Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 15:34
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
34. And at the ninth hour ] the hour of the offering of the evening sacrifice,
Jesus cried with a loud voice ] He now gives utterance to the words of the first verse of the xxii nd Psalm, in which, in the bitterness of his soul, David had complained of the desertion of his God, and said,
“Elo! Elo! lama sabachthani?”
This is the only one of the “Seven Sayings from the Cross,” which has been recorded by St Mark, and he gives the original Aramaic and its explanation. Observe that of these sayings (i) the first three all referred to others, to ( a) His murderers, ( b) the penitent malefactor, ( c) His earthly mother; (ii) the next three referred to His own mysterious and awful conflict, ( a) His loneliness, ( b) His sense of thirst, ( c) His work now all but ended; (iii) with the seventh He commends His soul into His Father’s hands.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mar 15:34
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Forsaken of God
One thing we know, He was alone; He had reached the climax of that loneliness in which His whole earthly work had been carried on. It is hardly possible for us to understand the nature of the solitude of the life of Christ. It was not the solitude of the hermit or monk; He ever lived among his fellow men; not the solitude of pride, sullenly refusing all sympathy and aid; not the solitude of selfishness, creating around its icy centre a cold, bleak, barren wilderness; not the solitude of sickly sentimentality, forever crying out that it can find no one to understand or appreciate; but the solitude of a pure, holy, heavenly spirit, into all whose deeper thoughts there was not a single human being near Him, or around Him, who could enter; with all whose deeper feelings there was not one who could sympathize; whose truest, deepest motives, ends, and objects, in living and dying as He did, not one could comprehend. Spiritually, and all throughout, the loneliest man that ever lived was Jesus Christ. (Hanna.) Yet there were times when this loneliness deepened on His soul. Again and again, when in this place or that, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But one other stage was reached of yet more utter solitude when, in the darkness of that most mysterious noonday that veiled the scene of Calvary, and in the grossest darkness of unfathomable anguish that enveloped the human soul of Jesus, He trod the winepress of the wrath and justice of God alone, and entered that last stage of solitude in which He could no longer say, I am not alone, because the Father is with Me, but uttered that hitter cry-a cry from the darkest, deepest, dreariest loneliness into which a pure and holy spirit ever passed-My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? We may in reverence consider three causes which seem to have produced this element of the Sacred Passion. The first cause of this awful desolation was the fact of the accumulated sin of the whole world, from the disobedience of Eden down to the last intention of sin that shall be disturbed by the archangels trumpet, resting upon one Human Soul, to whom the faintest shadow of sin was intolerable. The second cause was the gathering of the hosts of darkness, vanquished in the wilderness, and in the garden, and in many of the souls they had possessed, but now, rallied and marshalled, and massed for one last supreme effort, hurling themselves with the fury of despair and hate upon their Vanquisher. The third cause was the hiding of the Fathers face. He who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity could not look even upon His beloved Son, when deluged thus in our sin. Beloved, out of the depths of this most bitter woe of the passion of Jesus there comes some solid comfort for us. He endured that utter loneliness that we might never be alone. (Henry S. Miles, M. A.)
Eclipse of the face of God
The black mephitic cloud of a worlds sin came between God and Christ. Necessarily there was an eclipse of the face of God. An eclipse of the sun is caused, as you are all aware, by that opaque body the moon coming between the earth and it. That preternatural darkness of which we read in the preceding verse, was caused by some thick veil of sulphurous clouds being drawn across the face of the sun-the sun veiling his face, that he might not witness the perpetration of the blackest crime ever perpetrated on even our sin-cursed earth-a crime that made even incarnate nature shudder to its innermost core. So when this opaque body of our sins came between Christ and God, when that dark sulphurous cloud of a worlds sins enwrapped the being of Christ like some great funereal pall, necessarily there was an eclipse of the loving face of God, who is light. Necessarily there was, on the part of Christ, spiritual darkness, and desertion, and loneliness-a darkness, and desertion, and loneliness which found expression in the wailing cry, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? (J. Black.)
The presence of God the support of the martyrs
What was it that enabled Ignatius, waiting to be thrown to the lions, to say-Let me be food for the wild beasts, if only God be glorified; that enabled the aged Polycarp, the flames lapping his body, to cry-I thank Thee, O Father, that Thou hast numbered me among the martyrs; that enabled Latimer, under the same circumstances, to say-Be of good cheer, Brother Ridley-What but the feeling of His nearness to them; the thought of His approving smile; and that though they were hated and persecuted by men, they were not forsaken of God. But Christ, in His hour of deepest need-He is robbed of that all and alone sufficient help. When He most needs the presence of God, just then God forsakes Him. Friends! we are here brought face to face with a great mystery. Christ Himself feels that. His words, if they, mean anything, mean that. My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? (J. Black.)
The cry of the forsaken
one:-
I. And first, let us not forget that this cry was a pang put into Old Testament words. To be perfectly fair in any consideration of the phase of anguish expressed by them, we must look to the twenty-second Psalm, where the words first of all occur. Let us read a verse or two of the Psalm. Take verses 7, 8, All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him: let Him deliver him, seeing he delighted in Him; almost the very cry of the railing passers by. Verse sixteen is yet more remarkable in its application: They pierced my hands and my feet. Equally so is the eighteenth verse: They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. If the Psalm had been written after the occurrences of that day, it might almost have been given as an historical record of them in these particulars. But I want you to think of the possibility-nay, extreme probability-that while our Lords mind in that dark hour rested upon these portions of the Psalm, it would also recall other portions of it. For mark how from the cry of the twenty-first verse there arises a strong hope: Save me from the lions mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare Thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. From these words forth there is no longer any sense of desolation. For He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath He hid His face from him; but when he cried unto Him, He heard. Now, I say, we ought to remember this in our endeavour to interpret the cry. Heavy enough indeed, with all the suffering it involved, was the hand of God that day as it rested upon the patient Sufferer; and life was ebbing out even while the cry came forth. And yet surely the blessed Saviour was not long bereft of consolation. Did He cling only to the first cry of the Psalm? Was this all? Was there no mounting aloft into the blessed heights of faith and of hope and of praise? I would believe there was; and this, though it may not deprive the scene of all its mysteriousness, helps me somewhat to apprehend its significance, which, as I have already intimated, is about all I thought we could attempt to do-all we purposed to attempt.
II. Next, we will view the words as the revelation of a great anguish. And yet, when we began to think a little more about this, Christs sense of utter desertion and loneliness, in the light especially of His relation to our race as its true head and High Priest; we should find ourselves ready to admit some sort of a congruousness in the fact. For we know that this experience, a sense of God-desertion, is one of the most real of mens troubles. And there seems a fitness in the ordination of the Redemptive scheme which allows a place for this sense of God-desertion in those sufferings by which that Redemption was secured and ratified. So far as we have any knowledge of Christs inner experience during the years before, we fail to discern any trace of this God-desertion. On the contrary, it was the one sweetness and light of His life, even when He thought and told of the coming desertion of His chosen ones, that still amid all circumstances the Father was with Him. It was not always so in the case of the Old Testament saints and worthies. They had, as we have, intervals, when the clear shining of the Divine face is interfered with, and the summer of the soul ceases awhile. When God is nigh, when we feel able to say, The Lord is at my right hand, we can add, I shall not be greatly moved. But up comes the mist from the rolling sea of passion and self-will and pride and human weaknesses, and we find that the light of our life is awhile quenched. Many days we may have lost sight of land and sun and star, and God appears to hide Himself, until the soul cries out passionately, Where is thy God-where? And the tempter echoes and re-echoes the dreary desolate cry, Where, ah, where indeed? And anyone who has ever found himself in such darkness knows that it is most profound; he who has felt such a distance between God and him knows it is most terrible and dreary. He who perfectly fulfilled the Eternal Will, and who was at that very moment fulfilling its more mysterious ordinations, cannot wholly escape this bitterness. And yet, I say, never was Christ more truly fulfilling the Divine Will than now. Never was the Father more delighted in the blessed Son than now. Why, it was the suffering of a perfect sacrifice. It was a true self offering. If Christ had been dragged to this tree against His will, if Christ had tried to escape from the hands of his tormentors, it would have been different. O, my brethren, instead of trying to build upon this cry of the Saviours any strange theory, let us rather think how much of real and abiding comfort we may draw from it. You and I may often have had to pass through the gloomy way unrelieved by any of heavens sunshine. It may seem to us that everything has conspired against us, and that the very heavens are sealed against our cry. Our prayers may seem to return to us unanswered. All may appear to be lost, even God. Let us but at such moments look at the blessed Christ. Let us think how God put His best beloved One through the hottest fires and the most searching tests. He knew once what it was to have the heavens above Him darkened. And yet the Eternal Father loved Him. May He not love you too?
III. And now we come to these words from another point of view. We have seen in them the utterance of a great anguish; let us look at them as the expression of a clinging faith and love. You will perceive why we called attention to the twenty-second Psalm. That Psalm shows us one who felt himself forsaken, and who was by no means actually forsaken; and the words used by Christ may serve also to show us how very close Christ was to the Eternal heart when He uttered them. My God-O, if we can only say this, My God. It matters little what we may say afterward. If we can only say My God, the darkness will not long brood upon our souls. They are words of faith and love, which, when truly spoken, must bring in the daylight. In the battle of the Christian faith and life, the victory is more than half won when we can say, My God. No soul that is lost can say, My God. I turn again to the real comfort wrapped up within the very words which expressed the Saviours agony. How often is this the case. The very words by which we express our sorrow, our trouble, are themselves often charged with deep and true solace and refreshment. We know not how long this cloud rested over the Saviour. I do not think it could be for long. Presently, we know, the Father was looking upon Him with shining, unveiled face; for calmly and restfully He breathed forth the dying sigh of thousands since, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit. (C. J. Proctor, B. A.)
Jesus, throwing Himself into the bosom of His Father, implores consolation
This Scripture leads our thoughts to the desolation of our Jesus; to inquiry after the cause; and to the exclamation that passed from His lips, through the intense suffering of His heart.
I. First, the desolation of Jesus. It was not unforeseen. With regard to the desolation of Him, whose love undertook our cause; that we may understand the meaning of the term He used, it becomes us to enter on a clear, a Scriptural view of His person, and of the intimate relation which subsisted between the Father and Himself. He was emphatically the Word, that was in the beginning, eternal, before all time, before the glowing sun came forth from his chamber, as a bridegroom, and rejoiced as a giant to run his course. He was with God-distinct in His Person; and He was God-self-existent in nature or essence. All things were made by Him; then He is the mighty Creator of the universe, of which we form an insignificant part; and without Him was not anything made that was made. As to the nature, then, of this forsaking, of which the lips of Jesus utter lamentation, it is clear, to him who receives the word of Scripture in simplicity, that there was no desertion of His humanity by the Word. This Eternal Word took His human flesh and reasonable soul into union with itself; and that union was never dissolved. By this oneness, the body never saw corruption, although, after death, it was laid in Josephs tomb: nor was it separated from the reasonable soul in Paradise. By this Godhead body and soul were reunited on the morning of the Resurrection; that union is preserved to the present, and will be after that wondrous prediction shall be accomplished, that all things having been subdued unto Him, the Son, the Mediator, the ancient Daysman, shall Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him; that God may be all in all. We are instructed likewise by Holy Scripture, as to the nature of that intimate and mysterious relationship that subsisted between the Father and the Son, co-equal, co-eternal. What testimony can be plainer than the words of Christ Jesus, written in St. Joh 10:37-38? If I do not, says He, the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, behove the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me, and I in Him. He entreats, with an earnestness His own, that all the children of faith may be one: as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us. If the Word forsook not the humanity, it follows that the Father essentially deserted not the same, because the Father and the Son are One in nature, eternally, inseparably. Hence, then, the question, What are we to understand by the complaint of being forsaken? That He was bereft of the countenance, the comforts, the consolations of the Father, in which He had rejoiced.
II. We have viewed the first part of our subject, namely, Christ forsaken; and come to the cause, which was asked by His lips. The Father gives the answer to this interrogation-Why? Because you have become the Bondsman of sinners, have consented to stand in their stead; therefore, as at your hands, I look for a continual and perfect obedience to the law in its exceeding breadth, so, in your person, I exact the penalty to its utmost tittle. Here Isaiah, who seems to look upon the scene before us: the Lord hath lain on Him the iniquity of us all. Be attentive to Paul: He made Him to be sin for us, therefore to bleed and die, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Little did the Jews imagine, when they exulted in the ignominy of Jesus, who was without sin, and lived without guile, that in gratifying their malice, they were but dealing the second blow; that the first was dealt by a secret, powerful, invisible hand; yet such was the fact, according to the testimony of prophets and apostles. St. Peter, addressing the men of Israel at Jerusalem concerning Israel, says, Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God-there is the secret purpose-ye have taken, and by wicked hands crucified and slain; there is the resulting blow. In a Psalm of the passion (69:26) we read, They persecute Him (the second blow), whom Thou hast smitten (the first stroke), and they talk to the grief of those whom Thou hast wounded. That secret blow was the fruit of sin, which covered perfect innocence with confusion. Thus Jesus speaks, in the seventh verse, Shame hath covered My face. Why? As there was no impatience under the blow, there was no ignorance of the cause. Jesus asks, not for knowledge, but to call our notice to the fearful cause. Himself gives the answer, as me have it in the Vulgate. Far from My deliverance is the matter of My sins.
III. Thirdly, we look at the exclamation that passed through His lips, arising from the intense suffering of the heart. Jesus at this time does not simply speak; and who can imagine the bitterness of that cry-it pierced the heavens-He cried-He cried with a loud voice. It before was the sweet word Father, but not so now. Is He forsaken? why should we wonder at the hiding of Heavens countenance? Jesus in His agony, inquires, Why? Is it not our wisdom to say, Is there not a cause?-to search it out and expose our sore to the pitying eye of a Father? Jesus was made desolate by that Father, that we might be supported, comforted, delivered. Jesus instructs us for a dying hour: He turns from creatures, and occupies Himself with God. Be this our happiness, as it is our privilege; and when heart and flesh both fail, the Lord will be the strength of our heart, and our portion forever. (Thomas Ward, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 34. My God, my God, &c.] See Clarke on Mt 27:46.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice,….
[See comments on Mt 27:46];
saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? in Matthew it is, “Eli, Eli”, Both “Eli” and “Eloi”, are Hebrew words, and signify the same; and are both used in Ps 22:1, from whence the whole is taken:
which is, being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [See comments on Mt 27:46].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “And at the ninth hour,” (kai te enate hora) “And at the point of the ninth hour,” in mid-afternoon, at three o’clock, after He had hung on the cross about six hours, from the third hour of the day, Mar 15:25; Mat 27:46.
2) “Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,” (eboesen ho lesous phone megale) “Jesus cried very loudly, with a megaphone-like voice,” Mat 27:46, a loud, expansive cry, in fulfillment of David’s prophetic words, Psa 22:1; Psa 88:14.
3) “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthanai?” (eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani) “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani” Mat 27:46.
4) “Which is being interpreted,” (ho estin methermeneuomenon) “Which is when having been interpreted,” or that is said to be, Mat 27:46.
5) “My God, my God,” (ho theos mou, ho theos mou) “The God of me, The God of me,” or “My God, my God,” Mat 27:46.
6) “Why hast thou forsaken me?” (eis ti egkatelipes me) “Why did you forsake or have you forsaken me?” Mat 27:46.
Mark gave the Aramaic form of the direct address of Jesus to His Father, while Matthew gives the Gk. (ho, theos mou, ho theos mou) The cry was a cry of a deserted one forlorn, suffering alone, Isa 53:12; The answer of why” is given, 2Co 5:21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(34) Eloi, Eloi.Here, again, the form which St. Mark gives is a closer reproduction of the very sounds of the Aramaic form of the word than that in St. Matthew, who gives the Hebrew as it stands in Psa. 22:1.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani” which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
The words, here almost certainly cited in Aramaic, were quoted from Psa 22:1. But while that may be, something extra was required to draw them from the lips of Jesus. He truly shared with the Psalmist that sense of total desolation, that awareness of being devastatingly alone. But for Jesus, Who had never known what it was to be separated from the Father by sin, it signalled that most dreadful of experiences as undergone by One Who knew no sin, by One Whose very being was torn apart as He experienced in His humanity the blackness of darkness in the sensing of total separation from He Who is the light.
That He was not actually separated from the Father comes out in the sequel. Even as He suffered His Father watched over Him, and He ended by calling on His Father. And it even comes out in the prayer, for ‘My God’ is personal, and the whole idea of prayer is that the person who prays is not forsaken. But the sense of separation went to the very depths of His being, and the citation put His feelings into words.
Matthew puts the first two words, ‘Eli, Eli’, in Hebrew (although the same word is used in the Targums and could thus be Aramaic), and Jesus may well have spoken in Hebrew as He cited the Psalm. The Hebrew was more likely to be mistaken for a call to Elijah.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Ver. 34. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani ] Psa 22:1 . It is thought by some that he repeated the whole of Psa 22:1-31 , which is an admirable narration of the passion, and might well help him the better to bear it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
34. ] , the Syro-chaldaic form, answering to in Matt. Meyer argues that the words in Matt. must have been those actually spoken by our Lord, owing to the taunt, that He called for Elias .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 15:34 . , : the Aramaic form of the words spoken by Jesus, Mt. giving the Hebrew equivalent. On this cry of desertion vide remarks on the parallel place in Mt. . . .: as in Sept [155] Mt. gives the vocative. , for what end? in Mt. and Sept [156] [155] Septuagint.
[156]Septuagint.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Eloi, &c. Quoted from Psa 22:1. See note on Mat 27:46.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
34.] , the Syro-chaldaic form, answering to in Matt. Meyer argues that the words in Matt. must have been those actually spoken by our Lord, owing to the taunt, that He called for Elias.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Concerning the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall read in three portions of the New Testament. First, in the Gospel according to Mark, the fifteenth chapter, beginning at the thirty-fourth verse.
Mar 15:34. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
It is, My El, my strong God, my mighty One, why hast thou forsaken me? the bitterest words that were ever uttered by mortal lips, and expressing the quintessence of agony. Alas! that my Saviour should ever have had to say as much as this when he hung upon the cross, suffering and dying for me.
Mar 15:35. And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias.
Did they misunderstand his bitter cry of woe? Could they mistake what he meant? Was it not, on the part of these people that stood by, a willful wicked witticism upon what our Lord Jesus had said? We fear that it was so.
Mar 15:36-37. And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
His last words were, It is finished.
It is finishd!
Oh what pleasure Do these charming words afford!
Heavenly blessings without measure Flow to us from Christ the Lord:
It is finishd!
Saints, the dying words record.
Mar 15:38-39. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion, which stood over against him,
The officer who had charge of the arrangements for the execution: when the centurion, which stood over against him,
Mar 15:39. Saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
Probably saying a great deal more than he understood. There was something so extraordinary about this central Sufferer that the Centurion could not understand who he could be unless he was truly the Son of God.
Mar 15:40-41.There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.
Where was Peter? We know that John was near the cross; but James and the rest of the apostles were apparently hiding away; yet the holy women were there.
Mar 15:42-43. And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.
I have no doubt that Pilate was very surprised that a member of the Sanhedrim should come and ask for the body of Jesus, when, a little while before, he had put him to death really by the mandate of that body of men.
Mar 15:44; Mar 15:46. And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
This very centurion, who had declared that Jesus was the Son of God now came forward to bear witness that he had seen him die; and then Pilate told Joseph that he might go and take the body.
Mar 15:46. And he bought fine linen,
This was probably the first time that fine linen had touched the flesh of the Son of man; he had been accustomed to much coarser stuff in his lifetime, but now Joseph bought fine linen.
Mar 15:46-47. And took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulcher which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulcher. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.
That is Marks account of our Lords death and burial, very terse, and very suggestive. Let us now read Johns description of the sad scene.
This exposition consisted of readings from Mar 15:34-47; Joh 19:38-42; John , 1 CORINTHIAN 5:1-9.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Mar 15:34. ) Hebr. , as , , , etc.: Hiller, Onom. p. 707. For not even in Greek is , Gen 17:15. Matthew has , . and so the Hebrew Psaltery [Psa 22:1]: Mark has , , and so the Syriac Psaltery, as John Gregorius observes.- , for what [why]) See Mat 27:46, note.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
CHAPTER 74
Why was He forsaken?
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(Mar 15:34)
These are the words of our great Surety, as he hung upon the cursed tree. The more I study, meditate upon and pray over them, the more convinced I am that it is simply impossible for a mere earthling to expound them. Yet, I am certain that there is more contained in and expressed by these few, heavy, heavy words from our Saviors afflicted soul than is contained in all the commentaries and theology books in the world.
These words of agony no tongue can describe, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? are the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ when he engaged all the forces of hell and endured the indescribable wrath of almighty God as our Substitute, when he was made to be sin for us. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was forsaken by God the Father when he was made sin for us, so that his people might be forever accepted of God by the merits of his precious blood and perfect righteousness.
This cry of the heart broken Lamb of God is first found in Psa 22:1. That prophetic psalm should be read often, studied with care, and laid up in the memory of our hearts with gratitude and praise. Everything recorded in the 22nd Psalm, if I understand it correctly, was written prophetically, penned by divine inspiration, as the very words spoken by our blessed Savior when he hung upon the cursed tree, bearing our sins as our Substitute. C. H. Spurgeon wrote
Before us we have a description both of the darkness and of the glory of the cross, the sufferings of Christ and the glory which shall follow. Oh for grace to draw near and see this great sight! We should read reverently, putting off our shoes from off our feet, as Moses did at the burning bush, for if there be holy ground anywhere in Scripture it is in this psalm.
Utterly Forsaken
At the apex of his obedience, at the time of his greatest sorrow, in the hour of his greatest need, the Lord Jesus cried out to his Father, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? After asking, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, our all-glorious Redeemer tells us how utterly forsaken he was, so utterly forsaken that the Father refused to hear the cries of his own darling Son in the hour of his greatest need. Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
I read those words with utter astonishment. I will not attempt to explain what I cannot imagine. But these things are written here for our learning, that we might, through patience and consolation of the Scriptures, have hope. And I hang all the hope of my immortal soul upon this fact. When the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for me, he was utterly forsaken of God and put to death as my Substitute; and by his one great, sin-atoning Sacrifice, he has forever put away my sins. He not only bore our sins in his body on the tree, he bore them away!
The Reason
Yet, when we read Psa 22:3, our holy Savior, when he was made sin for us, answers the cry of his own souls agony. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Why was the Lord Jesus forsaken by his Father when he was made sin for us? Because the holy Lord God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Our Savior was forsaken by the Father, when he was made sin for us, because justice demanded it. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity (Hab 1:13).
Here our Savior, when he was dying under the wrath of God, justified God in his own condemnation, because he was made sin for us. He proclaims the holiness of God in the midst of his agony. He is so pure, so holy, so righteous, so just that he will by no means clear the guilty (Exo 34:7), even when the guilty One is his own darling Son! Rather than slight his holy character, our Surety must suffer and die, because he was made sin for us.
Made Sin
Our Savior had no sin of his own. He was born without original sin, being even from birth that Holy One (Luk 1:35). Throughout his life he knew no sin (2Co 5:21), did no sin (1Pe 2:22), and in him is no sin (1Jn 3:5). But on Calvary the holy Lord God made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2Co 5:21). Just as in the incarnation the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Joh 1:14), in substitution the Word, who was made flesh, was made sin for us.
I do not know how God could be made flesh and never cease to be God; but he was. I do not know how the eternal God could die and yet never die; but he did (Act 20:28). I do not know how all the fulness of the infinite, incomprehensible God can dwell in Christ bodily; but it does (Col 2:9). And I do not know how Christ who knew no sin could be made sin, and yet never have sinned; but he was.
These things are mysteries beyond the reach of human comprehension. But they are facts of divine revelation to which we bow with adoration.
I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.
Oh, how marvelous! oh, how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be
Oh, how marvelous! oh how wonderful!
Is my Saviors love for me!
For me it was in the garden
He prayed: Not My will, but Thine
He had no tears for His own griefs
But sweat drops of blood for mine.
He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own.
He bore the burden to Calvary
And suffered, and died alone.
Mine Iniquities
Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. (Psa 40:11-12) Commenting on these verses, John Trapp wrote, If this be taken of Christ, he is the greatest of sinners by imputation (2Co 5:20 Isa 53:6), for our sins (which here he calleth his) he suffered; and here his bitter agony in the garden is graphically described. Neither is it absurd to say, that as he bore our sins in his own body upon the tree, he was first redeemed by himself, and afterwards we.
Here we are again allowed to hear the agony of our blessed Redeemers soul when he was made sin for us. Here his language is even more specific in declaring that our sins were made his. Here, again, the Lord Jesus Christ calls our sins his own, because He hath made him sin for us.
The One Speaking
The One speaking in this Psalm is beyond all doubt our Savior. We know this because God the Holy Spirit tells us that it is Christ who is speaking here in Hebrews chapter 10. Our Savior knew that being made sin for us, he would be brought into a horrible pit (Psa 69:15) and filled with distress. Yet, his love for us was and is so great that in Mar 15:7 he declares his readiness to assume a body, and to accomplish his Fathers will in the salvation of his chosen, according to the ancient settlements written in the Volume of the Book, saying, Lo! I come, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Then in Mar 15:11-12 he prays for deliverance from his deep distresses.
This is exactly the same thing we read in Joh 12:27-28. Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
The Reason
Why was the Son of God brought to such sorrow and grief? Here is the answer. He made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him! Indeed he could never have suffered the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross as our Substitute had he not been made sin for us. Justice would never have allowed it. The Lord God declares, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD. (Pro 17:15; Exo 23:7).
Worship Him
Hear the Saviors words in Psa 40:12, and worship him. For innumerable evils have compassed me about. He was beset on every side with evil. Countless woes compassed our great Substitute and Sin-bearer. Our sins, wrote Spurgeon, were innumerable, and so were his griefs. All the accumulated sins of all his people, for all time, in all parts of the world, were made his! The Blessed One of God, who knew no sin and did no sin, was made sin!
He cried, Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. He had no sin, but our sins were laid on him, and he took them as his own. He was made sin for us. Again, I quote Spurgeon, The transfer of sin to the Savior was real and produced in him as man the horror which forbade him to look into the face of God, bowing him down with crushing anguish and woe intolerable.
What would our sins have done to us eternally if the Friend of sinners had not condescended to take them all upon himself and make them his own? Oh, blessed Scripture! He hath made him sin for us! Oh, marvellous depth of love that made the perfectly immaculate Lamb of God to stand in the sinners place, and bear the horror of great trembling which sin must bring upon those who are forever keenly conscious of it in hell!
Broken Heart
They are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. In dark Gethsemane, even as he anticipated being made sin, our Saviors holy soul shook within him; and his holy heart broke. Anticipating the pains of Gods holy fury against sin, his unbending justice and unmitigated wrath beyond imagination, our dear Saviors soul was so crushed within him that he was sore amazed, and very heavy even unto a sweat of blood. His strength was gone, his spirit sank; he was in agony.
Then, as he hung upon the cursed tree, bearing our sins in his own body, he cried, as we read in Psa 22:6; Psa 22:14-15, I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the peopleI am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. It was the thought and anticipation of being made sin for us, not of simply paying the debt due unto our sins, but of being made sin, that caused his bloody sweat in Gethsemane. It was this fact, the fact that he was made sin for us, that caused him to be forsaken of his Father as he hung upon the cursed tree on Golgothas hill (Psa 22:1-3).
Many tell us that these words cannot be the Words of Gods darling Son. Indeed, some, in their foolish arrogance, assert that it is blasphemy and heresy to declare that these words are the words of our blessed Savior. In doing so they dare to defy God himself, for it is God the Holy Spirit who in Hebrews 10 tells us that these are our Saviors words. Robert Hawker wrote
These things, so far from being unsuitable to the holy Jesus, are the very things we might reasonably suppose he would speak of, and consequently his holy soul would feel so painful. And when we consider that as our Surety he bore our sins and carried our sorrows, how very reasonable it is to expect that these cries of the Son of God should be at the very time in which he is set forth as a Sacrifice for them.
Foolishness and Perversity
There can be no question that the One speaking in Psalms 69 is our blessed Savior. Throughout the New Testament, the words of this Psalm are attributed to him (Psa 69:4 Joh 15:25; Psa 69:9 Joh 2:17, Rom 15:3; Psa 69:21 Mat 27:34; Mat 27:48, Mar 15:36, Luk 23:36, Joh 19:28-29; Psa 69:22-23 Rom 11:9-10; Psa 69:25 Act 1:16; Act 1:20). The opening verses of this Psalm clearly are the words of our Redeemer.
Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away (Psa 69:1-4)
Mar 15:5 cannot, with any honesty, be attributed to someone else. Hear the cry of him who was made sin for us. O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. The word foolishness means perversity. The word sins means, as it is translated in the marginal reference, guiltiness. Our Savior owns our perversity as his perversity and our guiltiness as his guiltiness, because it was made his.
The first Adam hid his perversity and guilt. The last Adam owns ours as his own, and does it before God. It is as though he were saying, Here, lifted up upon the cross I suffer without the gate for my people, as their Substitute, in such a way that I desire that my sins be conspicuous to every creature in heaven, earth, and hell, my sins, the sins of my people, are all now and forever blotted out and washed away by my blood.
What condescension this is! What grace is here revealed! What unparalleled love! What mystery there is here! The Son of God takes to himself our shame! When the Lamb of God was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, it behoved him thus to suffer and thus to cry! O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
Intercession
Yet, in his souls utmost agony the Son of God remembered and interceded for us, as our great High Priest. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel (Psa 69:6). In answer to his prayer, the gospel promise is, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed (Rom 10:11). He that believeth on him shall not be confounded (1Pe 2:6).
Then, our sin-atoning Savior again claims our sins, our reproaches, as his own, as if to tell us that our sins were not merely pasted on him, that he was not simply treated as though our sins were his, but that when he made his soul an offering for sin, he was made sin for us. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my faceThou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none (Psa 69:7; Psa 69:19-20).
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!
Do you understand what you just read? Do you here see Christ as your Surety, your sin-bearer, taking all your guilt and sin, assuming total responsibility for all that you are? Made a curse for you? Do you see him as your Substitute, your Surety, your Savior? Do you trust him as such? If so, let your soul be ravished by his great love for you. Adore him! Praise him!
Because of his infinite, immeasurable love for us, our blessed Savior became everything we are in such a real way that he owns our sins as his own before his Father and our Father! Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. Either he was made sin for us, or that which he confessed in these three Psalms is not true. There is no in-between ground. Either our Savior here spoke the truth or he did not. Blessed be his name, his Word is truth! He made our foolishness his foolishness! He made our sin his sin! He made our perversity his perversity! He made our guiltiness his guiltiness!
This is not a slander against our holy Savior; but the magnifying of his mercy, love and grace. Christs love for us is so infinitely great that he made our sins his very own. And by the same wondrous, amazing mercy, love and grace, he makes his perfect righteousness our very own.
Yes, we who believe are the very righteousness of God in Christ. With Jacob of old, we say with confidence to every accuser, as he did to Laban, So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come (Gen 30:33). With Job, we say, My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live (Job 27:6). Why? Because Christ is the Lord our Righteousness, because he is made of God unto us both redemption and righteousness, we have assurance of everlasting salvation (Rom 8:1-4; Rom 8:33-39). Soon, unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Sin and Substitution
What an infinitely evil thing sin must be! It is such a horrid thing that the holy Lord God cannot tolerate it, even when it was found upon his darling Son. Whenever God sees sin, he will punish it without mercy. When the angels fell, God cast them out of heaven and holds them in chains of darkness until the day of judgment (2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:6). When Adam sinned, he was cursed of God and driven from the presence of the Lord (Genesis 3). When God looked upon the wickedness of Noahs generation, he destroyed the whole world in the flood of his wrath (Genesis 6). Upon the twin cities of perversity, Sodom and Gomorrah, God poured out fire and brimstone (Genesis 19). And when God saw sin upon his darling Son, his only-begotten, well-beloved Son, he forsook him! Be warne! If God finds sin on you, he will destroy you forever in hell, without mercy! Flee to Christ, who alone can cleanse you of all sin!
How thorough and complete was Christs obedience to the Father as our Surety! We could never obey God perfectly. We could never fulfill the demands of the law or the gospel. But Christ met and satisfied perfectly all the demands of God for his elect. This cry, My God, my God, was made at the zenith of our Lords obedience. Christ was obedient even unto death. Our salvation was accomplished both by his doing and by his dying. His doing is imputed to us for righteousness (Rom 5:19). His dying made atonement for our sins (Rom 5:11). Even when he was forsaken of God, our Surety remained obedient. This cry is an expression of Christs perfect faith in God. As a man he believed God and showed us what it is to believe him. Faith is believing the Word of God, not because we see it to be true, or feel it to be true, but because God said it (Robert Murray MCheyne). We are often unbelieving. But our Surety never doubted God, even when he was forsaken of God! And this cry is an expression of exemplary love and devotion. Here is love and devotion unrivaled! Hanging upon the cursed tree, without one drop of mercy, one smile from heaven, or one comfort for his soul, Christ loved the very God who forsook him!
What an infinite depth of hell our Savior endured for us! What is hell if it is not being abandoned totally by God? Why was Christ forsaken? He was forsaken because there was no other way for us to be accepted. Justice had to be satisfied. When the Son of God was made to be sin for us, when our sins were imputed to him, God forsook him and poured out upon him all the fullness of his wrath (Lam 1:12). God gave him everything our sins deserve. And now, the holy Lord God accepts all who trust his Son, imputes to them his perfect righteousness, and rewards them with eternal glory for Christs sake, giving them all that he deserves.
Why was he forsaken? Our Lord Jesus was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He was forsaken of God that we might be forever, immutably accepted of God in him. He was forsaken because he is our Substitute, our real, absolute Substitute before God!
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
at: Dan 9:21, Luk 23:46, Act 10:3
Eloi: Psa 22:1, Mat 27:46, Heb 5:7
why: Psa 27:9, Psa 42:9, Psa 71:11, Isa 41:17, Lam 1:12, Lam 5:20
Reciprocal: Exo 12:6 – the whole Job 6:4 – drinketh up Psa 69:14 – out of Psa 71:20 – which Psa 89:26 – God Mat 20:5 – sixth Mat 27:45 – from Mar 7:34 – Ephphatha Joh 19:14 – the sixth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE WORD FROM THE CROSS
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Mar 15:34
The tragedy of the Crucifixion reached its climax at the sixth hour. The Blessed Master had passed through the outer circle of sorrow, and now the pale, bruised Form is lost in the thick darkness which surrounds Him. During the first hours our Blessed Lord reigns as a kinginterceding, absolving, and commending His loved ones. Now a change passes over Him; His soul enters into a great loneliness. This cry shows that there was something deeper, something more awful, than the fear of death.
I. Do we ever feel forsaken?Such days come to even the best of usdays of darkness, days of depression. But here is our comfort. When all seems lost in life, when there is no light to gladden our eyes, then it is for us to realise that because of that Ones bitter cry which rang out in the darkness, Jesus is always with us because He knew what it was to be forsaken even by God Himself. Let us cling to the Cross for this our comfort in our time of darkness!
II. The guilt of sin.And yet surely it must mean more than this, something deeper than this, for it reveals to us the guilt of sin. We cannot think little of sin when you and I realise that it cost the best, the noblest, the purest blood, when we realise that it has cost the Blood of God Himself to take away that sin; that for one great atonement it needed God to come down and live our life, it needed God to be surrounded by the darkness on the Cross, to live out His life, as it were, just for a few hours making that atonement, forsaken by God Himself. When we are tempted to call some sins little and some great, let us realise what it meant when our Lord cried from the cross, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
III. The punishment of sin.I think we have here not only the revelation of the guilt of sin, but we have morewe have a revelation of the punishment of sin. This one hour had loomed before Christ all His life. Our Blessed Master could endure all else but this. The thought of His Father hiding His face, and the thought of entering that darkness, was something which he could not contemplate unmoved. We are inclinedare we not?to guess at the future condition of the soul; but after we have stood beneath the Cross, after we have heard this cry, we need not have any further speculation, for sin always means here and there separation from God. Separation from Goddoes not the sinner know it now? Ah, but the sinner always has a feeling that he can turn to God when he likes; but to realise that sin will bring this separation, entire and complete, from God is the most awful thing that man could contemplate. To-day Jesus calls to us, Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? nothing to us who stand by the Cross? Was there ever such sorrow, ever such love?
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
4
See the comments at Mat 27:46 for use on this verse.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
[Eloi, Eloi.] In Matthew it is Eli, Eli; in the very same syllables of Psa 22:1; Mark, according to the present dialect (namely, the Chaldee), useth at least according to the pronunciation of the word Eloi; Jdg 5:5 in the LXX.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mar 15:34. Eloi. This is in the Aramaic dialect then in use. Our Lord probably used the Hebrew form (Eli) given by Matthew, which more closely resembles the name Elijah. A quotation from the Old Testament would naturally be made in Hebrew. On the meaning of the cry, see on Mat 27:46.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 34
Psalms 22:1.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
15:34 And at the {7} ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(7) Christ striving mightily with Satan, sin and death, all three armed with the horrible curse of God, grievously tormented in body hanging upon the cross, and in soul plunged into the depth of hell, yet he clears himself, crying with a mighty voice: and notwithstanding the wound which he received from death, in that he died, yet by smiting both things above and things beneath, by the renting of the veil of the temple, and by the testimony wrung out of those who murdered him, he shows evidently unto the rest of his enemies who are as yet obstinate, and mock at him, that he will be known without delay to be conqueror and Lord of all.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This cry came at the ninth hour, namely, 3:00 p.m. Jesus’ cry expressed what the darkness visualized. Jesus cried out loudly, not weakly with His last available energy. His great agony of soul was responsible for this cry. Mark recorded Jesus’ words in Aramaic. Probably Jesus spoke in Aramaic in view of the crowd’s reaction (cf. Mat 27:46-47).
"The depths of the saying are too deep to be plumbed, but the least inadequate interpretations are those which find in it a sense of desolation in which Jesus felt the horror of sin so deeply that for a time the closeness of His communion with the Father was obscured." [Note: Taylor, p. 549.]
Jesus quoted Psa 22:1. That is why He expressed His agony of separation as a question. Jesus was not asking God for an answer; the question was rhetorical. As Jesus used this verse, it expressed an affirmation of His relationship to God as His Father and an acknowledgment that the Father had abandoned Him. God abandoned Jesus in the judicial sense that He focused His wrath on the Son (cf. Mar 14:36). Jesus bore God’s curse and His judgment for sin (cf. Deu 21:22-23; 2Co 5:21; Gal 3:13). God, who cannot look on sin (Hab 1:13), turned His back, so to speak, on Jesus who bore that sin in His own body on the cross. Jesus experienced separation from God when He took the place of sinners (Mar 10:45; Rom 5:8; 1Pe 2:24; 1Pe 3:18).
Even though the physical sufferings that Jesus experienced were great, the spiritual agony that He underwent as the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world was infinitely greater. We need to remember this when we meditate on Jesus’ death, for example at the Lord’s Supper.