Forsaken, unharmed, sacrificed- What a difference a word makes.

I was reading the Psalms the other day and came upon Psalm 22 when I had an “AH-HA” moment.  For years, I’ve contemplated the meaning of what the Messiahs words on the cross were, including “Eli Eli lama sabachthani.”  When I was a protestant, it was explained to me that in that moment, with that cry, that the Almighty had turned his back on Jesus so He would never have to turn His back on us.  As poetic and profound as that sounds my mental reply was, “Meh, mebbe.”  It wasn’t satisfying to me at all, since, to me, it implies disunity in the trinity.  Something just didn’t jive.  When I read Psalm 22, I thought I had finally figured it out: Jesus was praying the Psalm of David.  The opening line of Psalm 22 is “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.”  It’s the same, right?  No, no, it isn’t.  The Hebrew here is: Eli Eli lama azavthani. 

The suffix of both words are thani, which means “To do this to me”.  Azavthani literally means forsaken me, while sabachthani means sacrificed me.  So, why did we end up saying “Forsaken”.  Get ready for this: Luther changed it for azavthani or interchangeably shebakthani (Shebak appears several times in scripture Ezra 6:7 and in Daniel, and means to leave unharmed and is also a Chaldean word.) While Zabach or Sabach is well known in Hebrew scripture as sacrifice. 

None of those words are interchangeable.  We literally have: forsaken me, leave me unharmed, and sacrificed me.   We also can’t pick, choose, and change what Jesus said.  Putting words into His mouth to fit our belief makes our belief based in a lie.  The funny thing is, Luther changed it and then tried to explain the cognitive and spiritual dissonance the change caused.  So did Calvin.  The truth is that none of the prophecies point to the Messiah being forsaken by God.  They do point to His being sacrificed.  All of the animal sacrifices made in atonement throughout the temple age pointed to the act of the Messiah for ultimate atonement.  Nothing about the prophecies of the Old Testament (Tanach) indicate that the Messiah would be abandoned.  In fact, St. Paul in our scripture points out in Acts 2: 31 that he was not abandoned in death. 

Matthew 27:26 About three in the afternoon ( the 9^th hour) Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?"  Understanding that at the 9^th hour the second Tamid lamb was sacrificed, this is also called the hour of confession, and connecting that with Jesus’s cry makes a lot more spiritual sense than saying forsaken.  As far as why he cried out that particular thing, well, it only took me 20 or so years to really begin to understand what it said.  I don’t know if I have twenty more to understand the complexity of what he was actually crying out, but I know the answer I will give to his cry.  “So all who are lost may be reconciled, washed, made clean, and adopted into the Kingdom, which will have no end.” 

Just some food for thought and prayer.

Here I am, Lord, send me!

Lisa Brandel