Matthew 27:46 "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli,lama sabachthani?
that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsake
Me?” Question or Quote? This may not be the first statement Jesus utters from the cross but I felt it was an important one to start with, because it goes a long way to illustrate why Jesus said the things He did on the cross. Jesus was not speaking arbitrarily when He spoke these and other phrases on Calvary. Each statement was deliberately made to demonstrate He was the awaited Messiah. First, you have to understand how much effort went into speaking when one was being crucified. While hanging on the cross, all the weight of a person was pulled downward. This made it difficult if not next to impossible to breathe. In order to take in enough oxygen to stay alive, let alone speak, one had to push their weight up off the nail that held their feet to the cross. Speaking was painful, and utilized the precious little oxygen the person could take in. Since flogging was a common precursor to crucifixion by the Romans, and we know for certain Jesus was in fact scourged prior to the cross, this meant sliding the raw, beaten flesh on their back, if any flesh remained, up the rough, splintered wood so that they could expand their lungs enough to take in air and speak. It was painful. It was not something done lightly. But Jesus speaks seven distinct times on the cross. Seven times He felt He had something to say that was so eternally significant that He was willing to suffer excruciating pain in order to say it. Here, in this verse, Jesus appears to be asking a question. He appears to be asking God, the Father, "why have You forsaken Me?" Seems an odd question to ask. Jesus knew exactly why He was on the cross. He knew His purpose. This was no surprise to Him. So why would He ask God why He was being forsaken? Maybe He wasn't asking a question at all. Let us look at Psalm 22:1 "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?" Psalm 22 is a prophetic Psalm. It speaks of the coming Messiah and all He would endure. The first words of the Psalm are the same ones Jesus speaks from the cross. Jesus wasn't asking a question at all here. You see, the Jewish people gathered around the cross were intimately familiar with this Psalm. They knew Torah, the Psalms and the Prophets. They were very familiar with Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 and other Messianic prophecies. They lived their lives awaiting their coming Messiah and these pointed to Him. Jesus was not asking God a question. He was making a statement, known in Hebrew as a ramez. A ramez in Hebrew means 'hint'. This was a method of teaching in Jewish study and rabbis use this method to help students of Torah with recall. Jesus also used the ramez with the Pharisees quite often throughout the New Testament, knowing that they would realize when He would speak certain things He was referring to a prophecy. I will give you a modern example. I'll say to you, "Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down..." Ok yes, you just got Rick Rolled. But I bet you immediately knew the song. You will start going through the remaining words. You might even get it stuck in your head and start humming it. That is a ramez. He used this method to call their attention to this specific prophecy. He was saying He was the Messiah spoken of in Psalm 22. He was basically telling them to watch...and see the Psalm unfold before them. But he was saying even more than that...even to us today. He was saying, "I get you! I know how it feels to be abandoned, forgotten, alone, rejected." I know what you go through." He is not only the Messiah. He is a Messiah who can identify with our struggles, our pain, our loneliness, our rejection. And in His other statements, He continues this Psalm and other Messianic prophecies. Tomorrow we will look at His next statement....
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