In The Gospel of Matthew and Mark, Jesus cries out, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” or, “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?”
The quote is powerful, but a bit awkward for the reader who might be trying to determine the meaning of Jesus’ words. In Jesus Interrupted, Bart Ehrman says that the picture Mark paints of Jesus is one of abandonment. He states about Jesus’ death in Luke in contrast to Mark,
This is not a Jesus who feels forsaken by God and wonders why he is going through this pain of desertion and death. It is a Jesus who feels God’s presence with him and is comforted by the fact that God is on his side. He is fully cognizant of what is happening to him and why, and he commits himself to the loving care of his heavenly father, confident of what is to happen next.
Jesus Interrupted, pg.68
To Bart Ehrman, Jesus’ cry, “why have you forsaken me”, in Mark is an expression of abandonment, very different from Luke where Jesus is in control. Does Mark describe a Jesus who “wonders why”" he is going through this pain of desertion and death?”
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.
Mark 8:31saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
Mark 10:33-34
Contra Bart Ehrman, the Jesus of Mark knows exactly what is going to happen and why it must happen. In chapter 8, he rebukes Peter for rejecting the idea that he had to die, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man,” he says.
So Jesus knows he is going to die, and that he must die, so why does he feel like God is abandoning him once he gets up there? There is a simple answer, he doesn’t. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,” is a quote from Psalm 22, which is a hopeful Psalm. It begins in despair, when it seems like one has been abandoned, but in the end God is there and good is achieved.
The story Mark gives is not one where Jesus is abandoned, lost, powerless, or confused. It is one where Jesus knows what he is doing, why it must happen, and before death cites the beginning of Psalm 22 to call to mind that even in the worst of times, when it seems like you’re abandoned, you are not.
