About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
4 sermons cite this verse
… From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, and he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When some of those standing there heard that they said he's calling Elijah. He wasn't calling Elijah, but that's what they thought. So immediately one of them ran and got a sponge and filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him. And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. He died. At that moment, here comes the above and beyond, friends, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split, and the tombs broke open. Now check this out. A lot of people miss this. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. …
… and at three o'clock, Jesus spoke, and in Matthew's gospel, these are the only words he speaks from the cross. And this is what he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I want you to picture Jesus hanging on the cross saying those words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He felt forsaken by God at that moment. Now there are some people who try to, you know, try to say, well, no, it's because the weight of the world's sins was on him and a father turned away when Jesus was dying because he carried the sins of the world. I don't believe that. I don't think the father ever turned away from Jesus, but I think he felt that the Father turned away from him. In that moment, with the cruelty, the inhumanity, the insults that were being hurled at him, the physical pain that he was in, the exhaustion that he was feeling, in all of that, he could not sense the presence of his Father. I love that Matthew and Mark have included this. Luke and John, they don't tell us this part of the story. They have other words that Jesus says at the end, but I love that Matthew and Mark have told us this. They help us to see Jesus' humanity and to know that he understands when we're walking through hell on earth. Listen, in 36 years as your pastor, I've been with a lot of people who have walked through really hard times. I was thinking this week, as I was meditating upon this …
… and at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli Lama Sabathia which is translated my God, my God why have you forsaken me some of those who stood by when they heard that said look he's calling for Elijah Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed and offered it to him to drink, saying, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to take him down. Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last. Then the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion who stood opposite him saw that, he cried out like this and breathed his last. He said, truly, this man was the son of God. I want to preach to you this morning on the presence of the Lord. The presence of the Lord. the reason that the text is left in ancient Hebrew the writers say that when they were translating from Hebrew to our languages in the first Bible which was the King James Version for us they could not find the words that it carries in that culture. …
… was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. These are the last words of the Word. He said, Eloi, Eloi, lama shabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Lord, are you listening? It's okay if you wonder that, because Jesus did one time too. I know it offends you that I say Jesus wondered anything because he knew everything, so why did he quote Psalm 22, verse 1? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I think we all come to moments in our life where if Jesus is asking why, we will ask why too. Why? Sometimes the best answer is, I don't know. Sometimes when somebody experiences something so horrible, the only thing to tell them is, I don't know why. Sometimes that's the most loving thing you can do, is to sit with somebody in their why and say, I don't know either. But isn't it even more comforting to know that Jesus will sit with you in your why than another human who doesn't know why? Jesus said, watch this, Matt. My God, why? …