This is one of the most profound and difficult questions in Scripture:
Why did Jesus have to die on the cross and why did God not answer Jesus’ cry on the cross?
Let’s explore it carefully and reverently, especially focusing on Jesus’ words in Matthew 27:46:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
✝️ 1. Jesus Was Fulfilling Scripture
Jesus was quoting Psalm 22:1, a prophetic psalm of David that begins in anguish but ends in triumph and trust. By quoting it, Jesus was:
- Identifying with human suffering
- Fulfilling prophecy — the psalm foreshadows His crucifixion (see Psalm 22:16–18)
This cry was not just despair; it was a deliberate expression of the depth of His suffering, pointing all who heard it to the plan of redemption foretold long ago.
🌑 2. Jesus Bore the Full Weight of Sin
2 Corinthians 5:21
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us…”
In that moment, Jesus was bearing the full penalty of humanity’s sin. This included:
- Spiritual separation from the Father
- The wrath and justice of God poured out against sin
- Not because Jesus had sinned — but because He stood in our place
It was not that the Father stopped loving the Son, but that justice required sin to be judged. Jesus felt the full depth of that judgment.
🤐 3. The Silence Was Part of the Sacrifice
God did not respond with rescue, not because He abandoned His Son in hatred — but because the cross was the mission.
Isaiah 53:10 – “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer…”
The silence of the Father was not indifference — it was the necessary silence of love allowing redemption to be completed.
💡 4. God’s Answer Came Through Resurrection
Though there was silence on Friday, there was victory on Sunday. God answered Jesus’ cry through the resurrection:
- Vindicating His Son (Romans 1:4)
- Declaring that sin and death were defeated
- Restoring eternal fellowship
What seemed like abandonment was the path to the greatest act of love and salvation the world has ever known.
✨ Final Thought:
God did not ignore Jesus — He allowed the silence so that you and I would never be forsaken.
🙏 Reflection Prayer:
“Lord, thank You for enduring silence so I could be heard. Thank You for bearing rejection so I could be accepted. Help me never to forget the cost of the cross, and may I live in grateful awe of Your love. Amen.”
Here is a powerful and reverent poem titled “The Silence That Saved Us”, inspired by Jesus’ cry on the cross and the mystery of God’s seeming silence in that moment of sacrifice:
The Silence That Saved Us
He hung in pain between the skies,
With thorns that crowned His love and cries.
The world grew dark, the heavens stilled,
As wrath and mercy both were filled.
“My God, My God,” His voice was torn,
A cry of one forsaken, worn.
No answer came from glory’s throne,
Just silence… and a dying groan.
But in that hush, the veil was torn,
The curse undone, the lost reborn.
The silence spoke of judgment passed—
The Lamb had borne our sin at last.
No greater pain was ever known,
Than Christ rejected, crushed, alone.
Yet love endured, though hope seemed lost—
He bore sin’s full, horrific cost.
The silence was not heaven’s hate,
Nor love grown cold, nor cruel fate.
It was the price of sin’s full toll—
A holy hush to heal the soul.
So now when silence fills our night,
We know it holds redeeming light.
For once it saved us on that tree—
The silence that won the victory.