Anchor My Faith

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Author: Stephen Weller
801 words, 4 minutes read time

Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Scripture: Mark 15:33-34; Luke 23:45

With the previous lesson we finished the section in which the people derided Jesus as he hung on the cross. We also witnessed the salvation of one of the criminals and John being appointed to care for Mary as if she was his own mother. With this lesson, Jesus speaks some words directed to God but not to his Father in particular. Knowing that his work is now finished he does not wait to die but on his own gives up his spirit and goes on to Paradise to be joined in a short while with the saved criminal when he dies.

^{Mk 15:33} And when the sixth hour (about noon) had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour (three o’clock), ^{Lk 23:45} while the sun’s light failed. ^{Mk 15:34} And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

It is my opinion that Jesus was sentenced to die around 9:00 AM and sent to be scourged and then led to Golgotha, arriving before noon to be nailed to the cross. The time between the third hour and the sixth hour was the time of judgment, scourging, travel time, and nailing to the cross, and the time alive on the cross was from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. Matthew 27:45 and Luke 23:44 indicates darkness between the sixth and ninth hour, the assumed time Jesus was alive on the cross.

The time of darkness from noon to three was a time when the sun’s light failed by a supernatural act of God, not by a solar eclipse. The reason it could not be a solar eclipse is that Passover occurred during a full moon, and a solar eclipse can occur only during a new moon. A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth, sun and moon align in space, with Earth between the sun and moon. At such times, Earth’s shadow falls on the full moon, darkening the moon’s face and – at mid-eclipse – usually turning it a coppery red. A solar eclipse happens at the opposite phase of the moon – new moon – when the moon passes between the sun and Earth. Also, if the darkness was caused by a solar eclipse it would not have lasted the three hours indicated.

This darkness represents lament according to Amos 8:9 – 10 ESV: ⁹ “And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. ¹⁰ I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.”

It also represents divine judgment as indicated in Exodus 10:21 – 23 ESV: ²¹ “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” ²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. ²³ They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived.”

This three-hour period of darkness was, I believe, the time when our sin was being transferred to Jesus and divine judgment was coming upon him. Not only was Jesus suffering severely physically but for the first time in eternity he who was holy is now becoming sin in our place and suffering horribly from it. When, at the ninth hour, the transfer of sin was complete, Jesus was at the peak of his suffering. Now being unholy, his Father has to turn from him and forsake him as God did us before our salvation. As God turns away, Jesus is at the breaking point and cries out with a loud voice saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Conclusion

In this lesson it was pointed out why the darkness could not be the result of a solar eclipse as some incorrectly think. It was during this three-hour period that our sin was transferred to Jesus resulting in the Father turning away and forsaking him. Then at the ninth hour the work that Jesus came to do was finished and he cries out not to his Father but for the first time in the Gospels, he cries out to God and with a loud voice saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”