Not understanding, or perhaps misunderstanding what someone says can lead to all sorts of wrong conclusions. Wars have been waged over words. Duels have been performed. Divorces have happened. Brawls have started. Riots instigated. Let’s just say that bad things can happen over words spoken.
Jesus has been on the cross for about six hours. He has said some other things while hanging there which are recorded in the other Gospels. But Mark chooses to focus our attention on one set of words, a shouted quotation from the Old Testament. These few words encapsulate Jesus’ experience on the cross.
There have been hours of agony, physical agony. Every breath after the first few minutes requires effort. He must lift His chest up in order to breath. The position of His arms would have exhausted His muscles to the point that He could not breath without effort. And that effort, pulling up with His arms and pushing up with His feet, would have placed pressure on the tissue around the spikes that held Him in place.
The one thing you do not want to do if you have a large foreign object lodged in you is to wiggle it repeatedly. In fact, the first aid step is to wrap the object and stabilize it. Moving it causes pain and bleeding. Doctors wait until the person is in surgery, or at least under anesthesia before attempting to remove it.
So for Jesus to be able to cry out in a loud voice took considerable effort. Six hours of exhausting effort preceded these words. These words were not uttered easily. He wanted those listening to really hear what He was saying.
And yet some misunderstood what He was saying. It could be that Jesus cried in Hebrew “Eli, Eli …” rather than “Eloi, Eloi….” For those who don’t know, Hebrew and Aramaic are sister languages or maybe uncle-cousin languages. They are very similar to each other. Many of the words are identical, only different in the ending.
The ending meaning “my” in Hebrew would sound more like the name Elijah, and Psalm 22 was written in Hebrew. But Aramaic was the common language of that day, rather than Hebrew. So it would have been easy to miss the quotation of Hebrew for exhausted pronunciation of the name Elijah. This is especially true if you imagine that Jesus had to take a breath between each word. He would be shouting through pain and exhaustion. And to take a full breath would have been almost impossible. Single words would make more sense considering His physical condition at that point.
And what do they think Elijah is going to do? They think Elijah is going to rescue Jesus, take Him down from the cross. Elijah, if you remember, was one of the greatest, most powerful prophets of the Old Testament. Many supernatural miracles happened as part of His ministry. Fire came down from heaven, that kind of stuff.
So wanting Elijah to show up would be something you could tell your grandkids about. No wonder these onlookers hang around. They are there for the entertainment value of the event.
But Jesus is calling those who hear and we who read these words to reflect on Psalm 22. I want to encourage you to do just that. Take time today to ready Psalm 22, slowly, deliberately, reflectively, prayerfully. Listen to the words and imagine experiencing the things the writer was experiencing. Maybe you will understand the separation that Jesus felt in those moments, totally alone for the first time in His existence, sin having separated Him from the Father, our sin.
The Arnold Journey 