And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Matthew 27:46 (also Mark 15:34)

The ninth hour has come.   After three hours on the cross, Jesus was nearing his time of death. Now, the hardest part of all overwhelms his soul.  The moment has come to offer his life so that we might live.  I have tried to relate to what Jesus was experiencing at that time.  My mind can not take it in.  The more I try to understand it the more I just stand in awe, believing!

Was this the moment when the sin of the world was laid on Jesus?  All sin!  I do believe so.

Jesus’ cry in the Hebrew tongue is so full of meaning that we can simply believe that his cry is superbly real.  For the first and only time in his life, Jesus feels the pangs of loneliness, of separation, of pain.   He hangs alone, the spotless lamb of God, bearing all the horrid sin of the entire world.  Covered with the load of sin, his Father had to divert his gaze and Jesus felt it to the depths of his soul.  Jesus who lived in his Father, is now, for a most dreadful hour, alone, absolutely alone.  What he is doing and experiencing no man knows!

All of us forgiven sinners, constantly in need of God’s grace, look back on that moment with awe beyond explanation.

Friend, we caused all that.  Jesus had no sin, but he became sin for us!  Try to figure that out!  That is grace beyond telling, love eternal.  Can it be that it is for me?