Matthew 27:46 - "A Word of Agony"

Matthew 27:46

"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Matthew records one of the most solemn cries ever spoken: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). These words draw us into the mystery of redemption, unveiled, not in theory, but in the suffering of Christ Himself.

The Gospel writers do not give us a strict chronology of events, but a selective history, ordered by God to reveal His Son. Matthew places this cry amid mockery and darkness. Those who passed by “reviled him, wagging their heads” (Matthew 27:39), echoing the words of Psalm 22 centuries before: “All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head” (Psalm 22:7). What men spoke in derision, God had already declared in prophecy.

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness covered the land (Matthew 27:45). At the brightest part of the day, creation itself bore witness that something extraordinary was taking place. Then Christ cried aloud. This was not the cry of weakness, nor the complaint of a martyr. Scripture tells us plainly what was happening: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). He did not die as a victim, but as the spotless Substitute.

Many have died unjustly in history, yet all were sinners under condemnation. Christ alone was without sin. He was not only innocent, He was Righteous. Isaiah declares, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). Men inflicted cruelty upon Him, but that did not draw this cry from His lips. The silence was broken only when the judgment of God fell upon Him as the sin-Bearer.

The words Christ spoke were taken directly from Scripture. Psalm 22 opens with the same cry: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). This was no moment of confusion. It was the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose. Every detail of the cross unfolded according to God’s sovereign purpose, down to the very hour when the evening sacrifice was offered in the temple. While lambs were being slain below, the True Lamb of God was offering Himself above.

This cry reveals the depth of Christ's Substitution. He stood where His people deserved to stand. Being forsaken is the essence of condemnation—separation from God. Yet for those for whom Christ died, this is a reality they will never face. Scripture promises, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). That promise stands because Christ was forsaken, left on the cross, offered up by the Father in their place, but never abandoned by the Father.

Here we see the God-Man speaking as Man. He addresses God as His God, fulfilling perfectly what sinners could never do. He believed God, trusted God, loved God, and obeyed God in their stead. Though He is equal with God, He humbled Himself to bear the full weight of Divine wrath. Isaiah explains, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11). There would be no failure in this work, no loss among those He redeemed.

This cry was not one of despair, being left to die on the cross. Christ acknowledged God’s holiness and justice in God leaving Him there to die: “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3). Justice and Mercy met at the cross. God did not spare His own Son, that He might remain just and justify those sinners He gave to His Son, (John 17:6). Here, Wrath and Grace are fully revealed.

In this cry, Righteousness and Peace kissed each other (Psalm 85:10). What was a stumblingblock to the religious world is the believer’s sure Salvation. Christ was delivered up to die as God’s Lamb slain that His people might be justified before Him. He bore their eternal wrath so they might receive eternal life. This is the glory of the cross, where Mercy and Truth meet, and God is revealed as both a just God and a Savior (Isaiah 45:21).