"Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” Matthew 27:39-40
"About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”–which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46
One of the most difficult temptations is when we are challenged to show who we really are. The cross is the worst place to be tempted because of its most agonizing pain inflicted by the stretching of the arms and legs, the nails on the hands and feet, the scorching heat under the sun, the unrest due to the court procession and the sores due to the flogging and beating, the shouting and yelling of the guards and the people mocking, the shame of the nakedness, the law of gravity that pulls down the body weight that causes the person to work so hard every time he has to breathe - not to mention the pain on the hands and feet because of the nails. Jesus experienced all those pains, and moreover he knew what he was going to experience a few hours later, that is the separation with his Father. In that condition, Jesus was challenged by the people that he healed, fed, and taught the mysteries of God. The challenge was for Jesus to show his full divinity. This is a kind of temptation in a crucial moment. The moment when normally, if we look at it from our human perspective, all of us would want to silence our opponents by showing them our glory and dignity, Jesus surprisingly did not reveal his shining glory even though he had every right to do so. He spoke no words, until the time to speak came, the time of judgment from God.
The temptation launched by the people reminds me of the temptation by Satan. They used a similar formulation, the "if" attack. The basic strategy of the attack employs doubt as the main engine. In other words, they did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, so in their disbelief they plainly mocked his very claim of his divinity, which is his nature. Satan also tempted Jesus in a similar fashion. Satan used the "if" attack twice with the intention to lure Jesus to doubt himself. Praise God Satan's attack was never going to succeed in the first place. And praise God that Jesus did not come down from the cross the moment he was tempted by the people, for he truly was the Son of God who obeyed his Father completely. The most steady proof of Jesus' identity as God's Son is not if he comes down from the cross and show his superpower, but on his obedience to his father.
That single moment alone shows clearly that the cross is necessary. Jesus' choice to stay put and not responding to the challenge of the people makes it necessary. For me personally, the momentum of the crucifixion cannot happen in any other time, but it must happen in the time that God has set from eternity. The crucifixion happened precisely at the age, year, month, day, hour, minute, and second that God has planned from eternity. God did not miss even one second. So where does the necessary meaning of the cross lie? It can be found on Jesus' most disequilibrating statement: "Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?" Jesus never called his Father God, except on that moment. What is the significance of calling his own Father, God? And why did Jesus say that God has forsaken him? What's going on in that moment?
I believe it was Gregory of Nyssa, one of the most famous church fathers, who pointed out that the doctrine of the Trinity shows the true unity of the Godhead. Our secondary substance, which is our essence as human being (our unity as humans) can only reflect a fraction of the unity of the Godhead. For example, there are Paul, Peter, and John. Their primary substance dictates their uniqueness as individuals, but their secondary substance dictates their oneness as one species: human. However, there is 1 Paul, 1 Peter, and 1 John, and they are still 3 humans. But for God, even though for each person in the Trinity, their primary substance shows their uniqueness as individuals, but their secondary substance points out their oneness: God. But there are not 3 Gods. There is ONE God, but this ONE God has three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The perfect unity is in the Trinity. Given this understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity, who can fathom a moment when the Father and the Son is separated? The perfect unity must not allow any separation. In other words, the Trinity is inseparable, the three persons IS ONE!
In that kairos, Jesus cried out to his Father, calling him God instead of Father, and asking the most torturing question of why he was forsaken. But the Father did not return and save his Son from the pain. Jesus had to call his Father, God, in that moment because it was the moment when he bore the sin of the world and became THE representative of the elect to be judged as a sinful man. He himself did not commit any sin whatsoever, but "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). It was the moment God poured out his full wrath of judgment, and God's full wrath is eternal death - eternal separation with the source of life. Only by looking at the cross of Jesus Christ can we fathom the gravity of sin. For sin brought the perfect, holy, beautiful, and righteous Son of God to Calvary - hell. The perfect unity of God prompts Jesus to cry out for the separation is unbearable. Exactly for that moment that the cross of Jesus Christ is a necessity for the salvation of God's people. For only in that momentum that atonement is made, and whoever believes in the salvation in Jesus Christ will be saved and receives eternal life. Eternal death has been paid in Jesus Christ. Now, whoever believes in Jesus has been united in his death. It's a one package deal. Whoever is united in death with Jesus Christ, is also united in his resurrection (victory over death) and eternal life forever with his Father. Outside of the cross of Jesus Christ there is no salvation. Salvation belongs only to God, and God has chosen the cross of Jesus Christ as the sole means of salvation.
John Owen wrote a book called "The Death of Death in the Death of Christ." In that book he described that only the death of Jesus Christ can put death's effectiveness to oblivion. So, Jesus' death is a necessity to quench the power of death in human life. Only in the cross of Jesus Christ is death rendered powerless. So, if we believe in Jesus we need not fear death anymore. For in Jesus, death no longer separates us from God who is the source of life. In fact, death now brings us closer to God.
The moment of "Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani" is the moment when all humans must undergo due to sin. God's holiness cannot tolerate sin, so his attribute of justice must be satisfied by the pouring out of his total wrath. Jesus took the stand and he replaced his people to receive the death penalty (cf. Genesis 2:17) that was supposed to be given to us. It is extremely crucial, therefore, for Jesus to be nailed on that cross and suffered the eternal death and at the same time went through the physical death that we all so fear of. On the cross of Jesus Christ we witness the greatest paradox. God's justice meets his love at the same moment. Remember John 3:16 that talks so vividly of the love of God. Knowing our depravity, having experienced the worthlessness of sin, we understand that we are completely meaningless. But God values us so highly that he is willing to sacrifice his one and only Son, whose value to the Father cannot be compared to anything in the world. Business wise, God is completely not making any sense by investing what is most valuable for the sake of the valueless, us. We probably would ask, what was God thinking? He is doing something against any human logic. The only reasonable explanation for God's act is love. That is why Jesus did not come down from the cross when he was challenged to show his full divinity at that very crucial moment. He composed himself, even in the most impossible situation any human can experience, and delivered the most elegant response ever in the history of mankind. He boldly faced the most dreadful moment nobody would want to go through, the separation with God the Father. On that day Jesus spoke but nobody listened. There was one occasion during the transfiguration that shows the confirmation of God the Father that Jesus was THE only one to be listened to. "While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” Matthew 17:5. But on that day, at the cross, nobody listened to him, even the Father did not.
If you can understand this, then God is already at work in you. He has touched your heart making the cross of Jesus Christ effective for your salvation. Would you accept now God's love and forever live in his embrace? God went through all the trouble and he still is working for your salvation. Let us be silent for a moment, and reflect on his great love to us.... Let us quiet down our soul and listen to his comforting words of hope and salvation.... Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
*The Business of Christian Education XXX
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