Matthew 27:46, commentary and pictures

About the ninth hour, after darkness had covered the land from the sixth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice asking why God had forsaken Him. On the cross He bore the crushing guilt of the sins of the whole world, counted as a transgressor though innocent and sinless, and therefore felt the Father's reconciling face, comfort and sustaining presence hidden and withdrawn. His keenest anguish was not bodily pain or fear of death, but mental agony under sin's weight that broke His heart, as He fully realized the separation sin makes between God and humanity and suffered what the lost will suffer in eternal death. God had not in fact forsaken or abandoned Him, so the cry expresses feeling and not fact, and He endured by faith resting in the Father's past acceptance and loving character and was victorious without clear hope of triumph. As the divine-human Substitute He bore without abatement the full debt and extreme penalty of the broken law until justice was fully satisfied, so that guilty sinners could have His righteousness imputed to them and God might be just and yet the justifier of the sinner.

Hour, Darkness and Cry

About the ninth hour, after darkness had covered the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, meaning My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me. The cry was uttered as outer gloom settled about Him, when the terrible darkness lifted from the people but still wrapped Him as in a mantle, with the darkness still enveloping Him. That remaining darkness was a sign and symbol of the agony and horror weighing on His heart and the deeper gloom on His suffering soul. It was supernatural, impenetrable darkness for three hours with no natural cause, under a dark cloud-filled sky while the sun veiled its face and hid its light and concealed the heavenly host, and while angels veiled their faces. Nature showed sympathy with His sorrow and humiliation in those hours of agony on the cross amid mockery and cruel suffering.

Those standing by misunderstood the cry as a call for Elias, and one ran to give Him vinegar on a reed to drink while the rest waited to see whether Elias would come to save Him. His words were clear, but the priests and rulers distorted them, claiming He was calling for Elijah. They heard and misinterpreted the cry as a call for Elijah and mocked Him with bitter contempt and scorn, saying He called for Elijah. Their mockery came after their fear in the darkness faded and dread returned that He might yet escape them, and they used the cry to refuse the last opportunity to relieve His sufferings, demanding to wait to see whether Elijah would come to save Him.

The cry belongs to the crucifixion at Calvary, where He suffered outside Jerusalem as humanity's substitute, and His death outside the city where criminals were executed fulfilled the picture of the outcast bearing the curse of sin. He had been led from Pilate's court with Barabbas's cross laid on His bruised shoulders alongside two companions of Barabbas, in a weak and suffering condition from taking neither food nor drink since the Passover supper, agonizing in Gethsemane, enduring betrayal and the flight of His disciples, being taken to Annas then Caiaphas then Pilate then Herod then Pilate again, passing through insult and mockery and twice being tortured by the scourge without failing, until human nature could bear no more and He fell fainting beneath the cross and could carry it no farther. The movement from the judgment-hall to Calvary drew people of all classes and ranks flocking toward the place of crucifixion, and disciples and believers from the city and surrounding region joined the throng following Jesus because the priests and rulers were bound by a promise not to molest His followers if He Himself were delivered to them.

Before the cry He had sweat as great drops of blood in the garden and then was condemned, mocked, and spit upon. His brow was pierced with a crown of thorns, and He bore His own cross toward Calvary and fainted beneath the heavy burden of the sins of the world upon Him, not merely the wooden cross. He was led away pale, weak, and fainting, stretched out and hung with nails driven through His tender hands and feet. Crucified men frequently lingered days on the cross, but He died surprisingly soon, at the very moment the mysterious darkness that enshrouded the earth passed away. His death was marked by darkened heavens, convulsed and heaving earth, thunderings and lightnings, torn rocks, a mighty earthquake, and the rending of the temple veil, which testified that the Son of God had died.

Bearing Sin and Forsakenness

On the cross He bore the crushing burden of the sins of the whole world, with the guilt of every descendant of Adam in every age heaped upon Him. The sins of transgressors were placed to His account and imputed to Him, and He was counted a transgressor and treated and condemned as guilty, though He was innocent, pure, holy, sinless, and one with God. As the sinner's substitute and surety He drank the cup of suffering to the dregs as if He were guilty, looked upon as stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, still feeling the consequences of continued human sin as if He Himself were guilty.

Because He bore sin He felt forsaken as the Father's reconciling face was hidden and withdrawn, with His love, comfort, pity, sustaining presence, and approving smile taken from Him. He felt the Father's displeasure, frown, and wrath against sin, and the penalty of sin, which is death. This hiding of the Father's countenance came in His final conflict with the powers of darkness, and He cried out in bitterness of soul under it.

His keenest anguish was not bodily pain, fear of death, or the pain and ignominy of the cross, which alone did not so quickly end His life. That bodily suffering was only a small part and no greater than martyrs have endured. It was mental agony under sin's weight so intense that physical pain was hardly felt, which broke His heart, rent His heart, crushed His life, and brought His death so soon.

As Sin-bearer He fully realized the separation sin makes between God and humanity. He felt the sinner's penalty as substitute and surety, felt the anguish of the impenitent sinner when mercy no longer pleads for the guilty, and suffered what the lost will suffer in despair, separation from Jesus, and eternal death. The darkened heavens and convulsed earth were outward signs, while the torn rocks were only a faint picture of His state of mind.

In the darkness He could not see beyond the tomb and had no ray of light for the future. He did not see His resurrection, His coming forth a conqueror, bright hope, abiding evidence of future glory, or assurance the Father accepted His sacrifice. He was tempted to fear that sin was so offensive God could not be reconciled and that the Father had left Him forever.

He endured a fearful conflict with Satan and the powers of darkness, oppressed by legions of evil angels enshrouding Him. Satan claimed God had disowned Him and taunted his own superiority, pressing Him with the greatest suffering that could be brought to torture His humanity. Holy and heavenly angels were forbidden to break ranks to fight for Him, to minister to Him, to comfort Him, or to intervene. Though they gathered about their loved Commander, veiled their faces, looked on with sorrow and amazement, and asked with intense emotion if Jehovah would not save Him.

Faith, Victory and Love

Even in crying out in anguish He remained conqueror over the power of darkness, and the cry did not mean Satan had defeated Him. Even in bitterest anguish under the terrible hour of darkness He yielded nothing to the foe.

He was not in fact unloved, abandoned or forsaken by God. The cry expresses feeling, not fact, and a clouded mind or feeling forsaken is no evidence of being forsaken.

He endured by faith, resting in God whom He had always obeyed even amid despair when He could not see beyond the tomb. He relied on evidence of the Father's past acceptance and acceptance already given, and trusted the Father's just, merciful and loving character. He had no clear hope of triumph or coming victory and no assurance of approval to strengthen Him, yet as He submitted Himself to God the sense of lost favor was withdrawn and by faith He was victorious.

His love for sinners remained stronger than death and increased through the struggle, and through His sacrifice His arm brought salvation and the price to redeem humanity was paid. He drank the cup of suffering to the dregs to the bitter end as if He Himself were guilty, looked upon by those He came to save as stricken and smitten of God, and He still feels the consequences of continued human sin as if guilty Himself. The cry reveals the love of Calvary that no line can fathom and no measurement compute, in which every pang of anguish shows throes of paternal love, the Father Himself travailing in almighty love for a perishing world and suffering with the Son, repeating the gift of His only Son as an infinite sacrifice by which eternal life is placed within reach of every son and daughter of Adam. As man's substitute and surety the iniquity and guilt of every descendant of Adam was heaped upon Him till He groaned beneath its weight and was counted a transgressor to redeem from the curse of the law, and the wrath and displeasure of God against iniquity filled His soul with consternation and pierced His heart with a sorrow man can never fully understand, so much greater than physical pain that the latter was hardly felt as He died beneath the sins of the world while hardened men quarreled over His vesture amid thunderings, lightnings, earthquake and darkness like the pall of death, with heavenly hosts veiling faces in sorrow and amazement.

In His closing hours He experienced to the fullest what man experiences striving against sin, His soul tortured by horror of great darkness and pressure lest He swerve from uprightness, realizing how bad man may become by yielding and the terrible consequence of transgressing the law. This proves He was tempted in all points as man is tempted, as a free agent placed on probation as Adam and all men are, with real possibility of failing and yielding, for without possibility of yielding temptation is no temptation.

His sin-bearing was unique, which no other heart could approach. With breaking heart under the weight of sin He bore for others, under the sense of their ingratitude, under anguish at the suffering before Him and the thought of coming woe upon those crucifying Him, He cried out in the cost of redemption and sense of being forsaken. God's plan required that He suffer alone with none of the people with Him, though angels sympathized and would gladly have gone to His help and the heavenly host watched His shame, humiliation and agony as the divine Sufferer, yet God gave no command to rescue Him amid Satan's attempt to destroy Him and sever communication between heaven and earth.

Substitute, Justice and Redemption

The cry means the divine-human Substitute was made sin for sinners, bearing without abatement the full debt and extreme penalty of the broken law, with the vials of wrath not withheld. The penalty was not remitted because He was the Son of God, but fell fully upon Him until justice was completely satisfied. The sword of justice awoke against the Fellow of the Almighty and was not sheathed until bathed in the blood of God's only begotten Son. His keenest anguish was a real sense of the Father's displeasure and wrath, suffering the full penalty of the law, not only a small portion, with an intensity of mental agony that man can have only a faint conception of. Though sinless He bore the guilt of human transgression, and God's justice was awakened against the Son because He took the sinner's guilt upon Himself.

Though innocent, pure, and having no share in the sins He bore, He was treated and condemned as a transgressor and as unrighteous, with the sins of the world laid upon Him and imputed to Him. He stood alone in darkness with no divine aid or ray of brightness, feeling the sentence of death pronounced against sinners executed upon Himself as substitute and surety bearing sin's curse and penalty. He freely offered His life for guilty people and was not compelled to suffer or die. This was so that guilty sinners could have His righteousness imputed to them and be treated as righteous, as loyal obedient children clothed with Christ's righteousness. Thus God might be just and yet the justifier of the sinner.

By that death of the Prince of heaven a way was opened whereby the race might gain victory over sin if they would contend for it in God's appointed way, and man was granted another trial to prove loyalty to God and keep His commandments. He suffered the hiding of the Father's face so that God's face would not be hidden from fallen humanity forever, reconciling people to God and rescuing them from endless death. Counted a transgressor and bearing sin's judicial punishment out of love, He redeemed people from the curse of the law, defeated death, and opened the way to Paradise and immortal life. The sinless divine Sufferer drank the cup of suffering to the dregs to the bitter end as if He Himself were guilty, looked upon as stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, and still feeling the consequences of continued human sin as if guilty Himself. By that sacrifice the gift of eternal life and everlasting life has been placed within reach of every son and daughter of Adam who will live.

The cry reveals the suffering involved in redemption and teaches its cost, expressing the awful agony and depth and intensity of suffering for the sins of the world under the crushing burden of sin. In His soul, though one with God, He experienced the separation sin makes between God and humanity, and this awareness of sin's terrible weight broke His heart. His heart also broke over the ingratitude of those responsible and the coming woe upon them. The anguish at Gethsemane and on the cross shows the immeasurable cost of redeeming sinners, for Christ risked all and heaven itself was imperiled, and the sacrifice made for even one sinner reveals the great value placed on each human soul. It leaves no room for complaint about hardship and trial in the work of overcoming, teaching those who would win eternal life not to follow their own inclinations, not to shrink from conflict, self-denial or any sacrifice, but to give everything and choose between Jesus and the world.

The cry displays the depth of the Father's love in sparing not His own Son. It proves God is a God of justice whose law requires just punishment, testifying that sin's wages are death. Enduring such forsakenness proves God's great love in taking everything upon Himself to heal people and save them from having to suffer it themselves. Those who refuse the atoning sacrifice and remain indifferent to this great salvation cannot escape the wrath of God but must bear the guilt and punishment of their own transgression, and will suffer punishment without excuse, with Calvary itself as the argument against them. A hard, stubborn, impenitent heart that stays indifferent and turns away insults that love.

Disciples, Enemies and Conviction

The cry sounded like despair, and many who believed lost hope when they heard it. They were filled with terror and feared what they could trust if God had forsaken Him. Hope left them, and they feared what would become of His followers and the doctrine they had cherished. The disciples were left grieving and afraid, with their hopes that He would reign as a temporal prince crushed. Their hopes of His earthly reign and the deliverance of Israel died with Him in the tomb, though they revived when He rose and appeared to them. It was the days when the Bridegroom is taken away, when faith and hope and courage fail.

Onlookers declared that the vengeance of God was upon Him and that the bolts of wrath were hurled upon Him because He claimed to be the Son of God. While He hung in supreme anguish with the divine countenance withdrawn, darkness gathered like the pall of death about the cross and hardened men quarreled at its foot over the dividing of His vesture. The pardoned woman heard His bitter cry from the cross amid the agony of His sacrifice. She understood that His wounds and flowing blood were for her, to blot out her record of sin, and that His dying groans were caused by her transgression. In this she saw the cost of her forgiveness and her own guilt and sorrow over the sin for which He suffered.

It was uttered as one of His last sentences, together with the words about finishing the work and commending His spirit to God. It was spoken not in whispered tones but in a loud, piercing cry at the moment of sudden death amid shaking earth and rent trembling rocks, after three hours of darkness that had no natural cause. The cry forced conviction on many witnesses, including the Roman centurion and soldiers, that He was righteous and truly the Son of God. Those who had scoffed and jeered were terrified so that they fled beating their breasts for fear the earth would swallow them. That conviction was seed sown that ripened into harvest when the disciples boldly proclaimed the gospel, and it helped change the religious ideas of many Jewish priests so that after Pentecost a great company became obedient to the faith.

The strange fearful scenes at Calvary took place under a mysterious darkness that enshrouded the earth and passed away at the very moment Jesus died. He died surprisingly soon, since crucified men frequently lingered for days on the cross. The timing of His death with the passing of the darkness convinced Pilate more firmly that He was no ordinary man. It left him strangely agitated and regretting his part in condemning Him, a conviction corroborated by the account of the centurion in command at the cross.

Warning, Comfort and Example

The anguish of the cry reveals what the lost will feel when too late they realize God's Spirit has been withdrawn from them. It shows the terrible consequence of sin and the cost of salvation, for Jesus bore the crushing weight of the world's sins and felt the Father's displeasure and wrath against sin and its penalty, death. His sustaining presence and assurance of approval were withdrawn, and He endured darkness and despair without seeing beyond the tomb or receiving clear hope of coming victory and resurrection. Those who refuse the salvation purchased by His death face that same despair, separation from Jesus, and eternal death under God's wrath.

The cry expresses feeling, not fact, for God had not in reality forsaken Him in the hour of death. A clouded mind or feeling forsaken is no evidence of being forsaken, and God does not forsake any soul who trusts in Him. Trusting souls are therefore to rest in Christ's love, look to Jesus and not to self, trust the Helper of the past, and hold fast to faith. They will be brought off victorious and given the crown of life.

In the time of trouble the remnant will utter this same cry of feeling forsaken by God. That anguish is avoided only when sins go beforehand to judgment, with every sin confessed at the sanctuary. That work must be done now.

His untold suffering was because of sins, your sins and mine, and it pardons every penitent soul. Lifting the cross through confession, repentance and humiliation lifts the bearer into oneness with Christ. The forgiven thus become one with Christ and partakers of the divine nature.

The cry is to be remembered when trials seem many, so that believers do not shrink but live close to His bleeding side and earnestly desire the purifying trials that make richer in glory. What He gave up for sinners puts anything called self-denial in the shade, proves He demands all and entire consecration and separation from the world, and answers that the narrow way is not too strait. His suffering on our account to show the way of overcoming leaves no room for complaint about hardship and trial, teaching that those who would win eternal life cannot follow their own inclinations and must not shrink from conflict, self-denial, or any sacrifice but give everything, choosing between Jesus and the world. Because He suffered so much after a life of sorrow without a place to lay His head, with brow pierced by thorns, bearing toward Calvary the heavy burden of the sins of the world and fainting beneath it, then hung with cruel nails through hands and feet, His followers should willingly suffer for His sake and not complain and murmur when brought through straight places. His suffering exposes the inconsistency of claiming to follow Him while refusing to suffer for His sake. It teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for sacred work.

The great sacrifice made on the cross of Calvary is the measure of the greatest work ever given to mortals. It sets what the church should be and do in missionary effort. Compared with that sacrifice the church is far behind, even though she has made some advance compared with past years.

He felt forsakenness to heal people and to save them from having to suffer it themselves, so they need not remain outside the city. The forsakenness He felt is the same feeling the sinner will feel when rejected by God. Enduring it proves God's great love, which a hard, stubborn, impenitent heart insults by staying indifferent to His claims and turning from Him. He bore human sorrows and grief for sin, with transgression gathering darkness around His divine soul, making Himself an offering for sin so that people might be justified before God through Him and know the depth that makes eternal life possible for all who choose it. His soul-anguish under the hiding of His Father's face while bearing guilt for transgression of God's law was beyond what finite human nature can endure and cannot be compared with the sufferings of martyrs, who had the divine presence with them.

All that He endured in body and soul declares to every person that it was for him, offering Himself upon the cross as a sacrifice from love to thee, spoiling the domain of death and opening the gates of Paradise. As Sin-bearer He consented for the sake of each child of humanity to bear the burden of guilt and become sin itself under the wrath of divine justice while the spotless Son hung with His Father's face hidden. Even in that anguish, bearing the weight of the world's sins, He thought of His weeping mother and arranged for John to care for her.