Why did Jesus say, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Did God the Father, and the Holy Spirit forsake Jesus?
Matthew 27:46
ESV - 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
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Asked June 09 2013
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Anonymous
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Chuck Smith Jr
Supporter
It seems to me that we have to come at this question from the sequence of events leading up to Jesus' cry from the cross. Earlier that week Jesus confided in the disciples that his soul was "troubled" because he had come to his hour (John 12:27-28). In fact, he had on other occasions referred to the distress he felt over this "baptism" of suffering (Luke 12:50). But more specifically, during his last meal with the disciples it was already apparent that he was "troubled in spirit" (John 13:21) and by the time they reached the garden he was telling them, "My soul is extremely sorrowful, even to death" (Mark 14:34). Then he went off alone and tried to pray his way out of what lay ahead, only to resolve himself to fulfill not his own will, but the Father's. Even then, "being in agony, He prayed more earnestly" (Luke 22:44). Sometimes in our eagerness to defend the deity of Jesus Christ, we lose sight of his humanity. It is remarkable to see how many heresies arose in church history when people emphasized Jesus' deity or humanity to the exclusion of the other. Jesus suffered a great emotional agony in the garden and on the cross, that took him to the depths of human grief and suffering. Jesus' tears and crying out to God during "the days of His flesh" are important, because "through sufferings" he was made wholly like us (Hebrews 2:10-11). It is because he suffered as a human that Jesus, the "Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" is able to "sympathize with our weaknesses" (Isaiah 53:3; Hebrews 4:15). There are moments in our lives when it is critical for us to know that Jesus understands how painful and heartbreaking this human experience can be. Otherwise his consolation would not reach our deepest wounds. Yes, Jesus was quoting Psalm 22 from the cross, but most likely because those particular words expressed the worst horror of human misery; namely, the feeling of being forsaken by God. This is the cry of ultimate desolation and despair. It is important to realize that neither the psalmist, who first wrote those words, nor Jesus, who cried them with a loud voice, believed they were totally abandoned by God. In the Hebrew Scriptures people typically expressed what their situation felt like, not what it was in actual fact. Think of the number of times that the psalmists ask why God has hidden his face or removed his presence from them, or rejected them. If they really believed he had, would they still pray? The cry of desperation is our response to how our circumstances look to us--it "looks" like God has forsaken us--, and there is a time for such prayers when we are in "bitterness of soul." Had Jesus not felt our sense of abandonment, could we trust his prayer of faith? (i.e., "You have answered Me," Psalm 22:21) Perhaps God looked away from the sin Jesus carried when he was dying on the cross, but saying that God actually forsook him raises serious theological issues that tend to either diminish the deity of Jesus or imply a platonic dualism that differentiates Jesus, the Son of Man, from Christ, the Son of God, when no such distinction exists.
James Bennett
Supporter
My thoughts are that Jesus took on the sins of the worldand beenig that God know not sin, His Son Jesus Christ walked the lonely road for the love and obedance of the Fathers will. Jesus took one for the team out of love. God gave His only begotten Son and His Son gave His life for the love of all man kind.
Jake Jones
Supporter
To answer your first question, God cannot inhabit sin. This is why Adam and Eve couldn't be found by him when they sinned. When we sin we break that direct connection with God. On the cross Jesus took on all the sin that ever was and ever would be. The spirit of God could no longer be manifested into the body of the man Christ Jesus. To answer your second question. There is no Father "AND" Holy Spirit. This is only God who is our Father in a sense that he created everything, and our Father is a spirit and and he is Holy. The Trinitarian doctrine was not preached by the disciples. It was invented by vote over 100 years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. In John ch 4 we see Phillip struggle with this concept of God being only one. He asked Jesus to show him the Father... Jesus basically said have you been with me these 3 years and do not already know? "I AM" the Father. If you've seen me you've seen the "Father". In Isaiah one prophecy about Jesus said that he would be called Wonderful, Councillor, The Mighty GOD, The Everlasting FATHER. When Moses saw the burning bush, that was a manifestation of God, but we don't worship the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Burning Bush do we? God also told Moses his name was I AM. The reason they killed Jesus was because he also said that I AM. Read the Gospels carefully and you will see him say several times the words I AM and the Jews were angry because that was the name of God. So the answer is God's spirit left the body of Christ, and no longer manifested himself at the point sin entered until the body was buried and resurrected. When we sin like Adam, and when sin was taken upon Jesus, God's spirit has to separate himself from us, but when we die (repentance... old things pass away) and are are buried (baptized) and resurrected (receiving gift of Holy Spirit) we can once again be reunited with the Sprit of God. Acts 2:38
Hamilton Matare
Supporter
My opinion is that since He was carrying human's sins upon Him,God turned His face aside because of sins Lord Jesus was carrying at that moment in time.God is holy to look at sin that's why the Lord cried out like this
Anonymous
My opinion is that God did forsake Jesus on the cross. God had to look away so that His plan of salvation for us sinners would be complete through Christ's death. I could not help but cry when my husband first shared this insight with me. I could not help but imagine my son lying naked and broken, nearing death, and needing but not finding me or his dad. But God did what no parent would ever do to his or her own beloved child. He turned His back on (God's) wrath might fall on Jesus who became our substitute. God did this because He loved us and willingly gave us His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die a terrible and humiliating death so that we may have eternal life. No greater love is there than this.
Tim Beeker
Supporter
YeHoshua spoke many times with "dark sayings." (Ps. 78:2-3) He, quite often, didn't speak directly to people, pushing them to think for themselves. Just as His writing in the dust directs us to Jer. 17:13, so does His quote from the cross direct us to Psalm 22, which is the absolute description of His death. He never said, "I told you so," but He let Scripture do all of His talking. Even at this point, though, the people gathered 'round Him had no clue what he was talking about. They thought He was calling out to Eliyah (Elijah). Points to ponder from Ps. 22: :6 despised of people :8 Mt. 27:42-43 :12 Mt. 27:1 :14 Sweat and blood flowed from Him (Lk. 22:44, bleeding from the flogging as well) The plasma that gathered in the pericardium has the consistency of melted wax and is slippery and then sticky, the same as wax. This was seen with the piercing of his side as the spear went up into the pericardial sack and pierced it and let blood and water flow. The name of the game was "pain" in crucifixion. His shoulders and elbows became disjointed, lengthening each arm approximately six inches. :15 The hypovolemic shock He suffered caused Him to thirst, greatly. :16 both of His hands and feet were pierced. :18 His garments were gambled for. Indeed, He probably did feel abandoned, as this emotion is very strong through his final hours. Read the rest of Ps. 22 and you'll see why He only quoted the beginning of it. He probably didn't have the time or the inclination to tell someone to go fetch a Torah scroll and come back and read it in front of everyone. I'm kind of guessing here, that He probably counted on at least a few people knowing Scripture... Just like He'd assume that some might know it today, as well.
Márkus Máté
Supporter
I'm convinced that this question is one of the most important questions of the Bible. We have the right to ask, why Jesus asked it on the cross. (1) Jesus is true and has never ever lied. So what he says is absolutly true. God did forsaked Jesus on the cross. So the real question is not, why Jesus said this, but why God forsaked Jesus. (2) Jesus was in a perfect relationship with God through his whole life. According to the Scripture Jesus is God, and God is Jesus. ( Jn 10,30; Jn 12,14; Jn 14,9) (3) Jesus became sin on the cross. (Isaiah 53) (4) God is extremly Holy. God is Holiness. God is Rightness. God cannot be in fellowship with sin or with the sinner. ( 1Jn 1,5 ) (5) ANSWER: This is why God left Jesus on the cross beacuse Jesus weared our sin on the cross and God could not stand it. (6) But this means something great for us. After the resurrection of Christ Jesus told to us: Mt 28, 20. And this is possible just beacuse once God must have left Jesus. God should have left us. We were the sinner. But since Jesus became sin instead of us, God left him on the cross and not us. This is why Jesus is with us, till the end of the age.
Trish Riddell
Supporter
It was because some of the people looking on had been brought up in the Hebrew ways and as a child learned parts of the Torah by heart. Psalm 22 was one of the key ones. It speaks of how people would turn their backs on God and put Jesus to death. By Jesus speaking out the first verse, they then remembered...and hopefully their eyes were opened to the truth of who He was.
Sherry Polk
Supporter
Psalm 22 was written at least 1,000 years before Christ was put on that cross, yet is states the exact same words...is it possible that He was quoting scripture? I truly believe He was preaching to the 2 thieves on the crosses next to him until He took His last breath. Also, I don't recall any other time Christ called God "God", He always referred to Him as "Father", so why would He say God at this time unless He was quoting scripture. Of course these are my beliefs...I am truly loving this website! :)
Tim Scott
Supporter
The Bible is showing us that the Jesus was the Messiah. While on the road to Emmaus, he opened before the scriptures everything in the Moses and prophets that concerned him. Jesus warned his disciples many times, that the Son of Man was go to Jerusalem and been killed but he would rise on the third day that scriptures might be fulfilled. If we study the old testament, we will see the life of Jesus. Jesus said, Search in the scripture, in it ye think you have eternal life, but they testify of ME. Every scripture has its foundation in Jesus Christ. He is the central pillar of all scripture. Isa 7:14, Behold a virgin shall be with child... Jesus.. Isa. 53.. The sufferings of Christ Isa 61:1 Jesus himself said, in your ears, this scripture is fulfilled in him. The reason why he said those words was show that he is the True Messiah! Dig there is so so much more to uncover about the Savior, Redeemer, The Holy ONe of Israel, Messiah, the Prince of Peace.
Doug Ivy
Supporter
Jesus took on the sins of man kind, and God is unable to look on sin. The three days was the time spent for repentance as required in the Old Testament. When Jesus arose he was cleansed of our Sins, and able to have relation or contact with God the father. This is the proof for me that he is the true and only Messiah. Jesus is and alway will be completely Holy because he is joined to God and the Spirt for ever.
OTTIS MACHIRI
Supporter
The book of John says that the Word (who is Jesus Christ) was with God from eternity. At no other time does the bible ever record that the God-Head was separate. But in John 3:16 God GAVE His Son as Saviour of the world. Now this giving was a form sacrifice and the Christ had to be ''divorced'' from the Father as all the sins of the world (present and future) were heaped on Him. God being holy and righteous had to look away from this sin. It is this severance that Jesus could not bear and hence He cried out and fulfilled scripture.
James Kraft
Supporter
Can you imagine being the sinless lamb of God and taking the punishment for every sin ever committed, and every sin that will be committed? First John 2:2. And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. And everyone who believes He did it for them is saved and given eternal life. But God did turn his back on His Son because He could not look upon His sin that He was taking on Himself to save anyone who would believe on Him. Jesus felt the weight of all sin. That is why He cried out, "My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?" For that brief time he had to be separated from the Father. That was worse than all the other pain and suffering He went through. He became sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Who can ever understand the love He has for us that while we were yet sinners, He died for us? Now our sin debt has been paid in full, and we can no longer be condemned. John 3:18 But, God who can not look upon sin, had to turn from His own Son in that brief period of time. The last thing Jesus said before He died is, "IT IS FINISHED." That is an accounting term, meaning our sin debt is paid in full. We are declared righteous before God. Romans 4:6. We have His righteousness given as a free gift for believing on His name. Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. We all deserve to go to hell. But Jesus paid our sin debt in full so that we would not have to go to hell to pay for them. Now we have a home in heaven because of what He did for us. First John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may KNOW YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.
Jack Gutknecht
Supporter
The darkness left after 3 hours. Then Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This was a direct quotation from Psalm 22:1. It was during the time of {period of} darkness that Jesus had been made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21 --"For our sake He [God the Father] made Him [God the Son (Jesus)] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God."). He had been forsaken by the Father! That darkness was a symbol of the judgment that He put up with when He was “made a curse” for us (Gal. 3:13). Psalm 22:2 suggests a period of light and a period of darkness, and Psalm 22:3 emphasizes the holiness of God. How could a holy God look with favor on His Son who had become sin?
According to Ron Rhodes, it was a judicial abandonment, a separation from God, who can't look on sin (Habakkuk 1:13a -- "You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong"). He died, separated from God so that we might never be separated from Him (Hebrews 13:5).
Mark 15:34:
Let the dumb world its silence break;
Let pealing anthems rend the sky;
Awake, my sluggish soul, awake!
He died, that we might never die. (hymn by J. W. Cunningham)
Oluwasola Ayosanmi
Supporter
Reading this scripture from contextual view, people said he should prove that he was the son of God. They wanted him to show them that he trusted God. I think Jesus responded by quoting the scripture in psalm 22 as a confirmation of what was happening at that time showing the event of the moment was the fulfillment of that scripture. He came to fulfill the scripture, he died to fulfill the scripture, he was resurrected to fulfill the scripture and he will come back again to fulfill the scripture.
Vincent Mercado
Supporter
LSS, or Last Song Syndrome. You know it when you heard a song and you find yourself singing it over and over the entire day. Somehow, Jesus couldn't get Psalm 22 off his head.
Carolyn Yusuf
Supporter
God never forsakes anyone, and most assuredly not his son. He is omnipresent as well as ever present. We as humans become so wrapped up in the trappings of life ( pain, sickness, suffering, poverty, injustice, etc) that we often forget or 'forsake' that God is. I Am always IS. We do the forsaking. All that is needed is for us to believe that God is with us and that He will never forsake us.
Justin Hale
Supporter
"Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their transgressions against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). Even though it is nearly impossible for us to grasp mentally, GOD never left the Lord Jesus Christ at any time, since Yahweh Is the Lord Jesus Christ. As High Priest, He was inspiring His own physical slaughter as blood payment for our redemption. Jesus was the 'superior substitute' for the blood of bulls and goats, as a Perfect Man paying forever for our transgressions both personally and collectively inside the 'holiest place.' We are even told that the 'veil' separating the 'Holy of Holies' from the Holy place was His own flesh and that it was 'torn,' removing any separation, (Hebrews 10:20). Yet, we are still physically dying. Why? Death is the the divine penalty for sin, (James 1:15). What GOD was also doing simultaneously as Christ upon the cross, was providing the blood we need to FOREVER deter the 'Destroyer of the firstborn.' Christ's role as the 'Paschal Lamb of GOD' is to 'ward off' the Destroyer. The 'Destroyer' is a lineage and inheritance killer. That is why it attacks the 'firstborn.' This 'Lamb of GOD' was the one speaking out upon the cross at that moment when He was reciting Psalm 22, but He was not crying out in anguish, despair or isolation, since Psalm 22 is not a Psalm of mourning and death. It only begins that way. "You who fear Yahweh, praise Him; All you seed of Jacob, glorify Him, And stand in awe of Him, all you seed of Israel. For He has not despised and He has not abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; And He has not hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard. Of You is my praise in the great assembly; I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him. The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise Yahweh. May your heart live forever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Yahweh, And all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is Yahweh’s And He rules over the nations." (Psalm 22:23-28). "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2). The word translated 'despising' there means to 'look down upon with contempt,' (Greek koine: 'kataphroneō'). You cannot 'look down with contempt' upon something unless you are already sitting in an exalted position above it. GOD was not 'abandoning' Himself, nor was He in a state of humbled anguish any longer about the 'price' being paid, since this was not the crushed and afflicted one crying out at being abandoned, but was the Lamb finally opening up His mouth in exalted praise at the final stage of the work being done. It was shortly after this that Jesus was offered the anesthetic gall representing an opportunity to prolong His life with less pain in exchange for more torture. Shortly after declining it, He said, 'It is finished!' and yielded up His spirit, (John 19:30). The 'High Priest' within Him had finished the work of both the required slaughter of that sinless physical body and our protection from the Destroyer, so He simply went 'home.' Jesus had joy throughout this experience. It was only others who saw Him as a 'worm and not a man.' "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8). We are still physically dying because most of us have claimed the redemption of our soul through the sacrifice of the Perfect Man's body, but we have not taken the hyssop and smeared the doorposts of our physical 'tabernacle.' The 'Destroyer of lineages' remains until we claim our full inheritance, the redemption of our bodies, (Romans 8:23).
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