Verse 34
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
The traditional interpretation of this place views it as a quotation from Psalms 22, where no less than twenty specific prophecies of the crucifixion are detailed, and to which it must be supposed Jesus here made reference by quoting the first line of that well known Psalm. That is the view accepted by this interpreter, and extensive comment in support of this view is in my Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 27:66ff. However, it must be confessed that something deeper and far more imponderable could be indicated. As Cranfield expressed it:
The burden of the world's sin, his complete self-identification with sinners, involved not merely a felt, but a real, abandonment by his Father. It is in the cry of dereliction that the full horror of man's sin stands revealed ... While this God-forsakenness was utterly real, the unity of the Blessed Trinity was even then unbroken.[13]
The full mystery of the awesome events of Calvary cannot ever be fully known by mortal and finite men. Nevertheless, "In the cross of Christ I glory!"
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