We recently did a Good Friday service that centered on the seven words (statements) of Christ while he was on the cross. While preparing for that service, I did a deeper dive into one of those statements that has puzzled me some across the years: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). This statement is often referred to as the cry of dereliction. Dereliction refers to the state of abandonment.
The challenge of this statement is that it appears that there is some kind of problem within the Trinity. Previously in the Gospels, Jesus had made statements showing the complete unity between Himself and the Father. Here are a few examples: “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise'” (John 5:19). “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 5:30). “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
The Cry of Dereliction seems to suggest that the Father and the Son are suddenly at odds or having a disagreement, almost in a spat of sorts. Has the love between the Father and the Son has grown cold? Has there become a division between the members of the Trinity? What exactly is the Father doing in this moment while the Son hangs there in agony? Is the Father angry with the Son?
These are the kinds of questions that naturally arise for many as they read these words on the pages of Holy Scripture.
Eternal Love in the Trinity
Of course we want to reject the notion that there is some division or disagreement within the Trinity. Perfect love has always existed and always will exist between the members of the Trinity. Kevin DeYoung writes:
“The doctrine of the Trinity means that love is eternal. God did not create in order to be loved; he created out of the overflow of the perfect love that has always existed among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”[1]
In what has come to be known as the High Priestly Prayer, Jesus speaks of the love that the Father shared with Him “before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). When speaking of his life, Jesus said, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father (John 10:18).” Theologians have rightly interpreted this to mean that Jesus gladly and willingly “undertook his office.”[2]
Christians across two thousand years of church history have also rejected the notion that somehow there is breakdown in the Trinity in this moment, which we will see in a moment below.
Psalm 22
So then why does Jesus say these words? One clear reason has to do with Psalm 22.
If I say to you, “O say can you see” you immediately know the rest. Here Jesus is quoting Psalm 22, which is the most frequently quoted Psalm in the New Testament and one that would have been known by Jews at the time. By quoting the opening line of the Psalm, Jesus is drawing the witnesses’ minds to something he wants them to see.
While Jesus is undoubtedly physically experiencing an agony unlike anything you and I can fully understand, most scholars argue that this cry here was not about physical pain. But this cry is more about the feeling, in his humanity, of a (momentary) broken fellowship with God, resembling the very thing that the writer of Psalm 22 (David) was experiencing. If you read the Psalm itself, David feels abandoned but notice what it says in verse 24: “For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.” So while the Psalm starts with the writer expressing a feeling of abandonment, he realizes by the end that he has not actually been abandoned.
I believe the key to understanding the loud cry of dereliction is knowing that the Psalm 22, a Messianic Psalm, which foretold this very moment, does not end in despair but confidence and victory. Most likely Jesus said these words as a witness to the bystanders, and to us today, that he was fulfilling the words of David in Psalm 22 and that this moment of God-forsakenness was for our salvation not because of anything in himself.
It is also worth noting that different portions of Psalm 22 are either quoted or alluded to by the biblical writers (e.g., Matt. 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19) in other crucifixion scenes. They all see Jesus fulfilling this psalm in various ways, revealing that Jesus most likely had the whole psalm in mind. Another way of saying this is that Jesus did not quote the first verse out of context. He wanted his hearers (and readers!) to think of the entire Psalm as he suffered on the cross.[3]
The Testimony of Church History
Church history can be a guide in our interpretation of difficult passages. The folks at Reformation21.org have posted a number of quotes from across church history on this subject. I post just a couple below for the purpose of this entry but refer you to their longer list here.
As human he doubts. He experiences amazement. It is not his divinity that doubts, but his human soul. He had no difficulty being amazed because he had taken humanity fully to himself. In taking upon himself a human soul, he also took upon himself the affections of a soul. As God he was not distressed, but as a human he was capable of being distressed. It was not as God he died, but as man. It was in human voice that he cried: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” As human, therefore, he speaks on the cross, bearing with him our terrors. For amid dangers it is a very human response to think ourself abandoned. As human, therefore, he is distressed, weeps, and is crucified.
Ambrose of Milan
[T]o his last breath he honors God as his Father and is no adversary of God. He spoke with the voice of Scripture, uttering a cry from the psalm. Thus even to his last hour he is found bearing witness to the sacred text.’
Jerome
[W]e should not infer from this that God was ever hostile to or angry with his Christ, for how could the Father be angry with his beloved Son in whom, as he said, he was well pleased? Or how could Christ by his intervention have appeased the Father in respect of men, if he had made God angry with him? What we say is that he bore the burden of God’s vengeance, in that he was beaten and afflicted by God’s hand, and endured all the signs of wrath which God displays to sinners when he is angry with them and punishes them. So Hilary explains that by the death of Jesus Christ we have obtained this blessing: death is now abolished.
John Calvin
These few references from theologians of the past, show us that the historic church has avoided the (wrong) conclusion that there is some kind of break or disagreement within the Trinity. Rather, the cry of dereliction is Jesus experiencing in his human nature the suffering and pain due to us, a feeling of abandonment, and even death. Yet, all the while, trusting in the goodness and love of His Father, which had remained constant, and which Psalm 22 also reaffirms as it reaches its end.
Trusting in the Love of the Father Even in Suffering
As indicated above, perfect fellowship with God was something that Jesus had enjoyed from eternity past as the second person of the Trinity. But when Jesus was put upon the cross, our sin was put there with him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says: “He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (NAS). Yet, even in this terrible moment of God pouring out his righteous anger upon the Son for our sins, Jesus remains confident and trusting in the love of His Father.
[1] Kevin DeYoung, Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024), 73.
[2] Westminster Confession of Faith 8.4
[3] See https://www.crossway.org/articles/why-have-you-forsaken-me-understanding-jesuss-cry-on-the-cross/, accessed on April 6th, 2026.
