Why Did Jesus Ask God Why Have You Forsaken Me?

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

Answer to the question 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.It is unquestionably true that Jesus was innocent.

He had done nothing to disqualify himself from God’s favor.God continued to love Him despite the fact that He was God’s own Son, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and obedient.God could not possibly have abandoned Him in any of these ways.″Surely he took up our sorrow and endured our suffering, yet we thought him to be punished by God, tormented by God, and afflicted by us,″ the prophet Isaiah writes of the Messiah.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).

We were saved from the curse of the law because Jesus took on the nature of a curse and became one for us (Galatians 3:13).
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.
This, without a doubt, contributed to the intensity of His agony, which is one of the reasons Jesus cried out, ″My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?″ That tragic hour was marked by the expression of God’s hate for sin, in an incomprehensible manner, which Jesus witnessed and experienced.
The anguish He underwent was deserved by us, and it is through that suffering that we might be redeemed from eternal death and separation from God.

Our Lord revealed His thoughts of abandonment during those harrowing moments when bad men were free to do anything they wished to Jesus.
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.
During this period, ″God caused Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we may become the righteousness of God″ (Hebrews 2:15).
(2 Corinthians 5:21).

Yet another plausible explanation for Jesus’ scream of ″My God, my God, why have you left me?″ is that he was betrayed.It’s possible that Jesus’ purpose in quoting Psalm 22:1 was to direct His listeners to that particular psalm.When they read Psalm 22, they would no likely be struck by the number of prophesies that have come to pass as a result of the actions of God.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.Return to the previous page: Questions regarding Jesus Christ The reason why Jesus cried out to his Father, ″My God, my God, why have you left me?″

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Why Jesus Cried ″My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me″

″My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?″ Jesus cries out from the cross during the most crucial moment of the entire Bible, the moment when he dies on the cross, a phrase that can be perplexing to those of us who are reading the account so many centuries later: ″My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?″ The statement may be found in two places in the Bible: Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34.The following is how the English Standard Version of the Bible describes it: ″And around the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’″ Forsake is a slang term that meaning to turn away from or withdraw from something.What kind of father would do such a thing to his own son?At light of the fact that it is something we would never do to our own children, it seems strange that the source of all love would turn his back on his own son, but that is precisely what has occurred in this moment.It was essential in order for the totality of God’s love for humanity to be fulfilled, and it demonstrates how highly God regards us..

Verse Context in Psalm 22

It is Psalm 22 that Jesus is referring to when he yells out this sentence in the gospels.According to traditional interpretation, this Psalm is a messianic psalm, one in which the author (King David) appears to be participating in some vision of what would happen to the Lord’s Messiah.Although Jesus just shares the first verse of the Psalm, most people would have concluded he was referring to the full Psalm because of the high level of biblical literacy prevalent in Jesus’ day.We can look into it and see if there are any connections to the crucifixion tale.In Psalm 22:6-8, it is said that David’s adversaries are making fun of him, precisely because he has faith in the Lord and believes that the Lord would deliver him from his foes.

People insulting Jesus stated that if God loved him so much, God should save him right then and there, according to Matthew 27:35-44 and Mark 15:29-32, respectively, according to the Bible.According to Psalm 22:18, the author’s clothes had been separated and the oppressors were ″casting lots″ (playing a game of chance) to determine who would be in possession of it.According to Matthew 27:35, the clothing of Jesus were split and the new owners were chosen by drawing lots.Isn’t it interesting that the activities of Jesus at his death, as documented in Psalm 22, and King David’s vision, as was recorded in Psalm 22, are so identical despite the almost 1,000-year time gap?But hold just a minute, there’s more.

Despite the fact that it is a Messianic Psalm, Psalm 22 is also categorized as a lament (another category of Psalm).
Laments are unique in that, in addition to describing an awful condition in which the author finds himself, they also announce a universal reliance on the Lord and express appreciation for the favor of God, which makes them particularly poignant.
Whenever Jesus shouted out the first line of this Psalm, he was also expressing his utter reliance on God as well as his thanks for God’s generosity (Psalm 22:3-5, 9-11, 19-31).
The misery of mankind was suddenly borne onto his shoulders, and even at that terrible time, his voice cried out to demonstrate that only God can save us from our plight.

Verse Context in Matthew and Mark

Interestingly, Matthew and Mark both use the same passage in the same way (almost word-for-word).Nonetheless, they are pursuing quite different objectives.Matthew emphasizes throughout his works that Jesus is the Messiah who had been prophesied by the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures.His focus on Jesus’ duties as a teacher and a king serves to underline this point.While keeping these considerations in mind, Matthew would almost certainly have drawn an association between the author of Psalm 22 (King David) and Jesus, and thereby establishing Jesus as the One who had been anointed to accomplish the work of salvation and rule in eternity.

Mark, on the other hand, had a different concentration.While he recognized Jesus as the Son of God, he made it a point to ensure that people recognized his humanity as a component of the one-of-a-kind personality of Jesus.Jesus is not a hybrid of human and divine characteristics.The human component was just as significant as the God component.For him, Jesus was both entirely God and totally human, rather than a lesser demigod, as the Romans and Greeks would have conceived of him as being.

He possesses all of the traits of God and mankind, and he possesses them in their full expression and force.
Jesus’ response to the Psalm would have been that of a suffering Savior who was about to die for the most honorable of causes.
This was in stark contrast to the majority of people’s conception of God.
God was invulnerable in their eyes.

God has now exposed himself to the full extent of his vulnerability for the sake of his creation, and the time of death has arrived.
The line in issue appears at a particularly precise period in the tale of Jesus’ death and is thus difficult to understand.
They are the very last words he ever said.
In the time leading up to this, Jesus was enduring not only the physical anguish of his torture and execution, but he was also suffering the psychological pain of derision from people whom he was attempting to save via his deeds.

Following Jesus’ death, according to both Matthew and Mark, the curtain in the Temple was ripped from top to bottom, and the Roman Centurion who was seeing him die declared that he was unquestionably ″the Son of God.″ According to the Bible, the curtain referred to is the one that divides the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple complex in Jerusalem.When God would meet with a representative of his people, he would meet in the Holy of Holies, which had been the area where the Ark of the Covenant had been placed (albeit it had been lost by this point) (High Priest).According to the way we understand the events that led up to this point, we might conclude that Jesus Christ’s humiliation, suffering, and death destroyed the walls that separated us from God.This is referred to as ″justification″ in theological terms.There was no longer a requirement for a blood sacrifice to be offered every year to atone for sin because Jesus’ sacrifice atoned for sin once and for all.

We no longer require the services of a High Priest to intercede on our behalf; Jesus has taken on this responsibility (Hebrews 7: 22-28).
It is now possible to have the relationship with God that we were intended to have from the beginning of time.

Why Does Jesus Cry ″My God, my God, why have you forsaken me″?

Finally, it boils down to a choice between an exchange and substitution.We were given the covenant ideas and language in order to be able to comprehend in some measure the necessity for God to seek restitution for the offense of human sin on his part.Since the day Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, we have been living under the curse of God, which is the result of our disdain for God’s kindness.It is a flaw in the wonderful creation that God has made us to be in the first place.The language of sacrifice helps us to begin to grasp our need as well as the solution for our imperfection: the offering of blood as a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Nonetheless, the question of how successful a sacrifice is that must be renewed on a regular basis arises, as previously stated.Is there a method to avoid paying the amount in perpetuity?In fact, God had this exact scenario in mind from the beginning of time.We can better comprehend what Jesus would accomplish if he arrived to walk among us because of the sacrifices that were made before his birth.As you can see, the sacrifices had to be flawless animals.

Humans are not flawless from the moment of their conception.
In order to meet the requirement for an ideal sacrifice, he would have to be faultless from the beginning of his life.
Only Jesus was able to pay our debt, and only Jesus was able to suffer in our place.
When Jesus hangs on the cross, scorned, suffering, and dying, he bears the weight of the entire world’s sin on his shoulders.

In order to avoid seeing sin, God turns his back on it and withdraws his favor from it.
The whole weight of God’s anger against sin has now been placed onto his Son, and the truth of God’s wrath against sin has now been revealed in its fullness.
This is the point at which Jesus cries out, ″My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?″ In this moment, there is sorrow about the prospect of death, but in the words of the Psalm that he quotes, there is also hope for rescue from death.
Jesus continues to place his faith in the Creator of the Universe.

He has subjected himself to God’s will right up until the very end.Because God died in our place on the cross and died in our place, there is a dreadful beauty to this death, in that it demonstrates to us that God loves us.

What Do Other Translations Say?

What is the extent to which the translation affects the reading of this verse?Is there anything that has been lost through the generations?Now, let’s have a look at some examples of distinct English translations: ESV: Then, at about the ninth hour, Jesus shouted out in a piercing voice: ″Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?″ (Eli, Eli, what do you want me to do?″My God, my God, why have you deserted me?″ says the speaker.Standard Bible for Christians published by Holman Christian Publishing Company: At around three o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus called out in a loud voice, ″El, El, lemá sabachtháni?″ (El, El, what is the matter with you?) ″My God, My God, why have You deserted Me?″ says the speaker.

In the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ″Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?″ (Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?To put it another way, ″My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?″ The Message is as follows: From 12 p.m.until 3 p.m., the entire planet was completely black.Around three o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus groaningly sprang from the depths, yelling, ″Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?″ ″My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?″ the phrase reads in part.The New International Version (NIV) says that at three o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus called out in a loud voice, ″Eli, Eli, lemasabachthani?″ (which literally translates as ″My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?″) As you can see from the several English language translations, this paragraph has been translated for a long length of time with a great degree of faith in its meaning (the King James version is from the year 1611).

What Do Jesus’ Words Mean for Us?

Jesus’ final words are not a cheerful statement; rather, they are dripping with despondency.
It was misinterpreted by those who were there when he uttered it, and it can be difficult to comprehend today until it is understood in the context of Psalm 22, which is where it belongs.
You can’t just allow it to fend for itself.
Jesus was directing us to the entirety of the Psalm because he was certain that his people would comprehend what he had meant once they worked it out.

Yes, there was a time of utter agony and heartbreak, such as only the weight of sin could bring about.The promise of God’s rescue and the belief that there would be resurrection on the other side of death, however, gave them reason to hold on to their hope.Psalm 22 demonstrates Jesus’ complete reliance on God, even while he was unable to feel anything other than the weight of the world’s guilt.We are encouraged to follow in their footsteps in our own lives.

To rely on God, to put our faith in his love, and to believe that God has provided us with eternal life through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus.
Photograph courtesy of Getty Images/mbolina The Reverend Larry White serves as the Pastor of Community United Methodist Church in Marathon, Florida, and as an Adjunct Professor at Florida Keys Community College, where he teaches courses in World Religions and the New Testament.

Why did Jesus say: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

It has the feel of a bitter, desperate scream.
″My God, my God, why have you left me?″ Jesus cries out from the crucifixion, naked and dying, at the culmination of his earthly ministry: ″My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.″ It comes in both Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts of Jesus’ death and both contain a transliteration of what he said: ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ before adding, ‘which literally translates as ″My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?″ When Jesus, God’s son, who has lived a life in perfect connection with God the Father, is at his most desperate, he is abandoned by him.
In his final moments, he lets out this heartbreaking cry: ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ So, what caused God to desert him at this precise moment?
All of the sin and shame of the entire world is placed on Jesus’ shoulders at this point.

We are separated from a holy God because of all the things we have done that we should not have done and all the things we should have done that we did not do.He who is flawless will be unable to maintain his perfection if he comes into contact with those of us who are far from perfect.And the entire weight of that disaster is placed on Jesus’ shoulders as God’s son, who is currently nailed on the cross.God the parent is unable to do anything but look away.

God abandons his own in so that he would not have to forsake us as well.
This indicates that, because he has turned his back on Jesus at this time, he will never turn his back on us again.
This scream of anguish is also a quotation from an old Psalm, which was penned hundreds of years before Jesus came to earth to save mankind.
It begins with the exact same lines as Psalm 22: ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ Later in the chapter, it describes various tragedies that are replicated in Matthew’s depiction of the crucifixion and death of Jesus.

Take, for example, Psalm 22:7-8, which states: ″All who see me scorn me; they hurl insults at me while shaking their heads.″ ″″He puts his confidence in the Lord,″ they cry, ″let the Lord come to his aid.″ Allow him to deliver him since he takes pleasure in him ″″″″″’ ‘ ″Those who passed by shouted obscenities at him while shaking their heads,″ Matthew 27:39 says.
‘In the same manner, the top priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders made fun of him,’ says verse 41.
″″He has saved others,″ they opined, ″but he is unable to save himself!″ He’s the king of Israel, after all!
Allow him to come down from the cross at this time, and we will believe in him.

He places his faith in God.Allow God to rescue him now if he so desires, for he has stated, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ″″″″″’ ‘ Some theologians believe that this was a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death, and others disagree.

When Jesus was on the cross, why did He ask Father, why have you forsaken Me?

He asked the question ″Father, why have you deserted me?″ while hanging on the cross. Exactly what is he trying to say? I’m aware that this is the point at which Jesus became sin for us, but I’m at a loss for words as to why. Is it possible that the Father has turned His back on us?

Bible Answer:

As recorded in both Matthew 27:45 and Mark 15:33, the darkness blanketed the area as Jesus hung on the cross for three days and three nights.
Jesus then asks, ″My God, my God, why hast thou abandoned me?″ in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, according to the Bible.
…
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, lama sabachthani?

In other words, ″My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?″ is being understood.What did Jesus want to say in Mark 15:34 (NASB)?That is the question we have.Why did Jesus ask, ″Why have you deserted me?″ will be broken into two parts in the response to this question: first, who is Jesus, and second, why did Jesus ask, ″Why have you forsaken me?″ But first and foremost, we must comprehend who Jesus is.

Who Was Jesus?

A common tactic used by cults to discredit Christians is to show them the following text, which states that there is only one God, and that there is only one mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV) (NASB) Despite the fact that they understand Jesus to be God, many Christians have battled with this verse for years.
The text appears to imply that Jesus was merely a man, yet we know that Jesus was both a man and a divine being in the flesh.
Romans 1:1-4 explains that the apostle Paul was set apart for the gospel of God, which God promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David in the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection from death, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 1:4-14 (NASB) (NASB) Take note of the phrase ″born according to the flesh″ in the verse above.That is, He took on the characteristics of a man made of flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:14).In addition, Jesus is referred to be the ″Son of God″ in this text.This statement simply indicates that Jesus was the Son of the Most High.

According to John 10:31-36, ″the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.″ ″I have shown you many excellent acts from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?″ Jesus responded to their question.
″We do not stone You for doing a good deed; rather, we stone You for blasphemy; and we stone You because You, being a man, make yourself out to be God,″ they said.
As Jesus said, ″…
do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ″You are blaspheming,″ because I said, ‘You are blaspheming,’ that you are blaspheming?″ 10:31-36 (John 10:31-36) (NASB) Jesus had to be both a human and a divine being.

Without being a man made of flesh and blood, Jesus would not have been able to die a physical death.
Without being God, he would have been unable to live a flawless and blameless life (Hebrews 4:15).
He was the sinless, perfect, and holy Lamb of God who died on the cross in order to atone for our sins.

My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me

When Jesus cried out, ″My God, my God, why have you left me?″ it was a powerful statement.
He was unmistakably expressing that he felt estranged from God the Father in his words.
The Greek term for ″forsaksen″ is enkataleipo, which literally translates as ″to abandon, to abandonment, or to abandonment.″ Is it true that God the Father abandoned Jesus Christ?
We believe Jesus was alluding to the fact that he was separated from the Father.

We learn an essential fact about God from the book of Isaiah:…your iniquities have separated you from your God; your crimes have disguised his face from you…We may see what happened on the crucifixion if we combine Isaiah 59:2 with 1 Peter 2:24, which indicates that Christ bore our sins in His body.This is a picture of what happened on the cross.

Because of His wounds, you have been healed….and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we may die to sin and live to righteousness.
All of the sins of the world were put on Christ, according to 1 Peter 2:24 (NASB).
Our blameless Savior became a victim of sin.
He took the punishment for our transgressions upon Himself.

He caused Him, who was without sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him through faith in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (New International Version) (NASB) According to 1 Peter 3:18, the just died in the place of the unjust.
The virtuous gave their lives to save the unjust.
And since Christ likewise died for our sins once and for all, the righteous for our unjust, He could reconcile us to God, having been put to death in the flesh but raised to life in the spirit…

When Jesus died on the cross on that gloomy Friday afternoon, he personally absorbed our punishment or vicariously atoned for our sins, according to the New American Standard Bible.God the Father turned away from Christ as a result of what had transpired.This abandonment was felt to its fullest extent by the man, Jesus Christ, who cried out in despair, ″My God, my God, why hast thou deserted me?″

Conclusion:

An excellent illustration of what occurred to our sins, and in a symbolic sense, what happened to Christ on the cross, can be found in the Old Testament.
It may be found in Leviticus 16:5-28, to be exact.
″And the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.″ It is about a scapegoat.
Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all of the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions in regard to all of their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by 16:21-22 (Leviticus 16:21-22) (NASB) Is this the same thing that occurred to Christ?

This scapegoat, I think, was a representation of Jesus.Furthermore, Jesus was separated from God as a result of our sins and the sins of the world he carried.God the Father has taken a step back from His relationship with the God-man Jesus Christ.

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

Transcript of the audio Thank you for listening 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?″

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.It is written in the Aramaic language, and it means ″My God, my God, why have you deserted me?″ (Matthew 27:46; Mark 10:45).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.The significance of this is that Jesus appears to have been aware that the entire psalm was, in some way or another, focused on him.

In the tale of his death, at least three additional sections of this psalm are referenced as well.
As a result, you have verses 1–2 memorized.
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.
″My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?″ I cried out.

″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.
″They wag their heads,″ according to Matthew 27:39: ″They wag their heads.″ To demonstrate that the events of this psalm are being played out in the death of Jesus, ″and those who went by mocked him, shaking their heads.″ ″They have wounded my hands and feet,″ the psalmist writes in verse 16 of his poem.
Then there’s verse 18, which says, ″They divide my clothes among themselves, and they cast lots for my attire.″ As a result, the lines, ″My God, my God, why have you left me?″ are included in this psalm, which serves as a sort of screenplay for Jesus’ last hours.
Now, why did he say it in the first place?

She’s curious as to why this is happening.What was he thinking when he said it?And here is a three-part response to your question.

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 fury.
He gave him up so that he may bear the weight of all of his people’s crimes, as well as the punishment for those sins, on his shoulders.
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

First and foremost, the why, it appears to me, is not a query in search of a solution, but rather a method of conveying the horrors of abandonment in words.
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.At this precise time, in fact.And he had consented to attend despite the fact that he was well aware of what would take place.″Then Jesus, well aware of what was about to happen to him, walked forward and asked them, ‘Whom do you seek?’″ says the Bible.

(See also John 18:4).
He made the decision to give himself up.
As a result, he was aware.
He was well aware of what was about to happen.

He was well-versed in every subject.
Another factor is that the situation was one of anguish rather than religious inquiry.
It was an agonizing time for everyone involved.
He is not asking a question, but rather expresses fear, which suggests that the lines are a reflex of his immersion in Psalm 22, according to the author of the poem.

They are a verbatim quote from the source material.However, when you are nailed on the cross, you do not remark, ″Oh, I believe I’m going to cite some Scripture here,″ since that would be inappropriate.Your messianic calling is either present in you as the very essence of who you are, or it is not.And if it exists in you, you may express yourself in the most difficult time of your life through the appointment of your Father as stated in Psalm 22.That appears to be at the heart of what is currently taking place.

Allow me to read Psalm 22:22–24 to you.According to the scriptures, ″I will tell my brothers about your name, and I will praise you in the middle of the assembly,″ meaning, ″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!Due to the fact that he has not despised or abhorred the sorrow of the afflicted, and that he has not hidden his face from them, but has instead heard them when they have called upon Him in distress.

To put it another way, this psalm concludes on a triumphant tone.
Jesus isn’t interested in finding out how things are going to turn out.
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.
God will not despise me at the end of the day, since I have a promise,″ he could believe.
″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 point we should mention is that this psalm was his whole 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.
That moment was unquestionably the worst in the history of the planet, and it was a fulfillment of the Bible’s predictions.

As a result, he said the following:

There was a genuine sense of abandonment for our sake.
He was expressing his desolation rather than asking for an answer
he was miraculously fulfilling Scripture in the midst of the horror of it all and bearing testimony to the completion of the plan of redemption
he was expressing his desolation rather than asking for an explanation

Why Did Jesus say, ″My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?″

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A reader recently brought in a series of questions concerning Jesus’ experience on the cross, which I answered here.
The majority of the questions have already been addressed in earlier postings (since the list below).
Specifically, I shall answer the question of what Jesus was referring to when He exclaimed, ″My God, My God, why have You deserted Me?″ in the previous piece.

The following is the question that was initially provided by the reader: I am a believer, yet the questions posed by an atheist have me perplexed.My conversation with an atheist the other day revealed that God does not understand what it is like to lose a son because he knew all along that Jesus would rise in three days, and so just lost him for the weekend!When asked why he begged to be rescued from the crucifixion in the garden, he said that if God is Jesus, he was a liar.Aside from that, shouldn’t Jesus have been aware that he would rise again in three days?

Why did he question God, ″Why have you forsaken me?″ (Why have you abandoned me?) Wouldn’t he be aware that he’ll only be dead for three days if he thought about it?
Considering that this is such a complicated series of issues, I will address them in four parts:

How to Respond to Atheists’ Questions
2 Traditional Explanations for How God Understands What It Is Like to Lose a Son (both of which I reject)
How to Respond to Atheists’ Questions
God has two ways of understanding what it is like to see the death of a child:
It is for this reason that Jesus cried out, ″My God, My God, why have You deserted Me?″

The previous three postings addressed the most of the concerns, however there are still two major questions to be addressed.
First and foremost, why did Jesus ask to be rescued from the cross when He was in the garden of Gethsemane?
Second, what was He thinking when He asked God, ″Why have You left Me?″ That first unanswered question was addressed in a prior article, in which I discussed the words ″Let this cup pass from me.″ The second unanswered question was addressed in a subsequent post.
The interpretation I have given to Jesus’ speech in the garden is fairly contentious, but it appears to make the most sense in light of the context and Jesus’ attitude in the days leading up to his death.

I do not believe that Jesus was praying for a way out of the agony and suffering; His love for humanity was far too tremendous for such an endeavor.Rather, I believe that Jesus was pleading for strength in order to confront the grief and suffering that He knew He was going to experience.As a result, I will not be writing anything further about it here.Instead, let us consider Jesus’ cry from the cross: ″My God, My God, why have You deserted Me?″ (Matthew 27:46).

Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Psalm 22:1 serves as the basis for this inquiry from Jesus on the cross, which appears in Matthew 27:46-47 (and Mark 15:34), and it is a quotation from the Bible.
It is a question that Jesus asks himself while He suffers on the cross and endures the punishment for the sins of the world being poured out on Him.
According to the question above, because both Jesus and God the Father were aware that God would raise Jesus from the dead (Matt 12:40), in what sense was Jesus abandoned by God?
The answer is that Jesus was not abandoned by God in the traditional sense.

If being forsaken implies being abandoned, rejected, or despised, how could Jesus say ″Why have you forsaken me?″ knowing that He would be risen from the dead, and therefore not ultimately forsaken in the sense of being abandoned, rejected, or despised in the true sense of the word?The answer, I believe, is in grasping at least a basic comprehension of the everlasting relationship that has been between God the Father and God the Son from the beginning of time.Understanding this bond, as well as the scream of Jesus from the crucifixion, leads to a startling realization (at least for me) about Jesus’ experience on the cross.

His Eternal Relationship seemed Broken

Since God the Father and God the Son have lived in an everlasting connection, they have never been divided by anything for any length of time, in any way, shape, or form, and they have never been separated by anything in the past.
Nothing in the way of will, wants, intents, ideas, or objectives had ever stood in their path before now.
Given that we are not familiar with what it is like to be in such a relationship, let alone for an eternity, we humans have a tough time comprehending this.
All relationships, even the most loving ones, have points of disagreement and miscommunication from time to time.

God the Father and God the Son (together with God the Holy Spirit) on the other hand, have always been in perfect harmony and oneness with one another.Nevertheless, when Jesus died on the cross, He took upon Himself the sins of every person, throughout all of history.He took on our sins and bore them in His own body (1 Pet 2:24).He, who had no knowledge of sin, became sin for us (2 Cor 5:21).

He turned out to be a curse for us (Gal 3:13).
I believe that from Jesus’ point of view on the crucifixion, it appeared as though God had ″abandoned″ Him to the consequences of his sin.
Despite the fact that sin does not harm or taint God in any way, it does produce a gap between God and the one who does the sin.
The barrier between Jesus and God that had never existed before appears to have occurred when He took on the sins of all humanity on His own shoulders.

It was because He was suffering a brokenness in His connection with God the Father that they had never previously experienced that Jesus cried out, ″Why have you left me?″ Yes, he understood that God had not abandoned him completely and irrevocably, and he understood that He would be resurrected from the dead in three days, but the scream of Jesus from the crucifixion is not about those things, but about his separation from God.
He was experiencing anything for the first time in all of eternity.
The experience of being separated from God prompted Jesus to cry out, ″My God, My God, why have you deserted me?″ (Matthew 27:46).
He had never been separated from God before, and even though He knew that He would be rejoined with God in a short period of time, the sorrow and suffering of the separation prompted Jesus to cry out in despair.

Was God, on the other hand, genuinely abandoning Jesus?No, I don’t believe so.I don’t believe that God abandoned Jesus any more than he abandons us now.Jesus was not a God who had abandoned his people.

The God-Forsaken God?

Although I may be going too far out on a limb theologically, there is a part of me that believes that it was only on the cross that Jesus finally experienced what it was like to be a sinful human being separated from God in all of its sorrow and turmoil.
Although Jesus came to earth as a human being in order to save us from our sinful condition, and in doing so, experienced practically everything a human being could experience, He never truly experienced the terrifying and terrible state of being separated from God as a result of sin.
That is, it was only after He died on the cross and experienced the crushing sadness of being separated from God that He was able to fully comprehend what we humans have been experiencing since the beginning of time.
It was on the cross that Jesus experienced the grief and misery that we experience every day, the agony of being separated from God that has so numbed our souls, and the despair and dread that motivates us to live our lives as we do for the very first time.

His plea, ″My God, my God, Why have You left Me?″ is not the cry of a God who has abandoned his creation; rather, it is the lament of every single human being on the face of the planet.From the time of our fall into sin, it has been our cries to the Father in heaven.Finally, God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ in order to personally experience this separation.Because the pain is so unbearable, He calls out to God in a hushed voice: ″My God, my God, why have you left me?″ Do you see what I mean?

This isn’t only the cries of Jesus as he hangs from the crucifixion.
This is the scream of every single human on the face of the planet.
It is our anguish, our anxiety, our hurt, our despair, all of which are now being heard.
This cries out in pain and despair as God fully enters into our damaged state and fully experiences the sense of separation from God that sin creates, and cries out in sorrow and despair as God experiences this sense of loss: ″My God, my God, why have You left me?″ God knows how we feel when we believe that God is ignoring us or has abandoned us.

Jesus understands our feelings and calls out to God on our behalf, ″Why have You abandoned Me?″ When we suffer worry about the future in the middle of the night, Jesus understands what we are going through and cries out to God on our behalf, ″Why have You left Me?″ When awful things happen in our world, and we wonder what God is doing about them (if anything), Jesus understands how we feel and cries out to God on our behalf, ″Why have You deserted Me?″ (Why Have You Forsaken Me?) In times when we feel despised and rejected, abused and slandered, misunderstood and forgotten, and we wonder why God appears to be doing nothing to protect and defend us, Jesus understands how we feel and pleads with God, ″Why have You forsaken Me?″ Jesus knows how we feel and pleads with God on our behalf, ″Why have You forsaken Me?″ On the crucifixion, Jesus suffered a separation from God that is identical to the separation from God that humanity feel on a daily basis.
Certainly, since He is God and because He carried the sins of all people, He was separated from His Father in an inconceivable degree from His children.
Yet the scream of Jesus from the cross, ″My God, my God, why have You left Me?″ is not only his cry, but our plea as well: ″My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?″ It is the scream of every single human being on the face of the planet.
Jesus was giving expression to our grief and suffering.

Do you ever feel as though God has abandoned you?Jesus understands what it’s like to be in that situation.Do you have a sense of being abandoned, neglected, forgotten, and overlooked?Jesus understands what it’s like to be in that situation.Do you get the impression that God has turned His back on you?

Jesus understands what it’s like to be in that situation.However, here’s the rub…″How can Jesus say, ‘Why have you deserted me?’ since God did not truly forsake Him?″ was the initial question.

Yes.
And, just as Jesus experienced what we all experience when we feel abandoned, none of us have been abandoned, just as Jesus Himself was not abandoned.
Despite the fact that you may feel abandoned by God, you are in no way more abandoned than Jesus was.
Despite the fact that you may feel abandoned, forgotten, neglected, and disregarded, none of these things are true of you any more than they were of Jesus.
You may be under the impression that you are unloved, yet this is no more true of you than it was of Jesus.
Despite the fact that Jesus cried out, ″Why have you abandoned me?″ He had not been abandoned.

We aren’t any different.
This is a sensation that Jesus had, and it’s an emotion that we all have from time to time.
And this sensation does not arise because we have been abandoned, but rather as a result of our sin.

However, while sin has divided us from God, God has not been removed from us.
Because of this, God felt compelled to reconcile the world to Himself (1 Cor 5:19).
He didn’t have to reconcile Himself to the world since He had never abandoned or forsaken us in the first place.
Despite the fact that we may feel abandoned, we are not abandoned any more than Jesus was abandoned.

In the same way that God did not abandon Jesus, God does not abandon us.
While the existence of sin in our lives causes us to feel abandoned, forgotten, or left alone to suffer and die, God is really right with us at all times, holding us and loving us and weeping with us as we go through our trials and difficulties.
The feeling of being separated from God is expressed by Jesus on the cross, and this is one of the reasons Jesus went to the cross – to take our sin and bear it away into death so that we can see that God has not left us, has not abandoned us, and has not forsaken us but has fully entered into our pain, our suffering, and even into our sin, so that He might show us how much He loves and cares for us, as He did on the cross.
A more in-depth explanation of this reality may be found in my new book, The Atonement of God.

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

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‘Why Have You Forsaken Me?’ Bible Verses

″My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?″ says the narrator.
Why are you so far away from rescuing me from the words of my groaning?
What are you thinking?
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.

Nonetheless, you are holy, enthroned on the throne of Israel’s adoration.Our forefathers placed their confidence in you; they placed their trust in you, and you delivered them.They called out to you and were rescued; they placed their confidence in you and were not humiliated.However, I am a worm, not a man, and I am reviled by humanity and despised by the people.

″He relies in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, because he delights in him!″ says everyone who sees me.
They make fun of me, they make fun of my tongue, they wag their heads.
Psalm 22:1-8 (KJV) Jesus shouted out with a loud voice at the ninth hour, proclaiming: ‘Eli, Eli; lema sabbatthani?’″ ″My God, my God, why have you deserted me?″ says the speaker.
And when some onlookers heard it, they said, ″This man is summoning Elijah!″ They all hurried to get a sponge, filled it with vinegar, tied it to the end of a piece of reed, and handed it to him to drink.

″Wait a minute, let us see whether Elijah will show up to help him,″ the others urged.
And Jesus screamed out with a loud voice once again, this time surrendering his spirit.
And, lo and behold, the temple’s curtain had been split in half, from top to bottom.
There was an earthquake, and the rocks were split,″ he said.

Matthew 27:46-51 (KJV) ″And when the sixth hour arrived, there was complete darkness over the entire area until the ninth hour.Furthermore, at the ninth hour, Jesus said loudly, ″Eloi, Eloi, lema sabbthani?″ (Behold, the Lord has spoken in a loud voice).″My God, my God, why have you deserted me?″ the phrase reads in part.As a result, several onlookers who happened to hear it said, ″Look, he’s summoning Elijah.″ After that, someone rushed over and filled a sponge with sour wine, tied the end of the sponge to a reed, and handed it to him with the words, ″Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.″ And Jesus breathed his last with a piercing scream before dying.″ Mark 15:33-37 (KJV)

Why Did Jesus Feel Forsaken on the Cross?

Listed below is a transcript of the Don Whitney video seen in the video above: The first line of Psalm 22 is, first and foremost, ″I am the Lord.″ And I think that Jesus was speaking the truth when he said, ″My God, my God, why have you left me?″ In addition, I believe he prayed through the Psalm when he sunk back down.
To a certain extent, this is just conjecture.
The first verse of his prayer is known to us; yet, that verse, that chapter of the Bible is the chapter in which the same thing he was experiencing at the time is prophesied.
Furthermore, we know that the reason for the briefness of all seven of Jesus’ sayings on the crucifixion is because he had been beaten almost to death, was very dehydrated, and was in great pain at the time.

The two spikes in his wrist and the one in each of his feet were supporting the whole weight of his body.So, in order to get enough air into his diaphragm to say something, he had to press up on that spike in his foot, which was excruciatingly painful.As a result, he only had enough air for a very little period of time.He’s in excruciating discomfort.

He is, without a doubt, dying.
That’s why I assume it was a very quick conversation and that he didn’t say anything further.
The fact that that is the most lengthy of the seven statements made on the cross is interesting; I believe this is because he was paraphrasng from that first verse and letting us know that was what was on his mind at the time.
As a result, I believe he was reciting that Psalm.

However, I think that at the time when he was human and felt abandoned by the Father, that when he looked about and saw a parade of people passing by who were ridiculing him, the top priest and rulers, he realized that he had been abandoned by the Father.
Each week, there are at least three different groups of leaders that come by and make fun of the man.
It’s fascinating that they make multi-sentence assertions, and that these statements are foretold in Psalm 22 exactly as they are said.
So those groups, the criminals on both sides, are making fun of him, but one of them is going to be converted shortly after.

One of the gospels mentions a moment where the thieves, which is numerous, were saying some of the same sarcastic things that the ones at his feet were saying, and it says this happened at one point.As a result, everyone was making fun of me.The disciples were conspicuously absent.In other words, I believe it was a scream that said, ″I understand why my apostles and followers have abandoned me out of fear.″ Furthermore, the Bible states that if you hit the shepherd, the sheep will be divided.The reason these criminals would make fun of me is understandable.

What I don’t understand is why the people who chanted Hosanna five days ago are still saying it.So I can understand why they would abandon me.What I don’t comprehend is why these Jewish leaders would abandon me.

But, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me so completely?
That’s what crushed his heart the most.
He understood why all of these other people would abandon him for a variety of reasons.
But it was that separation that crushed his heart, since he had never had a single minute of any kind of separation in his relationship with the Father before then.
As a result, I believe that this was the lowest moment, if you will, of his experience on the cross.
However, when you get down to Psalm 22 and Verse 3, he says, ″Yet you are holy.″ As he prays through that, he says, ″Yet you are holy.″ As a result, even though he was abandoned by his father, he understood why.

It’s because God is holy, that’s why.
He cried out because he had become sin, and that is why he cried out.
God was abandoning him, the spotless, faultless, and Holy Jesus, and he knew it.

Having accepted my guilt as his own, Jesus had been abandoned by the Father.
As a result, Jesus was abandoned so that others like us would not have to be abandoned.
If we approach the Father via Jesus, we have a chance of being accepted.

Why Did Jesus Say, ‘My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?’

An edited version of the video above, which features Greg Laurie, is provided below: I’m sure you recall the rolling blackouts that we experienced here in California a few years back.
My memory recalls a night when the electricity went out everywhere at the same time.
It was a little unnerving.
There was no light on in the room.

It’s simply that it’s completely dark.Furthermore, there was a rolling blackout that occurred throughout the middle of the day.It’s 3:00 p.m.on a Friday afternoon.

The sun is still shining brightly.
Suddenly, everything is pitch black.
There isn’t a ray of light to be found anywhere.
When Jesus cries from the cross, the darkness is penetrated by the words ″My God, my God, why have you deserted me?″ the darkness is dispelled.

What the hell was going on over there?
I think that at that moment, Jesus was bearing the sins of the entire world.
He was dying as a replacement for others who had died before him.
It was attributed to him the responsibility for our transgressions, and he was subjected to the consequences of those sins on our behalf.

It is possible that, in some inexplicable way that we will never be able to completely fathom, the Father was pouring out the entire measure of his anger against sin during those terrible hours on the cross, and the receiver of that wrath was God’s own son.Every bad deed perpetrated by every wicked sinner was being punished by God as if Jesus had personally committed every wicked deed committed by every wicked sinner.Because of this, he could forgive and treat individuals who had been saved as though they had lived the flawless life of righteousness that Jesus had lived.This is referred to as ″justification″ in the industry.It is not only the eradication of sin from one’s life.

It is the crediting of Christ’s righteousness to our spiritual bank account, which is a good thing.That’s exactly what happened as Jesus was nailed on the cross.Scripture also affirms that there was a certain point in time when the sin of the world was put on the son of God.

″God made Christ, who had never sinned, to be the sacrifice for our sins,″ according to 2 Corinthians 5:21.
″He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree,″ stated the apostle Peter.
But pay attention to what Jesus has to say.
″My God, my God, why have you deserted me?″ says the narrator.
We recognize the signs of a crisis of faith.
No, this is a statement of fact.

So, you’re arguing that God abandoned him or anything like that?
So in a way, it is true.
Because Jesus was abandoned, I don’t have to be either.

Jesus came into the darkness in order for me to walk in the light.
Jesus was abandoned in order for me to be forgiven.
Now, when we say that Jesus was abandoned, we’re referring to the following.
In addition, when Christ bore the sin of the world, the Father, who is holy and cannot look upon sin, turned away from him as he became the object of God’s anger.

But, as a result of what transpired, no one who reaches out to God will ever have to fear that they would be abandoned by him in the future.
Jesus was only stating what was currently taking place at the time of his statement.
Please keep in mind that this was not a crisis of faith on the side of our Lord; rather, he was calling out to the Father, fulfilling the words of Psalm 22: ″My God, my God, why have you deserted me?″ Take note that it is my God.
When a crisis occurs in your life, what will happen to you?

And it will happen.Is there anything you can do if anything terrible happens at your house?It’s possible.Are you going to make a prayer to God?Or are you going to turn your back on God?

″Character is not created in difficulty; rather, it is shown in crisis,″ it has been claimed.It reveals the true nature of your character.Moreover, some people believe that ″I’m enraged with God.I’m not speaking to the Almighty.I don’t want to ever interact with God or even think about him again.″ Alternatively, you can pray to God and even say, ″Please, God, help me.″ ″I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you’re saying.This is beyond my comprehension.

I’m not even happy about it, but I’m turning to you, my God, my God, for help.″ As you can see, the emphasis is not on the word deserted, but rather on my God.
And while he carried the sin of the world, he shouted out to his father in a loud voice.
Photograph courtesy of Getty Images/Ava Marie

Why did Jesus say, ″My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?″

It is Matthew 27:45-46 that has one of the most puzzling passages in the whole Bible.
Jesus, in His dying moments on the cross, utters words that cause us all to tremble with horror.
He cries out, ″Eli Eli lema Sabachthani,″ which translates as ″My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?″ in Arabic language.
Now, from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, the entire nation was enveloped in darkness.

At around the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, exclaiming, ‘Eli Eli lama sabachthani?’ which translates as ‘My God, My God, why have You deserted Me?’ (Matthew 27:45–46, New American Standard Bible) When we think of Jesus’ suffering on our behalf, it’s impossible to comprehend the depth of our sorrow.He was abandoned by his buddies, who beat him, humiliated him, and spit on him.’Crucify Him!’ he yelled as he stood before the very people who had just a few days before laid palm fronds in His way calling Him King, only for them to shout back.Religious officials at the time disregarded practically every tenet of Jewish law in order to unjustly jail and accuse Jesus of being a prophet of God.

At the end of the day, we all know how the narrative will conclude.
During His crucifixion, Jesus suffered one of the most torturous and humiliating dea