Jesus Christ
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29. Why did Jesus, while He was on the cross, cry out with a loud
voice: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)? |
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He cried
out those words to fulfil the following words (which concern the sufferings that
the Christ had to endure) which were spoken by David through the Spirit and
written by him in the Psalm number twenty two: “My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). And I believe they express in an eloquent way how
great was the pain and suffering Jesus endured on the cross of |
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After He
had been abandoned by His own disciples, He was abandoned temporarily by His
Father into the hand of His executioners. No deliverance had been appointed
by God for Him in the midst of that terrible suffering; Jesus knew it. But His
enemies took advantage of that situation in which Jesus was (He was hanging
on a cross) and they reviled Him and mocked Him by saying: “He saved others;
himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down
from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver
him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God” (Matthew
27:42-43). However, even this had been foretold by David in the twenty second
Psalm: here are the words of David: “All they that see me laugh me to scorn:
they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying, He trusted on the LORD
that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him”
(Psalm 22:7-8). |