I must disagree… if Jesus responds to the mockery and chastisement the Suffering Servant is being confrontational… compare that premise (employing Psalm 22 as response) to Pilate’s request that He give him an anwer… Jesus does not!
- 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).
- 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.
- Your interpretation seems to indicate that Jesus-God the Son-succumbed to the sin of despair.
jcrichton;9181525:
The people did not seek to Believe in Jesus; even if He did come down from the Cross they would have refused to believe their own senses; both the Jews and Romans were incredulous and merely acted as agents of Satan (temptation in the desert) seeking to derail God’s Salvific Plan by coercing Jesus to put up a defense (as one of the two crucified alongside of Him); Jesus, of course, could not!
I would warn against speculating what God the Son could or could not do(see John 19:11). 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.
…as for Jesus Plead for humanity (specifically those involved in the betrayal, torture, and murder of the Son of man) is not as a response to the assaults but as a Merciful act of Forgiveness: Jesus did not charge those who perpetrated the hienous acts against Him with the merited wrath that their sins demanded; in essense, Jesus is fulfilling His Mission:
“…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.