MY GOD! MY GOD!

Why did Jesus cry out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"

---

This cry to God should not be confused with despair.

In despair, we give up on our relationship to God and let it go. In fact, his enemies mock him precisely because he has been faithful to God 8.

It is this bond of trust in God that the scoffers try to undermine. Lamenting is not a failure of faith but an act of faith. If God seems far off, the enemies are very near.

They are described in animal imagery: The only activity we can clearly identify is one of mocking and gloating 7, When we recall that the ancient biblical culture was very much an honor-shame culture, we can appreciate how much suffering this would bring to the psalmist. The constant attack of the enemies takes its toll on the psalmist. He suffers physical and psychological breakdown and approaches death , 16c Many different body parts are mentioned: The ancients did not make the sharp distinction that we do between physical and emotional suffering.

The last three verses contain urgent pleas for God to come close 19 , deliver 20 and save The change in tone from part one to part two is quite pronounced.

Navigation menu

This sudden shift is typical of the lament psalms see Psalms 6: Scholars have offered various explanations. Perhaps the most common is that the psalmist has heard an oracle of salvation, perhaps from a priest at the Temple. This gives him assurance that God has heard the prayer and that deliverance is on the way. He fulfills his vows with a thanksgiving sacrifice which involves the eating of a meal. All offer praise to God because God heard the cry of the afflicted and brought deliverance The circle of praise now moves from the psalmist and Israel to all nations on the earth verses , as well as people before us in time 29 and those who will come after us At the beginning of the psalm, the psalmist felt isolated and alone in space and time.

Here at the end, the praise of God goes out to fill all space and time. Psalm 22 is, thus, the prayer of a just one who suffers innocently, of one who is surrounded by enemies and mocked precisely because of his fidelity to God.

Related Articles

When God hears this cry and delivers, the just one offers praise and thanksgiving to God. We are so used to seeing Jesus on the cross that a lot of the shock of it has worn off. As one observer has noted, if Jesus were to come to earth today and be sentenced to death, he would most likely be electrocuted.

Then Christians all over the world would wear around their necks little silver and gold electric chairs!

Sayings of Jesus on the cross

The Passion narratives, then, were perhaps the first Gospel materials to have taken shape. And like all the Gospel material, the Passion story is not a bare chronicle of past events but is filled with the faith of the earliest Christians who struggled to understand and explain the tragic death of Jesus. Nothing happened by chance or misfortune.

They look, they stare at me; 18 They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots. The term 'dogs' was used by the Jews to refer to Gentiles cf.

Sayings of Jesus on the cross - Wikipedia

His heart has melted within Him v. During the crucifixion process, the blood loss causes the heart to beat harder and harder and become extremely fatigued. Verses 16b speak of piercing His hands and feet and dividing His clothing by casting lots. This is exactly what happened as described in Matt.

Psalm 22 was written about 1, years before Christ was born.

At that time, crucifixion had not yet been invented. Actually, the Phoenicians developed it, and Rome borrowed the agonizing means of execution from them. The last words of Jesus have been the subject of a wide range of Christian teachings and sermons, and a number of authors have written books specifically devoted to the last sayings of Christ. Priest and author Timothy Radcliffe states that in the Bible, seven is the number of perfection, and he views the seven last words as God's completion of the circle of creation and performs analysis of the structure of the seven last words to obtain further insight.

The saying "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" is generally given in transliterated Aramaic with a translation originally in Greek after it. This phrase is the opening line of Psalm 22 , a psalm about persecution, the mercy and salvation of God.

Psalm 22: ‘My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?’

It was common for people at this time to reference songs by quoting their first lines. The slight differences between the two gospel accounts are most probably due to dialect. Matthew's version seems to have been more influenced by Hebrew , whereas Mark's is perhaps more colloquial. Robertson noted that the "so-called Gospel of Peter 1. James Dunn considers the seven sayings weakly rooted in tradition and sees them as a part of the elaborations in the diverse retellings of Jesus' final hours.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 1 April The 'Three Hours' Devotion, borrowed from Roman usage, with meditation on the 'seven last words' from the Cross, and held from 12 till 3, when our Lord hung on the Cross, is a service of Good Friday that meets with increasing acceptance among the Anglicans. Jesus, Interrupted , HarperCollins, The Cross in the New Testament.

Ukrainian Orthodox Greek-Catholic Church. Archived from the original on Aug 13, David, in his prayer of confession, cried out to God, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost. Dunn, Jesus Remembered , Eerdmans, , pp. The authentic gospel of Jesus. Language of Jesus Bibliography Films. Retrieved from " https: Articles with inconsistent citation formats Articles containing Ancient Greek-language text. Views Read Edit View history.

This page was last edited on 18 December , at

• Heroes of the 21st Century
• Celebration Cakes: Decorating step by step with fondant
• Tout à légo (Folio) (French Edition)
• Corporate Identity und Public Relations als Rahmen der Kommunikationspolitik (German Edition)
• How To Improve Self-Esteem Rapidly And Flourish: Top Tips To Easily Boost Self-Esteem For A Better Life
• Get To Know BPM