Matthew 27:45-56
The Death of Jesus
45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs.56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
Mark 15:33-41
33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
Unanswered Questions
30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 32 But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Psalm 22:1-2
For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
John 14:1 (NLT)
Trust in God, Trust also in Jesus
1 Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.
John 14:10-14
Jesus is in the Father
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
I believe that Jesus trusted God more than any man ever did on earth...And although He could answer many, many questions (if not all of this life), He needs His Father and to trust His Father...And He does completely trust His Father...
Man will have questions throughout his life, and future generations will have questions about their life...Some of these questions will be the same questions...Some of these questions will be answered and some will not be answered...Thus is the nature of earthly questions, and maybe of the eternal questions too...Only the Creator who created everything holds the answer to all things...How do we interact with Him, and if we want to interact with Him often, how do we do this?...
In the New Living Translation Bible, they translate believe for Trust...The New Living Bible translation tells us to trust in God, but to trust also in Jesus...And while the King James version tells us to believe in God and to believe also in Jesus, I can see how and why one might translate the word believe for trust, especially when are hearts are troubled...And since Jesus is living in the Father and is doing His work, we can both believe and trust both God and His Son...
Saints Mark and Matthew wrote that Jesus had a question on the cross as He was dying...Before Jesus dies, He ask God why He had forsaken Him...The question is from a Man, seemingly wanting to know where His Father is and why has He left Him all Alone and dying on this cross...And this question does not get answered, that we know of, because He does die on the cross...Many think He asks this question, which is from one of the Psalms to fulfill prophecy...Absolutely!!!...And this makes sense because Jesus would soon know the answer to His question about being forsaken...He was resurrected by His Father, and He had not forsaken Him...Jesus does fulfill the Old Testament prophecies, but nonetheless, the question still does not get answered, that we know of...But others may look at the resurrection as the answer to Jesus' question...
My life has been full of questions...Like Jesus on the cross, it seems that there are questions we have that God does not answer...When times get hard, hard questions come up in life...Job had many questions at a hard time in his life, and they go unanswered...And we do not get to read the answers to Job's questions, to the ifs and hows God might have answered...So some of our life's questions, much like Job's many questions, probably will never be answered in our lifetime (on earth)...And as I stated earlier (I think), the hard questions come up at our hardest and most difficult times...And that is normally when we most want an answer to our questions of life...So wouldn't that be a good time for God to give us a verbal answer and His Spiritual Thought...But it seems that He wants us to experience our tough and troubled times and grow towards Him...
Jesus did answer many questions while He was on earth...He also answered some of His questions with questions...Some of His answers are difficult to follow, even though He answers the many questions ask of Him...He answers some questions with parables...And some of His parables are interpreted in many ways...Some of His answers are so puzzling, I find that some of His answers I do not understand...So He answers some questions with deep eternal answers...And in my not understanding His answer or answers, even though He might give us an answer, I am unsure of the answer...Therefore, an answered question for some is unanswered for me...So some questions in life can and do get answered for some, while going unanswered for others...And some questions only get partially answered and/or partially understood...And there are some questions that go completely unanswered...Throughout our lives we struggle to find the answers to our questions about life, its meaning, and what we want to know more of in what we believe in...A good question is about the Book of Job and life and why do bad things happen to good people...As we read through Job we can ask again, why do good men, have pain and suffering in their lives...I wonder if the resurrection of Jesus is in some way related to pain and suffering, and why God allowed Job and others to suffer...Does the Son's resurrection, answer many of life's questions?...
It seems to me that some of our questions do get answered, some of questions get slowly answered over time, and some of our questions will never get answered in this lifetime...And there maybe some questions that God will decide when they are to be answered...I personally believe that most of our questions will be answered by Jesus and the others in heaven, when we get there...I do believe that Jesus question's of being forsaken was answered by God...In fact, when He resurrected, I believe God would give His Son the answer to most of His questions, but not all -it seems...It seems that the question about the day, the hour of the end of time, only God knows the answer to that..And Jesus does not seem to be to uneasy about not knowing the answer (to this question or to others like the one on being forsaken) because He trusts His Father...The End of our Ages question may not be answered even when we get to heaven...And I am at a loss to why God had not told Jesus about the End of Times question...Yet, since Jesus completely trusts God, He can be satisfied that there is a reason why God has not told Him the answer...
On our questions that go unanswered in life, are the ones and the times that we, too, must put our trust in God...We also must listen for Him...An answer might come through in something that He has created, His Creation, after all, is the entire Universe -including His people...
Is it possible that holding on to some deeper questions and just pondering them, may lead us somewhere?...
When Jesus was on the cross, even though the question He asked and does not hear the answer to, we know that He committed His Spirit to God, and is now in heaven...Jesus trusts His Father so much that He would come down from heaven, and be hung from a tree for our sins, and then later be ascended back up to Paradise...We must learn like Jesus that the unanswered questions can be where we learn to trust God better...When we look at Jesus and see how He trusted His Father, we can learn...Unanswered questions give us the opportunity to grow our faith in both Jesus and God...