Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 170
Mark tells us that at the ninth hour, or 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and many have said, here was Jesus dying on the cross "disillusioned and defeated", crying out to a God who he felt had deserted him. : The disciples have certainly left us in a quandary; if they heard one saying from the cross, surely they would hear the others. But every account is different. In any event, the saying is excusable, for until one had suffered such pain, one would have no idea how unbearable it could be. The fact that Jesus knew he would survive,³ (for he said: the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again; this charge I have received from my Father, 4) would not lessen the pain he endured. Could it be that at the last moment, Jesus had lost faith; when all through his life he had believed so magnificently? Surely not; for Luke tells us the last saying was: Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit. Why did God not cause the cross to be thrown down, and release Jesus? Why indeed had He allowed him to be nailed there? With a single word he could have thrown down the cross, the executioners and the soldiers and dispersed the gaping crowd, writes Daniel-Rope in Jesus in his Time (1945). Why God did not 3 Earlier, for those who wanted a sign, he had referred to the story of Jonah and the whale (Isaiah, in “The Lord's servant” (53:10) says. . . when he makes himself an offering for sin he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days"). 4 John 10: 17 162