Second, the why, it seems to me, is not a question looking for an answer, but a way of expressing the horrors of abandonment. A couple of reasons for thinking this: Jesus knew ahead of time what he was doing and what would happen to him and why he was doing it. His Father had sent him for this. This very moment. And he had agreed to come, knowing all that would happen. Listen to these words. This is John 18:4: “Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’” He gave himself up. So he knew. He knew it was coming. He knew everything. And another reason is the moment was one of agony, not theological curiosity. The moment was one of agony.
Third, the fact that he is not asking a question so much as expressing a horror is that the words are a reflex of immersion in Psalm 22, it seems. They are a direct quotation, but when you are hanging on the cross you don’t say: Oh, I think I am going to quote some Scripture here. It either is in you as the very essence of your messianic calling or it is not. And if it is in you, then you give vent at the worst moment of your life with the appointment of your Father scripted in Psalm 22. That seems to be right at the heart of what is going on.
Let me read Psalm 22:22–24. It goes like this: “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.” In other words, this psalm ends with a note of triumph. Jesus isn’t curious about wondering, How is this going to turn out? He had embedded in his soul both the horrors of the moment of abandonment and he had embedded in his soul for the joy that was set before him: I have got a promise. And God will not despise me in the end. He will take me back.
So at some level he knows it is not a final cry or an ultimate cry. He endured the cross for the joy that was set before him and the “Why?” is not a request for a theological answer. It is a real cry of spiritual desolation with words that were second nature because his whole life was scripted by God.
And I think the last reason we should say this, therefore, is that this psalm was his life. Crying out reflexively in agony with these words of this psalm shows that, as horrible as it is, it was all going according to plan. All of it was the fulfillment of Scripture—even the worst of it was the fulfillment of Scripture, and that moment was probably the worst moment in the history of the world, and it was Scripture-fulfilled.
So he said these words, one, because there was a real forsakenness for our sake. Two, he was expressing desolation, not asking for an answer. And three, he was amazingly fulfilling Scripture in the horror of it all and witnessing to the perfection of the plan of salvation.
