45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 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?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 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. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”
One of the lessons that stand out in the solemn story of the cross is the utter loneliness of the Son of God as He bore away the sins of the world. In an earlier Note we spoke of His rejection by men and by God, and referred to the prophetic word in Isaiah 63:3 about His treading the winepress alone. Let us now think of this from another standpoint. The loneliness He endured was part of the price He paid for our sin. One of the tragic consequences of sin is that it separates men from God. Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden because of sin. And all that was involved in that when they were rejected and cast out happened to Christ in its final intensity at Calvary. It is as if He intercepted them at the gates of Eden as they were cast out, and said, 'This burden is too great for you to bear. I will bear it for you. All that is due to you for sin I will take upon Myself. I will walk your lonely road to the bitter end, and in the fullness of the time I will bear it to the utmost, once for all and forever, that you might be saved'.