Why did Jesus think that God had forsaken him?

Question

According to Mark 15:34, just before Jesus died on the cross, he

"cried with a loud voice 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani'
which is interpreted "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me'"

According to Mark, he died a few moments later without saying anything else. But if he knew beforehand that he would die on a cross, why did he think at the last moment that God had forsaken him? Did he forget that he would be resurrected two days later?

Answer 1

Maybe because he was hanging on a cross with nails driven through his hands and feet.
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Answer 2

In the movies, it always portrays Jesus looking up and addressing heaven. Some say that this is when Jesus absorbed all the sin of mankind and God had to look away--seeing that He cannot look upon sin. I am not saying that this is not what happened, but there is a better explanation--it is very Jewish.

Back then, they did not have multiple copies of the Tonakh. They kept one copy safely stored in an ark in the synagogue. So the students and priests, back then as well as today, would memorize the scriptures (they did this by singing it). Whenever they wanted to bring a chapter, or a Psalm to the attention of the students, they would not recite the entire chapter, they would say the first verse and the rest of the students would know the rest by memory.

When Jesus was on the cross, He employed this rabbinical device--He quoted the first verse. The Pharisees would hear this, then in their mind they would immediately do the "scripture shuffle" and find that this was the first verse of Psalm 22.They would then automatically recall the entire Psalm that would show that what was happening before them was prophetic--that Messiah had to die, be surrounded by accusing Gentiles scoffing, "he trusted in God, let Him deliver", He will have His hands and feet pierced causing His bones to come out of joint, that they would divide His garments, and at the end He will say "It is finished" (which is the Greek translation of the last verse).

So really, was alerting the Pharisees to what was happening and that all what they were seeing was planned from the foundations of the earth and that He was who He said He was--the Messiah, the subject of Psalm 22.

Answer 3

He didn't think so, he knew so. God the Father forsook Jesus in his humanity on the cross, so that He wouldn't have to forsake you.
In other words, Jesus took your sin and mine on the cross, and the eyes of the lord are too pure to look on sin.
Jesus went to the cross with the purpose of being forsaken by God, in a sense. Read Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53.
EDIT:
I believe Schneb's explanation completes this one. Yes, Jesus was bringing to mind the Psalm 22 that describes the very event of the crucifixion. But the abandonment was very real too.

Answer 4

As the Fathers of the Church teach us, this is the moment when Jesus has to die as a man. Although Son of God, He assumed human nature even to the point of dying a painful death, experiencing to the fullest the suffering and the anguish of death. Otherwise it would have been a sort of a show, playing the role of a dying man without feeling anything. In spite of this, there have been heretical beliefs along the centuries that ignore this cry of the dying Son of Man because they think of Him only as Son of God or because they have some other sort of distorted ideas.

And still, even during His most difficult to endure experience, Jesus Christ did not forget or turn against His Heavenly Father, thus teaching us to do the same.

Answer 5

All his life he had the Father by his side. Now at the one moment he needed him most he was left alone.

At any time Jesus could have come down from the cross and said 'ok, I've had enough'. He could have single handedly kicked all the Romans out of Jerusalem and burned everyone that opposed him. That wasn't his mission.

He came to earth to atone for the sins of all men, and to die and then resurrect himself from death.

So look at it this way, if all hope was gone, even if it appeared that even the Father has left you, would YOU have still done the right thing?

We all have tests in this life, what makes you think that Jesus didn't have his own to pass thru???

Answer 6

To answer your question as fully and from my heart, as I would like to, I cannot in this space. But if you read "Rational Spirituality" available on the Dhaxem website, you would understand.

Jesus knew that he was destined for Divinity before he incarnated. He was also aware of his immortality as a Soul, however, that did not spare him of the enormous pain that he felt when betrayed by all those he loved, and whilst dying on the cross. In those moments he was human, in a human body. However, as a Soul he undertook this sacrifice, and knew the outcome of his life, before incarnating. I hope that this helps.

Answer 7

· When on the stake, Jesus cried: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Did he lack faith, believing that God had deserted him?

Upon reading these words at Matthew 27:46 or Mark 15:34, some have concluded that when Jesus faced a painful death, his confidence in God wavered. Others have said that this was merely Jesus’ human response, an understandable cry of desperation by a flesh-and-blood man in agony. There is good reason, though, to look beyond such human evaluations based on surface appearances. While none of us today can know with certainty all that was involved in Jesus’ crying out as he did, we can note two likely motives.

Jesus was well aware that he would have to “go to Jerusalem and suffer many things . . . , and be killed, and on the third day be raised up.” (Matthew 16:21) In heaven the Son of God had observed even imperfect humans experience torturous deaths while maintaining their integrity. (Hebrews 11:36-38) So there just is no reason to believe that Jesus—a perfect human—would be seized with fear over what he faced; nor would death on a stake suggest to him that his Father had rejected him. Jesus knew in advance “what sort of death he was about to die,” that is, death by impalement. (John 12:32, 33) He was sure, too, that on the third day he would be raised up. How, then, could Jesus say that God had forsaken him?

First, he could have meant it in the qualified sense that Jehovah had taken away protection from his Son so that Jesus’ integrity would be tested to the limit, a painful and shameful death. But God’s releasing of Jesus to the wrath of enemies directed by Satan did not indicate total abandonment. Jehovah continued to show affection for Jesus, as proved on the third day when He raised his Son, which Jesus had known would occur.—Acts 2:31-36; 10:40; 17:31.

Connected to the foregoing is a likely second reason for Jesus’ utterance while on the stake, that by using these words he could fulfill a prophetic indication about the Messiah. Hours earlier Jesus told the apostles that things would happen “just as it is written concerning him.” (Matthew 26:24; Mark 14:21) Yes, he wanted to carry out the things that were written, including things in Psalm 22. You may find it revealing to compare Psalm 22:7, 8—Matthew 27:39, 43; Psalm 22:15—John 19:28, 29; Psalm 22:16—Mark 15:25 and John 20:27; Psalm 22:18—Matthew 27:35. Psalm 22, which gave so many prophetic indications of the Messiah’s experiences, begins: “My God, my God, why have you left me?” Hence, when Jesus cried out as he did, he was adding to the record of prophecies that he fulfilled.—Luke 24:44.

The psalmist did not believe that his God had simply rejected or abandoned him, for David went on to say that he would ‘declare God’s name to his brothers,’ and he urged others to praise Jehovah. (Psalm 22:22, 23) Similarly, Jesus, who knew Psalm 22 well, also had reason for confidence that his Father still approved of him and loved him, despite what God allowed him to experience on the stake.

Answer 8

Because He said that, I think that is the moment God felt so much pain and had to look away. I know Jesus could have felt our Father leave Him, just as I do. But this would have been the first and only time Christ ever felt that.

Answer 9

A tradtional explanation is that Jesus became sin so that those who accepted Him could be sinless. God cannot except sin, and so when Jesus became sin for us, God had to "turn His back".
From an American perspective this seems harsh, but ultimately it was what had to be done and was not a permanent state.

Great question!

Answer 10

that is the position I see Jesus dealing with the most soreness He could ever journey. The beatings, being whipped, being nailed to the flow, etc. could in no way evaluate to the soreness of being separated from the daddy. in case you spot, He uttered no longer a note in the course of the completed issue until eventually this second. i have self belief that that is the precise second that Jesus took on the sins of you and that i and thanks to the Holiness of God He could no longer be contained in the presence of sin, hence He had to exhibit remote from His in reality Begotten. Jesus particularly experienced what we as nonbelievers experienced before accepting His sacrifice. the completed separation from God. The sins of the global, certainly, have an unbearably heavy cost.

Answer 11

This "Schneb" guy hit it on the nail. The Father did forsake him and this was written by david in psalms 22 and was fullfiled by Christ since it was about Him. Its not that Christ forgot about being resurected but that all the pain, his people forsaking him and then His Father forsaking Him was very hurtful for Jesus. In my opinion Schneb deserves the best answer. Thanks