"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (12)

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (12)

When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he's calling Elijah." (15:35)

Some of those who were standing near said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” Jesus’ word Eloi could be misunderstood with Elijah. However, according to the Bible scholars, it was difficult for them to get confused Eloi with Elijah in those days. Was it not a kind of deliberate pretension of the people to mock Jesus till the end of his life?

It could be slightly misinterpreted. Elijah was known to be a forerunner of the Messiah. (Mark 9:12). So they say Jesus asked Elijah’s help. Whatever it may say, in the word of crowd, “he’s calling Elijah’ implies their intention of mocking Jesus. It gives the clear notion that the one who is supposed to be the savior became a man who asks for other’s help.

The situation in which Jesus was facing was a picture of complete forsakenness. It was the place where Jesus was reduced to nothing from everything he pursued. All his disciples had deserted him. There is no one to remember his greatness. The one who performed the greatest thing has fallen down to the most powerless position. A poet named Hyeonseung Kim called this place as the end of loneliness.

Jesus is the God forsaken by God and thrown into the last corner. It is a paradox that the savior was fallen to the place of being saved. This is the mystery of salvation of Christianity. It is also the mystery of God’s existence. It is our faith that through the incarnation, God became a man and kenosis faith that he came to earth in the form of a servant abandoning the glory of heaven. We can see God in Jesus who was crying “Eloi Eloi…”.