What did Jesus mean when he said 'My God why has thou forsaken me'?

Answer 1

God filled Jesus, the Man, with Christ consciousness (Love, Peace and God's Holy presence).

When Jesus took, as his own, his disciples Sins/Karma, He suffered the temporary "Loss" of the Love of God; thus the remark "why has thou forsaken".

After Jesus death, Christ regained that Love and sent the "Comforter" to his blessed Apostles. They advanced in love and knowledge (of God's love)when Jesus took their Sins away.

Answer from an unbelieving perspective:He was not god. Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18 And he said unto him, Why call thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.Matthew 2746, Mark 15:34My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?Mark 1619So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.John 840But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God.John 1428My Father is greater than I.John 2017I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.Acts 1731Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.1 Corinthians 113The head of Christ is God.1 Corinthians 1528And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.Colossians 31Christ sits on the right hand of God.1 Timothy 25For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus Understanding who is Jesus in the GodheadThe verse in (Matthew 19:17) reads as follows "why ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "Only God is good. But to answer your question, you can receive eternal life if you keep the commandments." This is from the New Living Translation you simply misinterpreted this passage. This was a young rich man who was asking Jesus this question in this passage Jesus never said he was not the Son of Man. This young man wanted to know what was permissible in the eyes of God. This is why Jesus said only God is good because God is the only one capable of keeping the Ten Commandments which is the way to receive eternal life. Since humans have weaknesses in the flesh it is not possible for us to make it to the kingdom by keeping the commandments, because at one point or another we will violate them. This is the reason why Jesus had to come and take the sins of the world.(Colossians 1:15) "Christ is the visible image of the invisible God". This passage clearly states that Jesus Christ is God's body. When Jesus talks about the Son being sacrificed he is talking about God's body being sacrificed. (Colossians 1:19) "For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ". We have to remember the Lord likes to speak in parables and this passage is stating that God was pleased to be who he is. It's like when you wear a new shirt you like and you have new hair cut you feel good, and you think wow my life is good. It is your mind that says this not your foot because the foot is of the body which receives instruction from the mind. Another Christian PerspectiveJesus was in the process of bearing the sins of the whole world at that time - including all those who sent Him there and despised Him as well as those who still do so today, even if they quote (or mis-quote to try to prove something it does not say) the Bible.

Since God is a Holy and perfect God, He had to turn His back on His dear Son, who was then as vile and forsaken as He could be, in the place of mankind, who will themselves be God-forsaken if they fail to lay hold of the help available through Jesus Christ. Thus, Jesus being God-forsaken at this point is an indication of how vile and repugnant sin is to God.

With reference to my 2-part answer at the beginning of the page, I applaud the above answer as it puts succinctly why Jesus felt abandoned at his moment of death. However, why should he utter 'those' words? Why not say 'You've turned against me' or something. The answer is that even at this moment Jesus was quoting Hebrew scripture. This particular verse (from Psalm 21) was accepted as prophetic by those in the know - as this verse prophesied the suffering messiah. By saying these words Jesus was stating finally that he was indeed the messiah. As he died his "It is finished!/It is accomplished!" cry underlined this. One point that is seldom mentioned however, is that he called out this verse in Aramaic (Eloi, Eloi, Lana Sabacthani?) as recorded by eyewitnesses. Many in the crowd who did not understand Aramaic - a language of the north in Galilee, thought that he was calling Elijah the prophet to help. So why call out an important verse in a language that they could not understand? was this a mistake? Hardly. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing - calling in this way was natural to him - speaking to his Father was as natural to him as speaking to his best friend. He used the vernacular as a result. But also the only people who could really understand were the Galileans present - amongst them John the apostle (who was looking after Jesus' mother Mary), who would go on to tell the others what had been said. And let's not forget that they were the ones who would be carrying on the work so they were the ones who needed his messiahship confirmed. Note, the only disciple who would not be around would be Judas who betrayed him and who committed suicide out of remorse as a result. He came from Iscaria in Judea (hence his name Judas Iscariot) and who would not have spoken Aramaic. So it was not necessary to speak to him. All the others were Galileans who did speak the language. Jesus was talking to them as well as to God. They were to know that Jesus was the messiah, they were to wait for the resurrection, theywere to wait for the Holy Spirit to come and they were the ones, who, through the power of the Holy Spirit who were destined to carry the message of salvation through Christ to the rest of the world. Jesus is the Son of God and also called the lamb of God because he was a living sacrifice holy and unblemished. also the bible said he commited no sin and there was found no iniquty in his mouth even from his youth up till his death. Jesus was also the only man in existence who commited no sin. the bible said he was treated like a sinner not that he was a sinner. to answer the questin above. Jesus may have felt alone because God removed his protection from him. Jesus had to drink from that cup alone. 1 Jn. 2:2 1

Another answerThere is really a 2-part answer to this question.

First, Jesus knew his mission on earth. He knew that he had to die in order to save everyone before and since so that we may have a close relationship with God the Father. By being sinless, and dying, he paid a ransom because of the sins of you and me - in other words, he took all those sins on himself. As he was God in human form (despite what the other writer says below... see not after this answer) he could not die for ever - and hence the resurrection to eternal life on the Sunday afterwards. As he took all the sins on his own shoulders, for a split second at his death, the perfect God the Father could no longer look on him and so he turned away. Jesus was alone, for the first time. "My God, My God, why have you left me" was his cry. But why these words?

This brings us to the second point. The words were not his own. They come from Psalm 21 v1, written hundreds of years earlier, and were regarded as a prophesy in the Old Testament of what the Messiah (whoever he would be) would do. Matthew's gospel is full of Old Testament passages that prophesy Jesus. By crying these words, Jesus not only cried in anguish - he cried in triumph. The disciple John was the only one to be at the crucifixion (the others scarpered out of fear) and it is likely that, being a good Jewish boy immersed in the scripture, he knew exactly what Jesus did.

To suppose that He was rebuking God by this comment, or complaining, or that He was unaware of the meaning of the words of that Psalm, is to completely ignore all His teachings on these subjects. He knew exactly what these scriptures actually meant concerning His suffering.

Finally - a note about "he was not God".

These old chestnuts are often verses quoted by Jehovah's Witnesses when they visit my home. Sadly, they usually take verses out of context, or have no real idea what the verse actually means, or they opt for a verse that seems to support their own skewed interpretation despite ignoring the whole message. As one example, let's take the first one: Matthew 19 17, Mark 1018 And he said unto him, Why call thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

To say this backs up Jesus not being God is is a total misrepresentation of what the phrase actually means. Jesus, in saying this was actually claiming to be God. The inflection in the original Greek bears this out. What Jesus was saying was something like "only the one, true God is good... and yet you are calling me good. You must be calling me the one, true God then". Note, that in the subsequent verses (usually omitted by the out-of-context JWs) Jesus then does not go on to correct these people but instead reminds them of the 10 commandments (not referred to as God's 10 commandments as they are in the Old testament but in a more possessive 'commandments inflection in the original Greek), he calls them to follow him (not God?), he tells them of his death and resurrection with authority as if he had something to do with it. The implication of all these statements was that Jesus was clearly equating himself with God. A similar example occurs in the story when a lame man is lowered trough a roof. Jesus forgives his sins. The onlookers scream "Only God can forgive sins", so, to prove his point Jesus says 'what is easier to do, forgive sins or say, get up, pick up your mattress and go home?' . Jesus, to prove his point that he was able to forgive sins and therefore was God incarnate, chooses to heal the man there and then. He tells him to get up, pick up his mattress, and go. We are told the man healed, went home and praised God. Why not praise Jesus instead - after all he was the one who healed him? No, he praised God - in Jesus.

The other statements below can all be explained in a similar way. It is so sad that some people will not study the scriptures as a whole.
Jesus was a man, while he was fully God, he was also fully human. If you were dying on the cross with the sins of the world on your back, wouldn't you feel dispair? It isn't any different for Jesus. He became one of us to save all of us, and in doing so took on all the strife that comes with being human.

God is a Holy God. This means He is absolutely perfect in all He is and does. Jesus, while finally bearing the sins of the whole world was the most repugnant thing to a Holy God (not of course in Himself but because of the sins He bore). The Bible says He 'became sin' for us. At that moment the Father had to turn His back, so to speak, on His beloved Son, just as He will one day turn His back on all who have rejected Him. Jesus then, in that awful moment, experienced the forsakenness of all who reject God's love for them.

Jesus had been connected to God until that moment. When he was forsaken by God, Jesus had experienced separation from God. Because Jesus deluded himself and believed that he was the promised Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament that will free the Jews from their occupiers (at this time it was the Romans). When death was imminent, he realized his mistake and cried "My, God, my God...."

It is indeed difficult for humans to grasp the idea of God becoming a man (called the Incarnation) and dieing for their sins. Much examination has been made over the years of different aspects of the behavior and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. One thing that is clear from psychology is that Jesus did not behave at any time as if He had anything other than a normal mental state according to the situation in which He was. For Him to be deluded about Himself and His identity, and therefore be crying in despair, He would need to be in a situation where what He believed about Himself did not correspond with reality.

Right through Jesus entire life both His words and works demonstrated who He was, as 'God made flesh.' He had ample opportunity to deny this - for example when various people worshiped Him. The Jews never would have taken up stones to throw at Him if He had not in their eyes committed blasphemy by claiming to be God. Nor could He have forgiven sins, or raised the dead etc. In this connection, it is worthy of note that anti-Christian Jewish sources did not deny He performed miracles, only they attributed them to the power of the devil.

In addition, even though a deluded person could fake some of the circumstances of His life to make Himself look like the Messiah, (by fulfilling certain Old Testament prophecies) and the Son of God, it would be most certainly impossible for one such to control things such as the amount of money paid for Him, that the soldiers didn't tear His garment, whether the dead returned to life when He commanded etc.

Probably, in addition to all this, Jesus would have realized before His final moments that He had been deluded - when they drove the nails into His wrists, directly through the median nerve, this act producing the excruciating pain, caused by crucifixion, after which this word was coined. First of all, the context of the Bible "era" forces the Book itself into the field of interpretation. For far too long the texts have been interpreted from only one, or very few perspectives. People don't think, necessarily, of the things they need to in order to understand it properly but the "Book" was constructed in a specific way for specific reasons outside religion or faith; it is that "faith" that clouds the human conceptions. Even if the stories were true, Jesus was fully aware of God's so-called plan and therefore would not have felt despair for what was happening to him. And i highly doubt, no matter what any person, Church, or text says, that 'God' turned his back on 'Jesus.' Why would God turn his back on himself? The people at the execution thought Jesus was talking to Elijah not God; who consequently, was the supposed Messiah. For Jesus to be 'forsaken' implies that God changed the plan somehow...? but again this is open to interpretation because there is no way of knowing what a man meant by a statement like this under such circumstantial duress, i.e. the pain and agony of being crucified, even if he had a sedative. He was under the impression that his actions were going to be positive for the Jews (or humanity) and he saw that he was wrong when his own people voted to kill him and that his actions in fact did not change anything. or it could be that the Holy Spirit and/or His soul was leaving him at that time and Jesus was simply asking why God would leave him at a time like this, when he needed Him the most; don't read forsake as the negative 'abandon' but simply as in leaving his humanly body never to return to it because it is on its way to heaven (via a trip to hell). But long story short, the best explanation is that it was an editorial revision after the fact to condition the Christian society in the manner that the second answer (below) has already talked about. "At that moment the Father had to turn His back, so to speak, on His beloved Son, just as He will one day turn His back on all who have rejected Him." (2nd answer; this is my citation). Actually, Jesus was not yelling this at God. He yelled those words to the people around Him, and here's why: In Jesus' time, the Old Testament (Canon) was not structured like it is today, with chapters and verses etc. If you wanted someone to read a portion of the Old Testament you couldn't say, "Read Psalms 22, verse 1." Scripture was kept on scrolls and to identify which chapter to reference you would recite the first verse of that chapter. Jews would often commit the first verse of every chapter to memory that way they would know where to look if referenced. Here's where it get's interesting. The book of Psalms chapter 22, is all about the prophecy of the messiah's torture and death. Do you know what the first verse of Psalms 22 is? "My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?" Jesus yelled these words, not to God, but to His followers. This way His followers would know where to look in the Old Testament (Canon) to see that Jesus had fulfilled all the prophecy in regards to His torture and death. ANSWER Because of Adams sin we are all sinners. God being a Holy God can not just leave sin un dealt with. In order to counteract our sins, God had to become FULLY human. He is the second Adam before the fall. Therefore Jesus underwent many temptations where he could have fallen into sin had he chosen to; e.g the Devils temptations in the wildnerness. But Jesus went to the cross an innocent man, a sinless man. Him shouting, "God God why have you forsaken me" enables us to see Jesus as a human. He was suffering HELL at this point, being completely empty of Gods presence. The only answer I'd give a chance to is that he was referring to an earlier prophecy. Other than that, I think he was a great guy with amazing ideas, but he believed his own stories, and he sincerely believed there was something in the sky that would avenge his death...when he wasn't bailed out, he called for help, I'm sure he had his moment of clarity soon after that...i think it's poetic, and very symbolic of death for all of us...we are all so significant aren't we? Jesus was not doubting God, He on several occasions stated days before His death that He knew everything that was going to happen to Him. Hence why the night before His death Jesus asks for God to give Him the strength to go through with what was about to come to Him. Jesus was fully aware of what was to come. Him yelling "My God My God!" was towards His disciples so that they could know first hand he fulfilled prophecy, not because he doubted God in His pain and suffering. Biblical Scholars agree with this, I recommend researching the work of biblical scholars and published apologetic authors for more information. Most of the time the answers you get on-line are not exactly correct or true, they're just random people's opinions, speculations and assumptions. So I recommend researching further questions from legitimate sources.

Answer 2

The Lord Jesus had no sin of His own, but He took the guilt of our sins upon Himself. When God, as Judge, looked down and saw our sins upon the sinless Substitute, He withdrew from the Son of His love.

Answer 3

Another answer from our community:

The reason Jesus cried out "My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?", was

that God, His Father, turned away from Him and for the first time, ever, that eternal communion between the Father and the Son had been broken. Never had God turned away from His Son, until that time. Jesus quoted these words from Psalm 22:1.

The reason was that Jesus took the sin of all humanity upon His body and God had to turn away from Him as a Holy and righteous God cannot look upon sin. That involved Him being forsaken by God as Jesus carried all our iniquities (sin) upon Himself at the cross. Jesus is bearing man's judgement, not only the judgement of death but also the judgement of separation from God. At that moment Jesus is experiencing the darkest moment of His life.

Jesus had been forsaken time and again by the nation, Judas betrayed Him,

Peter denied Him, others sought to kill Him, many disciples (not the 11), had deserted Him, but now, He is totally and absolutely alone, God had turned away from Him. The One who was truly righteous is now forsaken.

The previous night Jesus prayed in the Garden at Gethsemene, saying "ABBA, Father, ......take this cup (of suffering) away from Me, nevertheless, not My will, but Your Will be done."

His prayer was that the Father's will would be done (so His prayer was heard) and Jesus' prayer WAS answered, (because He obeyed God and went to the cross) also, because of His reverent submission to God's will.

Scripture to verify this is found in Hebrews 5:7 "........with cries and tears to Him (God) who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His Godly fear." Jesus' perfect will resulted not with failure but perfect obedience as the words states, "Godly fear".

There are some people who feel that Jesus' prayer to "take this cup of suffering away" was not for the resultant agony of the cross, but the agony of having to bear SIN on His body. A sinless Son of God, righteous and holy having to bear SIN was too much to bear.

Whatever the answer may be, He came willingly to the cross, as the perfect sacrifice once, for all. John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world, that he GAVE His Son."

And He bore it all, for us!

Answer 4

Just before Jesus' death, Jesus prepared for his death by taking in the sin of all mankind. Sin is the act of turning away from God. By taking in all of mankind's sin, Jesus felt a temporary absence of God, causing him to cry out in anguish.

God had not forsaken him, nor does he forsake any of man. However, by turning away from God by taking in mankind's sin, it felt to Jesus as if God was no longer there.

Answer 5

The circumstances during the period immediately before and including the crucifixion of Jesus are explained very concisely in Mark's Gospel, which breaks down the last twenty four hour into eight intervals of just three hours each. The important event here are the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemene, when Jesus prayed that, if it were possible, the hour [of crucifixion] might pass from him, and his final anguished words, "My God. My God. Why hast thou forsaken me?"

1. We start with the celebration of the Passover Feast, which becomes the Last Supper. It began "when it was evening" (Mark 14:17), or when the sun went down: approximately 6 pm. Mark knew that the duration of the Passover meal was three hours and that it concluded with the singing of a hymn, so the first thing Jesus did was to sing a hymn with his disciples. Then Mark says, "And when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives". It was about 9 p.m.
2. Mark then has Jesus and the disciples go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went to pray. He suffered alone and in agony, asking God that, if possible, he take this cup (his destiny to be crucified) away from Jesus. Meanwhile his disciples, Peter, James and John, were not able to remain awake. "Could you not watch one hour?" Jesus asked. The process was repeated two more times. The disciples could not watch one, two or three hours. It was now midnight.
3. The betrayal of Jesus, the darkest deed in human history, came next, occurring at the stroke of midnight.
4. At 3:00 a.m., Jesus was led away for a trial before the high priest and other senior priests and elders. It was on the basis of his messianic claim that he was judged to be worthy of death.
   The watch of the night between 3 am and 6 am was called cockcrow. Peter's threefold denial of Jesus, once each hour until the cock crowed, marked the end of that phase of the night. That makes it 6 am.
5. "As soon as it was morning", which would be 6 am, Jesus was led by the chief priests, scribes and elders to Pontius Pilate for judgement.
6. "It was the third hour when they crucified him," that is, 9 o'clock.
7. When "the sixth hour had come" (12 noon), darkness covered the whole earth, reflecting the betrayal at 12 midnight. After three hours of darkness, at 3 p.m., Jesus cried out and gave up the ghost. He has suffered alone and in agony, just as in the Garden of Gethsemene, and his last words reflect anguish at the failure of his prayer in the Garden, when he asked if it were possible that this fate be taken from him: "My God. My God. Why hast thou forsaken me?"
8. Joseph of Arimathea then asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, so that he could be buried before the Sabbath began. Jesus was buried in the final period from 3 to 6 pm, before the sun went down.

The agony in the Garden of Gethsemene serves two purposes here. One is to mark off the hours, with Jesus returning three time, saying, "Could you not wait just one hour?" This helps us to know that the three hours have passed since the end of the Last Supper, so it is now midnight. The second was to prefigure the last words of Jesus, when he finally realised that God had not heard his prayers in the garden, "My God. My God. Why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1).

Answer 6

The notion that Jesus is God did not arise until at least the second century. This saying of Jesus first occurs in Mark's Gospel, written approximately 70 CE, and copied in Matthew's Gospel, which was written a decade or two later. As we can see in Mark 10:18 ("And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God."), the author of Mark actually believed Jesus is not God.

Mark's Gospel says that Jesus' last words were, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Mark 15:34)" This was taken by the author from Psalm 22:1, but is also a chiastic reference back to Mark 14:36, where Jesus prayed that God relieve him of his destiny: "And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt."

In copying Mark's Gospel, the author of Matthew recognised this to be an Old Testament reference and thus kept the same words as in Mark. However, the authors of Luke and John chose completely different last words for Jesus.