Eli, Eli, Lama Sachthani - a peek behind the Lord's last few words

[powerofk]

Ah, yes - Psalm 22/21. See, it is a two-part psalm, in which the psalmist feels completely abandoned by God in the first half, then praises God for his ultimate triumph in the second half. And it would have been completely appropriate for Jesus to intone the first line in the psalm while hanging from the cross. Even though Jesus wasn’t trulyabandoned by the Father, we have to remember that Jesus is not only True God but also True Man. As being part of the Trinity, Jesus, even in His crucifixion, was united to the Father. But as a man, a human person, Jesus must have felt completely abandoned. Remember, just 16 hours earlier, He was sweating blood due to the absolute fear that He had regarding what He knew had to be done. Jesus, in His humanness, was begging the Father for another way. So His recitation of Psalm 22 was an invocation of how He felt at that moment - and a reminder, more than likely, to Himself (and anyone who was paying attention, because many bystanders obviously though He was calling for Elijah to help) as to His final triumph.

 

[afthomercy]

Truly, God doesn’t abandon anybody, not even the worst sinner, but he may and (does) allow his holy ones to feel his absence (i.e. abandonment). In the case of a sinner, his sins create a ‘natural’ barrier between him and God, but in the case of a righteous man, a feeling of God-absence may be strategically initiated by God as a means of testing.

Yes, God allowed the Jews and Romans to do what they pleased with Jesus, but let’s not forget that there was another important player there who wanted a free run over him - Satan. Ephesians 6:12 clearly says “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

The OP, taking the precedent from Job 1:6-12, is that the Father deliberately let Jesus feel abandonment so as to forever deny Satan the opportunity to say, in his case, that he was ‘prevented’ from getting him to apostasise. This slur had to be pre-empted and the cross was the last opportunity for the Father to do so!

 

[michaelhager]

Try on the slant that this is neither a cry of anguish, or a cry of victory, but rather a notice to those around the cross that this is the fulfillment of the prophesy of the Messiah.

Things look bad now, but they are really much better than you can imagine, the Messiah is here.