Seven Last Words—
Eloi, Eloi, lema Sabachthani?

Witness to Suffering

By Philip Whitehead

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" are the only words spoken by Jesus from the Cross recorded in Mark’s Gospel. Most religious scholars and historians agree with Pope Francis that the historical Jesus principally spoke a dialect of Aramaic. Through trade, invasions and conquest the Aramaic language had spread far afield by the 7th century B.C., and would become the lingua franca in much of the Middle East. The Aramaic translates: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” These words compose the very first sentence of Psalm 22. The words create two concerns that challenge the minds of the meditative reader, the Scholar and the Interpreter. 

1. Would Jesus have cried out these words as an expression of his misery and dying?  Were they spoken out of the raw reality of despair—suggesting the depth of his agony on the cross?

2. Or were they spoken from Jesus’ Bar Mitzvah  memory and daily spiritual life, affirming the positive climax of Psalm 22—which was well known by all Jews:  “To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;  before him shall bow down all who go down to the dust,  and I shall live for him. Posterity will serve him; future generations shall be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people  yet unborn, saying that he has done it.”

Scholars speak of “historicizing,” which means putting the words in Jesus’ mouth some forty years after the crucifixion, when the Gospel was written. The verses of this same psalm include reference to being scorned and ridiculed and stripping away his clothing and gambling for it.  Nonetheless, this crucifixion was “murder for political purpose” inasmuch as Jesus was a threat to the political, social and religious order dramatically intensified by the celebration of the Feast of the Passover.

This means, frankly, that if Jesus was in agony, biblical phrases and his rich knowledge of the psalms would naturally be the language of despair, and most assuredly of promise. 

Consider finally this common theology that God has not forsaken Jesus, but rather that Jesus, for the full impact of redemption, must experience the sense of forsakenness. Crucifixion is brutal, violent, torturous, and prolonged agony. As many sociologists have said “It is public terrorism.” These specific words witness to the inner depth of Jesus’ suffering. But absolutely more important: Inasmuch as Jesus is the second person of a loving triune God, this One God suffers for our Redemption.