Why did Jesus say "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"?

Question

I never quite understood that part...did God forsake him on the cross? Was he expecting to be saved from crucifixion?

Answer 1

Psalm 22.

Christ was reciting Psalm 22.

PS:

There are some good answers and some fairly silly answers. Christ never lost faith. God did not turn away from Christ, pretty hard to turn away from yourself. I don't know where people come up with this stuff or why they believe it.

Christ, the Messiah, had to be crucified by us so we would know that in spite of how sinful we are God forgives us. That is the good news, forgiveness of sins when you place your faith in God.

All the rest of the blood and sin rhetoric is just complications and poor witness. Like "Christ had 12 disciples", Christ had thousands of disciples, only eleven became Apostles and then Christ chose a twelfth Apostle who had not been a disciple.

If God can't look at sin he sure can't look at the Earth or anyone on it.

Where people make all this stuff up I do not know.

Oh, and the Jews of the time called the crosses used, trees which is where the prophesy about dying on a tree and the phrase today comes from. They did not use that term at the time of the prophesy, they did not use the term until the Romans came. Pretty kewl that God knew that and prophesied in the slang of the future.

Answer 2

There are two reasons that Jesus spoke those words from the cross. The first is mainly overlooked by those who have given answer to your question, which has often been asked, by the way (in history).

First, read the 22nd Psalm. That was where Jesus quoted from, an Old Testament psalm attributed to King David. Some of the psalms are considered "messiannic," that is, they are prophetic psalms that find fulfillment in the life of Jesus, the Messiah.

When Jesus hung on the cross, he was surrounded by the Jewish religious leaders and others who knew the OT quite well. When Jesus quoted from Psalm 22, He was declaring His crucifixion as a fulfillment of that messiannic psalm. When you read the whole psalm, you'll see the reference to the nails in his hands and feet!

Second, when Jesus was dying on the cross, He was the just dying for the unjust. Jesus, the sinless One, took our sins on the cross, and paid the penalty demanded by the Father.

He was guiltless. We are guilty. He took our sins and guilt, so that we can receive His goodness in salvation. The apostle Paul talks about this: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

It is believed that at the moment our guilt and sin were transferred to Jesus, that the Father, who cannot look upon sin, turned His back on Jesus (metaphorically, not literally), and that's when Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me . . ."

Answer 3

Yes, read Ps. 22.

But there really was a forsaking - or at least a genuine feeling of being forsaken by Jesus. The sky turned darker than the darkest night. The light of the world was dying. Jesus was, in a great mystery, becoming the true sacrificial lamb of God, taking upon Himself the sins of all humanity. God the father cannot look upon sin with favor and had to turn away from His own dear Son....

The heavens wept, the angels were aghast, the devil clapped his wicked hands, the disciples fled in shame.....

all of creation shuddered, the earth quaked and the veil of the temple was torn in two.....

it is finished, Jesus declared.

But, thank God thank God thank God, that is not the end of the story!

He arose!!
He's alive and I'm forgiven!

god bless

Answer 4

Jesus'question was a quotation from a psalm of David(Ps.22:1)When uttering those words Jesus keenly sensed that his Father had momentarily withdrawn his protection and "forsaken" or released him into the hands of his enemies,to die as a acursed criminal on a stake.(Gal.3:13).In asking "why" Jesus did not imply that he did not know the reason for this abandonment nor was he expecting an answer from his Father.The situation is comparable to that of a Christian who knows the reason for human suffering but is moved under the weight of intense difficulties to ask "why" either silently or audibly.The questioner thereby reveals that he has no reason to think that the suffering is due to his transgressions.Thus,besides fulfilling Ps22:1,Jesus' outcry evidently served to confirm his innocence and focused on the real purpose for his suffering.Matt.27:46;compare John12:27,28,33

Answer 5

Jesus said this to His Father because He had never been separated from His Father before this moment. They had been One since the beginning before time existed. Why I hear you ask was Jesus separated from God the Father? He was separated because Christ became sin for us and our Father God is a Holy God who cannot join to or tolerate sin. Yes Jesus also knew He would be sacrificed. Jesus preached the Kingdom of God is at hand therefore repent, turn to God and be saved. Jesus preached that those who believed on Him and called on His name would be saved. Jesus didn't preach, chill out, she'll be right, I got your back, just sit back do nothing and cruise on up to those pearly gates!!! There is a response that is required of us and God doesn't want immature Christians who don't want to grow up but want to sit back, do nothing and be always fed on milk like a baby. The ten commandments was never discarded when Christ came, the only thing that changed was that Christ gave a further commandment after the first which is to love the Lord God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and the second commandment is like the first which is to love one another as you love yourself.

Answer 6

Read St John 10 ,17-18 This should help you to understand that God gave Jesus the power to lay his life down or take it up and God will not deny what he has spoken.
Remember it is written Jesus gave up the ghost.
Who knows how anyone in the circumstances that Jesus was in of what we might say in weakness,remember also that Jesus was in all points tempted like us.
If we have a work or something God gave us the authority to do he will not do it for us.

Answer 7

At that particular moment, Jesus's connection to God was severed. Up to that point, Jesus and God were at least connected. But at that dark moment, Jesus had taken on all the sin of every human that had inhabited the earth in the past, every human that was living then, and every human that was to live in the future. God had to separate Himself from the sin of the world.
That's why Jesus felt forsaken.
Wow, I just had an epiphany, but it really has little to do with this question. It's just that the whole thing with Jesus showed how mighty God truly is. He sent His Son to take on the sin of the world, but was MIGHTY enough to separate Himself from part of Himself so that this could be accomplished. That's what HAD to be done. I know that the whole "separating Himself from Himself" doesn't make much sense, it truly blows my mind. How is this possible? But I believe it is.
Anyway, I hope this makes sense (kind of), and that it answers your question.

Answer 8

God did not forsake him. In ancient Semitic language, the first few words of a passage were the name of the passage. Jesus recited the title of a Psalm. If you read the Psalm, it describes a crucifixion scene, and was widely accepted as a Messianic prophesy. Jesus quoted the title of the Psalm in oder to identify himself as the Messiah just before he died.

Answer 9

Since all of the sins of the whole world were upon Jesus, God could not look upon Him, for God cannot be in the presence of sin. It is not that He will not, but He cannot, because He is pure and holy. I cannot imagine how much it hurt God to turn away from His only Son like that, but it had to be done. Jesus knew what He was about to face when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane,when He prayed for another way. He knew that He had no one to turn to; everyone turned their back on Him, even God. But Glory Hallelujiah!! He is now seated on the right hand of the Father!!! Praise and glory to His name!!!

Answer 10

I think this was recorded so throughout history, we could have a glimpse into Jesus' humanity. Not only the Son of God, he was also born of a woman and therefore very human. The duality of His nature is underlined by the fact that in his most anguished moment he cried out to his Father-an expression of the suffering he felt-so obviously alone and abandoned.