I looked at a few commentaries on Mark I have. Some interesting interpretations of the Cry of Dereliction. I use Mark because I believe Matthew depends on him for this.
Mark 15:34 At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Gundry lasers in on the “loud voice”. This is not defeat in Mark. It is victory. He writes, “Twice before, Mark has noted “a loud voice” (1:26; 5:7). Each time the loudness represents superhuman strength. That Mark will shortly remention the loudness of Jesus’ voice without quoting any words shows that he does not design the present mention of loudness to make the shout audible enough to be misunderstood. On the contrary, loudness should prevent misunderstanding. Rather, Mark designs the present as well as later mention of loudness to emphasize the superhuman strength of Jesus even as he expires. Mark’s audience know that ordinary victims of crucifixion weaken bit by bit and lapse into unconsciousness before dying. So shouting loudly at the last moment entails a remarkable exhibition of strength (cf. 1 Enoch 71:11: “Thus I cried with a loud voice by the spirit of the power” [also 61:11]) How else would the Son of God expire (contrast 2 Cor 13:4 with Mark’s way of presenting Jesus’ death)?”
Gundry also goes on to say that Jesus’ last breath was so forceful that is what tore the temple veil in two. There is a historical issue in which way the centurion was facing and how he would see things but interestingly enough Gundry also sees parallels between the end of Jesus’ life and the beginning of his public ministry.
Mark 1:9-11 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved;[h] with you I am well pleased.”
When the Spirit descend on Jesus during his baptism the heavens tear apart.
When Jesus breathes his last the spirit must be departing and the temple veil tears in two.
At the baptism God says you are my Son with whom I am well pleased.
At his death the voice of Jesus asking why God abandoned him contrasts with this.
A further link of this parallel is that JBap was Elijah who is mentioned in the same scene in Mark.
I don’t subscribe to the notion that Jesus was somehow filled with sin and God (himself) couldn’t look upon him). Gundry’s view is certainly interesting but there are others viewpoints. Some think the narrative suggests “Jesus dies forsaken, derided by his enemies and abandoned by his friends, an his last cry, which may be demonic, expresses his perceived distance from God.” Joel Marcus.
Jesus is abandoned by everyone and feels the fullness of human pain and emptiness at this very moment But this was in essence a victory in defeat in a strange way (Mark loves shocking his reader). It is here, at his darkest moments that Jesus achieves the fullness of his mission. As Marcus also wrote: "While some Christians have been troubled by this cry of dereliction, others have seen it as an indication of Jesus’ identification with humanity and thus as a source of comfort and empowerment. Jesus at the nadir of his existence, experiences the same sense of divine abandonment that so often characterizes our lives; as Augustine puts it, “he took on the speech of our infirmity” . . . A papyrus fragment from the third or fourth century, which was probably used in an amulet, even includes the cry in a series of names and attributes that express God’s grace, salvation and loving Fatherly care. . . Paradoxically, then the cry of dereliction becomes good news, and this probably has to do with Mark’s Pauline soteriology: through identifying with human lostness, the Son of God points a way out of it (cf. 2 Cor 5:21). Jesus enters the darkness of the old age in order that humanity might live in the light of the new; he gives his life as a “ransom for many” . . . With his cry, and with the death that follows, Jesus has chivied the purpose of his mission: “complete identification with humanity’s slave-like, accursed condition and a corresponding form of decease, “even death on a cross”) (cf. Phil 2:7-8). The cry of dereliction, then is in a strange ay the Markan counterpart to the Johannine cry of triumph, “It is finished!” (John 19:30)–the goal has been achieved, humanity has been redeemed, and Jesus can therefore die.” Joel Marcus
Great question. There is definitely a lot of material to study and dig deep into. Psalm 22. Amos 8:9-10 etc. I have no definitive answers. Just some interesting viewpoints.
Vinnie
