Romans it was the death of a slave, for the Jews it was patent proof of the curse of God (Deut. xxi. 23).  The obedience of Jesus was unlimited when he submitted to death (Phil. ii. 8).  It is on the shame of the cross, and on the sacrifice of himself for the life of the world when in obedience to his Father’s will he “despised the shame,” that the thought of the apostolic day laid emphasis.  In this experience Jesus found himself in truth numbered with the transgressors; he was the object of scorn for all them that passed by, they mocked at him, at his works, and at his confident trust in God.  In this last extremity the darkness of Gethsemane again swept over Jesus’ soul, when he cried out “My God, my God,” recalling the words of one of the saints of old in his hour of distress (Ps. xxii.).  Yet, like him, Jesus kept hold on the certainty of deliverance; the darkness passed at length.

205.  The evangelists preserve several sayings of Jesus from the cross, the records of the different gospels being remarkably diverse.  Mark and Matthew record the exclamation, “My God, my God (Eloi, Eloi), why hast thou forsaken me,” which the bystander misconstrued as a call for Elijah, thinking this pseudo-Messiah was reproaching Elijah for failing to come to his help.  The same gospels tell of the loud cry with which Jesus died.  Luke omits the call Eloi, and gives in place of the last expiring cry the prayer of trust, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (xxiii. 46).  Earlier, however, this gospel tells of Jesus’ word to the penitent robber, “To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise” (xxiii. 43), and of the prayer for his foes, that is, for the Jewish people who blindly condemned him (xxiii. 34).  The oldest manuscripts cause some doubt whether this last saying was originally a part of the Gospel of Luke.  If it was not it would belong in the same class with the story of the sinful woman which we now find in John, both being authentic records of the life of Jesus, though from some other source than that in which we now find them.  The fourth gospel gives quite an independent group of sayings.  It interprets the dying cry as, “It is finished” (xix. 30), and preceding this it gives the cry, “I thirst” (xix. 28), which led to the offering of the vinegar of which the first two gospels speak.  Earlier it tells of the committal of Mary to the care of the beloved disciple (xix. 26, 27).  Of these seven sayings, “Eloi,” “I thirst,” “Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit,” and “It is finished” belong to the last hours of the life of the crucified one, after the darkness of which the first three gospels speak had overshadowed the land.  Of the cause of that darkness they give no hint, for Luke’s expression cannot mean an eclipse, since an eclipse at Passover time, that is, at full moon, is an impossibility.  The conjecture that dense clouds hid the sun is common, and is as suitable as any other.  Whatever the cause, the evangelists saw in it a token of nature’s