FIRST
Early Christianity was a mishmash of different ideas. Many believed that Jesus was an apparition or a symbol and not a man, while others believed things similar to what modern Christians believe about him. Then it is no surprise if the Gospels have contradictory materials about Jesus. We will see that some traditions in the Gospels say he didn’t intend to die on the cross, and others say he did.
Generally, however, the Gospels have to explain how Jesus could have been crucified and still be the Son of God. Their answer is that he planned to die on the cross, predicted it before it happened, and said it was necessary to ransom sinners and save them. That is rationalising and is just what you would expect.
THE ARGUMENT
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus does not appear to expect any renewed earthly relationship with his apostles after his death and resurrection. He says he will rise after three days but nothing else. No appearances are promised. Nor does he establish an ongoing ritual meant to sustain a future church. At the Last Supper, Jesus says he will not drink wine again until he does so in the kingdom of God, implying reunion only in the afterlife rather than in history, and Mark notably omits any command to reenact the meal “in remembrance” of him. The disciples are depicted as failures who abandon Jesus, and Mark offers no scene of restoration or post-resurrection appearances in its earliest ending, leaving the story unresolved and bleak. This is significant because Mark, likely the earliest Gospel, had no reason to assume that other gospels would later appear to soften or reinterpret his account; as far as he knew, his narrative could stand as the final word. Read on its own terms, Mark presents a Jesus facing death without institutional planning, sacramental continuity, or assurance of earthly vindication, reinforcing the sense that later Christian theology re-framed both Jesus’ intentions and the meaning of his death after the fact.
Jesus first told his followers that when they were sent out by him, they would never lack anything. When the prospect of his crucifixion drew near, he told them to sell their garments and buy swords. The instructions about buying swords and guarding moneybags appear only in Luke’s Gospel. Specifically Luke 22:35–36 mentions both taking moneybags and buying swords. Luke 22:38 records the disciples’ response, “Here are two swords,” and Jesus’ reply, “It is enough.”
As they would have no problem getting them he wanted them to get literal swords. He also told them to keep a tight hold on their purses and bags. It seems that Jesus was planning to make his escape with his disciples, or was planning to disappear and leave them to face the mob. Maybe he felt that when the mob saw that Jesus was not there, the disciples would be okay. That was unlikely in those ruthless times.
It is possible that the swords were just a precaution in case two or three overzealous Jesus-haters would attack them, and perhaps to deter such attacks as well.
Or that Jesus thought some superhuman intervention would allow his men to vanquish even an army that came against him.
The symbolic interpretation is only fantasy. The text does not warrant it. It would be dangerous if Jesus used symbolism and asked for swords to be bought even for that reason. It would not be very sane.
The pattern is that Jesus did not expect to die on a cross.
“And they crucified Him; and they divided His garments. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Mark 15:24, 34).
This episode sticks in the mind of many a Bible reader simply because it is so shocking—not what you would expect the very Son of God, or God incarnate, to shout. And in public and from a cross. And the fact that it is a dying holy man saying it makes it worse.
A good God would never forsake anyone, especially the supposedly only fully righteous man who ever lived. Jesus asserted that God was always with him and would never desert him. For him to accuse God of turning His back on him would mean that he was admitting that he was a liar, or that God was not good, or that he wanted to insult God by smearing Him as unreliable, lazy, and evil.
Christians try to get out of the implications of Jesus’ outburst by pointing out that what he said was the first line of Psalm 22. It is claimed that since the Psalm ends with trust in God, it was no insult against God for Jesus to use it. But if it starts with an insult, it is still an insult—and there is no evidence that Jesus recited the entire Psalm. Jesus would have chosen a better Psalm if he desired to honor God. He could have paraphrased and said, “My God, I feel abandoned by You,” which would not necessarily be saying that he believed God abandoned him. Why quote this verse when better ones are in the Psalm?
Go for the simplest and most straightforward interpretation: Jesus was accusing God of abandoning him. When you take the most simple and plain interpretation, it is only foolishness and obfuscation to go looking for others.
It is argued that the Psalm is not one of despair: “When the composer asks why God has forsaken him, he only means he is wondering why God has abandoned him to his foes and to suffering. He is supposed to think that God has permitted this for a purpose, so in leaving him at their mercy He is really not abandoning him but is helping them as best He can under the circumstances. He is only abandoning in a sense. Jesus is just asking why he is suffering. It could be a rhetorical question to make people wonder why God would make his Son suffer. The line poses no threat to orthodox Christianity.”
But the composer complained that God was not helping him and said God was far from saving him and ignoring his prayers (Psalm 22:1–2). He was refusing to believe that God was doing him a favor by letting his enemies torment him. And the very fact that he was asking why it was happening to him shows that he did not trust God. If he had, he would have been asking no questions. Then he changed his mind and decided that God was right. But there is no evidence that Jesus did the same, even if he did commend his spirit to God.
Others say that Jesus did not mean it literally. If that is right, then he broke his commandment against saying prayers you don’t mean in Matthew 6. He wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t mean it.
If Jesus was quoting the Psalm, he was not the Son of God, for he gave into despair.
And if Jesus was not quoting the Psalm but just used his own words that happened to match it, we have the same bad implication.
It is possible that Jesus was literally calling out to Elijah on the cross, and those who the gospels say reported it, heard it that way. If that is true, then the connection to Psalm 22 might be a coincidence or a later interpretation imposed by the Gospel writers, rather than the original intent. In this view, “Eli” could have been understood by witnesses as a reference to Elijah, and not simply “my God.” While this reading is unconventional and goes against the standard translation, it highlights that the exact words and their meaning could have been perceived differently by people present, especially in the chaos and intensity of the crucifixion. This interpretation respects the firsthand testimony while acknowledging that the Gospel authors may have framed the cry within scripture to convey theological significance.
When the Jews said that he was calling Elijah, I'd take them seriously. Elijah was to appear before the end of the world, and if Jesus were hoping to make the world end and bring in the new kingdom of God by his death, he would have called on Elijah to come.
Here is Mark 15:35–36 from the Bible (NIV translation) 35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” 36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
This does not sound like a misunderstanding. The drink was probably laced to make him die faster but they did not want that.
It is significant that the note about the Psalm in the Amplified Bible presumes that it is bold to say that Jesus recited this Psalm on the cross.
A man who demanded to know why he had been crucified and not rescued could not be the Son of God because he does not have much confidence in God. He should have been making his peace with God instead of asking questions at such a sombre and solemn time.
He even shouted it out, not caring what people made of it. It was meant to pour scorn on his God. There is a sin called final impenitence—dying in an attitude of hostility to God. Chances are that Jesus died like that.
It is no answer to say that since Jesus was made guilty of our sins, he was abandoned and hated by God—for that is an unjust theory. A just God could not accuse His Son of what he never did. It denies that Jesus was sinless when he was able to become responsible for the sins of others. And if he was God, God cannot abandon God.
It is no answer to say that Jesus did not know what he was saying, for the Gospels say that he was lucid even to the very end. He told John to look after his mother. Jesus did not blaspheme like that when he endured the overpowering agony in the Garden.
Did God let darkness come over the mind of his Son so that he thought he was abandoned? If he did, he would not have let him say so. If Jesus succumbed to the temptation to lose faith in God, then we cannot trust him as God’s revelation. The Son of God cannot die putting his foot in it like many normal men would.
Jesus said before he died that he would rise and reign in Heaven. Some deny this on the basis that the Gospels really meant that he gave up on God on the cross. The Gospels did mean that he lost his faith in God and his belief that he could come back and be king in Heaven. Jesus saying that he would have happy times does not mean that he could not have times of despair until they happen.
Jesus Christ was not God or the Son of God. Many saints suffered worse than Jesus did and didn’t abandon God.
FINALLY
Jesus Christ did not come to die on the cross. He prayed to escape his death in the Garden of Gethesemane, complained on the cross, and insulted God when he wasn’t rescued. The notion that he is our savior who died for us is false or unconvincing.