My God, my God, why have you left me? You seem too far away to save me, too far to hear my cries for help! My God, I kept calling by day, and I was not silent at night. But you did not answer me. God, you are the Holy One. You sit as King upon the praises of Israel. Our ancestors trusted you. Yes, they trusted you, and you saved them. They called to you for help and escaped their enemies. They trusted you and were not disappointed!

But I feel like a worm, less than human! People insult me and look down on me. Everyone who sees me makes fun of me. They shake their heads and stick out their tongues at me. They say, "Call to the LORD for help. Maybe he will save you. If he likes you so much, surely he will rescue you!" God, the truth is, you are the one who brought me into this world. You made me feel safe while I was still at my mother's breasts. You have been my God since the day I was born. I was thrown into your arms as I came from my mother's womb. So don't leave me! Trouble is near, and there is no one to help me.

We have this treasure from God, but we are only like clay jars that hold the treasure. This is to show that the amazing power we have is from God, not from us. We have troubles all around us, but we are not defeated. We often don't know what to do, but we don't give up. We are persecuted, but God does not leave us. We are hurt sometimes, but we are not destroyed. So we constantly experience the death of Jesus in our own bodies, but this is so that the life of Jesus can also be seen in our bodies.

We are alive, but for Jesus we are always in danger of death, so that the life of Jesus can be seen in our bodies that die. So death is working in us, but the result is that life is working in you. The Scriptures say, "I believed, so I spoke." Our faith is like that too. We believe, and so we speak. God raised the Lord Jesus from death, and we know that he will also raise us with Jesus. God will bring us together with you, and we will stand before him.

At noon the whole country became dark. This darkness continued until three o'clock. At three o'clock Jesus cried out loudly, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani." This means "My God, my God, why have you left me alone?" (Why have You Forsaken Me?) Some of the people standing there heard this. They said, "Listen! He is calling Elijah." One man there ran and got a sponge. He filled the sponge with sour wine and tied it to a stick. Then he used the stick to give the sponge to Jesus to get a drink from it. The man said, "We should wait now and see if Elijah will come to take him down from the cross."

Then Jesus cried out loudly and died. When Jesus died, the curtain in the Temple was torn into two pieces. The tear started at the top and tore all the way to the bottom. The army officer who was standing there in front of the cross saw what happened when Jesus died. The officer said, "This man really was the Son of God!"