“My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?”
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'And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabaktanei?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” '
This is one of the most difficult passages in the bible. It is loaded with implications, meaning, and emotion.
Jesus has been suffering on the cross for several hours. At this point, He is near death. The torture, humiliation, and physical pain that He has endured since His trial is about to culminate in His death, and the last thing He says is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” '
God Dies
Then something impossible happens: God dies. Christians have been taught and ought to believe that Jesus is all God and all man. So, the conundrum we have as Christians is, how can God die?
This is important because Christianity lives and dies on the cross. If God died on the cross, then man has the capacity to kill God and, therefore, establish himself as the ultimate authority of life.
In my mind, I cannot understand how God could die. If Jesus is God as we have been taught, then the obvious question is, how can He die at the hands of man? The answer is that man can't kill God. So, we are back to the question of who died on the cross?
Another appropriate question is, when did Jesus become God? Did He become God at conception? Was it at His circumcision as an infant? Was it when He went to Jerusalem with His parents and was left in the temple? Was it when He performed His first miracle? Was it when He was baptized by John the Baptist? Was it when God said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
In the Beginning
Or was it as John states in John 1:1, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. '
Jesus did not become God because, as John states in John 1:1, Jesus was at the beginning. Jesus has always been God, and He has never been anything else. He was God at the creation of the universe, at His birth, at His crucifixion, and at His resurrection, and He is God today.
God became man for 33 years. He became a human being for 33 years. What does that mean? It has many definitions and implications, but the one I want to focus on is this. He willfully and knowingly set aside His Godhead to become the sacrifice for humanity.
He temporarily set aside His royalty and majesty and power to become our salvation, our payment, for our insurmountable sin. God's plan has always hinged on this moment, on the moment when the sinless, spotless, righteous lamb would be sacrificed for all humanity.
The problem has always been and will always be that we humans could not ever produce a sinless, spotless lamb to pay for our sins. Because we all sin and fall short of God's standard, we would perpetually be mired and stuck in our sins.
Payment
Regardless of our condition, God required payment for our restoration with Him. The payment had to be equal to the bill, and the only thing that could make that payment was a perfect sacrifice—a sinless, spotless, innocent lamb.
Since sin in the garden of Eden, God knew we could never make the payment. He knew our hearts, and He knew He was the only one capable of making the payment for our sins. He knew He would have to sacrifice Himself for our sins because He is the only one capable of providing the value necessary to balance the ledger. However, God could not die.
So, he decided He would have a Son who was all God and all Man. This Son would become the necessary payment for our sins. But there was one caveat: the Son would have to willingly make the payment for humanity.
Let’s take a side trip to the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is praying the night before He is betrayed by Judas, and this is what He says to God, His Father, 'And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cup cannot pass away unless I drink from it, Your will be done.” '
Anguish and Pain
Now, my question to you is this: What was Jesus praying about? I wonder what that prayer is about.
The natural assumption is that God would spare Him the pain of being crucified. But Jesus, seeing and understanding this moment from the beginning of time, why would He at this point ask to be removed from His purpose? I mean, Jesus knew this was coming, and He knew He had been sent to the earth to fulfill this purpose. He had foreknowledge of what He was about to endure. He had told the apostles as much several times. So, to ask to be relieved of His duties at this point would be inconsistent with His purpose.
So, what was he praying about? That would cause Him such anguish that He would sweat drops of blood. (Luke 22:24) I don’t think Jesus is praying about being released or spared of His sacrifice.
Later in the story, Jesus says. 'Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? '
This occurs immediately after He finishes praying for the release of His upcoming separation. If Jesus wanted to be released from His purpose of being a sacrifice for humanity, He could have ended it right then. He could have asked the Father, and He could have ended it right then. Jesus becomes the willing sinless sacrifice for humanity.
The Duality of Christ
Christians are taught that Jesus is both man and God simultaneously. But what does that mean? It means He has lived with the limits of humanity while being omni everything at the same time. But it also means there was an existing reality of two people. Jesus, the man, lived with all of the same emotions and limitations as a man, while Jesus, the Christ, was the incarnate God with all knowledge and power.
Jesus was conceived and lived inextricably tied to God. In other words, from the time of His conception, Jesus was intermingled with God. They were both God and Jesus, always together. Jesus experienced God in Him with an acuity we can't comprehend. Jesus never lived a moment when God, the creator, was not with Him. They were two people totally conscious of each other, with Jesus the man being totally aware of God the Father in Him.
Now imagine knowing God the Father with that level of intimacy. Imagine Jesus, the man, looking into the future, knowing He was going to be sacrificed for humanity and knowing that for the only time in His life, He was going to be all alone without the Father in Him. You may ask why God would abandon Him at this moment of crisis, the very moment Jesus would need him most. Because as long as God and Jesus were one, God could not die. If God had not abandoned Jesus, the sacrifice could not happen.
Christ in Gethsemane was not praying about being released from the pain and torture of the crucifixion. He was in agony and fear of the separation that he would have to endure at the cross. Having been with God all His life, Jesus the man was more than just a little concerned about the total separation from God at that moment.
For the only time in His life, He was going to be totally human without the God of creation in Him. The very definition of His life was going to be parted from him. All of humanity hinged on Jesus, the man, being willing to pay for our sins.
Jesus’s concern in the garden of Gethsemane was not His physical predicament. It was His eternal life being separated from God the Father, the Father He had lived with all His life. Jesus understood He was going to be all alone on the cross. That was anguish.
In 2 Corinthians 5:21, it says, 'He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.'
God cannot become sin, but Jesus, the separated son of God, became sin for us. The only way Jesus could become sin was to be separated from God. As long as God and Jesus were one, it was not possible for Jesus to be our sin.
' “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. '
A Real Man
God sacrificed His human Son for our sins. It was not symbolic or metaphorical. It was a blood-bleeding man who hung on the cross all by Himself and died for our sins. This man was the actual DNA-infused son of God.
It was not the God-man who died on the cross. It was the child of Mary. It was not Christ our risen savior. It was an actual innocent human being who willingly took on all our sins and became the final sufficient lamb for our salvation.
I believe that when Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” ' Is when Jesus the man understood and realized the depth of desolation of being separated from God His and our Father.
What Jesus was saying to us at that moment is that you don’t want to be abandoned and completely, hopelessly separated from your Father.