Two of the Gospel writers –  Matthew and Mark –  record that near his death Jesus called out with a seemingly strange statement:
 
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 ESV).
 
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34 ESV).
 
While Matthew records Jesus’ words in Hebrew, Mark records them in Aramaic (the language in which they were probably uttered); but the words are almost identical, and the meaning is the same.  
 
These troubling words have long been interpreted as showing at that point in time Jesus symbolically bore the sins of the whole world and God –  who cannot look at evil (Habakkuk 1:13) –  turned away from his Son who was left in near-despairing isolation.  Because sin cuts off from God, the argument is made, and Jesus at that moment represented all sinners –  so God totally cut himself off from his perfect Son because of our sins.
 
But is that what those terrible words really signify?  Did God really turn away from his only Son who had lived a life of perfect obedience – obedience all the way to death itself (Philippians 2:8)?  Although that may possibly be the case, we do not have a scripture saying that.  And how do we mesh that concept with the fact that it was because God loved sinners so much that he sent his Son to die for them (John 3:16)? Or the fact that God looks on and deals personally with every sinner he calls,  and that we have it on scriptural authority that “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ”? (Romans 8:38-39).

But there is another –  and far more positive – way to understand those troubling words of Jesus.  Jewish rabbis have long utilized the principle of referring to a scriptural passage by means of a few of its words, knowing that their hearers would mentally supply the rest of the passage. This method of teaching and reference (called “remez,” meaning “a hint”) was certainly used in  Jesus’ time and we see him employing it frequently –  for example,  in Matthew 21:15 when the children of Jerusalem shouted praises in his honor and the priests and teachers of the law became indignant.  Jesus responded by quoting only a few words from Psalm 8:2: “From the lips of children and infants, you have ordained praise.” But the religious leaders would have fully realized that the rest of that Psalm states the enemies of God would be silenced by children’s praises.
 
We see Jesus using this technique so often that when we turn to his words spoken on the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” we can see immediately that this is undoubtedly what Jesus was doing.  The words are the opening words of Psalm 22 – the great messianic psalm that foretells even the smallest details of the Messiah’s death.  Every biblically literate Jew present at the crucifixion would have been reminded of the prophecies made in that psalm –  the insults of the mocking crowd (vss. 6-8), his dying thirst (vs. 15), the “dogs”/gentiles (vs. 16) who pierced his hands and feet (vs. 16), the casting of lots for his garments (vs. 18) –  simply by the “hint” of Jesus quoting its opening verse.
 
We should remember, too, that these words were the only ones we are told Jesus spoke “with a loud voice” (the fact is recorded by both Matthew and Luke) on the Cross.  These were the words – few though they were –  that Jesus spoke in his agony to all present – and all present would have likely recognized the intent of that small remez that referenced the whole of the psalm from which it was taken. Seen this way, we realize that Jesus’ words were his last great teaching. They were the final proof he offered that he was, indeed, the One who was prophesied.
 
Understanding those words in this way is not to argue that sin cuts off from God, but to suggest that we should not presume that this is why Jesus uttered the words he did. We should perhaps temper that concept with a fuller understanding of God’s love – that God does indeed always love us as his children despite our sins – which means that God still loved his Son also at that awful time of his shouldering of our sins.  Jesus himself told his disciples shortly before his crucifixion: “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me” (John 16: 32-33). 
 
In fact, the very psalm that Jesus quoted contains, near its end, not words of his rejection as he suffered, but words that Jesus knew he could trust completely: “He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help” (Psalm 22:24).

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Scripture in Focus: Ecclesiastes 7:28
 
“while I was still searching but not finding – I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all” (Ecclesiastes 7:28).
 
On the surface of it, the author of the biblical book of wisdom called Ecclesiastes seems to give women a pretty bad rap. While this writer – probably the wise King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 1:12) –  admits there are few good men to be found (“I found one upright man in a thousand”), he seems to have been unable to find a good woman at all!

But is that what this verse is really saying?  There are actually a number of possibilities that the verse is not putting women down at all, and we will look at three of these individually.

First, we should notice that the writer is referring to himself in the first person in saying “While I was searching … I found …” This is important as the book is giving the writer’s personal experience from its  introduction almost to its conclusion. He continually stresses his own personal reactions and feelings – as when he writes: “I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me” (Ecclesiastes 9:13).  As a result, it is perfectly possible that the writer is simply talking about his own experience rather than making a statement about all women everywhere.  The fact that he was a king might make this more likely, as we will see next.

Second, the Hebrew word translated “woman” (ishah) can mean wife as well as woman and the phrase “to find a woman” can mean to look for and find a wife. If that is the meaning in this verse, the king evidently could find an occasional man who made a good friend, but was unable to find a good wife. 1 Kings 11:3 tells us that Solomon had one thousand wives and concubines, but it is entirely possible that most of these women were striving to win position or favor for themselves or their families.  As someone who admittedly was primarily seeking pleasure in life (Ecclesiastes 2:1, etc.), he may have cut himself off from women who he would have respected more. From this perspective Ecclesiastes 7:28 is simply applying the fact that money  (even kingly riches) cannot buy happiness in the realm of marriage.

Yet another possibility can be seen in the fact that the Hebrew word translated man in this verse (adam) can often mean “human.” If that was the intended meaning, the writer could simply have been stressing that his experience was that only one in a thousand people were good individuals – though admitting that his “sample” consisted entirely of men and no women.

There are even other possibilities for the original meaning of this verse, but we can see from the three mentioned here that whatever the writer of Ecclesiastes meant specifically, he need not have been putting down all women.  It is more likely that he was complaining of his own sad experience based on his own particular circumstances.  Additionally, if the author of Ecclesiastes was indeed Solomon, we should also compare this verse with the many proverbs of Solomon that do show a high regard for women (Proverbs 12:4; 18:22; 19:14; 31:10; etc.). 

Scripture in Focus – Mark 14:12-13

The Gospels give an intriguing detail to the story of the preparation for the Last Supper.  Mark tells us: 

On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him” (Mark 14:12-13).

There are two aspects to this short account that might pique our interest:  first, that it would be a man carrying a water jar.  In the ancient Near East – as is still the case today – a man carrying a water jar would be an unusual sight. In that culture women traditionally carried jars of water, as we read in several biblical stories (John 4:4–42, etc.). Sometimes household servants (Deuteronomy 29:11; Joshua 9:21) would be sent to perform this task (we still use the expression “to carry someone’s water” to refer to performing menial chores), but it would most often be a female servant given this task.  Second, we might also wonder why the mysterious nature of this instruction. Why did Jesus not simply give the two disciples (Peter and John) directions such as “Go to the house of Samuel near the gate” or whatever?

As far as the man carrying the water jar is concerned, commentaries on the Bible have proposed several possible identifications.  One scholar has suggested that the man must have lived in an “Essene Quarter” of Jerusalem as the Essene religious group separated themselves from women and would have had to carry their own water.  This idea does not hold up, however, not only because there are no details in the story to substantiate this idea, but also because in any such “Essene Quarter,” there would likely have been many men carrying water.

Other commentaries have noted that according to Jewish custom, before the first day of unleavened bread the master of a house himself had to go to the public fountain to draw the water with which the unleavened bread for the Passover Feast was kneaded.  But Mark’s Gospel shows the man they were to meet was not the owner of the house and that the disciples were to follow him to: “… the owner of the house he [the water carrier] enters …” (Mark 14: 14).

It has been suggested that it is possible that the “man carrying a jar of water” was the Gospel writer Mark himself, as some traditions claim that Mark lived in the home of his mother in which the upper room where the Last Supper was held was located.  In this view, if Mark’s mother was a widow as tradition asserts, the family may have no longer been able to maintain servants even if their home was a large one, and Mark might have helped with tasks too heavy for his mother.  While this idea is sometimes accepted, we should remember that when Jesus instructed his disciples to “Say to the owner of the house …”, the Greek word for home “owner” is masculine and is more usually translated as “master of the house” (NKJV, ESV, etc.).  So this was not likely to have been the house of Mark’s mother.

But even if we cannot be sure of the identity of the man carrying water, the mysterious nature of Jesus’ instruction to his disciples can perhaps be understood in light of the events the New Testament describes.  It is clear that at this time in the days before Jesus’ arrest, Judas was already looking for an opportunity to betray him (Matthew 26:16). But in order for Jesus to fulfill the important symbolism of his own sacrifice as the Passover “Lamb,” it would have been vital that he not be arrested too early – before his death could enact the Passover sacrifice at the proper time. 

Given this situation, it is likely that Jesus utilized a plan by which he could keep the location of the Passover meal hidden from the other disciples until it was too late for Judas to arrange for Jesus’ arrest before or during the Passover meal.  As it was, we know that it was only at the meal itself – when Judas knew where Jesus was and where he would be going in the following hours – that he slipped away to arrange to lead the servants of the religious authorities to him that night (Matthew 26:47). But the mysterious reference to “a man carrying water” that Jesus used may well have stalled the plans of Judas for as long as was necessary.