Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?

 Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"  Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!"  Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down."  And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.  Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"

- Mark 15:33-39

 Yesterday we read that the soldiers brought Jesus to Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.  Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it.  And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take.  Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.  And the inscription of His accusation was written above:  THE KING OF THE JEWS.  With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left.  So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He was numbered with the transgressors."  And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha!  You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, come down from the cross!"  Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save.  Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe."  Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.

  Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.   The sixth hour is noon; the ninth hour is three o'clock in the afternoon.  My study bible refers us to Zechariah 14:6-7 and Amos 8:9, which are fulfilled in the darkness at noon.

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"   Jesus prays Psalm 22.  This psalm foretells the details of the Crucifixion, another fulfillment of prophecy.  If this cry is taken without the rest of the psalm, my study bible points out, "Why have you forsaken me?" could be misinterpreted as a cry of despair.  Christ took on our nature, and Jesus experiences our own alienation from God in His humanity.  He knows completely our suffering and distress, but He does not despair.  According to my study bible, He speaks these words in the name of humanity, a complete identification with us in our condition.  But in His divinity, He is never forsaken by the Father. 

Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!"  Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down."  And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.   In Matthew's Gospel, we're told that Jesus "yielded up His spirit."  My study bible says that His death was voluntary to the very end, because even on the Cross, His life could not be taken from Him against His will.  He accepted His death neither to receive the Father's punishment on our behalf, nor to satisfy the Father's need for blood-justice (which really makes no sense as a demand from God), but rather by entering death as the divine Son of God, He can destroy the final enemy -- death itself (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).  We should understand this event as transfiguring everything we experience, a profound redemption.  As my study bible puts it, whatever divinity touches is healed.  He accepts our nature in order to sanctify it, our weakness in order to strengthen us, our sin to free us from sin, our suffering in order to transfigure suffering -- and our death in order to destroy death.

Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.   My study bible tells us that the veil that separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the temple was a symbol of the separation between God and man.  The death of Christ opens up the way into the presence of God for all, giving human beings access to what is in fact the most holy of all, which is God.  In many Orthodox churches, one sees a curtain between the altar and nave which is opened during services to emphasize the communion with God, which at one time was sealed off from human beings, and is now available to all who approach in faith.

So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"   Although the centurion is a Gentile, according to my study bible he realizes that Christ has dominion over nature.   Therefore he acknowledges Him as the Son of God.  Tradition knows this particular soldier as St. Longinos.


 Jesus dies on the Cross.   It is a voluntary death.  He has experienced all the suffering of human beings, all of the life that we live, and including our death -- even the most ignominious of deaths as He is executed in a manner fit for the worst of criminals.  From the earliest centuries of Christianity, the Church has understood that in uniting His divinity to our humanity, Christ is the very instrument of salvation.  St. Gregory of Nazianzus wrote in the 4th century:  "For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved" (Critique of Apollinarius and Apollinarianism, Epistle 101).    From the beginnings of the establishment of the Church, and through all its subsequent foundational Councils, the fundamental viewpoint on the unity, in Christ, of humanity and God is the stone on which the Church was built and refined.  That is, each new controversy in some way touched upon this issue, and has been resolved with a return to its basic truth:  that God's divinity, touching and assuming our humanity, is the very action of redemption, of salvation.  As St. Gregory says, whatever is not assumed by Christ can't be healed; what He has assumed is saved.  In the story of the Cross, humanity's suffering, pain, death, isolation, injustice, and all the rest of the things that we can read into the experience of Jesus is transfigured.  It is the way to defeat evil at its root.  Salvation does not come from manipulation, it doesn't come from "blood justice," and it doesn't come from human or worldly force.  It comes through this unification of God and humanity.  Christ, through all things, has given over His human will to the Father's will, and the result is this death on the Cross, at which even the centurion -- no doubt one who has witnessed many crucifixions -- comes to faith.  In the story of our faith, it really isn't what we do and what our lives look like from the outside that makes all the difference.  It is how we live them, how we come through whatever it is we experience or are given, and how we come to those decisions about what we will do in life.  Like Christ, we must find the key to redemption and salvation through this union of energies of God and our humanity, and through faith.  Whatever we see in this scene is redeemed through the voluntary act of Christ.  When He is raised, so will be all the things He has experienced, God touching the worst and the ugliest of evils in the world.  In the Orthodox hymn of Easter, it is sung repeatedly that Christ trampled down death by death.  When we go through suffering of any kind in our own lives, let us follow where He leads.  The very cross, instrument of death, is transformed into an instrument of the deepest strength and power to save and to redeem.  Whatever it is, let us turn it over to Him and find our own way to that salvation; let Him take on the suffering He has voluntarily endured for us, and give it back to us in His own way for our healing.