Scripture records that a thick darkness, a supernatural darkness, came over all the land
when Jesus was crucified. Most Bible scholars believe this was symbolic of God’s judgment on sin, just as God sent thick darkness over the land of Egypt during the plagues, as He was judging Egypt.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(Matthew 27:46-47).
It was out of the awful darkness that Jesus cried, “Forsaken!” (The word means “abandoned” in both Hebrew and Greek). I believe it was not a cry of pain due to his wounds, although He was fully human and no doubt experienced excruciating physical pain, but a cry of anguish. It revealed that Jesus felt the full weight of separation from the Father, and in that moment recalled the words of Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me…?”
I believe also “the cup” that Jesus referred to while praying in the Garden of
Gethsemane (recorded in Matthew 26:39, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42, and John 18:11),
was a reference to the anticipated pain of separation from the Father. Scripture does not record how long the sense of abandonment lasted, but even one moment of separation would have been agonizing to Jesus. We are given no indication of how the Father felt, but it was certainly an anguish for Him as well.
A final thought to consider is that all those who are lost in sin at the time of their departure from this world will experience a horrifying sense of separation from God! Even while they refuse to acknowledge God in this life, they still reap the benefits of His Presence, “for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45).