Did Jesus blaspheme?

[CatholicIllini]

Did Jesus blaspheme when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

[NewsTheMan]

No. What makes you think he blasphemed?

 

[CatholicIllini]

Isn’t he accusing God of abandoning him?

 

[josephback]

Did Jesus blaspheme when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

No. He might have been reminding his onlookers of Psalm 22, a prophecy. Read it.

 

[Godfollower]

Did Jesus blaspheme when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Isn’t he accusing God of abandoning him?

No; He was quoting one of the Psalms:

For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.**

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.[c]
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 “He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
“let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
15 My mouth[d] is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.

16 Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce[e] my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.

19 But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you[f] I will fulfill my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the LORD will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.

29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it! **
Psalm 22 (NIV).

It’s about the mercy and salvation of God for one persecuted. It expresses hope, not despair.

 

[thistle]

Isn’t he accusing God of abandoning him?

Is that a joke?
He was quoting Psalm 22. Look it up.

 

[CatholicIllini]

No need to mock me. I asked because I honestly didn’t know. I’m sorry.

 

[thistle]

No need to mock me. I asked because I honestly didn’t know. I’m sorry.

Its me who should apologise. My comment was too abrasive.

 

[thistle]

Actually I should apologise. My comment was too abrasive.

 

[patrick457]

No need to mock me. I asked because I honestly didn’t know. I’m sorry.

Thistle does often sound rather sharp, but don’t worry, I’m sure he meant no harm.

And for the record, no, that was not blasphemy, any more than us quoting Scripture or even genuinely feeling a sense of loneliness and abandonment (a ‘dark night of the soul’ as some saints have called it) is.

 

[puzzleannie]

Did Jesus blaspheme when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

not unless you define praying the psalms as blasphemy

think about it for a moment, if it were blasphemy to cry out to God in this way, that means anytime we cry out to God to say we feel lost and abandoned by him–a spiritual condition every soul must go through on the journey to spiritual union with God at some time–we would be blaspheming, as if we were not allowed to tell God our feelings.

 

[Abba]

Once when I was discussing with a voodoo practitioner, she gave me two reasons why Jesus according to their belief - failed. She said that he was not suppose to use his powers to resuscitate and that evidence of his failure was those words he spoke on the Cross. That because he used his powers God abandoned him.

I really don’t know that I gave the best answer, I was very ignorant about my faith then and a little less now. I said that Jesus demonstrated the power of faith, if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we could move mountains and even resuscitate. I also said that exactly his words on the Cross demonstrate that the Word emptied himself and endured to the end without assistance from the Father.

I don’t know that this was the best response. I maybe going to the Caribbean as some point and would mind knowing it there is a better way to respond to this.

How would you respond?

 

[jcrichton]

Did Jesus blaspheme when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

…some say that Jesus was quoting a Psalm; that in ancient practice quoting a verse (first verse?) meant that the audience was steered towards the Psalm… in my pedestrain reasoning I see Christ coming to that very specific moment in time where He, as the Son of Man/Lamb of God, had to give up His temporal (flesh) body in order to fulfill the Prophecies… as insignificant as that time frame could have been, there came a moment when Christ would take on the sin of the world… it would also be the moment when He and the Father had to separate, even if just for a fraction of a nanosecond, since sin cannot exist with God–Christ’s separation form the Father and the Holy Spirit is the worse experience that Christ would suffer:

Saying: Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me: but yet not my will, but thine be done. (St. Luke 22:42–DRV)

Though He knew that He had to endure such episode (St. John 12:27) He could not bear being separate from the Father–remember that to God 1 day is as 1000 years.

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[jcrichton]

Once when I was discussing with a voodoo practitioner, she gave me two reasons why Jesus according to their belief - failed. She said that he was not suppose to use his powers to resuscitate and that evidence of his failure was those words he spoke on the Cross. That because he used his powers God abandoned him.

I really don’t know that I gave the best answer, I was very ignorant about my faith then and a little less now. I said that Jesus demonstrated the power of faith, if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we could move mountains and even resuscitate. I also said that exactly his words on the Cross demonstrate that *the Word emptied himself and endured to the end *without assistance from the Father.

I don’t know that this was the best response. I maybe going to the Caribbean as some point and would mind knowing it there is a better way to respond to this.

How would you respond?

…the problem with non-Christians (some Christians too, though) is that they take one passage of Scriptures and run with it as that’s the end of it all… remind them that Jesus is God and that He never stopped being God and that He sits at the Right Hand of the Fahter, that the Father put everything under Him, and that He is the One Who is to Come: the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the One that Was, Is, and Is to Come… the One, with the Father, who is Worshiped in Heaven!

Maran atha!

Angel

PS: I concur with your summation