Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted… This Scripture leads our thoughts to the desolation of our Jesus; to inquiry after the cause; and to the exclamation that passed from His lips, through the intense suffering of His heart. I. FIRST, THE DESOLATION OF JESUS. It was not unforeseen. With regard to the desolation of Him, whose love undertook our cause; that we may understand the meaning of the term He used, it becomes us to enter on a clear, a Scriptural view of His person, and of the intimate relation which subsisted between the Father and Himself. He was emphatically "the Word," that was "in the beginning," eternal, before all time, before the glowing sun came forth from his chamber, as a bridegroom, and rejoiced as a giant to run his course. He "was with God" — distinct in His Person; and He "was God" — self-existent in nature or essence. "All things were made by Him;" then He is the mighty Creator of the universe, of which we form an insignificant part; and "without Him was not anything made that was made." As to the nature, then, of this forsaking, of which the lips of Jesus utter lamentation, it is clear, to him who receives the word of Scripture in simplicity, that there was no desertion of His humanity by the Word. This Eternal Word took His human flesh and reasonable soul into union with itself; and that union was never dissolved. By this oneness, the body never saw corruption, although, after death, it was laid in Joseph's tomb: nor was it separated from the reasonable soul in Paradise. By this Godhead body and soul were reunited on the morning of the Resurrection; that union is preserved to the present, and will be after that wondrous prediction shall be accomplished, that all things having been subdued unto Him, the Son, the Mediator, the ancient Daysman, shall Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him; that God may be all in all. We are instructed likewise by Holy Scripture, as to the nature of that intimate and mysterious relationship that subsisted between the Father and the Son, co-equal, co-eternal. What testimony can be plainer than the words of Christ Jesus, written in St. John 10:37, 38? "If I do not," says He, "the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, behove the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." He entreats, with an earnestness His own, that all the children of faith may be one: as "Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us." If the Word forsook not the humanity, it follows that the Father essentially deserted not the same, because the Father and the Son are One in nature, eternally, inseparably. Hence, then, the question, What are we to understand by the complaint of being forsaken? That He was bereft of the countenance, the comforts, the consolations of the Father, in which He had rejoiced. II. WE HAVE VIEWED THE FIRST PART OF OUR SUBJECT, NAMELY, CHRIST FORSAKEN; AND COME TO THE CAUSE, WHICH WAS ASKED BY HIS LIPS. The Father gives the answer to this interrogation — "Why?" Because you have become the Bondsman of sinners, have consented to stand in their stead; therefore, as at your hands, I look for a continual and perfect obedience to the law in its exceeding breadth, so, in your person, I exact the penalty to its utmost tittle." Here Isaiah, who seems to look upon the scene before us: "the Lord hath lain on Him the iniquity of us all." Be attentive to Paul: "He made Him to be sin for us," therefore to bleed and die, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Little did the Jews imagine, when they exulted in the ignominy of Jesus, who was without sin, and lived without guile, that in gratifying their malice, they were but dealing the second blow; that the first was dealt by a secret, powerful, invisible hand; yet such was the fact, according to the testimony of prophets and apostles. St. Peter, addressing the men of Israel at Jerusalem concerning Israel, says, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" — there is the secret purpose — "ye have taken, and by wicked hands crucified and slain;" there is the resulting blow. In a Psalm of the passion (Psalms 69:26) we read, "They persecute Him" (the second blow), "whom Thou hast smitten" (the first stroke), "and they talk to the grief of those whom Thou hast wounded." That secret blow was the fruit of sin, which covered perfect innocence with confusion. Thus Jesus speaks, in the seventh verse, "Shame hath covered My face." "Why?" As there was no impatience under the blow, there was no ignorance of the cause. Jesus asks, not for knowledge, but to call our notice to the fearful cause. Himself gives the answer, as me have it in the Vulgate. "Far from My deliverance is the matter of My sins." III. THIRDLY, WE LOOK AT THE EXCLAMATION THAT PASSED THROUGH HIS LIPS, ARISING FROM THE INTENSE SUFFERING OF THE HEART. Jesus at this time does not simply speak; and who can imagine the bitterness of that cry — it pierced the heavens — He cried — "He cried with a loud voice." It before was the sweet word "Father," but not so now. Is He forsaken? why should we wonder at the hiding of Heaven's countenance? Jesus in His agony, inquires, "Why?" Is it not our wisdom to say, "Is there not a cause?" — to search it out and expose our sore to the pitying eye of a Father? Jesus was made desolate by that Father, that we might be supported, comforted, delivered. Jesus instructs us for a dying hour: He turns from creatures, and occupies Himself with God. Be this our happiness, as it is our privilege; and when heart and flesh both fail, the Lord will be the strength of our heart, and our portion forever. (Thomas Ward, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? |
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