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One of the last things Jesus says before he dies was “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which translates to “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” There are a lot of things in the Bible that confuse me and this phrase is one of them. Jesus, aren’t you supposed to be pretty tight with God? What’s up?
Where does my help come from? Not Psalms.
After several exhausting minutes of research on this week’s passage, I found out that Jesus was actually quoting Psalms 22 which says:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
Thank you very little, Psalms. I think you actually made it more confusing. I understand how I could feel forsaken by God, but Jesus? He is God, right? So it’s like he’s somehow forsaken himself?
Theonerds, Activate!
All right, theonerds. I’m gonna need some help on this one. Can any of you explain what the deal is with this passage? If so, please drop a comment!
Tags: crucifixion, Jesus, Psalms
Posted on Friday, April 15.
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Hey Jim. In rabbinic tradition, Psalm 22 is the death Psalm. You are supposed to recite it during your death. If you read the whole thing it really is beautiful. Also interesting, almost everything we have recorded that Jesus says on the cross is an allusion or direct quotation from Psalm 22. Neat stuff. Check out Ray Vender Laan’s follow the rabbi stuff and he explains it pretty well
There are seldom (if ever) sentences in the form of a question in Hebrew (which Jesus was quoting.) He was actually singing a song of victory (although you don’t get that so much in English translations–pretty much along the lines of “this body has had about all it can handle and I’m ready to kick the bucket!”
Seems really weird in our culture to equate joy with dying a horrible death. The joy of the situation (from the Biblical Hebrew perspective) is that when His body died, the price for redeeming humanity back to God and the penalty of our sin would be paid, no discounts, no refunds.
If you read all of Psalms 22, you can start to see that in most versions of the Bible. The twelfth chapter of Hebrews summarizes it along the lines of “Jesus endured the shame and pain of the cross because He was focused on the immense joy that would be His afterward” (i.e. the joy of reconciling a sinful world into right standing with the Creator.)
Jim, I’m of a classic reformed perspective on this, that Jesus on the cross was enduring punishment for sin on our behalf. This caused him to experience hell (abandonment by the Father) whilst on the cross in our place (the technical term is Penal Substitution). Hence the sky going dark too. And it was completed when he cried, “It is finished.”
This doctrine has come under attack recently (see Steve Chalke). I am of the view that if Jesus wasn’t punished for our sin then we cannot be saved and therefore we have no gospel. Of course there are other aspects to the cross too.
So in summary, when Jesus was saying “My God, why have you forsaken me?” he was actually experiencing true abandonment by God for our sin.
Funnily enough, I’m preaching Psalm 22 this Sunday!
We can quibble about the theology, but I really liked David Hayward’s take on this:
http://www.nakedpastor.com/2011/03/29/cartoon-with-a-loud-cry/
Thank you, Theonerds! I knew I could count on you!
Seriously, thank you for taking the time to offer your explanations. I honestly didn’t know what was going on with Jesus here and you all have really helped clarify.
Looks like I may have minutes more research to do on this passage :)
Jim, I recommend following up on Will’s response. It’s common in Scripture for the writer/s to quote a fragment of the Old Testament in order to direct the reader to that larger section of Scripture. Happens several times in New Testament. It could be that Jesus spoke more of Psalm 22, but the writer/s reduced the quote to a poignant allusion to the rest of the text. It could even be that Jesus said something along the lines of the Psalm 22 reference and the writer/s made a calculated decision in quoting it to give it the theological and literary depth of attaching to the whole of Psalm 22.
All that to say Will (following Vanderlaan) might just be on the right track.
Thanks, Paul! The more I learn about the Bible, the more I realize how helpful it is to understand Jewish culture at the time. Seems to give so much context and clarification to passages that are otherwise confusing.
I found an interesting explanation on this passage in “Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus” by Ann Spangler. She used the term “stringing pearls” when they talked. They had the scripture memorized that they only had to say a line or two of a passage and they knew exactly the entire context without even saying it. She also said that when He died on the cross He used references from three sections of the Old Testament giving validity to the entire bible. I LOVE your work!
http://www.amazon.com/Sitting-Feet-Rabbi-Jesus-Jewishness/dp/0310284228/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308881890&sr=8-1
Thanks for the link and feedback, Terri!