"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (19)

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (19)
With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.(15:37)

Earlier we have discussed about the death of God in the modern theological and philosophical viewpoint. The report of the gospel writer who points out how the son of God cried out, “Why are you forsaken me?” perplexes us. It sounds nonsense and incredible that the Son of God is forsaken by God. Christian faith begins from such position of nonsense. Jesus’ resurrection is nonsense as we are bound to this worldly experimentalism.

Being nonsense does not mean that Christian faith is founded on an illogical and irrational base. It basically premises the fundamental situation that the creature cannot completely comprehend the total activity of the creator. It also means the existence of God is mystery to us. We who are bound to a point of history cannot positively cognize God who will completely reveal himself at the end of the world. God’s salvation incident can be nonsense in our epistemological level.

However, we can find out God’s deeper grace of salvation in his desperate cry, “Why have you forsaken me?” The God whom we believe and wait is the forsaken one. He is the one who went down to the lowest position of the world. If the resurrection life starts from there, then everyone in the world can be saved.

This cry also points out for us an important fact. God’s salvation takes place in the situation where there is complete forsakenness. God demonstrates his power of salvation in the desperate situation of man’s eyes. This utmost inhuman torture and nightmare has actually happened in the life of Jesus. Then what are we to be afraid of? Listen to the confession of Paul who says, “…neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Rom. 8:39)