Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? (9)

Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? (9)
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"(Mark 15:34)

What does it mean by the term “forsaken by God”? Why did Jesus cry out like this? The answer is simple. His death on the cross is the most visible evidence of being forsaken by God.

Christians today are suffering in approaching the reality of cross because they premise Jesus’ crucifixion as the way of salvation. We first have to know the reality in order to understand the salvation that is brought by the crucifixion of Jesus. I told you earlier about the method of executing on the cross. I have also mentioned that death on the cross is a curse. We now would like to experience the spiritual world in which Jesus lives and which drives him to boldly face the crucifixion. His determination and bold step to encounter gruesome crucifixion shows that he maintains his relationship with God that supersedes the pain of gruesome crucifixion and shame of the mockery of the world. Jesus was able to withstand all these hard tests as he fully depends on his relationship with God who gives him the living spirit.

We have to understand that if Jesus practically trusted the impending kingdom of God he would humbly accept the cross of crucifixion. Even if Jesus was convinced that though the death on the cross which is associated with the extreme physical suffering that he would be able to bring the glory of resurrection, wouldn’t he cry out, “Why have you forsaken me?” I am not sure but there were quite a lot of people who have been executed on the cross like Jesus accepted their deaths resolutely.

Here the most important key that provoked him to utter the particular statement is associated with his relationship with the Father. There is no one who can bear the pain of destroying the relationship. What is more, it is certain that if the one who absolutely trusted God loses his intimate relationship with God, he would be greatly shocked and would say, “If you are living, if you are my father, how can this thing happen to me?”