Mark 15:25-37
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Jesus’ cry is purposeful. His words are a direct quote from Psalm 22, the Crucifixion Psalm! And He knows it!
This Psalm – written nearly 1,000 years earlier - also predicted the people’s rejection of Him, the insults they hurled, the pain of the crucifixion, the piercing of his hands and feet and even the dividing of His clothes!
Now, ever the Teacher – even in the excruciating agony of the cross – Jesus is sending a message of hope.
Hope?
Yes, because while Jesus quotes the first verse of Psalm 22, He also knows very well how the Psalm ends. With victory! His cry is of victory! Victory in seeming defeat!
This doesn’t mean that our Lord wasn’t suffering real feelings of abandonment on the cross. The physical pain was intense. The spiritual even greater!
We can never comprehend the suffering of bearing the sins of the whole world. Surely, He experienced the loneliness and abandonment sin always brings. Our sin, not His!
Nor is this is a cry of surprise. He knew perfectly well what He came to do, why, and what it would mean for Him. He predicted this many times.
By quoting Psalm 22 He is actually making another prediction. Like the Psalm, this will all end very well for Him. His cry is for us. For our faith!
With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
Just a few thoughts today:
ReplyDeleteNever understood why people would think he was calling Elijah.
Psalm 40:15 came to mind:
Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, "Aha, Aha!"
They should have been ashamed. They should have realized. Hopefully at some point they did. Jesus would pray from the cross for their forgiveness - plead to the Fathe ron their behalf.
After all, He was dying for their sin.
Hopefully they were in town 50 days later, and heard Pete preaching, and were those who were cut to the heart.
Hopefully, for their own eternal sake!
And hopefully us, too. When we realize our sin, hopefully we experience shame, so that we can repent, and experience forgiveness. He died for our sins, too.