This week I was reading the passage of scripture where Jesus is on the cross and he cries out from the cross “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” Now this passage of scripture is very unusual because Jesus says this in Aramaic and it is usually explained in a very complicated way.

I have always heard this explained as God the father who is Holy because of our sin that is placed on Jesus forsakes Jesus in this moment because he cannot look upon sin due to him being Holy. Now I am not denying this is true to some extent but it just seems weird to me that Jesus didn’t say Father instead of God. It also seems weird that the triune God would somehow be separated at this point how could God forsake God? These are just some thoughts that ran through my mind as I was reading this passage. Now I do believe this is true to some extent especially the fact that our sin was placed on Jesus but I don’t believe this was Jesus main point for saying this. So the question becomes what is the main point of Jesus saying this from the cross?

The truth is I think the main point of Jesus by saying this is to point the people hearing and us now reading back to Psalm 22. This is where he is quoting from and where your Bible will point you too in your cross referencing system. So why would Jesus be quoting from Psalm 22?

Jesus is pointing us back to the reality that Psalm 22 is a messianic Psalm written around 1,000 years before he was even born. Jesus is pointing us back to Psalm 22 to say I am the fulfillment of this Psalm! I am the one that David was writing about all those years ago! This is huge and would have been huge in the time of Jesus because the people hearing him would have known this Psalm and some probably immediately remembered it as soon as they heard it.

Lets look at some key verses written in Psalm 22:

Psalm 22:1
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”

Psalm 22:6-8
“But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

Psalm 22:14a
“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;”

Psalm 22:16-18
“For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

Who does that sound like in Psalm 22? If you go through the Crucifixion narrative you will find that every verse that I just shared is fulfilled perfectly in Christ! Every single thing that the writer of the Psalm spoke about has come to pass in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ! What is fascinating is some of the phrases actually even sounds like crucifixion but crucifixion didn’t even exist yet when Psalm 22 was written.

I truly believe this was Jesus main reason for saying “My God, My God why have you forsaken me.” He was showing them and even us today that 1,000 years before he came in human likeness on this earth the Old Testament writers were writing about him. Jesus is the fulfillment of what they wrote all those years before and he is the only person that can SAVE US from our Sin, he is our Messiah!