One may contest the finding that "Jesus couldn't save Himself" in this situation—there is, after all, no indication that He tried to save Himself and failed. Even so, this objection confuses categories: salvation from sin, as offered by Christ, is not the same thing as "salvation" from temporal suffering.

In the same light, it is often asked why Jesus prayed for the cup of His suffering to be taken from Him in Gethsemane.

Here again we have a confusion of categories. Obviously, it is quite possible to do something unpleasant voluntarily: one weighs the consequences and the results, makes a decision, and even then can cry out from the hardship. The attitudes are not mutually exclusive. The Incarnation united human frailty and natural human will to the Divine Word without sin, meaning Christ genuinely experienced the human aversion to death.

Why is it that Jesus needed an angel to strengthen Him (Luke 22:43)? Precisely because He was fully God and fully man. This is like asking why Jesus bled when He was crucified, ate when He was hungry, and wept over the death of Lazarus. The word "strengthened" seems to refer to a need for physical strengthening; it is used elsewhere only in Acts 9:19. One may suggest that there was a need for physical refreshment after the stress of considering the road ahead.

Now the key question, though, is whether the cry from the cross is indeed a cry of weakness. One of the long-standing customs of Hebrew thought and language is to refer to a particular prayer or Psalm by its first words.

In like manner, when Jesus cried "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?", He was drawing the attention of those present at the crucifixion to Psalm 22. In effect, Jesus was saying that He is the fulfillment of Psalm 22, a Psalm which the Jews had always seen as Messianic. A quick glance at Psalm 22 reveals that the first words are identical to His cry.

As the Messiah, Jesus was not only fulfilling His role but also making His identity known. The observant Jew immediately knew what Jesus was referring to, and knew that Psalm 22 was a Messianic Psalm.

To suggest that Jesus uttered this phrase from the cross because He was unable to save Himself overlooks the theological context. There are strong indications that this "loud cry" is an allusion to the whole of Psalm 22, including its triumphant ending.