“Eloi, Eloi lema sabachthani?”

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” A question asked by a man whose own actions led him to be hung on a cross to die. A question asked by a man whose only wish was to do the will of his Father. But a man who was seen to have ambitions for taking over the throne of the earthly kingdom in which he lived. It’s easy to see why Jesus’ ambitions were misunderstood. After all, he was proclaiming that time had been fulfilled, that the kingdom of God had come near, and that the people needed to repent and believe in the good news.

But that call seemed innocent enough when Jesus first began his ministry. Jesus was calling the people to admit that something in their behavior was not correct and needed to be changed. That wasn’t so hard for the Jewish people to believe. After all, their land was being occupied by a foreign government – the Romans – and there was great unrest throughout the whole area. Their traditions taught them that many times throughout their history God had used foreign invasions to make them realize the error of their ways. It made complete sense to them that their actions had brought about the horrible conditions under which they were being forced to live.

And so, when Jesus began his ministry, all he had to do was invite people to follow him and they gladly did. Through his acts of healing and the opportunities he took to teach the people, Jesus showed that love of God and love of neighbor were essential to the kingdom of God that had come near. Again, these teachings made sense to the people. These were commandments that were very familiar to them. They had been part of the covenant between God and their ancestors since the time of Moses.

But as Jesus continued to work wonders among them and teach more about the characteristics of the kingdom of God, they began to understand that although the commandments sounded familiar, what was required to fulfill them was quite different. They were going to have to change their entire conception of the kingdom of God. That was harder to swallow. I mean, who could object to a little tweaking here and little brush up there to make something “good as new”? But, change everything? You can’t be serious!

The Pharisees were the first to object. After all, they had studied the Torah and the changes that Jesus was calling for seemed to contradict basic beliefs that had developed from it. How could Jesus argue for having authority if he didn’t even respect the Sabbath? Every Jewish person knew that that was fundamental to following the will of God. But Jesus worked on the Sabbath; he healed people. That can’t be right! And yet, the common people were continually drawn to the work and teachings of Jesus. They didn’t seem to mind that he did these things on the Sabbath.

But then Jesus began to ignore the ritual purity laws which prohibited Jewish people from coming into contact with or, especially from eating a meal with, anyone who had been deemed “unclean”. The Torah was clear about keeping oneself pure. It was a strict law that showed that the people were part of the covenant with the God of the ancestors. How could Jesus ignore this law? How could he eat meals with people who were known to be unclean? Jesus’ actions drew staunch opposition from not only the Pharisees, but from all sorts of religious leaders – Sadducees, scribes and elders. He was ignoring all that they taught. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, he was teaching those following him to do the same!

Those following Jesus began to raise a few questions of their own. They weren’t exactly sure that everything Jesus was doing made sense. To try to help them understand, Jesus taught them in parables, extended metaphors. While this quieted the people for a while, it didn’t exactly answer their questions. Even the twelve whom Jesus had called to be his first followers didn’t really understand what Jesus was teaching. They repeatedly ask Jesus to explain what he had meant. They began to make small steps toward comprehending the reality of God’s kingdom. But every time they made one of these steps they would get caught up in human affairs and loose sight of Jesus’ message. Despite all these questions, Jesus’ following continued to grow.

By the time that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the Sunday before Passover (Palm Sunday as we observe it now), the people were swept up in the excitement that surrounded all that Jesus did. Taking literally Jesus’ words about the kingdom of God being near, they believed that he would help them get out from under their oppressive circumstances. Because of that they hailed Jesus as the messiah – the anointed one of God – who would bring deliverance. They put aside the questions about what exactly he had meant by all he had said about the kingdom. After all, he was entering into the city which was the heart of Jewish communal life; he must be coming to do great things!

Their hopes were confirmed at first by Jesus’ action of cleansing the Temple. Since it was the center of the Jewish expression of obedience to the covenant with God, cleansing it signified a cleansing of the wrong actions that had led to the current situation. This bold action, in the face of the religious authorities who had allowed the Jews to get to where they were, encouraged the people to think that even bolder actions were still to come.

But, what followed confused the people. Instead of greater acts leading to the removal of the foreign rulers, Jesus was betrayed, arrested, and tried. These weren’t actions that pointed to Jesus being the messiah. Why didn’t he do something to show that he really was? Maybe everyone was wrong about him. That must be it. Look, it was one of his own close followers who led the chief priests and guards to him while he was praying. The people, convinced that they had been misled by Jesus, quickly turned on him at the prodding of their religious leaders. When Pilate offered to let Jesus go free, they called for crucifixion instead. He was a fraud. He had gotten their hopes up only to dash them by his inaction. He did not deserve to live. And so, they turned away from Jesus and gave him over to the Romans – the very people they thought he would get rid of.

Jesus reached the cross abandoned by all of the people with whom he had interacted during his short lifetime. Sin had caused all of them to turn away. The sin of pride made the religious leaders turn away. The sin of not wanting to change made others turn away. This sin affected even those closest to Jesus throughout his ministry. And because of the sins of incomprehension and inertia, Jesus had to pay with his life. He had tried to communicate the true character of God’s kingdom through his healing ministry. When the people did not understand, he tried again to clarify its true nature through his teachings. But even those were not sufficient to move the people to change. He had to use one last object lesson – his willingness to give up his own life – so that the message of God’s kingdom could be heard unobstructed by human sin.

Throughout all of the struggles of Jesus’ ministry he was confident in his actions because he knew that he was fulfilling the will of the father. That knowledge gave him the courage to forgo his own inclinations to back off and not force confrontations with the leaders. It gave him the courage to go all of the way to the cross to make his point clear: God’s kingdom looks different than the political, earthly kingdom that humans look for.

But when he reached his last hour, the rejection, isolation, and abandonment of every one of his followers overcame him. The sadness weighed down on him so heavily that all Jesus could do was cry out to the divine. “Have even you abandoned me?” This plea was so plaintive that the author of the Gospel left it written in Jesus’ native tongue, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” Because no one around Jesus understood Aramaic, these words, like all those he had said before, fell on deaf ears.

And yet, even though Jesus knew that this would be the case, he cried out anyway. He cried out not to hear his own voice. He cried out not because he really thought that angels or Elijah or some other important figure from the past would come to save him. Jesus, like the Psalmist who cried these words before him, cried out because silently he perceived that God hears! Confident of that fact, Jesus was able to finish the work that he was sent to do, the work that led him to the cross. He gave a loud cry, in the manner of the speech of angels or spirits, seeking a final judgment by God which would bring retribution.

With this, Jesus died. Everyone who previously followed him had turned away. They had turned from Jesus’ words that the kingdom of God is ruled by love of God and love of neighbor. They had turned to begin anew the search for the messiah who would deliver them from their current situation. They wanted immediate liberation from the oppression of the Romans, not a new way to understand God’s kingdom. Surely this man who hung sadly on a cross – the death befitting a failed insurrectionist—could not have been he. Thinking this, the people turned away.

Today, each of us must ask ourselves, “Have I turned away from Jesus’ message too? Do I follow his commandment to love God and love neighbor?” We, like the people in Mark’s Gospel are called to repent and believe because God’s kingdom has come near.

Amen.