My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?

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crazydaisy1234

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Jesus says these words in Mark’s Gospel in his final moments on the cross. I can’t get my head around why he says this - knowing that he IS God and is fulfilling Scripture and the reason for his becoming incarnate was to suffer for our sins to save us.

Does it show us that he was fully human, and suffered such awful horrors for us, or am I missing something? I would love to understand better.
 
St. Anthony Messenger:

*“At three o’clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46).

How was Jesus’ cry from the cross, quoted in Aramaic, received by those standing near? “When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling for Elijah.’ And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down’” (Mark 15:35-36; Matthew 27:47,49). They misunderstood; they were not quite sure exactly what it was that Jesus had said.

Each year during Holy Week we Christians stand once again near the cross and hear Jesus’ cry anew. Unlike those described in the Gospel, though, we know exactly what he said and we recognize it as the opening verse of Psalm 22.*

Everything He did was for a purpose, was to fulfill in THEIR HEARING AND SEEING the scriptures all Jews knew very well (since they were orally passed on). It was the fulfillment of that scripture which made those who understood, who knew the Word, realize WHO HE WAS and what HE WAS DOING.
 
crazydaisy1234 said:
Jesus says these words in Mark’s Gospel in his final moments on the cross. I can’t get my head around why he says this - knowing that he IS God and is fulfilling Scripture and the reason for his becoming incarnate was to suffer for our sins to save us.

Does it show us that he was fully human, and suffered such awful horrors for us, or am I missing something? I would love to understand better.
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Jesus was quoting the Bible; Psalm 22, verse 1, to be exact.

When He said this, He wasn’t despairing. Rather, he was making reference to the Psalm which directly makes prophecies about the Messiah’s passion.
 
crazydaisy1234 said:
Jesus says these words in Mark’s Gospel in his final moments on the cross. I can’t get my head around why he says this - knowing that he IS God and is fulfilling Scripture and the reason for his becoming incarnate was to suffer for our sins to save us.

Does it show us that he was fully human, and suffered such awful horrors for us, or am I missing something? I would love to understand better.
Click to expand...
Psalm 22

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest…25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor[h] shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.*
28 For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
29 To him,[j] indeed, shall all who sleep in[k] the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.[l]
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
31 and[m] proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.*
 
Recall that Psalm 22 is a prayer of someone who was in a place where he felt that God had forsaken him.

But had God truly forsaken the composer of Psalm 22? Of course not. If God had truly forsaken them, then we would not have Psalm 22 to read today. Neither would Jesus have had it to quote from.

Psalm 22 is about a person who gets abused by enemies who pierce his hands and feet, enemies who put him on display so that he can be viewed in shame by all–they even cast lots for his clothes that they rip from his body. Yet the psalmist survived all this and was inspired to tell all about how God did not truly forsake him to these villains. The psalmist wrote this in part because he wanted others to know that even in their darkest times when they feel most abandoned, they are not.

Jesus as God incarnate wanted to share all of human experience, including the feeling we often have of being abandoned. It is of interest that he takes this psalm as his personal prayer on the cross. The details of the psalm prophetically apply to him since he was literally pierced by nails in the hands, put on display on the cross as a criminal, and they literally cast lots for his clothes!

Psalm 22 uses irony to get its point across that there is nothing that humans can experience which will include abandonment by God. God will be there with us. Jesus proved this and brought attention to this fact by using the opening words of this psalm on the cross. “He did not hide his face from me,” the psalmist writes about God, “but heard when I cried to him.”–verse 24.
 
Even though the blind men called Jesus Son of David", many others did not make the connection. The Messiah had to be from the House of David, and also the Son of David to fulfill prophecy. By twice quoting from the Psalms of David while on the cross, Jesus was making that connection certain for all time. His last words were “Into Thy hands I commend my Spirit” which is directly from Ps 30:6
 
po18guy said:
Even though the blind men called Jesus Son of David", many others did not make the connection. The Messiah had to be from the House of David, and also the Son of David to fulfill prophecy. By twice quoting from the Psalms of David while on the cross, Jesus was making that connection certain for all time. His last words were “Into Thy hands I commend my Spirit” which is directly from Ps 30:6
Click to expand...
I don’t have anything to add to the original post, but po18guy, I like your signature line…the quote from Sheen…his wit and insight were priceless! Gotta love AB Fulton Sheen…hopefully soon to be SAINT Fulton J. Sheen!!!

~~Prairie Rose
 
The Lord Jesus truly had to suffer everything, humbling himself to the level of the lowest of all creatures, He who was the Lord, Son of God, true God of true God, submissive to the infamous death by the Cross (“whosoever is crucified is cursed by God”, reads the Torah and reminds us Galatians 3:13), and so that the Psalm 22 of the Sacred Scriptures may be fulfilled:

*“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; in you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.‘He trusts in the Lord,”’ they say, ‘let the Lord rescue him.*’"

Indeed, right before His departure, the Lord also said: “I thirst!” for Psalm 22 reads:

“My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.”

Also, after His death, when the soldier pierced His side with a spear, blood and water came out:

“I am poured out like water… My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me”.

But after all this suffering, right before death, the Lord Jesus cried: “It is finished!”

For the Psalm 22 recited:

“*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, for dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

All who go down to the dust will kneel before him— those who cannot keep themselves alive. Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.

They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: “He has done it!*”

“And Jesus gave a loud cry and said, ‘Father, into your hands I give my spirit!’ and when he had said this, he gave up his spirit.”

For the Holy Scriptures read in Psalm 31:

"*Into your hand I commit my spirit: you have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth!

Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I have called upon thee.

Let the wicked be ashamed, and be brought down to hell. Let the lying lips be put to silence.

And as for me, I said in my fear, “I am cut off from your sight!” but you gave ear to the voice of my prayer, when my cry went up to you.*"

And the Scriptures continue being fulfilled through Psalm 16:

"*Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have secured my inheritance.

The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance!

I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.

My body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.*"

There is plenty that has been said on the Last Words of the Lord, and entire books have been written…if the greatest minds have not been able to fully grasp all that these words carry within themselves, how could we :o
 
Also note, as soon as Jesus uttered, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” All of the Jews near Him would have known exactly where Jesus was quoting from, and that Jesus was attributing the passage to Himself. It was common practice that the beginning of a passage would be said, and everyone else would be able to recite it. The Pharisees practiced this diligently.

I’ll give you an example:

The Lord is my Shepherd…

What did you just say in your head? It was the same for the Jews 2000 years ago. One would utter the beginning of a passage, and the rest would come to mind.
 
Thank you all for these insights, this has helped immensely.
 
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