In Matthew 27:46 the author records some of Jesus’ final words writing “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!” Our last blog explored those words from Psalm 22. Now we turn to the gospel of Matthew considering Psalm 22 to better understand the passage. Jesus had the psalm in mind when using these words and we will work to discover how closely the two passages are connected.

The gospel of Matthew, in chapter 27:35-54 walks us through the crucifixion of the Christ. The crucifixion passage begins with verses 35-38:

When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. (Matthew 27: 35-38)

We know from historical and archaeological evidence that crucifixion was an agonizing, slow and humiliating means of execution. The hands were often nailed or tied to the crossbeam, which was then hoisted up and affixed to the upright stake. The feet were then nailed (or tied) to the central beam. Death was sometimes hastened by breaking the legs, but not in Jesus’ case, since he is so weakened by the earlier flogging that he is already near death (cf. John 19:33).[1]

The Romans viewed crucifixion as a horrific way to die and applied it only to the worst criminals. For the Jews it was even more appalling considering Deuteronomy 21:23 which states that “anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse.”[2] For the priests, Jesus’ death on the cross was evidence that Jesus could not be the Son of God. However, Jesus was accepting the curse and humiliation that was imposed by the sin of all mankind (Gal 3:13).

Matthew takes time to highlight that the soldiers divide up Jesus’ clothing by casting lots. Though meager, Jesus’ clothing likely included an inner and outer garment, a belt, and sandals. Here, the lot is likely a form of gambling by the Roman guards as they divide the remainder of Jesus’ clothes.[3]

The dividing of Jesus’ clothes and casting of lots is clearly tied to Psalm 22:18 where David is degraded in front of the crowd. The Roman guards have now removed any remaining dignity. Jesus is suffering the humiliation meant for mankind. The gospel of John ties this humiliation back to Psalm 22 when he writes:

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” So this is what the soldiers did. (John 19:23-24)

With Jesus humiliated and affixed to the cross, the Roman soldiers affix a sign noting the charge against Jesus and sit to ensure that Jesus’ followers do not attempt some form of rescue.[4] The sign is intended as ridicule; however, the message is ironic as Jesus is truly the King of the Jews.

The passage concludes by mentioning that Jesus is not alone at Calvary. He is joined by two political insurrectionists. Pilate apparently was rounding up, arresting, and convicting people who were stirring the crowds to insurrection. While earlier in Matthew, James and John requested the privilege of being seated at Jesus’ right and left hand side in his kingdom (Matt 20:21); with bitter irony, Matthew records that two rebel criminals form Jesus’ right-and left-hand attendants on a cross, not a throne. [5]

Matthew continues in verses 39-40:

Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” (vv. 39-40)

People passing by were convinced of Jesus’ guilt. Like an angry mob they shook their heads and hurled insults at him. According to Wilkins, “the expression ‘hurled insults’ is literally ‘blasphemed,’ indicating that they deride him for his blasphemous claims and for the bogus charge that he would destroy the temple and build it in three days (cf. 26:61).”[6] They doubt his divinity as the savior and mocked him that if he is truly the son of God he should come down off the cross.

The passage finds a direct correlation to Psalm 22:7 when the suffer is taunted by those who see him They shake their heads and say “’He trusts in the Lord,’ they say, ‘let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.’” Jesus, as God, is mocked for his faith. He is called to save himself, if he is truly God.

There is a sense of double irony in the passage. The speakers mean the statement as haughty derision in that Jesus, as a man, is surly not able to do these things. Their comments hold another layer of irony because Jesus, as the one true God, could accomplish this task. However, he chooses to accept a place of being powerless over one’s surroundings. Sharing our grief and often powerless state to spare ourselves and our loved ones from suffering.

The mocking continues in verses 41-43:

In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (vv. 41-43)

In the prior passage random passersby ridicule Jesus. Now, the crowd is growing and those in high power taunt Jesus hurling insults. To these religious leaders, a crucified Messiah is unthinkable. They hypothesize that if God reached down and saved Jesus then they would believe. However, as Jesus had already taught, the definitive sign of his identity will be his resurrection from the dead, which will also be a sign of God’s judgment on these religious leaders (Matt 12:40–42).

There is further irony in their statements as these intelligent and powerful people do not understand that Jesus IS the Son of God and he could save himself. Yet he stays true to his father’s will and suffers the insults and the mocking as an innocent man – not for his sake but for our sin. By not saving himself, Jesus saves us.

There is additional suffering in that Jesus exposes himself to continued false accusations. There is immense pain when people, in respected roles, do not understand the truth and strike out publicly with untrue statements and spread hurtful lies. This is especially painful today, in a world of social media, where we often have no ability to strike back and clear our name. Jesus was in this position and bore immense humiliation just as we do.

The taunting comes to a climax as Matthew records “In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him” (v. 44). It seems absurd that the two other criminals would insult Jesus. He has reached an extreme depth of humiliation – perhaps dehumanized to feel like a worm (Ps. 22:6). Jesus is taunted and ridiculed by the lowest of the low.[7]

In verse 45, Matthew records that “from noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.” Darkness is often found as a symbol of impending judgment (Exod 10:21-22; Amos 8:9-10). Symbolically, light often symbolizes God and darkness suggests everything that is anti-God.  “The time of God’s ultimate judgment, the Day of the Lord, is a day of darkness (Amos 5:18, 20; Joel 2:2; Zeph. 1:15; Matt. 24:29; Rev. 6:12–17). Darkness here displays a limitation on the power of Satan (cf. Luke 22:53), God’s displeasure on humanity for crucifying his Son, and God’s judgment on the sins of the world.”[8]

As Jesus prepares for death, Mathew records some of Jesus’ final words in verse 46:

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

In a direct quote from Psalm 22:1, Matthew highlights Jesus’ feelings of being abandoned on the cross. For Jesus who was intimately connected to the Father to be abandoned must have been ultimate agony. Accepting the feelings of desolation and hopelessness was beyond comparison. As with Psalm 22, Jesus had the full sense of abandonment while not being truly abandoned. Despite this reality, the feeling, in that moment, was one of ultimate suffering.

The Christian reader understands that Jesus must be separated from the Father to bear the sin of his people (Matt. 1:21; 20:28; 26:28). Jesus bears the pain of divine judgment and punishment for the sins of mankind. Not only does Jesus bear the load of humanity’s sin, 2 Cor 5:21 records that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The abandonment of Jesus by God is experienced as complete despair. However, it is not without purpose.[9] In Matthew 20:28, Jesus told his disciples that his purpose was to be a “ransom for many.” Here that fateful prediction is carried out. The pain and suffering that Jesus experiences on the cross lays the foundation for the theological doctrine of the atonement, in which Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is one of “penal substitution”—Jesus suffers our punishment for humanity’s sin. The wages for sin is death (Rom 6:23), and in Jesus’ separation from God he experiences deathly punishment for the sins of humanity.[10]

When Jesus uses the words from Psalm 22, it allows the reader to consider the entire psalm in relation to the events on Calvary. Even in the depth of Jesus’ abandonment to his atoning sacrifice, Christ still knows that this experience is not without hope.

• First, Jesus does not reject God in his suffering as Jesus still refers to the father as “My” God.
• Second, the separation while bearing the sins of humanity will not separate Father and Son forever. Just like in Psalm 22: 19-20 Jesus held fast in the knowledge that God had a plan to deliver Jesus from this situation.
• Third, Jesus understood that as in Psalm 22:27-28 “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.”
• Finally, fourth, through suffering, Jesus understood what was written in Psalm 22:30-31 “future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!”

The crowd still misunderstands Jesus’ statement and response:

When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He 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.” (vv. 47-49)

The bystanders are still bloodthirsty. The person who offers a drink may be compassionate, but the crowd wants suffering and shouted for him to stop. The crowd is interested in watching, as if this some cruel entertainment. Or some sporting event, the crowd wants to see if the prophet Elijah will materialize and save Jesus from this carnage.

While the crowd is interested to watch the pain, one can ask how God could allow such suffering! Part of the answer is found in Isaiah 53 where the suffering servant takes on the judgement for our sins. The prophet writes:

Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.  Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,   and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 43)

While the crowd was unaware, God observes their cruelty and will indeed rescue his Son from death by raising him after the redemptive work of the cross is accomplished. Such profound love for those who are so cruel is unfathomable. What man intended for selfish pleasure, God understood was for the salvation and atonement of all humanity. Therefore, what we see as senseless suffering, God works for good.

Matthew records Jesus’ death with the simple verse:

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. (v. 50)

Matthew shows that to the very end Jesus maintains volitional control over his destiny. He approaches his death willingly (cf. John 10:17–18). This points to what John’s Gospel makes explicit, that Jesus comes to the recognition that he has paid in full the debt for humanity’s sin; with a shout of victory Jesus cries out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The redemption that Jesus came to achieve was accomplished once for all.[11]

The next several verses demonstrate the theological significance of Jesus’ death. Matthew records:

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” (vv. 51-54)

At the death of Jesus, we find three testimonies to the identity and importance of the event. First, the curtain separating God from the people is torn testifying to a new age of access between God and His people. The second testimony is from the earth. At the new era, the earth shutters and shakes. A third testimony is from the dead. Because of Jesus’ defeat of death, some of the holy in Christ were risen and able to be seen in the city.

These events are so impactful that a Roman soldier exclaims Jesus was surely the Son of God! Wilkins says it well when he writes that the centurion’s cry is remarkably different from the religious leaders and the bystanders at the cross, who mocked Jesus for his claim to be the Son of God (vv. 40–43). It is a striking picture for Matthew’s readers. The cataclysmic events recorded here testify to Jesus’ identity, and the centurion and his men make a step of faith to acknowledge the truth of that testimony.[12]

Tomorrow, in part 2, we will build upon the analysis of this passage and ponder the importance of a God who suffers.

[1] Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 898.

[2] New Revised Standard Version.

[3] The lot was cast in the Old Testament to discover God’s will on various matters, such as the goat to be sacrificed on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16).

[4] Matthew may include this detail to refute any later claim that Jesus did not really die or was removed from the cross before dying.

[5] Ibid., 900.

[6] Ibid., 901.

[7] However, Luke adds that one of men crucified with Jesus ridicules Jesus for his ineffectual claim to be the Messiah: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” (Luke 23:39). Luke goes on to recount that the other convict defends Jesus and acknowledges his innocence. The prisoner exhibits a form of repentance that Jesus declares will cause the prisoner to be joined with Jesus in heaven that very day (23:40–43).

[8] Ibid., 902.

[9] Wilkins argues that “from later theological reflection we understand that Jesus’ forsakenness by the Father did not affect their ontological relationship; that is, Jesus was not separated in his essence or substance from the Father as the second Person of the Trinity. Rather, Jesus’ divinely sustained humanity consciously experienced the full penalty of death for the sins of humanity.” Ibid, 903.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.