“From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).” (Mt 27:46)
At this point,
Jesus had been on the cross for up to 6 hours (Mk 15:25; Mt 27:45-46 but see Jn
19:14). The previous night, he had suffered such extreme agony and stress in
the garden that He began to sweat blood – a rare medical condition known as
hematohidrosis. Modern medical observations have found that this condition is
often caused by extreme distress or fear. The fine capillaries near the skin
burst and haemorrhage into the sweat glands. As a result, blood actually comes
out with the sweat. Although it does not normally cause a significant amount of
blood loss, it has the effect of making the skin fragile and tender.
Before
daybreak, he was spat upon and struck in the face while blindfolded at the
Sanhedrin (Mt 26:67; Mk 14:65; Lk 22:64). The charge of blasphemy was
manufactured against him, as the Sanhedrin could not find anything that he had
done wrong (Mt 26:65; Mk 14:64; Lk 22:71). Despite their best efforts to
incriminate him, Jesus was entirely innocent before God and before man. Early
in the morning, he was sent from Pilate to Herod (Lk 23:7) – where he was
abused further – before being sent back to Pilate at the Praetorium (Lk 23:11).
Despite repeatedly declaring Jesus’ innocence (Mt 27:18, 23, 24; Mk 15:10, 14;
Lk 23:14-16, 22; Jn 18:38, 19:4, 6, 12), Pilate gave in to the crowd and
condemned him to crucifixion.
Flogging was a
legal preliminary to every Roman execution, with the only exceptions being made
for women, Roman senators and soldiers. Accordingly, Pilate commanded Jesus to
be scourged (Mt 27:26; Mk 15:15; Jn 19:1). The common practice at the time was
for the victim to be stripped naked and tied by the hands to an upright post.
He was flogged along the back and legs alternately by two legionnaires – one on
each side – or one legionnaire alternating sides. The short whip used for this
purpose had multiple leather strands, with embedded lead balls and sharp
fragments of sheep bone. The purpose of the lead balls was to cause deep
bruising, while the leather and bone cut through the skin, underlying tissue
and skeletal muscle. The result was quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh.
Even this was
not the end, but only the beginning. The whole battalion of soldiers (Mk 15:16)
struck the crown of thorns on Jesus’ head and spat on him (Mt 27:29-30; Mk
15:17-19; Lk 19:2-3), and again struck him with their hands (Jn 19:3). By this
time, Jesus would have been approaching medical shock from the severe blood
loss and immense pain.
He was forced
to carry the crossbar of the cross (weighing somewhere between 25 and 50 kg)
(Jn 19:17) until he could carry it no further (Mt 27:32; Mk 15:21; Lk 23:26).
At the crucifixion site of Golgotha, nails were hammered through his wrists and
the middle of his feet. A skilled executioner would place the nails so that
they did not break any bones in the wrist, but did crush or sever the median
nerve which runs through the centre of the wrist. You have probably hit the
nerve in your “funny bone” before. Now imagine that with a nail through it.
On the cross,
the weight of the body hung primarily from the arms. In this position, the
natural (passive) state of the lungs was changed from an exhaled state – like
we are right now – to an inhaled state. So instead of the muscles having to
work to inhale, they had to work to be able to exhale. But to take anything
more than the shallowest of breaths would have required Jesus to lift his body
– by pulling upward with his nailed wrists and pushing up with his nailed feet.
Only then could he relieve the pressure on his lungs and finally exhale; before
inhaling by hanging back down on the cross once more. Each breath was a battle,
each breath incrementally more and more agonising and tiring. Death resulted
from a lack of oxygen (asphyxiation), shock from the blood loss, or sometimes
heart failure. But to prolong the process, Roman crosses would usually have a
horizontal wooden block partway down, serving as a crude seat. This would allow
their victim a small measure of respite in his passive, hanging state – but at
the price of this wooden block scraping the scourged back as he lifted his body
in order to breathe.
The Romans had
truly perfected the most torturous form of death; so much so that they had to
invent a new word to describe the pain involved – “excruciating” – meaning “out
of the cross”. We can only imagine some measure of the suffering that Jesus
went through on this day.
And yet, His
cry to God – after hours of enduring the cross – was “My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). As difficult as it is for us to imagine the
physical pain that Jesus went through, I believe it is impossible for our human
minds to understand the extent of spiritual suffering that he endured.
“God made him
who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21). And in 1 Pet 2:24, “He himself bore our
sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for
righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.””
Jesus took our
sins upon himself. He took my sins that I have committed upon himself. He took
the sins which I am yet to commit upon himself. “It was my sin that held him
there.” That point cannot be glossed over. As J.C. Ryle writes, we fail to
understand how exceedingly sinful sin is before God.
By taking our
sins upon himself, Jesus could no longer be in the perfect communion with God
the Father which he had from before time began. God’s eyes are too pure to look
on evil (Hab 1:13) and the sinful cannot dwell in his presence (Ps 5:4-5).
More than this,
Jesus experienced the cup of God’s wrath; the cup that he trembled at drinking
(Lk 22:41-44). He became our propitiation (Rom 3:23-26; 1 Jn 2:1-2, 4:10) –
“quenching God’s just wrath toward us by obliterating our sins from his sight.”
(Packer) It was so much more than just his physical pain.
And in this
time of isolation and wrath, the Messiah – the One anointed by God – cries out,
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani”; a direct quotation of the first verse of Psalm
22. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving
me; so far from my cries of anguish?” (Ps 22:1)
Why had God the
Father forsaken Jesus? It was so that he could redeem us from the curse of the
law by becoming a curse for us (Gal 3:13). It was so that we could be
reconciled to God and not have our sins counted against us (2 Cor 5:19). It was
so that we could find ourselves in the last two verses of Psalm 22:
“Posterity will
serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim
his righteousness, declaring it to a people yet unborn: He has done it!” (Ps
22:30-31).
“My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?” It was so that I can stand here and make the
exact opposite cry: “My God, my God, why have you not forsaken me?” In
spite of all my sins, in spite of my failures, in spite of who I am. In
spite of all this, you have never forsaken me (Heb 13:5).
Hallelujah! He has done it! (Ps 22:31b)
Scripture quotations from NIV.
Bibliography
Edwards, W. D.,
Gabel, W. J., & Hosmer, F. E. (1986). On the physical death of Jesus Christ. Jama, 255(11),
1455-1463.
Packer, J. I. (1973)
Knowing God. InterVarsity Press.
Ryle, J. C. (2010). Holiness:
Its nature, hindrances, difficulties, and roots. Moody Publishers. Abridged
version.