And they crucify him... And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 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?... And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion... saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
This is the climax of Mark's Gospel—and the most paradoxical scene in Scripture. The Son of God dies crying out in abandonment.
Jesus quotes Psalm 22:1: 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' This is not play-acting. The cry expresses real desolation. What does it mean for God to be forsaken by God? This is the abyss at the heart of Christian theology.
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