Who exactly was crucified?

[jcrichton]

1. Citing Psalm 22 to a Roman governor would be pointless because Pilate would have no idea what He meant. Jesus didn’t respond directly to the charges of the Jews to Pilate because the charges were false and the priests were being dishonest. They wanted Jesus dead because he testified to Himself in front of the Sanhedrin(Matt 26-63-64). The Priests set Him before Pilate with the charge that Jesus was setting Himself against Ceasar. And Jesus did answer pilate while at the same time avoiding to answer(see John 18).

Perhaps I am not being clear enough… I am not speaking about the Psalm… I am speaking about Jesus refusal to engage those whom He has already given an answer for His Being… as Pilate who could not have goaded Jesus to satisfy his human curiosity.

1. Jesus in John’s gospel responded to the High Priest’s questions and also to the guard after he had struck Jesus. I think you are missing a distinction between “being confrontational” and testifying to the truth. Jesus citing Psalm 22 while on the cross is no different.

Not missing it; giving a response to someone who is debasing, mocking or belittling is to engage a defense–hence, being confrontational.

1. Your interpretation seems to indicate that Jesus-God the Son-succumbed to the sin of despair.

Quite the contrary… Jesus is alone for the very first time as He takes on the sin of the world… it is this Chalise that He must Drink Alone and His human nature will feel the weight of the world a a singular fraction of time (perhaps a trillionth of a nanosecond)… and it is that moment in which Jesus, the Son of man, calls to His Heavenly Father… not out of despair or impotense but due to the realization of how painful it is to be distant from the Father.

I would warn against speculating what God the Son could or could not do(see John 19:11).

I must disagree… there is Biblical text that demonstrate, explicity or implicitly, that Jesus will do or not do certain things… (ie: a) removing the vendors/thieves from the Temple–while this may seem inappropriate for Jesus to do, He is fulfilling a prophecy and the event takes place in the House of God; b) when Jesus is being Curcified He is offer–as it was customary, a special mixture which had sedative/s… Jesus, of course, could not drink it since it would violate all of the prophecies that claim that He would suffer for the people; c) though He prayed for Kephas (Cephas), Jesus could not pray for Judas…)

Secondly there was no amount of coersion that would have set Jesus against the Father’s will. Neither would their lack of faith nullify Jesus’ faithfulness.

“…therefore he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.”(John 19:11)
" [23] And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified.”
[24] So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.”
[25] And all the people answered, **“His blood be on us and on our children!” **(Matt 27)

The Jews through this final rash oath brought judgement upon themselves when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 a.d… Jesus did not need to “charge” them because as with the nature of sin the wrath it brings stems from sin’s own nature; meaning sin is it’s own punishment(see Romans 1:18-32).

The bottom line is that since Jesus is perfect man as well as God the Son there is no way I can accept that Jesus, even on the cross, succumbed to despair and believed that God had literally abandoned Him. That “God abandoned God”. It is a total contradiction. You are essentially saying that God would deny Himself.

Every biblical commentary I have read on Matthew contradicts such a claim. At best you could only claim that the citation expresses Jesus’ agony as He experiences the full brunt of humanity’s rejection.

…answered above.

Maran atha!

Angel