Bible Passage: ³³ And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. ³⁴ And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ³⁵ And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” (Mark 15) 

So often at a funeral, a spouse might say this through tears: “I wished you could have known my husband when he was alive. He was always there for me.” 

Or a child might utter sadly in reminiscing: “If only you knew my Mum when she was at the prime of her life. She was so fierce yet so funny and so kind.”    

To truly know someone, we have to know them when they are alive. In the pink of their health. At the prime of their achievements. At the pinnacle of their success.    

Knowing Jesus is radically different.  

To know Jesus truly, we got to know him in his death. More pointedly, it is his death on the Cross that reveals his life most fully. And, consequentially, how he redeems our life most comprehensively. 

The description of that moment at Calvary – as “darkness over the whole land” – signals that it was neither merely an eclipse nor simply divine disapproval. 

Rather, it pointed to Jesus being “baptised” in cosmic evil.  The Son of God was finally overcomed by Satan’s devilish intent to snuff him out, all the way from his humble birth. 

1. Jesus and Psalm 22 

Why did Jesus choose to remember Psalm 22 of all the 150 psalms – the songbook of God’s people in the Old Testament? 

Why didn’t he choose Psalm 23 – which proclaims God as loving and doting  Shepherd over his sheep? 

Psalm 22 essentially declares the opposite – the Lord is not my shepherd! 

In the original context, the psalmist cried out: “Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? ² O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.” 

Here are three sides of our worst spiritual nightmare: A suffering believer prays a desperate prayer to be relieved of suffering and meets a silent God! 

His lament in Psalm 22 deepens: ^5 “To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. ⁶ But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.”

He begins to think he is a spiritual freak. “I belong to the same God. I’m doing the same things. They pray. God answers. But I don’t get the same treatment.” 

In short, he says: “I trust God but I get clobbered!”

Little wonder he concludes that he is not just a spiritual freak but the ultimate spiritual outcast. Why? 

His experience is one of unrewarded trust. His life is one of unmatched unrequited faith. 

Psalm 22 is not about the mere embarrassment but the utmost humiliation of the innocent believer. 

Finally, the psalmist describes evil men all round him as behaving badly like beasts. They encompass him as bulls. Tear into him like a ravenous lion. Encircle him like a pack of wild dogs. 

Pull all the threads together and we know why Jesus’ mind strained all the way back for Psalm 22 – as he hung bleeding dying on the Cross – for dastardly people like you and I. 

It was Jesus who was abandoned as the undeserving spiritual outcast. It was Jesus who faced the worst hostility and vilest brutality of man at the Cross. 

This is how men behaved badly like beasts around him. Judas betrayed him. Peter denied him. Soldiers crucified him and divided his garments. The passer-bys derided him. The chief priest and scribes mocked him. 

• Jesus and Us

O Jesus, you are the ultimate righteous sufferer! You are better than we can ever imagine! 

Little wonder, the centurion, who stood facing you and saw you breathed your last,  proclaimed: “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Prayer: Psalm 22, Jesus and Us

O Jesus, please save us from our judgemental self-interest like Judas. 

Save us from our nauseating self-importance like the priests.

Save us from our delusional self-sufficiency like Peter. 

We are worse than we ever thought or can ever confess.

Stop us from behaving badly like beasts in our hearts, our marriages & our families. 
Stop us from camouflaging our inner sinfulness with outer niceness.  

I want to know you truly by knowing you fully in your death. 

And to be so redeemed and remade by your Risen life. Amen.