The Crucifixion: My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me

They bring Jesus to Golgotha — the Place of the Skull. They offer him wine mixed with myrrh; he does not take it. They crucify him and divide his garments by lot. The notice of the charge reads: The King of the Jews.

Two bandits are crucified with him. Those passing by shake their heads and mock: Save yourself and come down from the cross! The chief priests and scribes mock among themselves: He saved others; he cannot save himself. Even the bandits taunt him.

At noon, darkness covers the whole land. Three hours of darkness. Then, at three in the afternoon, Jesus cries out with a loud voice in Aramaic: Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? — My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The bystanders mishear it as a call for Elijah. Someone runs and soaks a sponge in sour wine and holds it up for him to drink. Others say: let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.

Jesus gives a loud cry and dies.

The curtain of the Temple — the great veil separating the Holy of Holies from the rest — tears in two from top to bottom. The centurion standing facing him, who has watched him die, says: Truly this man was the Son of God.

Mark's account is the starkest of the four Gospels. There is no last discourse, no prayer of forgiveness, no words of paradise. Only the cry of dereliction. Mark's Jesus dies with the opening words of Psalm 22 on his lips — a psalm that begins in abandonment but moves toward vindication and universal praise. Whether he is quoting the beginning knowing the ending, or simply crying out in genuine darkness, remains one of the most debated questions in all of biblical theology.