Mat 27: 45-46 45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Any day when things go wrong and we suffer, we call it a bad day or even the worst day of our lives. But consider the horrible day Christ endured—the horrors he suffered in those final 24 hours. It was a day of intense pain, shame, grief, anguish, and torment. It was truly the worst day in all eternity for Him.
Every hour of that day brought suffering. He suffered in every part of His body: His head was crowned with thorns, His face was repeatedly slapped, punched, and spat upon, and the hair was plucked from His cheeks. His back and chest were scourged, His shoulders carried the heavy cross, His tongue cleaved to the roof of His mouth, and His hands and feet were nailed. With His very bones shuddering, every part of Christ’s body was affected.
He suffered in all His offices. The leaders blindfolded Him and mocked His prophetic office, saying, “Prophesy, who hit you?” The soldiers mocked His kingly office by performing a mock coronation. As He hung on the cross, everyone mocked His priestly office: “He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” He was mocked in every aspect of His divine work as Prophet, Priest, and King.
He suffered at the hands of all kinds of men: His own disciples, like Judas and Peter; religious leaders; government authorities like Pilate; kings like Herod; the common people who cried “Crucify Him”; the passersby; and even the two thieves. They all combined to increase Christ’s suffering. He endured an incredible amount of sorrow from mankind.
Yet, wonder of wonders, throughout all of this, He never spoke a word to express His pain. No word of complaint came out of His mouth for all that men did. But today, we see that for what God did to Him, the most piteous and loudest cry would break forth.
So far, we have seen what men did to the Son of God; now, from verse 45, we see what God did to Him. We cannot fully understand everything that happened, but the words from His lips open a window for us, showing a glimpse of what occurred in the invisible world as God came to Calvary. This is the cry of abandonment. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to grasp the infinite depth of the abandonment of the Son of God.
1. The Visible Context of Abandonment
What was the visible situation when He was abandoned? Last week, we saw the crucifixion, and Matthew showed us every angle: the soldiers gambling in front, the sign above reading “Jesus, King of the Jews,” and the thieves on His right and left. Jesus was crucified at 9:00 a.m., and these events unfolded from the third hour to the sixth hour (9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon).
At noon, something happens. Verse 45 says:
“Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.”
At high noon, when the sun is at its zenith with full heat and light, a deep darkness fell over the land for three hours. Everyone there, no matter how unbelieving, was shocked by this reality. It became so dark that some have described it as darker than a thousand midnights. This was not a natural event; it was a miraculous intervention. It could not have been a solar eclipse because the Passover is celebrated during a full moon, when the sun and moon are at opposite ends of the earth.
It happened so suddenly. One moment the sun was overhead; the next, it vanished. It was a chilling blackness. No one moved. No one spoke. Even the mocking groups stopped their blasphemy. Not a sound broke the dark silence over Skull Hill. It was as if a horrible force had taken over the earth. Roman records even mention this unusual darkness, and history suggests Pilate mentioned it in a letter to Tiberius Caesar. Midday was turned into a dark midnight.
2. The Vocal Expression of Abandonment
From the darkness, we hear the words of abandonment. Verse 46 tells us how and when these words were spoken:
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'”
The Timing: This occurred at the ninth hour, or 3:00 p.m. This cry came not at the start, but at the end of those three hours of darkness.
The Manner: It was not a muffled moan or a whispered complaint. Jesus cried out with a “loud voice”—the original word implies a “megaphone” sound. Despite a hanging body making breathing and vocalization nearly impossible, our Lord marshaled tremendous physical strength to utter this great cry.
The Cry: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” There is a depth in these words that will take all eternity to reveal. They are the most significant and mysterious words Christ ever spoke. As the scholar F.F. Bruce noted, this is “the hardest of all the hard statements.” Even Martin Luther once sat in silence for hours before exclaiming, “God forsaken by God! How can it be?”
Christ spoke seven times from the cross. This was the fourth word, uttered as the darkness began to lift. It was not an impatient outburst of unbelief; it was a real expression of a real experience. Even in His abandonment, He cries out in faith, “My God, My God.” He, who always pleased the Father and lived in Him, was now being forsaken. To be “forsaken” here means to be deserted, disowned, and utterly cast off. In English, we often use the term “God-forsaken” to describe a barren place, but Jesus was the only person in history to be literally God-forsaken.
3. The Biblical Explanation of Abandonment
What do this darkness and this cry mean for us?
- The Darkness as Judgment: In the Bible, darkness is often a symbol of God’s judgment and wrath. On the cross, Jesus was taking our place and bearing the punishment we deserved.
- The Cup of Wrath: Jesus was drinking the “cup” He had prayed about in Gethsemane—the full, unmixed cup of God’s holy anger against sin.
- The Great Exchange: He was being treated as a sinner so that we could be treated as righteous. He was forsaken so that we might never be.
This abandonment was the pinnacle of His suffering. He was separated from the Father’s fellowship so that we could be reconciled to God forever.
The Biblical Explanation of Abandonment
This is a profound mystery that no human mind can fully grasp, but we can gain a glimpse of its meaning through the analogy of Scripture—looking at other parts of the Bible to understand what was occurring on the cross.
First, consider the meaning of that supernatural darkness. Throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, unnatural darkness is a symbol of divine judgment. We see the final judgment on Egypt before the death of the firstborn was three days of thick darkness that could be felt—a sign of God judging that nation. Prophets like Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah repeatedly refer to darkness as a sign of judgment. In Amos 8:9, God says, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight” when He brings judgment. Even our Lord spoke of the final judgment in Matthew 24:29, saying the sun would be darkened before the sign of the Son of Man appears to judge the world. Therefore, we understand that this darkness was an act of divine judgment. There is only one thing God judges with such wrath, and that is sin.
The Supreme Court of Heaven
Jesus Christ was unjustly judged by men in the supreme courts of Jews and Gentiles and condemned to die. But as He hung on the cross in that darkness, the Supreme Court of Heaven descended upon Mount Calvary. The great God of burning holiness and inflexible justice arrived for a unique work of judgment. That was the judgment day for the Savior of the world. In His spirit, Jesus Christ was summoned before the bar of God. He stood there not in a personal capacity, but as a substitute for His people. Through the divine work of imputation, all the guilt for all the sins of His people—yours and mine—was placed upon Him.
In that darkness, God saw in Christ all our sins. He took our place as depraved, condemned, and wicked sinners. A holy God, with inflexible justice, sentenced Christ to receive eternal wrath. All the infinite anger for the sins of the elect was poured onto this one Person. The hell of our eternal hells was poured out upon Him in an unmixed, undiminished flood.
For nearly three hours, Christ remained silent. The conflict was inward, deep, and overpowering. Only when He reached the final, deepest suffering of that hell did He cry out with a loud voice: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
The Cup of Wrath
How do we know this? It is not mere guesswork; other parts of the New Testament clearly teach what happened in that darkness. Matthew told us in the previous chapter what Christ dreaded most in Gethsemane. He saw a cup and pleaded, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me,” as He sweat drops of blood. That cup contained the unmixed wrath of God for the sins of His people. This cry on the cross marks the final emptying of that cup.
2 Corinthians 5:21 explains what God did to Him:
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
He who knew no sin—who never once committed an active sin or a passive act of disobedience—was made sin. Our sins were reckoned as His, and His righteousness was reckoned as ours. Without being defiled in His own person, He became the sin-bearer. As Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.”
When He became sin and a curse, the words of Habakkuk 1:13 applied: “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.” Because God is holy, He had to completely forsake His Son, withdrawing His presence, comfort, mercy, and grace. He abandoned the human soul and body of Jesus just as He would abandon a sinner in hell.
The Depth of the Agony
Jesus knew why He was forsaken; it was the very reason He came. The question was asked to highlight the depth of His suffering. This was a climactic calamity greater than the disappearance of the entire universe. It portrays the extremity of His agony. He had lived completely dependent on the Father; the Father’s presence was the womb in which He lived and breathed. Now, it was as if His umbilical cord was cut, leaving Him with a broken heart in deep bitterness and disorientation.
Think of it: He bore the scourging, the mocking, and the nails without a word, but now He screams with a loud voice. This suffering was more painful to Him than a billion crucifixions. It was a cry that reverberated throughout the universe. What He endured, He alone knows. This is the most unfathomable mystery of the Gospel.
This was not a cry of unbelief or a severed relationship within the Trinity. Rather, Christ had emptied Himself and lived as a perfect “Adam,” a creature dependent on God. When the Father withdrew His strength, Christ’s human soul was sustained by His own divine being as the Son of God. Only the “God-Man” could have endured, wrestled with, and fully experienced the infinite load of God’s wrath.
The Cost of Our Salvation
Why? We must never treat this question lightly. These words express the highest suffering Christ endured to redeem us. Every one of us must answer that question for ourselves. A person is only saved when they realize: “He was forsaken for my sins.” I am so depraved that God should have eternally forsaken me in disgust, but instead, He imputed those sins to Christ. Jesus was forsaken so that God would never have to forsake us in an eternal hell.
The Gospel is not a story of God simply “adjusting” our sins because He is loving. No, God paid an immeasurable, infinite price through His Son to atone for them. Terms like “substitution,” “atonement,” and “imputation” are not just theological jargon; this cry of abandonment shows they cost the greatest pain and sacrifice ever known.
Consider this faint illustration: Imagine a father who has waited 20 years for his only son. He loves that boy with all his heart. But one day, he discovers his son has leprosy. In those days, the law required the boy to be sent away to a leper colony, removed from home and society. The father’s heart breaks, and though he loves his son more than ever, he must abandon him because of the disease.
This provides a small glimpse into the Father’s heart. God never loved His Son more than when He hung there in perfect obedience, drinking the cup of wrath to save His people. Yet, because of the sin imputed to Him, the Father had to turn away.
Application
The entire Bible teaches that God is a God of burning holiness and inflexible justice, and that He takes sin with absolute seriousness. This is nowhere more clearly taught than at the cross. When His own Son had suffered everything at the hands of men, God Himself stepped in with the seriousness of judgment. He switched off the lights of the world to punish even imputed sin.
See how seriously God views sin: He is so holy, pure, and just that He views it as a filthy, abhorrent, and wicked thing. He views it this way even when His beloved Son—whom He loved eternally—bore it by imputation. When God saw our sin upon Him, He forsook His own Son.
1. Sin is Odious to God
This teaches us that sin is an odious thing to God. At the cross, God shows us He is dead serious about sin, even when it is placed upon a substitute. God takes every sin seriously: the sins of the heart, the sins of our words, and the sins of our bodies.
Learn this first lesson from the cross. Since the Garden of Eden, Satan and this world have worked to make sin appear light, attractive, and pleasurable. They hide the evil and terrible consequences of sin from our eyes, making it seem “funny” or “jolly.” If you have been blinded by the god of this world to live carelessly, rub your eyes and behold the cross.
God sees sin as such an evil that He forsook His Son, knowing the horrible pain it would cause Him. Consider the Father’s heart: we suffer ten times more when we see our children suffer, yet God was willing to endure that rather than overlook imputed sin. What, then, will He do to actual sins?
Never think for a moment that sin is unimportant. Let us never joke about it; it is no laughing matter. It was our sin that caused the Father to turn away from the Son. Never dream that you can sin, “wipe your mouth,” and face no consequences. Every sin carries terrible bodily, spiritual, and eternal consequences. Sin pollutes, defiles, and stains. It is humanly incurable in time or eternity. It is disgusting, it brings death, and it subjects us to the control of Satan. Behold the horror of sin at Calvary.
2. The Intensity of Divine Judgment
Secondly, God judges sin intensely. He has shown this throughout history: the judgment in Eden, the flood in Noah’s time, the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the punishment of fallen angels. But the cross is the greatest demonstration. Sin leads to the severest punishment. Christ suffered physically and spiritually, drinking the cup of eternal wrath. The greatest of all judgments is to be forsaken by God. Sin always separates; when we depart from God through sin, God eventually departs from us in judgment.
Think of who is on that cross: the Father’s well-beloved Son. He never committed a single sin of envy, jealousy, anger, or lust. Even when the world treated Him unjustly, He never opened His mouth in anger. If God were ever going to show softness, laxness, or leniency toward sin, would it not be when His darling Son bore it vicariously? Yet, God showed no softness. He came in awful judgment, darkened the sun, and poured out His unmixed wrath until Christ cried out. He poured the “hell of all hells” upon Him, sparing Him not a single pang.
To everyone here who has not believed in Christ: as you stand before Calvary, can you feel the darkness covering the earth? Do you believe God takes sin seriously? If you realize that God judges every lie, every act of greed, and every thought of lust this severely, you will not rest until you are pardoned. The only reason you have not run to Christ is that you still believe Satan’s lie that sin is not serious.
If your eyes are not opened today, they will be opened when the darkness returns to the whole earth—not to judge Christ, but to judge you. As Revelation 19:15 says, “He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” On that day, the great men and the rich men will beg the mountains to fall on them to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 6:15-17).
What is the worst thing about hell? It is not just the fire or the darkness; it is being utterly and forever forsaken by God. That is the “hell of hell.” But the good news is that you don’t have to go there. Jesus has already been there for you. He went to hell 2,000 years ago so that you wouldn’t have to.
3. A Call to Holiness and Gratitude
Believers, if you believe God judges sin this seriously, why is there so little progress in holiness? Perhaps you are blinded by a different lie: that because Christ bore your sins, you can continue in them without consequence. God’s attitude toward sin has not changed. He hates sin even more when He sees it in His own children; it grieves Him, and He may punish it with severe chastisement in this world.
A true believer is one who takes sin seriously. If you are living in continual, unrepentant sin, you are deceiving yourself. A believer who understands the cross desires to be near it daily. When you are tempted and Satan makes sin look irresistible, remember this cry and this darkness. It will make you “vomit” that sin and hate it more. Our grief as Christians should not be what sin might do to us, but what our sin did to Christ.
4. The Infinite Love of Christ
Behold the God of infinite love. Why did a sovereign God deliver up His Son? There is no answer but His infinite mercy. Romans 5 tells us that God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
This desertion was real. Christ was submerged in a “cesspool” of sin. Imagine a dark, foul pit containing every evil deed ever committed, with a river of filth constantly flowing into it. On the cross, that cesspool was emptied onto Jesus. When God looked down, He saw that filth settled upon His Son. It is no wonder He turned away.
The amazing thing is that even while engulfed in the sins of the ages, Jesus hated that sin. He had no longing for it; His only longing was for God: “My God, My God!” This is the evidence of His purity. What love it took to make my sin His own and suffer being forsaken for me. Because Christ was forsaken, His people will never be. He bore the hell we deserved so that we might have eternal life.
Rejoice, believer! Whatever trials or temptations you face, God will never forsake you. As the song says:
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
How do you respond to this? Does this love melt your heart? Does it make you want to place your life on the altar as a living sacrifice? We must never minimize the awful cost of our salvation. Without the pain of the cross, there would be no forgiveness and no “happy things” to talk about. It cost Christ everything to redeem us. Let us never make light of what cost Him so dearly.