What Did the Cross Cost?
Matthew 27: 46; Mark 15: 3; Psalm 22: 1

“About the ninth hour Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Eloi. Eloi, lama sabachthani?”, which means “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” These words appear also in Mark 15: 34. This happened at the end of the three hours of darkness from noon to 3.00 pm. At 3.00 pm Jesus cried out in this way.

The Mood and Meaning
Psalm 22 unpacks for us just what Jesus might have been feeling:

Far from the help of God (22: 1)
No divine answer and no rest (22: 2)
Less than human, a groveling worm (22: 6)
Mocked by people, and God is mocked (22: 7)
Heart like melted wax (22: 14)
Humiliated and deformed (22: 17)
Naked (22: 18)

His Identification with Us
Mark 15: 34 and Matthew 27: 46 bring the climactic cry of crisis, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Jesus was “made sin” for us. At that moment he entered into the plight of sinners. He experienced the full separation from God. All the disadvantages of his humanity were captured in that horrific moment. He never ceased to be God but the privileges of his godhead were briefly “on hold”.

He experienced the worst plight of sinners.
He carried the penalty of his human rejecters.
He suffered physically the massive abuse metred out to him.
He experienced the Father’s rejection.
He entered into the pain of any person who has experienced paternal rejection.
He carried the pain of anyone who does not know if he/she will ever live up to dad’s expectations.
He bore the grief of every child raised in a divided family.
He carried the pain of the victims of physical, psychological, spiritual and sexual abuse by church leaders.
He also carried the sin of the predators and the perpetrators.

Where Adam failed, Jesus succeeded. Three died on crosses on the one day. As Sir Marcus Loane summed it up:
“One died reviling.
One died repenting.
One died redeeming!”

Lindsay Johnstone

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