My God, My God 

Darkness

When Jesus was crucified, darkness covered the land: "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour." (Matthew 27:45). This "darkness," in mourning for the first-born, was prophesied by Amos:

"And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day." (Amos 8:9-10).

The thick darkness God brought upon Egypt separated between Israel and Egypt: "And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." (Exodus 10:21-23). Sin separates: Jesus spoke of the place of exile of sinners as "outer darkness." Sin brings darkness in its train, and severance from God:

How can darkness envelope Him who is the light: "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12)? Because He bore our sins, having none of His own, and thus He cried:

"And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34).

Too Pure

God is of purer eyes than to behold evil:

There was a fellowship between Father and Son before the world was: "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." (John 17:24). Though it had endured from eternity past, this fellowship was broken on the cross. Jesus Himself was without sin: "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15). But He was offered as the effectual sacrifice for sin: "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (Hebrews 9:28).  Jesus came into the world to be made sin for us:

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21).

When Jesus was "made sin for us," then how could His fellowship with the Father remain intact?

Psalm 22

Psalm 22, a psalm of David, contains a remarkable prophecy of the Messiah's death on the cross at the hands of wicked men:

A speaker who quotes a well-known passage is compressing and compacting a lot of information into a very small package. When you start the recitation, you also know how it ends; the finale does not come as an unexpected surprise. Interpreters who want to know the whole story should not neglect to read the whole psalm, which does not end in defeat but in triumph.

The Suffering Servant

The suffering servant came into the world to bear the sins of many:

"Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:12).

He was numbered with the transgressors, who do not feel the warmth of God's presence and favor:

"For three hours, darkness was over all the land. . .As that veil of night was lifting, the cry rose, single, echoless, in all its uniqueness: 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' It was the only key to the darkness, which otherwise would be an impenetrable mystery. Midst all that man could do, Christ spoke words of forgiveness and blessing, but that which He experienced in those three hours brought to His lips the cry of direst agony. So the darkness contained that in which man had no part. It was then that the Savior endured the forsakenness — and that of His God — a forsakenness involved in His bearing our sins, and thus in the making of atonement. The latter was a work wrought entirely of God. Man had no share in it. His guilty hands might nail the Lord Jesus to the Cross, but more than that he could not do; he might add to his sins, but could do nothing for their removal. The supreme sufferings of Christ were not at creature hands. They were endured when 'the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.'" (H. C. Hewlett, The Glories of Our Lord, pp. 94-95.)

 Hymn-writer Fanny Crosby, who was blind, felt that she would know her Savior when she met Him in glory by the nail-prints in His hand. Then we shall see Him face to face:

Say It and Mean It

The prophecy of Psalm 22 is, not that the Messiah will pretend to cry, "My God, my God, etc.," without really meaning it, but that He will cry it and will mean it. This must happen, just as surely as the other things predicted in the Psalm, for instance that the assembly of the wicked will pierce the Messiah's hands and feet. Sin blocks our fellowship with God, and on the cross the Messiah was bearing the sins of the whole world. The felt loving presence of the Father was withdrawn in the face of this monstrous scar of sin. Just as those abandoned in Hell cannot see the loving face of their heavenly Father, so the Messiah could not on the cross; sin blocked out the light. He had no sin of His own; it was our sin He bore. This estrangement Jesus willingly took upon Himself in order to save us.

Jesus' cry on the cross has paradoxically been used as an accusation against Him by his bitterest enemies, such as Bart Ehrman, and also treasured by those He has redeemed, who understand the cost of their ransom.

Quest for the Historical Jesus

There are very many Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah which Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled. In some cases these involve events not within the control of the Lord and His disciples, but in other cases they involve actions,— say, reciting a set phrase,— which might easily be accomplished by any Messianic aspirant, even Rabbi Schneerson, by conscious patterning: the Messiah is to say 'x,' therefore I will say 'x:' 'Hello, people! x!.' If you read much of the 'historical Jesus' literature, you will discover that these authors deny the first category absolutely, in a most irrational way: if the prophecy says that the Messiah will do 'x,' 'x' being a happenstance not within the control of the Lord or His disciples, then Jesus of Nazareth cannot have undergone 'x.' If you stop to think of it this is like saying, if the prophecy relates that 'the Messiah will toss a coin in the air and it will come up heads,' this means that if Jesus of Nazareth tosses a coin in the air it can never come up heads, which is absurd.

They are also somewhat prone to deny the second category, on this basis: if Jesus of Nazareth consciously and intentionally patterned His actions after those of the Messiah, then He was, if only in pantomime, claiming to be the Messiah. Now there is nothing historically impossible in a man claiming to be the Jewish Messiah, many men have made that claim down through the years. Here their bias is showing: though it is by no means impossible for a man to claim to be the Messiah, this man cannot have so claimed; His followers made up this claim at a much later date. But you will find a curious anomaly. 'Scholars' who color all sayings black which report Jesus of Nazareth saying something which the Messiah was prophesied to say do not ever color this one black. Why not?