Why did Jesus say, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

For three hours, as He hung on the cross, this contemptuous mockery of men continued. But at the sixth hour (noon) God imposed a complete black-out, and darkness covered the land until 3.00 p.m. Who could fail to take to heart the awesomeness of this? But no eye could see, and no heart understand the depth of agony and suffering through which the Lord Jesus passed in those hours. For this was not merely suffering from the hands of men, but suffering from God the unmitigated judgment that God must pour out against sin, the judgment also against our many sins. Absolutely alone He bore this anguish, and at the ninth hour cried out, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

This cry is surely intended to awaken every human heart to question what is the reason that not only did men abandon Him, but that God did so. The answer is clear for us today. This was the only way by which God could totally judge sin and at the same time save sinners from the awful consequences of their sins. The contemplation of His suffering may well bow our hearts in adoring wonder

"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" What mortal mind can understand that cry, or mortal words explain it? It is the central cry of the seven, and rightly so, for upon its deep mysterious meaning there depends all the glory of God and our salvation. Why was it? The Lord Himself answers the question. "But Thou art holy" (Ps. 22:3). But was not Jesus holy? Yes, He was as holy in His perfect Manhood as in the Godhead glory; just as holy in His own Person when He hung upon that cross as when He created the angels. Then why was He forsaken? I answer for myself — It was for me. That which we were, He was made. Sin, which is eternally and infinitely abhorrent to God, He became, that God's love might reach us in absolute righteousness. The inflexibility of God's justice and the greatness of His love were revealed when that cry broke forth from the darkness and woe of Calvary. He was forsaken that we might be saved. Oh may we ever be preserved from thinking superficial thoughts of our salvation! I admit the mystery of that cry. No creature mind will ever fathom the depths of it. Father, Son and Holy Ghost alone understand it; but throughout eternity it will be the wonder of our hearts and the theme of our song. Jesus our Saviour, who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

This is the central saying of the seven and we can understand why it should be so. Every circle of mankind has been considered, the multitude of men, the individual sinner, those who are saved by the grace of God. Now the Lord is in the midst of that darkness. He is forsaken. Forsaken by His disciples He had been, and poor, frail, fickle men that they were we can not wonder; but now we learn that He is abandoned by God. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Can we give an answer to that cry? The Lord Himself gives it in Ps. 22, "But Thou art holy." But, was not Jesus holy? Yes. When announcing His birth the angel had said to Mary, "That holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." And even the devils confessed Him in the synagogue saying, "We know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God." He was holy, harmless, undefiled; this was the testimony of the Holy Ghost to Him. As He hung upon that Cross He was just as holy as He was when He sat on the Throne and created angels. Just as holy in His perfect manhood as He was in His Godhead glory. Then if Jesus is holy, and if God is holy, what is the meaning of this cry? It is because we were unholy, because we were sinful, because we were far from God and unfit for His Presence. It is because of this that Jesus was forsaken, for there in that darkness He was made sin for us.

(v. 3) That God should forsake a perfectly righteous man in his distress is entirely contrary to the ways of God with men. Yet we are assured there can be no unrighteousness with God. Thus we learn from the lips of Christ Himself that on this solemn and unique occasion, God was perfectly righteous in forsaking the absolutely righteous One; for the Lord can say, “But thou art holy.” Thus the One who is forsaken by God is the One who entirely vindicates God. These words, however, do more than assure us of the holiness of God in forsaking Christ on the cross. They tell us of the deep necessity for Christ to be forsaken when bearing sins, if God's holiness is to be met, and man to be blessed.

But what must it have been to His holy nature to be made sin? Coming into the world He was spoken of as that "Holy Thing": going out of it He was "made sin." The One who was the Object of the Father's delight from all eternity is forsaken. From the Twenty second Psalm, we learn that the One who utters the cry, "My God, my God why hast Thou forsaken me?" alone can give the answer, "Thou art holy, O Thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel." If the purpose of the heart of God, to dwell in the midst of a praising people, is to be fulfilled, then the holiness of God must first be met. Nothing can meet the holy requirements of a holy God in respect of sin except the offering of Christ without spot.

Now comes the moment when His position, His relation with God, must pass before our eyes. "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour." Thus, even by outward circumstances, God separated His Son from outrages and insults purely human in order that He should be alone with Him and entirely for His solemn work. He was alone with God, made sin; nothing to turn aside the cup of justice; nothing to deaden it. The power which was in Him did not shelter Him; it rendered Him capable of bearing that which weighed on His soul, the feeling of horror of the curse in the measure in which the love of the Father was familiar to Him, the feeling of that which it was to be made sin in the measure of the divine holiness which was in Him; and neither the one nor the other could be measured. He drank the cup of the judgment of God against sin. All forces Him to utter the cry - a cry which we are allowed to hear that we might know what passed there, the reality of atonement: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" - a forsaking which none can fathom, save He who felt it, but which, in the little measure where its shadow only touches us and passes over us, is more terrible than all which the heart or body of man can undergo. In the mouth of Jesus it expressed all that which His heart, and that heart alone, could feel.

"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour; But about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (verses 45-47).

A solemn darkness settled over the whole land. Was it a darkness which covered the entire earth? Hardly, for in a part of the world it was night and darkness was not possible. No doubt the darkness covered the entire land and perhaps the entire Roman world. It enshrouded the cross with the great sufferer so that He was no longer visible to those who kept guard and those who looked on. That it was not an eclipse of the sun is learned from the fact that it was full moon at that time. It was a supernatural darkness. At the termination of the darkness about the ninth hour we hear His voice out of the darkness. About the ninth hour He cried, not in feebleness, but with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" But what is the meaning of this darkness? It was the outer sign of what passed over Him, who was then the sinner's substitute before a holy and righteous God. God had hidden His face from Him; He was forsaken by God Himself. His cry explains the meaning of the darkness, and the darkness gives us the meaning of His bitter cry. God had turned from Him, left Him, who had taken the sinner's place. He then bore our sins, was made sin for us and was the offering for sin. But who can fathom it? Who can understand the deep mystery, the deep suffering when the holy and righteous God dealt with sin in Him, who had no sin, but who was made sin?

"He was alone with God, made sin; nothing to turn aside the cup of justice; nothing to deaden it. The power which was in Him did not shelter Him; it rendered Him capable of bearing that which weighed on His soul, the feeling of the horror of the curse in the measure in which the love of the Father was familiar to Him, the feeling of that which it was to be made sin in the measure of the divine holiness which was in Him. Neither the one nor the other could be measured. He drank then the cup of judgment of God against sin. All forces Him to utter the cry, a cry which we are allowed to hear that we might know what passed there, the reality of atonement: 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' It is a forsaking which none can fathom, save He who felt it." (John N. Darby.)

"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (v. 1). This was the most dreadful aspect of the sufferings of Christ on the cross. He spoke these words at the end of the three hours when the world was enveloped in darkness from noon until 3.00 p.m. (Matt. 27:45-46). Many have wondered what He meant, for this is such a contrast to His own words in John 16:32, "Indeed the hour is coming, yea, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." This was perfectly true until the time when the darkness fell, a darkness that signified the withdrawal of the light of God from this sinless, faithful Son of Man. Then He was forsaken by God. He asked, "Why?" Did He not know why? Yes indeed, for He answers this Himself. But He asked "why" in order to awaken us to consider this amazing question.

The result of His atoning work is exactly the opposite. Why did He suffer from man? It was for righteousness. When He suffers from God, is it for righteousness? Just the opposite. He suffers for sin under the wrath of God. He was made sin! Ave, and He suffers for sin. The moment He was made sin, He had to do with God about it. He was absolutely alone in this; there were none to look on, man could not contemplate. We have not such an expression as that we have in Psalm 20, "Jehovah hear thee," in this Psalm 22. The disciples were even as the world - they could not go there. The ark must stand in the midst of Jordan until the people are over. There was Satan's power, God's wages against sin. When He appeals to God for deliverance, He is not heard on the cross. He tasted death for every man. He must drink the cup of wrath - it is between God and Himself. If He had had the least comfort from God, He would not have drunk the cup. Man had nothing to do with it. If man had been there, it would have been damnation; He must be alone when suffering from God. In the thought of this suffering from sin He prayed against it. Could He say of that, "My meat is to do the will"? etc. No! not on the cross. This was the power of death, and in prospect of it, in the garden of Gethsemane, He said to His disciples, "Tarry ye here and watch"; and to God, "If it be possible, let this cup pass," etc. Then He takes the cup from His Father's hands. When on the cross He cries "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He is forsaken of God. His soul drinks the cup of wrath due to Him when He is made sin. We have His thoughts and feelings expressed where the facts are going on. In the Psalms we have the privilege thus of knowing how He felt when under them. Psalm 22 gives, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" His feelings - the fact was atonement.

A. 1. — The union of the divine and the human in the Person of Christ was indissoluble from the moment of the incarnation. It was an error distinctive of the Gnostics to imagine a separation when He was about to suffer atoningly and die. And the error is fatal to the divine efficacy of atonement, as well as to the abiding glory of His Person. He had been a sufferer from man all His days on earth, and these sufferings were intensified as He hung on the cross: how did not dogs and bulls of Bashan, as Ps. 22 expresses it, vent their shameless spite and unbridled rage then! But the psalm opens with the new and infinitely solemn fact that God forsook Him — forsook Him when man failed, even His disciples forsaking Him and fleeing, when He most of all needed sympathy. But no: He must drink the cup to the dregs, be made sin, and bear our sins in His body on the tree, have God, His God, dealing with Him, as thus giving Himself as a sacrifice up to God for sin, where all was darkness and not a ray of kindly light could enter. Till then He had walked in the unclouded enjoyment of His Father's love; but then He must taste, as He did to the uttermost, what God feels and must execute as the Judge of sin, and (in His case) of all the sins which were laid on His holy head. This was the perfection of His suffering, not merely from man for righteousness and love, but what was peculiar to Himself, and peculiar to that time of atonement, suffering from God for sin because He was faithful to man and came to save sinners. Only thus could God be glorified about sin; only thus could the unjust be justified to God's glory and the full proof of divine grace also, as laying the ground for the righteousness of God in Christ. Never was the unfathomable love for God and man so proved in Him as when thus bearing our judgment at God's hand on the cross; but for that very reason it could not be a time for Christ's enjoying the communion of His love and delight as ever before and since. This was the necessary change then.