I have wondered if Jesus was no more 'forsaken' than any of us have ever been before we come to salvation. Since we are born separated from God, we do not notice our condition until we know His acceptance. What Jesus was experiencing was the same separation from God into which we are born.
             The first Adam chose to sin. This brought about an immediate wall of separation between Adam, Eve, God, and all humanity. The Second Adam chose to BECOME sin in order to reconcile us back to God. He did not commit any sin, but He Became sin. In taking on the sin of the world, He felt the full brunt of what happened in the garden, and knew the darkness, the nakedness, the fear the first Adam (by his own choice) felt. Jesus then (by His own choice) became the Second Adam. At that moment, He became fully aware of His humanity. Since Jesus had always been One with the Father this sudden barrier in that unity was felt, and realized with such force that He could only express it by quoting Psalm 22.
             It is at this place I part with what I have always been told occurred. "God turned His back on Jesus because God cannot look on sin" has been the only explanation I have heard of this passage. Yet, I was told that God pursues us relentlessly while we are dead in our sin and unaware of any separation. We are not only sheep without a Shepherd; we have no concept of any such need until He wakes us up. Can the Father look on us... "while we were yet sinners", speak with Satan face to face as recorded in the book of Job, but have to turn His back on His only begotten Son because He (supposedly) cannot look on sin? God is holy, but His holiness (and any other aspect of His nature) is not so fragile as to become compromised at all by coming in contact with us. He is so great, mighty, and full of love and grace, that our thimbles full of sin cannot contaminate nor drain this ocean that is Himself.
             The Father did not turn His back on Jesus (as I have been ta...