44 The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words. 45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” 47 And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.” 48 Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink. 49 But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.”
In the midst of verbal and physical abuse, Jesus did not lack the ability to do what they taunted Him to do. Even the men being crucified with Him mocked Him, although one came to a change of heart (see Luke 23:39-43). But, our Lord was determined to fulfill the Father’s will, not His own and certainly not theirs.
Mark 15:25 notes that Jesus was crucified at around 9:00 a.m. (the “third” hour). In our passage here, darkness suddenly fell from about noon (the “sixth” hour) until three o’clock. Jesus had been on the cross for six hours when He finally broke out with a mournful, eerie cry. There was darkness not only in the world, but also, as William MacDonald says, in His own soul.
The gospel writer recorded the Hebrew which Jesus used here (transliterated in our English Bibles) and also the Greek translation (translated into English in our Bibles). Matthew wanted to make it absolutely clear to his readers that Jesus was quoting from Psalm 22 which begins with that very phrase. In accordance with standard rabbinical practice, Jesus quoted the first line of a passage as a way of directing his hearers to the entire passage.
The answer to Jesus cry is found in Psalm 22:3, “You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.” But Jesus had become unholy. The Father forsook the Son because, being holy, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21). In that darkness, Jesus bore the sin of the world, and the Father could, therefore, not look upon His Son, as it were.
A breech in the eternal fellowship of the Father and Son had taken place. This is incomprehensible to our puny, finite minds. Yet, at another level, there was an eternal fellowship of purpose in dealing with sin, for both the Father and the Son were working in concert, perfectly united in their purpose. It was a planned disconnect, agreed upon from eternity past. Those standing by completely misunderstood the point (mistaking the Hebrew for a call to Elijah)!
Father, while I cannot possibly understand fully what took place in the darkness on the cross, I thank You for making it happen, that I might have life.
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