Did God Really Abandon Jesus on the Cross? (We've Been Taught Wrong)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Five words that have confused scholars, unsettled believers, and given skeptics ammunition for centuries. On the surface, it sounds like Jesus is cracking. A man in his final moments crying out to his father who isn't there to help him. But here's what nobody sees and what nobody's telling you. Jesus wasn't questioning God. He was actually quoting from scripture. And the passage he was pointing to doesn't end in despair. It actually ends in one of the most triumphant declarations in the entire Old Testament. When you understand what a first century rabbi was actually doing when he spoke those words from the cross, you don't see a defeated man being destroyed. What you see is a conquering king who is in complete control of the situation. Still teaching in the worst moments of his life, Jesus is pointing his disciples to the plan God has been writing for a thousand years before. This one's going to be a great one so you don't wanna miss it as we unpack the words of Jesus from the cross. And I wanna start with something most people skip over, the language that Jesus used when he was crying out from the cross. Matthew 27, 46 is the only statement from the cross that is recorded in Hebrew or possibly Aramaic, the common tongue that was spoken during the day

by everyone in Galilee or Judea. Now, Aramaic was the common language, but Hebrew was considered to be the sacred language, the language of the rabbis, the language of the temple, the language of the scriptures. Most people standing at the cross that day, unfortunately, wouldn't have understood Jesus when he said this. In fact, as we study the text, the Roman soldiers thought Jesus was crying out for Elijah, remember, Eli, Eli, but Jesus wasn't calling for Elijah. He was actually calling their attention to scripture. Here's what I want you to see. In the first century, rabbis didn't preach the way we do today. They didn't say, if you have a Bible, turn with me to Psalm 22, verse one. The reason they didn't do that is because they didn't have chapters and verses. Back in those days, you just had lines that would be quoted, the first line of a particular section. They didn't have scripture chapters and verses until later in the 16th century. So back then, they would simply draw their audience to the text that began the section. I'll give you an example, and you do this and know this today. If I were to say to you, t'was the night before Christmas, what would you say?

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. You know that because you hadn't said it probably since Christmas or even years ago, but you can pull it from the file cabinet of your memory. Let me give you another one. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. You see, you know it. You hadn't said it probably in a while, but you know it. When you and I know the rest of the words from the first line, then we're able to pull the entire section. The ancient audience was able to do the same. Why? Because they knew the word of God. They hid it in their hearts. So when Jesus cries out from the cross, these words here, which are pretty interesting, when he says, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Jesus is actually quoting the opening line of Psalm 22. What he's not doing is capitulating to the Roman army. He's really communicating to his disciples. Even from the cross, when he's gasping for breaths of air, Jesus is still pointing his followers to a specific passage of scripture. And when you and I go and read Psalm 22,

through that lens, it changes everything. Now, Psalm 22, if you wanna turn there with me, is a prophetic psalm written by David. It's a collection of what they call the Trinity of Messianic Psalms. Psalm 22 is a picture of the Messiah as a suffering servant. Psalm 23 is a picture of the Messiah as a shepherd. All roles Jesus filled. Psalm 24 is a picture of Jesus, the Messiah, as the king or as ruler, and he fulfills that role as well. Psalm 22 is a prophetic psalm written by David that describes the suffering of the coming Messiah in graphic, almost uncomfortable detail. I want you to see what Psalm 22 says. In verse seven, it gives a picture of what will happen to the Messiah. Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their heads at me. If you go down to verse 15, my strength is dried up like baked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You put me in the dust of death or the earth. What we have here is a picture of the Roman. and the religious leaders trying to attack Jesus. They're making fun of him. His mouth is dry on the cross. If you remember, he says, I am thirsty, and they give him drink. Then it says that they surround him and they, the dogs, the evil doers have closed in on me.

They have pierced my hands and feet. Now, in the Bible, sidebar, anytime you see a reference to an animal, a bull or a dog or pigs or swine, it's always synonymous with the Gentiles. Here we have the Gentiles attacking him. They pierce his hands and feet. It says, I can count all my bones because people look and stare at me. We know that they didn't break his bones, that he died naturally, and they speared him in the side to kill him at the end. They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing. If you read that Psalm, it says his bones were out of joint. His heart was melting like wax. His mouth was stuck to the roof of his mouth. The crowds are mocking him. Here's what's neat. This Psalm was written 1,000 years before the crucifixion, but I wanna stop at verse six, and I wanna camp out here for a moment because a lot of people will read Psalm 22, and they will go right past verse six. Verse six says this. I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by people. Now, this sounds poetic, and it's interesting because if you don't know the Hebrew word, it sounds like a worm or a small insect,

but there's more meaning here than meets the eye. The Hebrew word is tola'at, and it's actually the word for tiny insect or worm grub, but it's also a word that means something else, and the reason it means something else is because in order to produce ancient dye in Jesus' day, they took these worms and they crushed them, and when you crush the tola'at worm, it released a crimson color, a scarlet color, or a purple pigment, if you will. In fact, in the Hebrew dictionary, if you look up the word tola'at, it's translated as crimson or scarlet. Now, I want you to follow me as we walk through Scripture and see this word show up throughout the Bible. We see it in Exodus 26, one, when God instructs Moses to sew into the curtains of the tabernacle colors of blue, purple, or scarlet, tola'at, interesting, in the temple curtains. Then we go down to the temple in 2 Chronicles 3, 14, and God instructs Solomon to sew into the veil that separates the holy of holies with the holy place and to sew in colors of blue, purple, or crimson. Another time we see it is when Rahab is instructed, if she wants to live, to take a tola'at, or crimson cord, and put it out of her window so that when Israel comes in and decimates the entire city, they will spare her and her family, anybody under the house that has the scarlet cord outside. Now, the Jewish audience who heard this and knew this

realized that was a callback. That was a callback to the Exodus, when God told them to do something similar. Take the blood, crimson color of the innocent lamb, and paint it or apply it to the doorposts of your home so that when the angel of death, you see the connection, the angel of death comes over, everyone inside will be spared. There's another example in Matthew 27, verses 27 through 30, when the soldiers of Rome mock Jesus. You're the king of the Jews? Well, let's put a crown on your head. You're supposed to be king. And then they mock him by placing a robe on his back. What is the color of that robe? You guessed it, scarlet or red. Jesus is showing us without saying anything, and God is giving us a picture that Jesus is not just any man who's going to die on a cross. Jesus is going to take the sin of mankind, the crimson scarlet robe, as a picture on his back so that you and I don't have to. And then God said in Isaiah 118, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Crimson throughout scripture is always associated with sin. So when you see crimson or scarlet, it's a picture of sin. So when David writes Psalm 22, that the Messiah will be like a tola'at,

a worm crushed to produce crimson, he is actually prophesying something breathtaking. Jesus on the cross was being crushed like a worm, pressed down, his life poured out like pigment. And what did that produce for mankind? Crimson color, the very color of sin, Paul tells us, he made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that you and I, this is such good news, you and I can become the righteousness of God. Don't you see it? Jesus wasn't just dying, he was absorbing our sin. He was crushed in our place so that the crimson stain of our guilt could be washed away white as snow. Now here's the part that turns this whole idea on its head. Psalm 22 begins bad. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you turned against me? Why are people attacking me? Why are people criticizing me? If you stop at the beginning section, you would think we're hopeless, we're helpless. But that's not how the Psalm ends, not even close. By the time you get to the final verses, I want you to see the tone in the Psalm completely shifting. Watch what happens at the end here. This is pretty fascinating if you notice how it is structured. Verse 25, I will give praise in the assembly because of who? You, the man on the cross.

I will fulfill my vows because those who fear you, I'm gonna rejoice in God because of what you've done. The humble will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek the Lord will praise him. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord because of this. All the families, this is crazy, to the nations or of the nations will bow down before you. All who prosper on earth will eat and bow down. All who goes down to the dust will kneel before him. 30, their descendants will serve him. The next generation will be told about the Lord and they will come and declare his righteousness to those yet to be born. See, the Psalm begins in agony, but it ends in global victory. Scholar Richard Hayes says that the reading of this Psalm is a picture of what happened to Jesus on the cross. It's actually the reading strategy that the gospel writers themselves were teaching us. They're showing us how to interpret these things on the cross. That when Jesus quotes the opening words of Psalm 22, he's actually pointing us to the entire Psalm, including the triumphant conclusion. So what is Jesus actually saying from the cross? He's not saying we're losing. He's actually saying this. It looks bad, but we win in the end.

Not in spite of the suffering, but actually through it. You see, the agony in verse one leads to the road to victory in verse 31. Even in the moment of darkness, Jesus was not without hope. He was not a man drowning with no one coming. He was the son of God, fully aware of what his death would accomplish. And then he's calling his followers, you and me, to see that. And this is why it matters for us today. When you and I read, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And you don't know the context, it actually sounds like God is abandoning his son at the worst possible moment when he needs him the most. And that starts to raise questions about our relationship with God. What happens when I'm in my worst moment? Or will God abandon me too, the way he did Jesus? I need you to understand, Jesus is not talking about a father who leaves him when he desperately needs him, no. He's quoting Psalm 22 in full. And the answer is clear. God did not abandon his son on the cross. He was there the entire time. He was there carrying out his plan that he wrote 1,000 years before. The forsaking that Jesus experienced, the full weight of divine judgment

upon his back for human sin, he actually took so that you and I don't have to. Your worst moments are moments of God's divine presence, not divine absence. Friends, just because God is silent, it doesn't mean that he is absent. These moments of victory in your life can be applied to the cross. Because think about what that accomplished that day. The Tolaat worm was crushed. The crimson was poured out. The sin was stained with scarlet. It was actually transferred onto him. And the man who knew no sin became sin for us so that you and I might become the righteousness of God. Psalm 22 promises that the nations will remember. The next generation will talk about this. People who are not yet born will declare it. And you and I are the beneficiaries of that promise. You see, the agony of the cross was not the end of the story. It was the beginning of your story and mine. Jesus spent his final hours being betrayed, denied, rejected, mocked, and even condemned. And yet, even as he hung dying on that cross, he was still a rabbi, still teaching, still pointing his disciples to the scripture to show them nothing happens outside. of the plan of God. He quoted Psalm 22 not as a man losing hope,

but as a man who knew exactly how the story would end. Why? Because he wrote it himself. That is what those five words mean from the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's not one of despair, it's one of the greatest declarations of faith and victory in all of scripture. And if you know how to interpret it biblically, and now you do, then you know that it's victory and not defeat. If this video helped you see something new in God's word, do me a favor and share it with someone right now. Would you send it to someone? Would you post it online? It really helps us as we get started with this channel. And if you're new here, make sure you subscribe to the channel so you don't miss any upcoming videos. Hit that bell so you know when another one comes out. We post two a week, and I'm hoping you're enjoying them as much as we are making them. Until next time, get into the word until the word gets in to you.