At noon darkness came over the whole land till three and at three Jesus shouted in a loud voice "'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'" which means "My God, my God, why did you forsake me?"
- Mark's gospel
"For our sake, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God"
- 2 Cor. 5.21
Two things to mention here.
First, this word "forsake" is pulsing on the screen. The verse in Mark ends with this word and Paul's statement begins, essentially, with this word. Can you see that?
why did you forsake...For our sake
The only thing preventing a direct repetition of the word is the insertion of the word "our." We/us/our. Almost as if "we" got inbetween the Father and the Son.
My God, my God, for whose sake?
My Son, my Son, for their sake.
And then, can you imagine Jesus' shock? There was the whole shocking drama of this drawn-out-trumped-up walk on the road of suffering and then, then, he became sin who knew no sin. Until some moment or sequence of moments, Jesus had known no sin, but then, then, he knew it, he became it, God made him to be it.
This was the final straw, right? The one that broke the back of the Son of God. He had experienced the range of being human: born of a woman, growing in wisdom and stature, being invited to a wedding, the commaraderie of friends, sitting tired at a well, tears at losing a friend, betrayal. He had moved into the neighborhood and known it all, everything, everything but this. He had known no sin. Until now.
It would be like trying to breathe water, such was sin's foreign nature.
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