And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Jesus is being crucified — executed on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem around 30 AD. "The ninth hour" refers to 3 PM by Jewish timekeeping. He cries out in Aramaic, the everyday language of Jewish people at the time, quoting the opening line of Psalm 22, a Hebrew poem written by King David roughly a thousand years earlier. The words "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" are not a sign of lost faith, but the most honest prayer imaginable — a cry of genuine spiritual anguish from someone who had always known the closeness of God, now experiencing something darker than any of us can fully comprehend. Scholars have long wrestled with what Jesus truly felt in that moment, but the rawness of the cry is impossible to miss.
God, thank you that Jesus didn't make his suffering look neat. When I feel abandoned and the silence is loud, remind me that you have been in that exact darkness — and that you came out the other side. Let me be honest with you, even when it's ugly. Amen.
If prayer is supposed to be polite, nobody told Jesus. Here is the Son of God — the one who calmed storms and raised the dead — screaming at heaven with a question that has no easy answer. And what makes this almost unbearable is that God doesn't respond with a visible miracle. The sky stays dark. The silence holds. There's something here that should stop religious people cold: even Jesus prayed and didn't get what he was asking for in the way he expected. When you've prayed your 3 AM prayer and the silence felt absolute — when you've asked God "where are you?" and heard nothing back — you're not outside the faith. You're standing exactly where Jesus stood. He took every human experience to the cross, including the experience of feeling abandoned by God. That doesn't make the silence less painful. But it means you are not alone in it.
What does it tell us about Jesus that he chose words from Psalm 22 — a Scripture he would have known by heart — rather than his own words in this desperate moment?
Have you ever prayed something raw and unpolished — maybe even angry — at God? What happened in the silence that followed?
If Jesus felt forsaken by God and yet was not actually forsaken, what does that tell us about how reliable our feelings are when it comes to sensing God's presence?
How might knowing that Jesus experienced abandonment change the way you sit with a friend who is going through something that feels God-forsaken?
Is there a prayer you've been holding back because it felt too honest or too angry for God? What would it look and feel like to finally say it?
And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,
Matthew 27:33
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Matthew 27:46
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
Matthew 27:45
Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
Daniel 9:21
To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
Psalms 22:1
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Luke 23:46
Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Hebrews 5:7
When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
Isaiah 41:17
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
AMP
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
ESV
At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?' which is translated, 'MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?'
NASB
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
NIV
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
NKJV
Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
NLT
The darkness lasted three hours. At three o'clock, Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
MSG