The Dereliction Of Christ

By JOE SIXPACK

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lama, sabach-thani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’” (Matt. 27:46).
These were the words of Christ just before He uttered His last words from the cross — “It is finished” (John 19:30). Having read them recently caused me to recall two different arguments I’ve heard from non-Catholics about Jesus on the cross. The first argument comes from those who believe Jesus wasn’t at all God but a mere man. The other comes from many of our separated brethren, mostly Protestant Fundamentalists.
In the first argument from those who claim Jesus isn’t God, they like to say that this was a cry of despair, proving He was but a mere man. That’s it! That is their entire explanation on their position that Jesus was only a man. (Yawn!) Not much of an argument, is it?
The second argument from our separated brethren is a wee bit different. Rather than make a claim against His divinity, it instead asserts Christ’s divinity but manages to proclaim a belief the Catholic Church considers heresy. Their assertion is that it was at this moment when Jesus took on the sins of all mankind (wrong assumption #1), and that God the Father had turned His back on God the Son (wrong assumption #2), because God can’t look upon sin.
On the first wrong assumption, it should be noted that Jesus’ Passion began in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is where He first took on the sins of mankind. Scripture and the Church have always taught that it is through His suffering that Jesus redeems us. It is nowhere noted that Jesus ever suffered in any sort of physical way until His agony in the Garden: “And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:43-44).
When Jesus began “sweating” drops of blood, He was suffering from a very rare medical condition called hematohidrosis, which often results in death. There are blood vessels around the sweat glands that are like webs. When a person is under immense stress, the vessels constrict. When the anxiety passes the blood vessels dilate until they rupture. Then the blood goes into the sweat glands. Since the person with hematohidrosis has been under great stress, the sweat glands are producing sweat which pushes the blood through the pores in the body.
Jesus had prayed and the Father sent an angel to minister to Him, so the anxiety had passed, which is why He began sweating blood — and began dying even while in the Garden of Gethsemane. This means that Jesus had already taken on the sins of mankind while in the Garden, as the Church has always taught. Far from turning His back on the Son when Jesus took on the sins of the world, the Father sent an angel to comfort Him and help prepare Him for the worst that was yet to come.
So if those who make their claims regarding Jesus’ outcry from the cross are wrong about Him being in despair, why did He say those words that seem so despairing? He was actually quoting from the twenty-second Psalm (twenty-first in some translations). And to answer those who claim Jesus’ words show He was merely human, we find that they in no way express despair. This psalm is a messianic psalm that tells of the death of the messiah, so we’ll need to give an overview of it as we cover this important aspect of our redemption.
Unfortunately, space won’t allow as close a look as I’d like to take, but we’ll at least cover the high points.
The psalmist doesn’t imply that Jesus has lost the favor of God, but that God has abandoned Him to the hatred of His enemies. Christ makes His complaint with a complete trust in God, prays earnestly for deliverance, and ends with joyful words of praise and thanksgiving. Let’s look at just a few of the verses of that psalm.
Christ’s words from the cross are the first verse of Psalm 22. Then verses 6-8 tell us: “But I am a worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people. All who see me mock me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads; ‘He committed his cause to the Lord; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him!’” Compare this to what Jesus’ mockers said at the foot of the cross in Matt. 27:43: “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said ‘I am the Son of God’.”
Then we take a look at verse 14 of the psalm: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast.” This could be a reference to what happen to Jesus physically during His death, the evidence of which we see when the soldier pierced His side into His heart and blood flowed out mixed with water. But whether it is a reference to that or not, it most certainly supports findings based on the Shroud of Turin, showing that some of the joints of Jesus had been made to pop out of joint.
Now let’s look at verses 16-18 of the psalm: “Yea, dogs are round about me; a company of evildoers encircle me; they have pierced my hands and my feet — I can count all my bones — they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment they cast lots.” Now compare this to the crucifixion (“they have pierced my hands and my feet”) and John 19:23-24: “When the soldiers had crucified Jesus they took his garments and made four parts, one for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was without seam, woven from top to bottom; so they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be’.”
This psalm clearly demonstrates that Jesus was not in despair (which is a mortal sin), and we’ve also seen that He didn’t make His outcry from the cross because the Father had turned His back on Jesus for taking on man’s sin. This being the case, then, we have to ask why Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
The answer is simple. Jesus had already said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He loved them so much — all of us — that from the cross He petitioned the Father for forgiveness. Then He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” to try to get those present — especially the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees — to see and understand that He was fulfilling the messianic prophecy in Psalm 22! In the few moments of His remaining life, Jesus continued to appeal to those who were responsible for hating Him and crucifying Him to come to Him for forgiveness and love.
And thanks to Holy Mother Church who gave us the Bible from the Councils of Carthage and Hippo, Jesus continues to draw our attention to that fact today when we read and study the Scriptures.
If you have a question or comment you can reach out to me through the “Ask Joe” page of JoeSixpackAnswers.com, or you can email me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.
Hey, how would you like to see things like this article every week in your parish bulletin as an insert? You or your pastor can learn more about how to do that by emailing me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.