Why Have You Forsaken Me? - Mark 15:34 Series

In Mark 15:34 Jesus cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Did God actually forsake Jesus? If so, what’s the answer to Jesus’ question? Why? And if you think the answer is obvious, then why does Jesus ask the question? He knew he had to drink this cup, he agonized about it in Gethsemane. So why is he asking this question?

Mark 15:33 At the sixth hour darkness came upon the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 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?"

Introduction: Did God Forsake Jesus?

In Mark 15:34 Jesus cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you for-saken me?” Did God actually forsake Jesus? And if so, what’s the answer to Jesus’ ques-tion? Why? And if you think the answer is obvious, then why does Jesus ask the question? He knew he had to drink this cup, he agonized about it in Gethsemane. So why is he asking this question? Did Jesus really believed that the Father had forsaken him? And if so, what does “forsaking” mean, exactly? Was there some kind of rift in the Trinity? And how long did the forsaking last?

Did God Forsake Jesus?

I made an argument in the Q&A last time that God never forsook Jesus on the cross. Now, what you make of that will depend in part on your definition of the word “forsake.” If your definition of forsaking is that God turned his face away from Jesus, withdrew his tenderness, cut off access to fellowship with him, withheld all comfort and strengthening, and punished Jesus as if he were furiously angry with him—if that’s what you mean by forsaking, then yes, God did forsake Jesus. Because he did all of that.

But there are some other things God did not do. God did not abandon Jesus to the grave. Acts 2:30 David was a prophet and knew that God had promised …that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 …he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not forsaken (same word Jesus used when he said “why have you forsaken me) to the grave.

Secondly, the Father didn’t abandon Jesus in the sense of rejecting him. God accepted the sacrifice Jesus was offering and was pleased by it.

Third, God was not angry with Jesus. He did treat Jesus as if he were angry with him. God was angry with mankind, and he poured out the consequences of that wrath on Jesus. But nowhere does the Bible say God was emotionally angry with his Son. It does say he was pleased with his Son. And, you could argue, never more pleased than when Jesus gave his life to reconcile the world to God.

Fourth, God never became indifferent to Jesus’ cries. There was never a moment when God heard Jesus crying out and said, “I don’t care. That means nothing to me.” God cared—deeply. He didn’t let Jesus feel the sensation of being cared for, he didn’t offer any expression of that care while Jesus was on the cross, but the Father did care.

So if you agree with those two lists of what God didn’t do and what God did do, then you and I are on the same page. You might refer to all of that as God temporarily forsaking Jesus, and I might describe the exact same thing by saying God never abandoned him at all, but made Jesus feel abandoned. But regardless of the wording we would use to de-scribe it, we would be in agreement on what actually happened.

However, I do believe there is a bit of a danger in describing it the first way. Here’s why: to say God temporarily forsook Jesus might give the impression that whenever times are hard, God has abandoned you and when things are smooth, God came back.

That’s how many commentators interpret Psalm 22. Verse 1 says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And verse 23 says, “You who fear the Lord, praise him! …24 for he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. They see that and say, “Well, obviously, by v.23 his problems had gone away. In v.1 he was having a hard time so God had abandoned him. But then God rescued him and answered his prayers so he started praising God for un-abandoning him.”

I don’t agree with that interpretation. First of all, there’s nothing in the psalm to indi-cate that David’s circumstances changed between section 1 and section 2. Secondly, the argument fails because you can tell just from v.1 that the speaker doesn’t really believe God forsook him because he calls him, “My God.” He wouldn’t be able to refer to God that way if God had truly forsaken him.