Jesus’ teaching in Galilee

  • Mark 6:30-44 – Jesus feeds 5,000 men with five loaves and two fishes, with twelve baskets of food left over. Matthew says there were women and children also, meaning there were probably at least 10,000 people there in total.
  • Mark 6:50; Matthew 14:27; John 6:20 – Jesus said, “I am” according to the Greek. Compare Mark 13:6; Luke 21:8; John 8:24, 58.

Did God literally forsake Jesus on the cross?

  • Many have this idea of “substitutionary atonement,” wherein Jesus’ righteousness was transferred to man and man’s sin was transferred to Jesus.
  • Mark 15:34 is often taken to mean that God actually forsook Jesus on the cross.
  • II Corinthians 5:21 – The words “to be” are not in the original. The Greek is more accurately translated, “He has made Him sin, or a sin offering.” There are many places (Leviticus 10:17; Hosea 4:8) where the word sin is used in the sense of a sin offering. See also Hebrews 9:26.

Regarding Jesus taking on sin and being forsaken by God

Jesus, a ransom

What about the phrase itself?

  • See Psalm 22. Jesus was appropriating the message of that psalm to Himself, calling attention to the fact that He was fulfilling this psalm.
  • Psalm 22 can be divided in two parts:
  • The forsaking was in appearance, not reality. See Psalms 22:24. God has not hid His face from nor despised the afflicted.
  • Psalm 22 was a Messianic prophecy and Jesus was calling attention to it:
  • See Hebrews 5:7-8.
  • Jesus said, “It is finished,” which matches up with the last verse of Psalm 22: God has “done it.”

Is there any application for us?