already elapsed since the nails were hammered home. It has been months since the people have jeered, and now comes this agonized cry from the depths of the Savior’s soul, followed by a lengthy period of stillness and silence.

Especially at his lowest point, his mind naturally breaths the Psalter, and from it he draws the words that represent his suffering, which is no longer confined to his physical body but has now spread to the depths of his soul.

But are we brave enough to seek further clarification on such holy ground?

Against All Hope

There are, without a doubt, some very obvious drawbacks. For example, the forsakenness cannot imply that the everlasting fellowship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit has been severed, as some have suggested. God couldn’t possibly stop being triune. It could not be taken to imply that the Father had lost his affection for the Son, especially in this instance and at this time, when the Son was presenting the greatest act of filial piety that the Father had ever received. “Jesus did not only feel abandoned; he felt abandoned by the entire world.” And it wasn’t only his disciples that deserted him; it was the Almighty himself.” It could not, under any circumstances, imply that the Holy Spirit had stopped to minister to the Son.

Finally, the words do not come off as a scream of desperation.

“MyGod,” even in the midst of the darkness, and while there was no trace of him, and though the suffering veiled the promises, there remained the conviction that God was with him somewhere in the depths of his spirit.

What was true of Abraham was even more true of Jesus: despite all evidence to the contrary, he remained hopeful (Romans 4:18).

Truly Forsaken

Nonetheless, even with all of these qualifications, this was a blatant betrayal. Jesus did not only feel forsaken; he felt abandoned. In fact, he was abandoned not just by his disciples, but also by God himself. After all, it was the Father who handed him up to Judas, then to the Jews, then to Pilate, and eventually to the cross. And now, after he had cried out, God had shut his ears to him. The jeers of the throng had not subsided, the taunts of the devils had not eased, and the agony had not subsided.

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This time, there was no message from heaven to tell him that he was God’s Son, and that he was much loved by God.

No angel appeared to him to give him strength.

Bearing the Curse

Despite all of these caveats, this was a blatant betrayal of trust. In addition to feeling abandoned, Jesus also felt betrayed. It wasn’t just his followers who deserted him; it was also God who abandoned him. After all, it was the Father who handed him up to Judas, then to the Jews, then to Pilate, and eventually to the cross itself. As a result, God turned his back on him as he cried out. Despite the boos and jeers from the crowd, the devils continued to torment, and the anguish did not subside.

This time, there was no message from heaven to tell him that he was God’s Son, and that he was much loved by the Almighty.

He did not receive any assistance from an angel.

His Anguish of Soul

Despite all of these caveats, this was a blatant betrayal. Jesus did not simply feel abandoned. He had been abandoned, not only by his disciples, but also by God himself. It was the Father who had handed him up to Judas, to the Jews, to Pilate, and eventually to the cross. And now that he had cried out, God had shut his ears to him. The jeers of the throng had not subsided, the taunts of the devils had not subsided, and the agony had not subsided. Instead, every event spoke of God’s wrath, and there was no one to speak out against it.

No dove descended to assure him of the presence and mission of the Holy Spirit.

No redeemed sinner bowed his head in gratitude to him.

The Cup Is Drained

Jesus’s intellect is reaching the boundaries of its ability to endure at this point. We, who are seated in the gallery of history, feel confident in the outcome. He is not, despite the fact that he is enduring the wrath of hell in human nature. He is standing where no one has ever stood before or since, enduring all that sin merited at one tiny point in space and in one little moment of time: the curse with unwavering focus, all in one tiny point in space and in one tiny moment of time. “The Cup has been empty, and the curse has been extinguished, and the Father now gladly extends his hands to the spirit of his Beloved Son,” says the Father.

The sacrifice has been completed, the curtain has been removed, and the path into the Most Holy Place has been opened once and for all; and now the delight of Jesus is expressed in the lyrics of another song, Psalm 31:5.

We have no way of knowing what happened in the time between the two screams. Nothing further is known about this event other than that the Cup has been drained and the curse has been extinguished, and that the Father is now joyously holding out his hands to the spirit of his Beloved Son.

Did God forsake Jesus on the cross? ~ The Bible Speaks to You

Polly Castor’s sculpture “Cruciform1” (pastel) And at about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, crying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? (Lord, have mercy on me). to express the sentiment “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” Matthew 27:46KJVA (KJVA = King James Version) A college buddy of mine was always certain around Easter time that when Jesus called out “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” it was because God had turned His back on him, which he believed to be true. Jesus had taken on the sin of the entire world.

  • It made perfect sense to him, but I couldn’t see how I could ever accept that explanation.
  • “I and my Father are one,” Jesus had proclaimed previously in his career, referring to his relationship with God.
  • (Matthew 10:30) Is it possible that the bond between the Father and the Son was broken on the cross?
  • The link that exists between God and Christ is eternal and cannot be broken, even for a little while.
  • Quite the reverse, in fact.
  • Jesus could not have been triumphant over the crucifixion, death, and the grave if God had deserted him.
  • Psalm 22 was not known by that name back then.
  • He wished for those who were paying attention to go and read that passage of the Bible.
  • Because Psalm 22 contains a prophetic of Christ’s crucifixion, which is depicted dramatically at times, as well as his eventual victory.
  • However, Jesus was referring to the fact that he was physically fulfilling predictions that people were not even aware were prophecies.

When was the last time you read Psalm 22?

The following are only a few of the passages that depict the crucifixion scenario in great detail, along with its fulfillment in the Gospels:

  • Psalm 22:7, 8 (KJV) They shake their heads and shoot out their lips, saying, “He believed in the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, knowing that he delighted in him.” 27:43
  • Matthew 27:43
  • Jesus said in Mark 115:29, “He put his confidence in God
  • Now let God save him if He would have him.” “And others who went by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads.”
  • Psalm 22:18 “.they divide my garments among themselves, and for my apparel they cast lots.”
  • John 19:23, 24 “.they divide my garments among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.” In the aftermath of Jesus’ execution, the soldiers seized his clothing and split them into four parts, one for each soldier. They then took his tunic and divided it into four parts. [However, because the tunic was seamless and woven in one piece from top to bottom, they decided not to tear it but instead to cast lots to determine who would wear it.]

I’ll say it again: While he cried out, “My God, My God, why have you left me?” he did not believe he was being abandoned by his heavenly Father. He was addressing the multitudes, specifically the Pharisees, according to my understanding. “Go read Psalm 22,” he was instructing. “You will witness that prophesy is being fulfilled right in front of your eyes,” says the prophet. Rather than being defeated, Jesus was victorious in this encounter with the crowd. “I have vanquished the world,” he had already said to his followers only a few hours ago.

As opposed to God abandoning people who were suffering, notably Jesus, verse 24 states, “For he has not despised or abhorred the anguish of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but he has heard him when he cried out to him.

It is said in the Scriptures that God did not conceal His face from Jesus’ gaze.

How does this apply to you and me?

When I consider that Psalm 22 is a powerful witness to the truth that God did not leave Jesus when he was on the cross, it provides me with tremendous consolation. This is a guarantee from God that he would not desert us when we are going through a difficult period. When life throws us a curveball after another, it may appear and feel as if God is a million miles away, but God is always right there with us. It was critical that Jesus did not attempt to flee from the crucifixion. He might have easily gotten away the night before he was apprehended.

  1. He walked directly to the location where he knew the troops would be waiting to apprehend him.
  2. No matter how excruciating it was, he knew he had to complete his duty.
  3. I’ve tried to stay away from anything that could be in conflict to what God has called me to accomplish.
  4. So, this Easter, my hope is that I would tackle my issues head on rather than avoiding or ignoring them.
  5. He was well aware that the predictions had to be fulfilled.
  6. You and I may both be confident in God’s ability to free us from the world’s hate of the truth as well.
  7. I hope you have a peaceful and contemplative Easter holiday.
  8. Take time to reflect on the lessons of the cross.
  9. Happy Easter, and best wishes for the season.

Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken?

God’s faithfulness to Jesus while he was on the cross gives me great peace, and Psalm 22 offers powerful witness to this reality to an incredible degree. The promise is that God will not desert us while we are going through a difficult moment. The presence of God may appear and feel far away when we are confronted with a series of seemingly intractable problems, yet God is always there. When it came to the cross, it was critical that Jesus did not flee. On the night before his arrest, he might have easily gotten away.

After all that, he proceeded directly to the location where he knew the troops would be waiting for him.

No matter how unpleasant it was, he knew he had to confront his mission.

The last thing I wanted was to come into conflict with God’s plan for my life.

In order to face my issues, rather than dismiss or escape them, my prayer this Easter is for strength and courage.

He was well aware that the predictions had to be carried through to completion.

The certainty that God will free us from the world’s hate of Truth is something that you and I can share with one another.

Greetings and best wishes for a peaceful and reflective Easter season.

Consider what Jesus has accomplished for the whole human race in his life. The cross has a lot to teach us if we pay attention. Lastly and most importantly, always keep in mind that God will never abandon or turn His back on you. Wishing you all the best this Easter. James

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