The Cry of Triumph

The Cry of Triumph Jesus’ cry of triumph, one of the last statements Jesus made while hanging on the cross just before giving up His life, is recorded in Matthew. Matthew 27:46: 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? Does this sound like a cry of triumph—“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Certainly not, not as the English translation now sets. This translation is a cry of defeat and as such has misled well-meaning people for years. We understand Matthew 27:46 word by word except for the foreign words. It would appear that God forsook Jesus because Jesus became sin and God could not stand sin. God consequently left Jesus to die alone. This idea contradicts every other pertinent verse in the Word of God. Matthew 27:46, as well as the same record in Mark 15:34, should have arrested our attention from the beginning. Why did the translators leave those foreign words in the verse? This deviation from normal translation procedures should have caused us to wonder. Let us go to The Word and see exactly what The Word says. Look at the Gospel of John where Jesus spoke to his apostles. John 16:32: Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. Jesus was referring to the time of his crucifixion and, of his death, the coming time; he said, “the Father is with me.” Yet Matthew 27:46 says, “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?” John 10:30 testifies, “I and my Father are one.” II Corinthians 5:19 says, “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” How are you going to separate one, separate God who was in Christ, when he was dying on the cross? Colossians 2:9 tells, “For in him [in Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” How are we going to separate the fullness of the Godhead which dwelt in C