The Cross Reveals the Mystery of Christ’s Suffering

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” is one of the most mysterious and difficult statements in all of Scripture. Even Martin Luther, the great reformer, pondered this question for days, fasting and praying, asking God to reveal its meaning. He finally concluded: “God forsaken of God! Who can fathom that?” This is the mystery of suffering at its deepest level. Jesus, who had lived in perfect fellowship with the Father from eternity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit united—was now experiencing separation. Not in His deity or essence, because Jesus remained fully God, but in His experience, He was disconnected from God the Father. This supernatural darkness that covered the land wasn’t a natural phenomenon, but was caused by God Himself. It was foreboding and frightening, like the eerie calm before a tornado strikes. At midday it became midnight. And in that darkness, Jesus pierced the silence with a loud cry—literally a lion’s roar from deep within. This wasn’t the delirium of a dying man, but a declaration of what was happening as Jesus the Creator died for our sin. It’s an inscrutable, imponderable question that reveals depths of suffering we cannot fully comprehend.