Jesus' cry from the cross

[The Remonstrant]

Ugh, the formatting got massacred in the copy-and-paste.

You may wish to simply indent your quotes. (This is what I do.)

[Obsidian]

Do you believe God is still prone to forsaking his people today?

Yes

[One Bad Pig]

Yes, when a woman says that she is lying to manipulate the man's emotions. Unless she truly believes it -- in which case she is either delusional, or correct.

Please let's not have this conversation in this thread. If you want to continue it, start another thread (like I did here).

[One Bad Pig]

Let me ask it this way. When Jesus asked, in Mark's gospel, that this cup be removed from him, did Mark think that Jesus was sincere? Or was he just kidding.

Why would I think he wasn't sincere?

[One Bad Pig]

Agreed. There's an interesting narrative being told by the Gospel writers here, taking into consideration both Isaiah and the Psalms.

Isaiah 53:4-5
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 59:1-2
Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.

Psalm 22:1-5
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.

Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

Matthew 27:46-50
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

Luke 23:44-46
It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

1 Peter 2:24
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

It looks like the early Christian movement takes into consideration Isaiah's view of the suffering servant as one who takes on the iniquities of the world, and that the Father separates himself from sin. Yet, the Son is not left with these inequities, rather he is delivered, and glorified. Its an intriguing understanding of the view of the second person of the trinity who, in his incarnation, suffers in all ways as man suffers, yet is redeemed and glorified in the end. If Jesus simply died a physical death for the sins of the world, would that be enough? Separation from the Father, even for a short time, seems like the true sacrifice on the cross. Jesus suffered both physical and spiritual death, and so only he can claim to know what suffering is, and to have been tempted in all ways, yet to still do the will the father.

What I don't see in your quoted scriptures is reference to the Father separating Himself from sin. I don't recall any indication in scripture that Jesus died spiritually. And the hymns and homilies of the Orthodox Church referencing His death do not reference any spiritual death. In the words of St. John Chrysostom:

Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

IMO, saying that Jesus died spiritually is perilously close to saying He died in his divinity, which was condemned as a heresy in the early church.

[robrecht]

Why would I think he wasn't sincere?

I didn't think you would. The question was about the intent of Mark's narrative. If Mark believed and portrayed Jesus as sincerely not wanting to undergo his foreseen path, being 'distressed and agitated, deeply grieved, even unto death' (14,33-34), could he not also have portrayed Jesus as praying in the midst of feeling abandoned on the cross and yet also trusting in his ultimate deliverance?

Mark's portrait also reminds me of that of the author of Hebrews, in which Jesus, 'in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death', who 'learned obedience through suffering,' who was thereby 'made perfect' (Heb 5,7-9).

Should we only think of Jesus' suffering as physical, having no emotional and psychological component?

[One Bad Pig]

I didn't think you would. The question was about the intent of Mark's narrative. If Mark believed and portrayed Jesus as sincerely not wanting to undergo his foreseen path, being 'distressed and agitated, deeply grieved, even unto death' (14,33-34), could he not also have portrayed Jesus as praying in the midst of feeling abandoned on the cross and yet also trusting in his ultimate deliverance?

Mark's portrait also reminds me of that of the author of Hebrews, in which Jesus, 'in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death', who 'learned obedience through suffering,' who was thereby 'made perfect' (Heb 5,7-9).

Should we only think of Jesus' suffering as physical, having no emotional and psychological component?

Not at all. On the other hand, I don't think anyone who trusts in his ultimate deliverance is going to feel truly abandoned or forsaken.

[robrecht]

Not at all. On the other hand, I don't think anyone who trusts in his ultimate deliverance is going to feel truly abandoned or forsaken.

I suppose we could argue about whatever difference there might be between 'feeling abandoned' and 'to feel truly abandoned', but I think that would just be splitting hairs.