“Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 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 forsaken Me?”” (Matthew 27:45–46).
What happened in the darkness while Jesus hung on the cross? What caused Him to shout, “My God, My God Why Have You Forsaken Me?” Let’s pause and consider five realities that Jesus experienced as He died for us.
1. Jesus felt real, unstopping physical pain.
As Jesus repeated David’s words from Psalm 22:1, a crown of thorns dug into His scalp. His face bled from where his beard had been ripped from His face. His back hung in shreds from the flogging by the Roman soldiers. Nails impaled His hands, and a spike thrust through His feet (Psalm 22:16). Every breath required pressing against that spike to lift His body and prevent suffocation. In the darkness those three hours on the cross, Jesus felt real, unstopping physical pain.
2. Jesus bore the real, unimaginable weight our sin.
Jesus had never sinned Himself. Every sinful act He bore violated His holy character. Yet, the Bible repeats that Jesus took on Himself the sin of the world.
- “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6),
- “He bore the sin of many” (Isa. 53:12).
- He is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
- Christ was “offered once to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:28).
- “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
- Christ became “a curse for us” by hanging on the cross (Gal. 3:13).
- God made Christ “to be sin for us who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21)
Imagine feeling the guilt of an infant’s death because of your negligence. Circumstances like this drive people to consider suicide. Jesus felt the weight of every death due to negligence, every instance of child abuse, and every time the strong oppressed the weak. Add to this every murder, even mass murder. In the darkness those three hours on the cross, Jesus bore the real, unimaginable weight our sin.
3. Jesus satisfied the real, unmitigated fury of God’s wrath.
In the Garden of Gethsemane the night before the crucifixion, Jesus knew what was coming. The cup, filled with the wrath of God, would touch His lips. He would drink it all. The full weight of God’s fury fell on Jesus as He suffered on the cross for the sins of humankind. Jesus is our propitiation, the satisfaction of God’s righteous wrath and justice. Not just ours, but for the whole world (1 John 2:2). Not just for now but for past, present, and future sins (Romans 2:25). As a just judge, God could not just forgive, erasing sin without any consequences. Justice had to be served. His righteous wrath on guilty sinners had to be satisfied. In the darkness those three hours on the cross, Jesus satisfied the real, unmitigated fury of God’s wrath.
4. Jesus endured real, unprecedented separation from God.
As Jesus suffered unstopping pain bearing our sin and God’s wrath, He shouted the lament of Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” To forsake means to abandon or desert. It can describe either a feeling of being forsaken or the actuality of desertion. In Jesus’s case on the cross, it was both. This had never happened before.
As the Father forsook the Son, the unity of the Trinity remained constant. Jesus did not cease being God, nor were there two Gods for those three hours on the cross (John 1:1). Instead, what was broken was the eternal communion of Father and Son. As Jesus bore our sin and God’s wrath, He bore it alone. His cry from the cross expressed the emotion of the reality–God had forsaken Him on the cross. In the darkness those three hours, Jesus endured real, unprecedented separation from God.
5. Jesus still knew that real, unshakable joy lay before Him.
When Jesus asked “why,” He had not forgotten what He had come to do. “For the joy that was set before him,” Jesus “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus remembered both the beginning and the ending of Psalm 22. The lament of David is answered by God Himself who heard his cry (Psalm 22:21, 24). Though all around mockers taunted, “He trusted in God let Him deliver Him,” Jesus knew God would deliver (Psalm 22:8; Matthew 27:43).
Jesus had often said that He would die and rise again the third day (John 2:19; Luke 18:33; Mark 9:31). He reminded the disciples of this in the upper room after His resurrection (Luke 24:44). He had just told them the night before His death that He was leaving and going to the Father (John 14:28; 16:10, 17). Even while forsaken, Jesus called God, “My God,” and not long after, again called Him “Father” as He committed His Spirit to Him.
Jesus knew why He died. He had not forgotten His own words: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He invoked Psalm 22, not just to lament, but to point to the result of His work. Psalm 22:27–28 declares, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’s, And He rules over the nations.” (Psalm 22:27–28). In the darkness those three hours on the cross, Jesus cried out in agony for the break in communion with God to end, but He still knew that real, unshakable joy lay before Him.
Conclusion: What Happened in the Darkness?
What happened while Jesus hung those three final hours on the cross?
- Jesus felt real, unstopping physical pain.
- Jesus bore the real, unimaginable weight our sin.
- Jesus satisfied the real, unmitigated fury of God’s wrath.
- Jesus endured real, unprecedented separation from God.
- Jesus still knew that real, unshakable joy lay before Him.
What will you do today in the light of what Christ as done for you?
- Bear your own sin? You are headed for wrath. “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”” (John 3:36).1
- Continue in sin? Believer, Christ did not endure a break in communion with His Father for you to live out of fellowship with Him. Do you feel the anguish that Christ felt when your fellowship with God is broken? Does your heart cry out, “My God, My God why I have forsaken You?”
Live for Him who took your sin and bore God’s wrath. Enjoy the communion with God that He bought for you. Let His love transform you.
“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15).
- Read true accounts of how God transforms lives through the gospel in the introduction to any of my missions devotionals in the Daring Devotion Series. You can read one account for free at my publishers website (scroll down to page 19) or get a copy of the books for yourself. Find out more at www.mrconrad.net. ↩︎
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