After six punishing hours of hanging on a cross for the sins of the world, our Lord cried out with a loud voice the words which compose the title of this article (Matthew 27:46). Mark’s account has the word “Eloi” instead of Eli (Mark 15:34). McGarvey explains, “Eli is Hebrew, Eloi Aramaic or Syro-Chaldaic for ‘My God.’ The former would be used by Jesus if he quoted the Scripture, the latter if he spoke the language of the people.”[1]
The scripture Jesus quoted was the opening question of Psalm 22 —“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” How fitting it was for Jesus to use the Word of God in His agony on the cross, since it was the fulfillment of God’s word/will that required this extreme suffering (Matthew 5:17; 26:39; John 6:38). Later in the aforementioned psalm, are these words: “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee” (Psalm 22:22). This is quoted in the book of Hebrews to prove the point that Jesus, as the captain of our salvation, was made perfect through sufferings, and that He took part in the flesh and blood in order to identify with us as a brother (Hebrews 2:10-12). His agony that caused Him to cry out “Why?” to God eventually led to Him to sing praise to God with His brothers, those He has sanctified with His blood (Hebrews 2:11; 1 Peter 1:2).
The statement Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani is personal. Jesus refers to God the Father as “My God.” Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, sustained a relationship to the Father that no other on earth possessed (John 1:18; 5:17-20). This great intimacy must have made the pain of separation our Lord expressed all the greater. He felt forsaken by His God, the one closest to Him.
Why was there a separation? What exactly was transpiring when Jesus expressed this great distress of separation? 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” According to Habakkuk 1:13, God is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity. Certainly, Jesus did not become a sinner at this time, for Peter claims afterwards that Jesus never sinned (1 Peter 2:22). John by inspiration declares, “…in him is no sin” (1 John 3:5). The writer of Hebrews describes Him as, “…holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26). Jesus being made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) and the separation that is evident in the words He cried out must be related to the fact that Jesus is the sin offering for the world. Hebrews 10 reveals that the blood of bulls and goats shed under the Old Testament dispensation could not take away sins; therefore, Jesus came as our great high priest and offered his own body for sins once and for all.
We cannot fully comprehend what was occurring in the mind of Jesus Christ when He cried those heartrending words, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. Let us not think that we can fully understand it when Jesus Himself asked, “Why?”. Without doubt the humanity of Jesus is seen in these words. He suffered the cruelest of deaths for us voluntarily, so that we might have eternal life (John 3:16). Let us remember this when we are tempted to ask “Why?”.
[1] McGarvey, J.W. and Philip Pendleton. The Fourfold Gospel. (Bowling Green, KY: Guardian of Truth) p. 730
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