Many clerics who perhaps themselves had or are experiencing spiritual darkness (the total absence of God), who look to supposedly saints who had experienced spiritual darkness as well preach that Jesus, too, was in spiritual darkness when He said these words, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" [1] from the cross.
How can the Son of God Who Himself is part of the Holy Trinity experience the absence of God and be in spiritual darkness? This has to be wishful thinking on behalf of clerics who themselves are suffering from a lack of faith and from an absence of God in their lives. Rather than trying to seek God genuinely in their hearts, they want to bring Christ down to their level of darkness to identify themselves with Christ. This is an exercise in vanity since Christ is never in the dark because He is the Light Eternal that never extinguishes.
The poor souls who think that Christ is like them need to pray for the Light of Christ to illuminate their minds to emerge from under the dark veil of Satan.
Gotquestions.org provided two possible explanations:
1. "...as evil men were allowed to do whatever they wanted to Jesus, our Lord expressed His feelings of abandonment. God placed the sins of the world on His Son, and Jesus for a time felt the desolation of being unconscious of His Father’s presence. [2]
This cannot be correct. Jesus' Mother was there. John, the beloved disciple, was there, and there were others, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. [3] There was plenty of cruelty leading to the crucifixion but no total abandonment.
Did God really place man's sins on His Son, or did God ask His Son to bear them? It was not God but sinners who put the weight of their sins on His Son.
Jesus chose freely to let His Father's Will be done, accepting even death on the cross. In order to be obedient, Jesus had to be conscious at all times until He breathed His last breath. An unconscious person cannot chose to be obedient. To conclude that Jesus "for a time felt the desolation" while He was on the cross and was "unconscious of His Father's presence" would imply that He did not really assent to His Father's wish but rather had no choice but endure the inescapable cruelty of man.
How can the Son of God not know (be unconscious of) Who He and His Father is at any time, especially during the most important day of His earthly life?
While gotquestions.org's first explanation is rubbish, the second is astounding. While suffering excruciating pain, Jesus turned it into a teaching moment:
2. "There is another possible reason for Jesus to cry out, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' It could be that Jesus’ intent in quoting Psalm 22:1 was to point His hearers to that psalm. When they read Psalm 22, they would no doubt see the many fulfilled prophecies included in that song of David. Even while experiencing the agony of the cross, Jesus was teaching the crowds and proving yet again that He was the Messiah who fulfilled the Scriptures." [Hyperlinks omitted.] [4]
Psalm 22 is quoted below [5] [References omitted]:
1
For the leader; according to “The deer of the dawn.” A psalm of David.
I
2
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why so far from my call for help,
from my cries of anguish?
3
My God, I call by day, but you do not answer;
by night, but I have no relief.
4
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the glory of Israel.
5
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted and you rescued them.
6
To you they cried out and they escaped;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
7
But I am a worm, not a man,
scorned by men, despised by the people.
8
All who see me mock me;
they curl their lips and jeer;
they shake their heads at me:
9
“He relied on the LORD—let him deliver him;
if he loves him, let him rescue him.”
10
For you drew me forth from the womb,
made me safe at my mother’s breasts.
11
Upon you I was thrust from the womb;
since my mother bore me you are my God.
12
Do not stay far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is no one to help.
II
13
Many bulls surround me;
fierce bulls of Bashan encircle me.
14
They open their mouths against me,
lions that rend and roar.
15
Like water my life drains away;
all my bones are disjointed.
My heart has become like wax,
it melts away within me.
16
As dry as a potsherd is my throat;
my tongue cleaves to my palate;
you lay me in the dust of death.
17
Dogs surround me;
a pack of evildoers closes in on me.
They have pierced my hands and my feet
18
I can count all my bones.
They stare at me and gloat;
19
they divide my garments among them;
for my clothing they cast lots.
20
But you, LORD, do not stay far off;
my strength, come quickly to help me.
21
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my life from the grip of the dog.
22
Save me from the lion’s mouth,
my poor life from the horns of wild bulls.
III
23
Then I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the assembly I will praise you:
24
“You who fear the LORD, give praise!
All descendants of Jacob, give honor;
show reverence, all descendants of Israel!
25
For he has not spurned or disdained
the misery of this poor wretch,
Did not turn away from me,
but heard me when I cried out.
26
I will offer praise in the great assembly;
my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.
27
The poor will eat their fill;
those who seek the LORD will offer praise.
May your hearts enjoy life forever!”
IV
28
All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD;
All the families of nations
will bow low before him.
29
For kingship belongs to the LORD,
the ruler over the nations.
30
All who sleep in the earth
will bow low before God;
All who have gone down into the dust
will kneel in homage.
31
And I will live for the LORD;
my descendants will serve you.
32
The generation to come will be told of the Lord,
that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn
the deliverance you have brought.
The next explanation below is imagined by this blogger:
Jesus, Son of God, Who was born of the flesh was fully man and fully God. He was perhaps in His early thirties, still relatively young when He was crucified. Christ could be said to be "in persona hominis," in the way a priest could be said to be "in persona Christi." Being man-God, the obedient Son, Jesus waited for His Father to make the decision as to when He would breath His last breath as a man.
Is it not normal for a person to be a little frustrated after having endured such agonizing pain from hanging on a cross for six hours and suffering from extreme thirst to ask when he would die? The six (6) hours of suffering was deduced from the two sources below:
"Beginning with the Gospel of Mark, we learn that Jesus was nailed to a wooden beam and hung on the cross at about 9 in the morning." [6]
The time of death was ascertained by ncregister.com [7]:
Matthew, Mark, and Luke each record that Jesus died about "the ninth hour" (Matthew 27:45-50, Mark 15:34-37, Luke 23:44-46).
"The ninth hour" is what we, today, would refer to as 3:00 p.m.
This allows us to narrow down the time of Jesus' death to a very specific point in history: around 3:00 p.m on Friday, April 3, A.D. 33. [Emphasis in red omitted.]
[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27%3A46&version=NIV
[2] https://www.gotquestions.org/forsaken-me.html
[3] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/19, 25.
[4] https://www.gotquestions.org/forsaken-me.html
[5] http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/22
[6] https://www.learnreligions.com/how-long-was-jesus-crucifixion-on-the-cross-3955378
[7] http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/when-precisely-did-jesus-die-the-year-month-day-and-hour-revealed
No comments:
Post a Comment