Reflection on Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani

Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani - Matthew 27:46

Jesus before Jesus dies and commends his spirit into the hands of God, he cries out "Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani," which translates to "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It is just three verses later in this gospel from Matthew that Jesus gives up his spirit. The last spoken words that are written down by Matthew are Jesus' plea. That is not an accident, nor is it without purpose. Just the placement of that phrase is a defining moment for our faith.

We should first discuss the context of Matthew's gospel. Matthew's gospel was written for the Jewish audience's of the time, due to this previous "career" being a Jewish tax collector. And it like this for all the gospels, that is they had a connection to their audiences. Therefore, that is the logical reason for Matthew including Jesus' allusion to the Psalms, "Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani."

But it is the placement of the phrase and the structure of Matthew's gospel that defines Jesus' paschal mystery. Matthew's last written words of Jesus are those of humanity -- he pleas with God and questions him as to why he must undergo the torture of the cross. As Catholics, we know that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, and that despite being human when he entered the world, Jesus didn't give up his divinity, and remained the 2nd person of the trinity. But Matthew chose to highlight Jesus' humanity in the scene of Jesus' death. Why? Why not highlight his divinity?

It is because of Jesus' humanity that he takes ip the burden of our sins. It is by his divinity that he breaks death, transcends time, and then saves us from the evil of death. But his humanity is needed -- Jesus needed to actually die for this to happen. If Jesus wasn't human, and therefore didn't truly die when he was crucified, he didn't defeat death and didn't save us. But, we know he was human, and therefore know the sacrifice he made for us. But, how do we know that Jesus was truly human?

We know that Jesus was human through these diction and syntax choices within the gospels. Matthew chose to include Jesus' biblical allusion, and further chose it to be Jesus' last written words because it shows Jesus true humanity, and the humility Jesus experienced on the cross.

Jesus was human, and he experienced pain just like us. We all experience pain in our lives, both emotional and physical. Some people experience much worse pain than others. But no matter who you are, where you came from, where you went to school, what you do for a living, or what religion you are, we have all felt some sort of pain. And unfortunately, there will always be pain as long as we are on this world. And although pain is an evil and God didn't intend for it to be in our lives, we are called to "deal with it," to put it in crude terms. We are called to "take up our cross," which will often include burdens we do not think we can handle. And it is during these times, we will often feel like God has forsaken us, that we have been truly abandoned by Christ, and we will question our faith. But there is NOTHING wrong with questioning our faith, or even respectfully calling out God.

It is okay to call out God, question our faith, and truly feel abandoned when we experience our burdens. But we must know that Jesus trusted in his father, and took up his cross. We must remember that is because of this sacrifice by Jesus that we have been saved, saved from the evil of death.

God has never and will never abandon you, no matter what you feel.

God hears your SOS. God redeems you.

Happy Easter from the Genuflector Magazine Team.