Now
from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:45-46
Matthew 27 [41.] Likewise the chief priests also mocking, with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders, said, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” The robbers also who were crucified with him cast on him the same reproach.
Matthew 27 [45.] Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27 [47.] Some of them who stood there, when they heard it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”
Meaning:
Jesus had been crucified at about nine in the morning and had hung on the cross for three hours while people mocked him (Matthew 27:41-44). Then the scene changed. Mark and Luke record the same darkness and the same cry (Mark 15:33-34; Luke 23:44-45).
- “from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour”
Jewish time counted the hours from sunrise, so the sixth hour was about noon and the ninth about three in the afternoon. At the brightest time of day, darkness covered the land for three hours. It could not have been an eclipse, for Passover was held at full moon. Scripture presents it as an act of God.
In the Bible darkness often signals God’s judgment. Before the first Passover, “there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days” (Exodus 10:21-22). The prophet Amos warned of a day of judgment when God said, “I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day,” and he added, “I will make it like the mourning for an only son” (Amos 8:9-10). At the cross the judgment of God against sin was falling on God’s only Son. Creation itself seemed to mourn.
- “About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice”
The ninth hour was the time of the evening sacrifice and prayer at the temple (Acts 3:1). As lambs were offered in the temple, the Lamb of God was offering himself on the cross. Jesus did not whisper. His loud cry showed that he was still fully conscious and that he was speaking deliberately.
- “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?”
Matthew gives Jesus’ words in his own language and then translates them. These are the opening words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1). The psalm describes a righteous sufferer mocked by enemies, his hands and feet pierced, his clothes divided by lot, exactly what had been happening around the cross.
- “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
This is the most mysterious cry in the Gospels. Jesus, who had always called God “Father,” now calls him “My God” and speaks of being forsaken. On the cross he was bearing the sin of the world, and he experienced the separation from God that sin brings. Paul writes, “For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
Yet the cry is not a cry of unbelief. Jesus still says “My God.” Psalm 22 moves from abandonment to trust and praise, declaring that God “has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard” (Psalm 22:24). Hebrews says Jesus “offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears” and “having been heard for his godly fear” (Hebrews 5:7).
The Significance of Matthew 27:45-46
- He was forsaken so that we would not be
Jesus experienced abandonment so that those who trust him would never be abandoned by God. He took the darkness of judgment so that his people could walk in the light.
- Permission to lament
Jesus prayed the words of a psalm of lament in his darkest hour. Believers may also bring their honest questions and pain to God. Even the cry “why?” can be a prayer when it is addressed to “my God.”
Cross-References:
Psalm 22:1: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The psalm Jesus prayed on the cross.
Amos 8:9: "I will cause the sun to go down at noon," The darkness of judgment foretold.
Mark 15:34: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" Mark’s parallel account.
2 Corinthians 5:21: "For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf;" Why Jesus was forsaken.
Conclusion: From noon until three in the afternoon darkness covered the land, a sign of God’s judgment like the darkness Amos foretold. At the ninth hour Jesus cried the opening words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As he bore the sin of the world he experienced the separation that sin brings, so that all who trust him might be brought near to God.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible