Matt 27:46-50
From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.
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The New Testament > Matthew > Chapter 27
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Questions
Verse 46:
- What does Christ's question tell us about his nature during his earthly ministry?
- Why was it necessary for Christ to submit to something he did not fully comprehend?
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Lexical notes
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Exegesis
Possible explanations for why Christ says "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" include:
- Christ had to suffer all of the consequences of sin in order to atone for the sins of the world. Since one consequence of sin is that the presence of God is withdrawn, Christ had to go through this.
- God the Father could not bear to watch his son in pain and so He turned away.
- As the cross reference indicates, this is the first part of Psalm 22:1; Christ was reciting this psalm, and Matthew and Mark refer to the psalm by its first line, much as we often refer to the hymns.
Note that these explanations are not mutually exclusive. The first two of these three explanations suggest that Christ did not fully comprehend either a) what was happening to him, or b) the reason it was happening, or both. He either incorrectly perceived that he had been abandoned (forsaken), or he did not comprehend the reason for it.
This may be the point referred to when Christ says "I have ... trodden the wine-press alone" D&C 76:107. See commentary on that verse for futher discussion.
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Related links
- In O Divine Redeemer Elder Maxwell uses Matt 27:46 as an example to show us that the Lord knows what it is like to feel forsaken.
- In Lessons from the Atonement That Help Us to Endure to the End and in Behold, We Count Them Happy Which Endure Bishop Hales suggests that if we feel forsaken by God or others that we should turn our thoughts back to Christ and endure to the end as he did on the cross. On the Cross, Christ felt forsaken and could have called on angels to save him, but he choose to endure.
- In Jesus of Nazareth Elder Haight quotes Talmage's explanation in Jesus the Christ for why the Father "seems to have withdrawn."
- In Behold Your Little Ones Elder Kerr of the seventy uses this verse in his discussion of Jesus as an example of the power that one person can have. Specifically, he uses this verse to say that Jesus had to stand alone to accomplish the atonement. See Exegesis explanation 1.
- In The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope President Faust quotes Matt 27:46 as part of telling the story of the atonement. In reference to this verse President Faust says that Jesus "was treading the wine-press alone."
- In That They Might Know Thee (Ensign, Nov 2006, pp. 99–101), Elder Keith R. Edwards relates a story in which he gains personal insight into the perspective of the Father during the suffering of His son.
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