Eli, Eli

“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” Jesus cries on the cross.  He’s crying out for Elijah, someone says.

But the Greek eli is exactly the name of another Old Testament figure, the High Priest Eli, priest during the childhood of Samuel (1 Samuel 1-4).  That allusion works: Eli was a weak priest during a time of apostasy, when his sons were committed abominations in the house of Yahweh, abominations that would bring desolation.  That is the first-century setting as well, as Jesus has told us in Matthew 24.

More immediately to the context, Jesus goes to the cross as the living temple of God, to be torn down.  That is precisely the story of 1 Samuel 1-4 – the dismantling of the tabernacle.  The banner over Eli’s term as high priest carried the message “Ichabod,” the glory has departed, and on the cross God forsakes His living tent, though He returns when He raises up this tent as a glorious temple (cf. 2 Corinthians 5).