”Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified. Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. And they went out to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). The soldiers gave Jesus wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it. After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. Then they sat around and kept guard as he hung there. A sign was fastened above Jesus’ head, announcing the charge against him. It read: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!” The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him! He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Even the revolutionaries who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way. At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”“
Matthew 27:27-46 NLT
Much has been made of Christ’s question in the cross. Many have used the phrase, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” as a sort of rallying cry for insecurity. Some have taken it so far as to justify that Christ’s last moments were devoid of God’s presence upon him. They have used it to say that he was abandoned by God because God “cannot” look upon sin. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth. This cry shows just how connected Christ was to God and to his will. These mockeries were his final temptation. They were a constant barrage telling him to use his power to end his suffering. Just as he did in the desert, Jesus recalls scripture one last time to combat them. Here he starts with the beginning of Psalm 22. This chapter closely mirrors the events of his persecution and begins with that phrase. However, it ends with faith in God’s plan and glory being given to him. In fact, he was not doubting God at all. Instead he was quoting scripture against the devil’s final onslaught. As in so many other places, we can see that the scripture was foremost on his mind. We must see that it empowered him to do what he needed to do. It should be our goal, when faced with trials, to have scripture so readily available to our minds.
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