This is an excerpt from my book “40 Moments From Christ’s Final Days.” Click here to get it from Amazon using my affiliate link.
Find this moment in: Mt. 27:46, Mk 15:34
Christ doesn’t say much during His final moment on the cross. Luke 23:46 shows Him quoting Psalm 31:5. John 19:30 records the famous “It is finished.” Each phrase deserves close study, but another thing Christ says has generated more confusion and misunderstanding than perhaps anything else He said on the cross.
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” (Matthew 27:46)
Most explanations follow a similar pattern. Many assume Jesus is separated from the Father when the sun darkens. The Trinity is fractured as the Son is set apart because of our sins upon Him. God can’t even look at Jesus for these three hours.
However, there are three issues with this interpretation.
First, the timing is off. The sun darkens from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, yet Jesus doesn’t say these words until the very end of this three-hour darkness. If the sun’s darkening really was because Jesus and the Father were separated, we’d expect Him to cry out in shock and horror immediately, not three hours after it began.
Second, we must be careful with what we mean by statements like “Jesus was separated from God.” If we have a traditional understanding of the Trinity, then the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have eternally been three persons with one essence. For God to be anything else would make Him cease to be God.
Yet if we claim that Jesus was genuinely separated and apart from the Father and Spirit, then at that moment God ceased to be who He’s been for eternity, and thus ceased to be God. Jesus would have to become a second, separate god. The Father’s wrath was certainly on Jesus for the sins He carried for us, but God could not possibly cease to be three perfect persons who are eternally the same perfect essence.
Third, most confusion probably comes from misunderstanding why He said these words in the first place. It’s easy to assume He cried out in surprise or because He couldn’t take the torment anymore. However, the entire tone of His statement changes when we realize that He’s quoting Psalm 22.
The entire passage is too long to quote here, but it’s worth reading Psalm 22 carefully. David begins the Psalm with this cry of lament, feeling as though God is so far away that He doesn’t hear him. In verse 3, David corrects this error by remembering God’s holiness and faithfulness to Israel. David calls for his listeners to return to their only hope of salvation. David winds down with a reminder that God sees their distress, will rescue them, and calls for people to seek Him. Then, he ends with a guarantee.
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.
All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship,
All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.
Their seed will serve Him;
It will be recounted about the Lord to the coming generation.
They will come and will declare His righteousness
To a people who will be born, that He has done it. (Psalm 22:27-31)
Jesus doesn’t question what the Father is doing at that moment. He’s proclaiming His victory to those who are listening. Everyone around Him would have understood that His few words were part of a much larger whole. Jesus was proclaiming the victory brought through His sacrifice. He was pointing people to who He was, what He just did, and what they needed to do in response.
We need to understand His final words just like that ancient audience.
Jesus wasn’t abandoned. He was boldly victorious. His death would make the promised future of Psalm 22 possible, and everyone around Him knew it. Even after the horrors He experienced, and despite the victory Satan thought he’d won, Jesus proclaimed the truth to the world. He was, and is, the King of Kings and Savior of all His people.
Stop and think: Understanding the words of Christ brings even more hope and power to what He did on the cross. Jesus never doubted, wavered, or deviated from the perfect plan of redemption that was in place for eternity. Read Matthew 27:46 with the victorious mindset of Psalm 22 and think about how that changes Christ’s final moments on the cross.
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