About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' (which means 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'). Jesus is quoting Psalm 22, but he's also expressing genuine dereliction.
For years I was told this was somehow not real—that Jesus was just reciting Scripture. But why would he do that if he didn't actually feel it? I think Jesus experienced what spiritual darkness actually is. Separation. The sense of being cut off. And he voiced it. He didn't transcend it. He lived through it, as a human would. That's meant something to me in my own dark seasons. If Jesus felt abandoned, then I'm not failing some test of faith when I feel that too. I'm participating in the actual human experience, including the hardest part. The psalm Jesus quotes ends differently though—'He did not hide his face from him but listened to his cry for help.' I think the full trajectory matters. Jesus cries out in darkness but also participates in a psalm that moves toward restoration. That's not false hope. That's the actual shape of deep suffering—sometimes you're in the dark, but you're also held in a larger narrative.
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