The Fourth Word

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  Matthew 27:46

 

When we wish to identify a particular part of the Bible we refer to a specific chapter and verse.  That wasn’t the case at the time of Jesus.  Instead, the identification of Old Testament scripture was made by reciting the opening line of the material to be recalled.  A Jew looking on at the crucifixion or reading about it later in one of the Gospels would know that “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” was the first line of what we now know as Psalm 22.

Psalms 22 describes Jesus

In effect, Jesus was reciting this Psalm and teaching that this Psalm applied to him. He was the fulfillment of its prophecy. He was telling Jews of the time that he was the Messiah and he is telling us that he is the King of Kings foretold in Psalm 22. You be the judge as to whether the following excerpts from Psalm 22 describe the crucifixion and Jesus:

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
*****

6 But I am a worm, and no man;
scorned by men, and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock at me,
they make mouths at me, they wag their heads;
8 “He committed his cause to the Lord; let him deliver him,
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

*****

14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax,
it is melted within my breast;
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
thou dost lay me in the dust of death.

16 Yea, dogs are round about me;
a company of evildoers encircle me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
17 I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my raiment they cast lots.

*****

[Verses 23-31 tell us that this pain and agony will be followed by triumph]

23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
all you sons of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you sons of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted;
and he has not hid his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.

*****

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 Yea, to him shall all the proud of the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and he who cannot keep himself alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him;
men shall tell of the Lord to the coming generation,
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
that he has wrought it.

Psalms 22: Tragedy to triumph      

Psalm 22 begins with a cry of desperation but the closing verses 30 and 31 ends with triumph: “Posterity shall serve him; men shall tell of the Lord to the coming generation, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, that he has wrought it” Psalm 22 begins in tragedy and ends with a description of the triumphant Lord.

But that’s not all.

Consequence of sin is separation from God

Jesus’ suffering had to be complete; he had to suffer in body, mind, and spirit.  Once again Bishop Sheen leads us (The Life of Christ, page 400):

“Sin has physical effects, and these He bore by having His hands and feet pierced; sin has mental effects which He poured forth in the Garden of Gethsemane; sin also has spiritual effects such as a sense of abandonment, separation from God, loneliness.  This particular moment He willed to take upon Himself that principal effect of sin which was abandonment.”

“Man rejected God; so now He willed to feel that rejection.  Man turned away from God; now He, Who was God united personally with a human nature, willed to feel in that human nature that awful wrench as if He Himself were guilty. . . . As He entered upon the extreme penalty of sin, which is separation from God, it was fitting that His eyes be filled with darkness and His soul with loneliness.

*****

“Christ’s cry was of abandonment which He felt standing in a sinner’s place, but it was not of despair.  The soul that despairs never cries to God.”

Christ called out to God because he was the Son of Man with a human nature and he represented humanity before God and assumed all human sins.  Since sin is separation from God and is willed by man, all humanity cries through Christ saying, “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?”  He represented us in death, torment and the atonement of sin, and so he suffered God’s entire wrath, including the consequences of sin, which is separation from God.  This Jesus willed upon Himself for our sakes.

A warning about hell?

I wonder if the relentless and excruciating pain Jesus endured on the cross is a warning about hell. The consequence of sin is separation from God, and Jesus willed upon himself this total separation and suffered intense agony as a result. If we choose to ignore God why would we expect anything but eternal separation from him? An existence without God can only be described as fierce agony. This would be hell, and I wonder if this was one of the lessons Christ was teaching as he hung from the cross crying, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?!”

Don’t know – just a thought for your consideration.

Some websites and references

 

Last modified September 28, 2019