“Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani”

 

 

[Mark 15:33–36]

 

This is the fourth saying of Jesus on the cross: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.”

Mark 15:34 says,
"At the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’—which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”

We reflected on this fourth saying of Jesus from the cross during last week's Wednesday service, focusing on Matthew 27:46. About 700 years before Jesus came to this world, the prophet Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 53:7 that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would remain silent. As foretold, Jesus stayed silent through His trials, but just before His death on the cross, He cried out loudly, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” (Matt. 27:46). Even though He was sinless, Jesus was forsaken by God the Father because of our sins, which is why He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Today, we will reflect on this fourth saying of Jesus from the cross—“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”—based on Mark 15:33–36, especially verse 34.

First, we should note that “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” is in Aramaic. Jesus cried out these words in Aramaic from the cross. At that time, the Jewish people also used Aramaic in daily life.

Next, we must ask: When did God the Father forsake God the Son, Jesus?

Mark 15:33–34 says:
"At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’—which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”

Jesus did not cry out these words during His interrogation by the high priest Annas or Caiaphas, nor during His trial before the Sanhedrin. He did not say them while being questioned by Pilate or Herod, nor while carrying the cross to Golgotha (the Place of the Skull). He did not cry out when being nailed to the cross, nor during the first three hours (9 AM to 12 PM), nor even during the next three hours of darkness (12 PM to 3 PM). It was near the end—around 3 PM, just before His death—that Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.”

According to John 19:28–30, knowing that all was completed and in order to fulfill the Scriptures, Jesus said, “I thirst.” After receiving the sour wine, He said, “It is finished,” and gave up His spirit. But before this, He cried out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” (Mark 15:34).

Let’s reflect on three key meanings shown to us in Jesus’ cry, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.”

1. God is Righteous, Just, and Holy

In the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught us, He says, “Hallowed be Your name” (Matt. 6:9; Luke 11:2). God is holy. Habakkuk 1:13 says,
“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; You cannot tolerate wrongdoing...”
(Good News Translation: “Your eyes are too pure to look at evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.”)

Because God is perfectly holy, righteous, and just, He cannot tolerate sin. He hates sin, cannot accept it, and must punish sin without compromise. This holy and righteous God did not even spare His beloved Son, Jesus Christ (Matt. 3:17), but forsook Him on the cross in order to uphold justice.

2. The Weight and Terror of Sin’s Price

Jesus’ cry, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”, shows us just how serious and terrifying the cost of sin is. It reveals that the wages of sin is death.

In Genesis 2:16–17, God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He warned that “on the day you eat of it, you will surely die.” But Adam disobeyed and ate the fruit (Gen. 3:6), resulting in the punishment of death and separation from God.

In Matthew 5:26, Jesus says,
“Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”
(Old Korean translation uses the word “ho-ri”—the smallest Roman currency, about one-fourth of an assarion, which was itself worth only about 1/16 of a denarius, a day’s wage. In modern terms, it’s like one cent.)

Jesus’ point is that even the smallest debt—as small as one cent—must be paid in full, or else the person cannot be released. This illustrates the final verdict of God’s judgment: in God’s justice, no sin is too small to escape punishment. Even the tiniest sin, which human eyes may not recognize or take seriously, is unacceptable before God.

Even if all the hairs on your head were dealt with, the tiniest tip of one strand of sin cannot be hidden or overlooked by God. He knows all our sins—fully and precisely.

Jesus was forsaken by God the Father because of our sins—even the smallest sin worth one cent, or a fraction of a hair. He bore every last bit of our sin and its punishment.

In Summary:
Jesus’ cry, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” was not just a cry of pain. It was a cry that:

  1. Proclaims the absolute holiness and justice of God,

  2. Reveals the fearful weight and penalty of sin, and

  3. Shows that Jesus bore the full punishment of our sins, so that we might be forgiven.

 

Third, Jesus’ cry “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” shows us the fulfillment of prophecy.

This prophecy refers to Psalm 22:1, written by King David about 1,000 years before Jesus came into the world:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?”
(The modern translation reads: “(A psalm of David. Sung to the tune of ‘The Doe of the Morning.’) My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from helping me, so far from my cries of anguish?”)

The heading (superscription) of Psalm 22 says, “A psalm of David. To the Chief Musician. To the tune of Aijeleth Shahar,” which the modern Bible translates as, “A psalm of David. Sung to the tune of ‘The Doe of the Morning.’”
However, Psalm 22 is not merely a song—it is clearly a prophecy, and we know this because of what is written in verse 1:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
This prophetic statement was fulfilled when Jesus cried out from the cross, saying,
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” — Mark 15:34).

Another example can be seen in verse 18 of Psalm 22:

“They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”
This prophecy was fulfilled in John 19:23–24:
“When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided 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.”

Thus, Jesus being forsaken by God the Father was to satisfy God's justice. Jesus bore all of our sins—even sins as small as “a penny,” unseen sins, or sins we don’t even acknowledge as sin—and He was forsaken by the Father until He cried out on the cross, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” so that the justice of God might be fulfilled.

Isaiah 53:11 says:

“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.”

The Son of God, Jesus Christ, was satisfied in His soul to endure being forsaken by the Father because it was the will of God. What God had predetermined and foretold through the prophets of the Old Testament was fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament. Because of this, Jesus was satisfied, and God the Father was also satisfied and pleased.

To satisfy the Father, Jesus bore all our sins—not only the great ones, but even the smallest sins like a penny’s worth—and endured even being forsaken by the Father on the cross.

Therefore, we must listen with faith to the cry of Jesus on the cross:

“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

And because the only begotten Son was forsaken by God, we who believe have been forgiven by God. We must offer lifelong and eternal gratitude, praise, and worship to God for this amazing grace of forgiveness.

Finally, we must proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with the same love that He showed us.