At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Then Jesus shouted out again and he released his spirit. (Matthew 27:45-46, 50)
The cross means finality. The struggle is over. All the pain, torture, mocking, humiliation.
Finished.
Somehow in the midst of this accelerating death spiral, Jesus finds his strength to cry out in a loud voice, not once but twice. I’ve never noticed the “twice” till now as I look at both Scriptures together. Matthew’s indication of “shouted out again” just a few verses after the first “calling out with a loud voice” tells us that the shouting was repeated. These final, loud cries—that was all he could muster physically. The shout-outs indicated that the examination was over.
The first shout was after darkness was over the land for 3 hours. That must have felt like such abandonment. Like darkness was having a huge party going forward. Darkness acted like it had won! But the Triune God had bad news for darkness: you didn’t win.
The second shout was the loud cry before his final breath. We know that some people cry out just before they die. A husband told me his story of hearing his wife do just that, from the other room. When he rushed in, she was gone. It seems that this crying out is often connected to the final gasp. For Jesus, crying out marked the end of the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Suffering. The agony cries punctuated the end of the suffering story. None of those who inflicted such pain upon him can hurt him any more, either physically, mentally, or emotionally. All weapons ceased to have power. The physical cries indicated end-of-life-finality!
The battle was over. The sacrifice Lamb had been offered up.
“Father, thank you for mercifully bringing to an end the suffering Jesus endured for us.”
Copyright 2019, Freddy Boswell. From the book, Torn Curtain.
Freddy Boswell 