The Son Forsaken By God

May 13th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Matthew 27:45-49 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. 46 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?” 47 And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.” 48 Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink. 49 But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.”

In first-century Israel, as with the rest of the world, there were no clocks or wrist-watches. Time was estimated. Verse 45 speaks of the “sixth hour” (cf. Mark 15:33) which by Galilean time reckoning (sunrise to sunrise), it was around noon—six hours past sunrise. Mark 15:25 says that it was the “third hour” (circa 9:00 a.m.) when Jesus was taken from Pilate’s palace to be crucified. John 19:14, however, says that Jesus was not sentenced by Pilate until “the sixth hour.” But John may have been using Roman time, writing at the close of the century when Jewish time reckoning was no longer used. So John’s “sixth hour” was 6:00 a.m. which fits with Mark 15:1 that it was early in the morning when Jesus was taken to Pilate. It may therefore have been around 5:00 a.m. when Jesus came before Pilate, and at around 6:00 a.m. when Pilate sentenced Jesus to crucifixion. It could have been anywhere between 9:00 a.m. and noon.

Verse 45 says that darkness came over the land at noon and lasted until 3:00 p.m. (ninth hour) when Jesus died. This darkness was as untimely as it was timely during those hours. It was untimely because it is obvious that darkness does not cover Jerusalem at noon. But it was timely in the sense that evil was having its moment and had seemingly eliminated the Son of God.

Darkness in the Bible is sometimes a sign of God’s judgment as seen in many of the prophecies of the OT prophets. Darkness was also one of the plagues in Egypt. Now given that the cross of Jesus Christ was the place where God’s judgment was meted out on one Man, and the sins of the world were poured out onto Him, it is possible that the darkness over the earth was God’s reaction to His Son taking mankind’s sin upon Himself. What is especially notable about the darkness is that it occurred at noon and lasted until 3:00 p.m., the ninth hour.

During the darkness, Jesus cried out to God asking Him why He had forsaken Him (cf. Ps. 22:1). This is the only time in the NT where Jesus calls His Father “God” and not “Father.” Had God truly abandoned His Son? Did He actually forsake Jesus? It is clear is that these two members of the Triune Godhead were obedient in their respective roles as God the Father and God the Son. The Father sent the Son to become sin (2 Cor. 5:21), and the Son was obedient unto death—even death on a cross (Phil. 2:8). Jesus did not cease to be God in that painful moment of separation which precipitated His cry, but He did cease to have fellowship with His Father at that moment. Maybe since God’s “eyes are too pure to approve evil…cannot look upon iniquity with favor” (Hab. 1:13), Jesus felt forsaken by God while taking the sin of mankind upon Himself.

What the crowds heard in Jesus’ cry was not “Eli, Eli” (Aramaic for “my God, my God”) but “Elijah” (Gr. Elias), for they thought Jesus was calling for the prophet Elijah. Many Jews believed that Elijah would appear in the end times (cf. 17:10), so they watched and waited for Elijah to appear. Of course Elijah never did, for not only did Jesus not call out to him, Elijah had already appeared and announced the coming of the Jewish Messiah (11:14; cf. Mal. 3:10; 4:5).

Food for Thought
God is not some decrepit “holy man” who can’t look evil in the face. That would make evil more powerful than Him! On the contrary, God looks at evil every day when He sees us. God the Father forsook Jesus at the cross because He couldn’t look at sin in His Own Son. Jesus was carrying the wretchedness of all mankind, so God forsook Him as He does all the sins of man. God doesn’t have His back turned to His children today, for Christ has covered their sins with His blood. But how can God bear to look at us, made in His own image and saved by the blood of Jesus, yet gaze upon our pet-sins, our divisions, our gossip, and our hypocrisies? God paid for those sins at the cross of Jesus, and as a result we are saved, that is, those who have placed their trust in Him. If you feel that God has forsaken you, maybe it’s you who have forsaken Him. If so, read 1 John 1:9, confess your sins, and get right with God.