“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34
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| Gaspar Núñez Delgado, Crucifix, 1599 (altered) |
Man of sorrows, is there any sorrow like your sorrow, which was brought upon you (Lam. 1:12), when “darkness came over the whole land” (Mk. 15:33) on “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Joel 2:2)? When, by a perversion of justice you were taken away and stricken for the transgression of your people (Isa. 53:8), all who saw you laughed you to scorn (Ps. 22:7). You were become the laughing-stock of all your people (Lam. 3:14), and all those who passed by curled their lips and wagged their heads at you, saying, “He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, if he delights in him” (Ps. 22:7–8). You were “scorned by all and despised by the people” (Ps. 22:6)—you who saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on you, who heard the voice from heaven say to you, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (Mk. 1:10–11).
Man of sorrows, is there any sorrow like your sorrow? We all had forsaken the Lord, “the fountain of living water,” and dug out cisterns for ourselves, “cracked cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13), but, for our sake (2 Cor. 5:21), you were “poured out like water” (Ps. 22:14). When the Lord laid on you “the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6), you bore our God-forsakenness.
Beloved of the Father, was your cry of dereliction the fulfillment of what was said to the prophet: “I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my heart into the hands of her enemies” (Jer. 12:7)? When you “cried out with a loud voice” (Mk. 15:34), did you cry out to God from the place of exile?
Man of sorrows, there is no sorrow like yours, for it is you, the beloved Son, who cry out,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? (Ps. 22:1)
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