Carl Hagensick

No relationship was more precious to Jesus of Nazareth than that which he enjoyed with his heavenly Father. How often he had spent whole nights in communion with his God! How frequently he had used those familiar words, "My Father!" With what confidence he uttered, when at the graveside of Lazarus, "I knew thou hearest me always" (John 11:42)!

This was a relationship the son of God had enjoyed from the very beginning. The wise man, personifying him as wisdom, wrote of him: "When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him" (Proverbs 8:29,30).

This was the closeness his Father expressed when he crowned the seven days of creation with the forming of the first human: "Let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1:26).

The joy of that closeness stands in stark contrast with Jesus' words on the cross: "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?" (Mark 15:34)." Erricco said. "God was with Jesus through everything, the suffering on the cross, everything. Assyrian scholars never thought he was forsaken.">

A Quotation

These words are a direct quotation of the first portion of Psalm 22. In all probability Jesus is thus showing that this psalm is prophetic of himself and his experiences. Such an identification, however, does not make its words any less true, but rather emphasizes that they do in fact express his emotions at the time of his utterance upon the cross. Although it is a Messianic psalm, the words at the time they were penned undoubtedly were true of David's own experience. The inspired title of the psalm, "Aijeleth Shahar," is translated "The Hind of the Dawn" in the Revised Standard version and "Doe of the Dawn" in the New Living Translation. This title suggests that perhaps it is one of David's "shepherd psalms," inspired by a lone and frightened deer in the pasture where David was tending his flock. The doe became a metaphor for separation from one's mate.

Psalm 22, however, is not a song of despair, but of faith and of hope. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary remarks: "Note that the psalmist does not lose faith even while describing his intense suffering and persecution. He feels forsaken by God but knows that God is near." Most of the balance of the verse, as found in the King James and other translations, is unsupported in the Hebrew, which merely adds "why are you so far?"

Agony of Soul

Crucifixion, even to a perfect man fully committed to the doing of his Father's will, was an excruciating experience. There is ample evidence that a spirit of heaviness was weighing upon his heart for some time even before his death. The account of his emotions as he crossed the Kidron into Gethsemane is clear: "He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. And he said to them, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch" (Mark 14:33,34 NAS). Today's English Version translates the Greek by, "Distress and anguish came over him."

Similar emotions are attributed to Jesus in Gethsemane by the apostle Paul in Hebrews 5:7, "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared." The last phrase is nicely put in The Living Bible: "And God heard his prayers because of his strong desire to obey God at all times."

There have been many suggestions offered as to why Jesus was so heavily troubled. Certainly his knowledge of the bickering among his closest followers, indicating their lack of preparedness for his departure, was a contributing factor. While his total commitment to his Father's will would indicate that the fear of death was not a part of the emotion, the natural apprehension to bear up under the cruel tortures of the cross would add to his discomfort. The realization of the importance of the past three and a half years and the necessity to keep every iota of God's law perfectly may have also added to his heaviness. But such speculation as to the cause of his emotional state is irrelevant. For whatever reason, the Bible is clear he had such emotions.

The Gethsemane Prayer

There is no question that Psalm 102 is one of the Messianic psalms. The apostle Paul quotes verses 25 to 27 and applies them to the Lord in Hebrews 1:10-12. The title and first verse of this prophetic psalm appear to identify it with the heaviness that weighed down upon the master in Gethsemane: "A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee."

In the next verse we find words that anticipate the heart-rending cry of Psalm 22:1. "Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily" (Psalm 102:2).

The similarity between these two psalms suggests that the heaviness which elicited the prayer "My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?" came on gradually from the time he was in the garden alone in his final period of communication with his Father preceding his trials and passion at Calvary.

Why the Veil Between?

It is noteworthy that this cry from the cross is the only time in the New Testament where Jesus addresses the Supreme Being of the universe as "My God." His usual method of address is the intimate "Father." This serves to further describe the veil which had fallen between him and the Father whom he so loved and on whom he leaned in all of his sacrifices.

Why was this separation necessary? Had God abandoned him in the time of his trial? Such a thought is unthinkable! Or had the weight of his agony been such that he felt a gap between him and his Father that did not in fact exist? Could it have been a matter of perception? Such an explanation is possible, but we think that such was not the case.

Keil and Delitzsch, commenting on Psalm 22:1, express this thought: "Inasmuch as he [Jesus] places himself under the judgment of God with the sin of his people and of the whole human race, he cannot be spared from experiencing God's wrath against sinful humanity as though he were himself guilty." This, we feel, comes close to the correct explanation.

Jesus came to earth to take the sinner's place. This basic truth is reiterated frequently in the Bible. Paul writes, "For he hath made him to be sin [or "a sin offering"] for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Again: "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Romans 5:18,19).

And again: "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:21,22).

When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden, he gave them one simple law—obedience—particularly as it applied to the proscription against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God clearly spelled out the penalty for disobedience: "For in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). The apostle Paul put it simply: "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).

But it was more than life that the first couple lost. They also lost communion with God. While in Eden they heard "the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day" (Genesis 3:8). The Lord's plaintive cry from the cross suggests that he also took this burden of sin upon him when he experienced the withdrawal of Jehovah's presence with him.

Forsaken, But Not Abandoned

The feeling of separation from God was not abandonment. The thought in the Hebrew text of Psalm 22:1 is that, though the intimacy has departed, God is not far away from him. This thought fits in well with the lone deer which may have provided the metaphor for the psalmist's song. The doe he saw in the field looked forlorn, separated from the herd; yet David knew its mate was undoubtedly nearby.

So the growing feeling of separation from the Father, while evoking the sorrowful cry, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me," does not imply a lack of confidence by the Redeemer either in the rightness of his sacrifice or in an estrangement from the Father's love.

As previously noted, this is the only instance where Jesus addresses his beloved Father with the words, "My God." Not many hours later, in his next to last words from the cross, he says in humble resignation, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46).

What blessedness! The closeness he had enjoyed with his Father and dearest friend had returned. He had borne the full weight of the Adamic curse—both death and alienation from God. As in Gethsemane, when he prayed with "strong cryings and tears" (Hebrews 5:7), he was given an angel to strengthen him (Luke 22:43). So on the cross, his plaintive cry was heard and he was given the assurance of the Father's presence at the very end.

Jesus' Experience Unique

O, the depth of the Savior's love! When we realize the shame and ignominy he faced, the heaviness of the weight that was upon him, what a response it should invoke in our hearts. He who knew no sin, took our sin upon him, that we could be without sin.

What a blessing it is to know the comfort of our theme text! Though he was forsaken, we are assured that "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." In the Greek, this verse in Hebrews 13:5 contains five negatives. In English, a double negative cancels itself, but in the Greek it intensifies the expression. The Wuest translation phrases it, "I will never, never leave you; I will not, I will not, I will not let you down." The poet has captured the thought well: