Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani? (in Aramaic).
Midway through his intense suffering on the cross, Jesus uttered these words.
Christian theology has a rich depository of historic understandings of the statement.
To the cursory observer, and especially in these difficult times of conflict in different parts of the world, it speaks profoundly of how torture can 'break' the human mind.
Historic Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ was like no other human being who has graced this planet. He is fully GOD and fully human. And in this, to the Christian faith, every other human being is different from Jesus Christ.
There then should be no way for GOD to be forsaking Jesus. Jesus himself is GOD and an inseparably infused part of the triune GOD Christians believe in.
The Apostle Paul argues in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament that Jesus went through every one of those trials and sufferings we humans are subject to so that he could qualify to be that perfect human sacrifice for our sins.
And from a faith standpoint that argument is good enough. And hence, Jesus' exasperation on the cross also shows what changes can occur in the brain of a normal person when subjected to torture.
Ukrainians foremost; but others too in different parts of the world have in recent times experienced their mental capacities being affected to various extents because of suffering.
This reflection of mine was triggered by what I in the past few minutes read of an Indian Muslim engineer, a graduate of India's elite grad school the Indian Institute of Technology in one of India's leading newspapers.
This young man was arrested for causing ruckus in front of a Hindu temple in North India where one of India's Hindu Chief Ministers is also a priest. The news article said that the young man hit and scratched two policemen while in custody.
The Indian Institute of Technology is so respected a brand that possibly the majority of first generation Indian professionals of science and engineering who work in the western world, especially in North America, come from this group of colleges.
The Muslim young man must have been one of the brightest in millions of applicants to make it to this school and graduate from there.
But under the circumstances prevailing for nonHindus in the country today, his mind gave way. I also read responses to the article on Facebook. They were hugely abusive - nearly all of them coming from Hindus in India. I felt very sorry for the young man. There is no hope for him to be restored to good health, dignity, and freedom in an imperfect world.
A good world will not torture humans and render them mentally ineffective. If Good Friday has a message for tortured people, tortured in the mind, it is this, that Jesus too went through that intense state of suffering on the cross.
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