21
God’s Miraculous Commentary on the Cross
(27:45–53)
Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the
land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out
with a loud voice, saying “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is,
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” And some of those
who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This
man is calling for Elijah.” And immediately one of them ran, and
taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed,
and gave Him a drink. But the rest of them said, “Let us see
whether Elijah will come to save Him.” And Jesus cried out again
with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of
the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook;
and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened; and many bodies
of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of
the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and
appeared to many. (27:45–53)
Some years ago as I was driving to a meeting on Good
Friday morning, I heard a radio program on which the speaker was
making an attempt to acknowledge it as a very special day. It was a
day, he said, when a certain man was prosecuted for crimes he did not
commit and, although innocent, was sentenced to death. The speaker
was of course talking about the crucifixion of Christ. He commented
on the inspiration of that special Person and of all others like Him
who stand unflinchingly for what they believe in, disregarding the
consequences.
But as well-meaning as that speaker may have been, he
utterly missed the true significance of Jesus’ death. Like most
people in Western society, he knew many of the bare facts of the
crucifixion but had no grasp of its meaning apart from the obvious
travesty of human justice. And from what was said on that program,
Jesus’ resurrection was considered to be more myth and legend than
history. No divine purpose, activity, or accomplishment were so much
as hinted at.
As noted in a previous chapter, by the time of Christ
the Romans had crucified some 30,000 men in Palestine alone. It seems
probable that some of whose men were also innocent of the charges
against them. The majority of them were executed for insurrection and
doubtlessly were sincere patriots who hoped to free their people from
oppression. They died nobly for a cause they believed in. Why, then,
we may ask, does history remember the name of only one of those men?
The answer is clear almost from the opening words of
Scripture. The sin of Adam and Eve not only caused their own fall and
that of all their descendants but also brought corruption of the
entire earth. It was for that reason Paul declared that the physical
world groans like a woman in childbirth, longing to be restored to
its God-designed perfection (Rom. 8:19–22).
Immediately after the Fall, God gave the first veiled
promise of deliverance from the sin that had cursed mankind and the
rest of the world. He told Satan, “I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise
you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel” (Gen. 3:15).
Because men, not women, carry the seed of procreation, the seed of
Eve was a prediction of the virgin birth of Christ, who would have no
human father and who would be bruised temporarily “on the heel”
by Satan but would bruise Satan permanently “on the head.”
When God provided the ram as a substitute for Isaac,
whom He had ordered his father, Abraham, to sacrifice (Gen. 22:1–14),
He provided a beautiful picture of the sacrificial offering of His
own Son, Jesus Christ—except that for Him no substitute was or
could be provided. And through the animal sacrifices prescribed in
the law of Moses, God portrayed to His people the necessity of
shedding blood for the remission of sin. But the blood of those
animals had no power to remove the slightest sin, and the sacrifices
had to be repeated continuously throughout the history of Israel. Yet
imperfect as they were, they nevertheless pictured the true,
sufficient, and once-for-all sacrifice for sins that Christ’s blood
shed on the cross would provide. Only one of the 30,000 crucified
died for the sins of the world!
Isaiah graphically predicted that the coming Messiah
would be “pierced through for our transgressions, … crushed for
our iniquities,” carrying in His own body the sins of all fallen
mankind (Isa. 53:5). Zechariah predicted that one day God’s chosen
people will turn as a nation to the One whom they had pierced, “and
they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son” (Zech.
12:10).
In the New Testament Paul explains that on the cross
Christ was made a curse for us who deserve to be cursed (Gal. 3:13).
Peter declares that He “died for sins once for all, the just for
the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put
to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18;
cf. Heb. 9:28), and John speaks of Christ as the supreme sacrificial
“Lamb who has been slain” (Rev. 13:8).
But nowhere in Scripture is the meaning of the cross
delineated more powerfully than in Matthew 27:45–53, which records
six miracles that form Almighty God’s own commentary on the meaning
of the cross.
Supernatural Darkness
Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the
land until the ninth hour. (27:45)
When Jesus was born, the night sky around Bethlehem was
filled with supernatural light as “the glory of the Lord shone
around” the shepherds in the field (Luke 2:9). John spoke of Jesus
as “the light of men” and “the true light which, coming into
the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:4, 9). Jesus spoke of
Himself as “the light of the world” (John 8:12; cf. 12:35–36).
But the first miraculous sign that accompanied Jesus’
death was not glorious light but dread darkness. From the
sixth hour (noon), when the sun is at its zenith,
supernatural darkness fell upon all the land until the
ninth hour (3:00 p.m.). Jesus’ crucifixion had begun
at the third hour, or 9:00 a.m. (Mark 15:25), and when the darkness
began He had been on the cross for three hours.
During those first three hours, the silence was broken
by Jesus only three times. The first was by His saying, “Father,
forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke
23:34), and a short while later He said to the penitent thief beside
Him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise”
(23:43). Shortly after that He said to His mother, “Woman, behold,
your son!” and to John, “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26–27).
At the beginning of the second three hours the great
darkness fell upon all the land. The Greek gē
(land) can also be translated earth, indicating the
entire world. It is therefore not possible from the text to determine
how widespread the darkness was. God was equally able, of course, to
make the darkness local or universal. Shortly before the Exodus, He
caused a great darkness to cover the land of Egypt (Ex. 10:14–15),
and some forty years later He caused the sun to “stand still,”
probably by temporarily stopping the rotation of the earth (Josh.
10:12–13; cf. 2 Kings 20:9–11).
Several interesting reports in extrabiblical literature
suggest that the darkness at Jesus’ crucifixion was worldwide. The
early church Father Origen (Against Celsus, 2.33) reported a
statement by a Roman historian who mentioned such a darkness. Another
church Father, Tertullian, wrote to some pagan acquaintances about an
unusual darkness on that day, “which wonder is related in your own
annals and preserved in your own archives to this day.” There was
also a supposed report from Pilate to Emperor Tiberius that assumed
the emperor’s knowledge of a certain widespread darkness, even
mentioning that it was from twelve to three in the afternoon.
To describe this darkness Luke used the word ekleipō,
which has the literal meaning of failing, or ceasing to exist, and is
the term from which eclipse is derived. But a normal
astronomical eclipse would have been impossible during the
crucifixion, because the sun and moon were far apart on that day.
Regardless of its extent, therefore, the darkening of the sun was by
the supernatural intervention of God. During that three-hour period,
Luke explains, the sun was obscured (23:45).
The purpose for the darkness is not explained in the
gospels or elsewhere in Scripture, but according to the Babylonian
Talmud many rabbis had long taught that darkening of the sun was
a judgment of God on the world for an unusually heinous sin. If,
indeed, that was God’s intention at the crucifixion, He presented a
gigantic object lesson to the world regarding the greatest sin ever
committed by fallen mankind.
Some interpreters have suggested the darkness was a
means of God’s casting a great veil over the sufferings of Christ,
and others that it was an act of divine fatherly sympathy given to
cover the nakedness and dishonoring of His Son.
But in light of many scriptural teachings and events, it
would seem that the crucifixion darkness was indeed a mark of divine
judgment. In speaking of Assyria’s being used by God to punish
Israel, Isaiah spoke of “darkness and distress” that would cover
the land, when “even the light is darkened by its clouds” (Isa.
5:30). In describing the day of the Lord, the same prophet declared
that “the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash
forth their light” and that “the sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world
for its evil,” God said, “and the wicked for their iniquity”
(13:10–11).
Also speaking of the day of the Lord, the prophet
Joel wrote of “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and
thick darkness” (Joel 2:2). Amos asked rhetorically, “Will not
the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light, even gloom with no
brightness in it?” (Amos 5:20). Zephaniah wrote, “Listen, the day
of the Lord! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is
that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and
desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick
darkness” (Zeph. 1:14–15).
In those Old Testament passages and many others the
judgment of God is directly associated with darkness, and similar
association is found in the New Testament. Peter declares that God
cast the rebellious angels “into hell and committed them to pits of
darkness, reserved for judgment” (2 Pet. 2:4). In much the same
words, Jude speaks of those angels being “kept in eternal bonds
under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6). Jesus
Himself frequently spoke of divine judgment in terms of “outer
darkness,” where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”
(Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30).
The cross was a place of immense divine judgment,
where the sins of the world were poured out vicariously on the
sinless, perfect Son. It was therefore appropriate that great
supernatural darkness express God’s reaction to sin in that act of
judgment.
Sovereign Departure
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud
voice, saying “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” And some of those who were
standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is
calling for Elijah.” And immediately one of them ran, and taking a
sponge, he filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and gave
Him a drink. But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah
will come to save Him.” (27:46–49)
A second miracle occurred at about the ninth hour,
or three o’clock in the afternoon, through an inexplicable event
that might be called sovereign departure, as somehow God was
separated from God.
At that time Jesus cried out with a loud voice,
saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” As Matthew explains,
the Hebrew Eli (Mark uses the Aramaic form, “Eloi,” 15:34)
means, My God, and lama sabachthani means, Why hast
Thou forsaken Me?
Because Jesus was quoting the well-known Psalm 22, there
could have been little doubt in the minds of those who were
standing there as to what Jesus was saying. They had been
taunting Him with His claim to be God’s Son (v. 43), and an appeal
for divine help would have been expected. Their saying, “This
man is calling for Elijah,” was not conjecture about what He
said but was simply an extension of their cruel, cynical mockery.
In this unique and strange miracle, Jesus was crying
out in anguish because of the separation He now experienced from His
heavenly Father for the first and only time in all of eternity. It is
the only time of which we have record that Jesus did not address God
as Father. Because the Son had taken sin upon Himself, the Father
turned His back. That mystery is so great and imponderable that it is
not surprising that Martin Luther is said to have gone into seclusion
for a long time trying to understand it and came away as confused as
when he began. In some way and by some means, in the secrets of
divine sovereignty and omnipotence, the God-Man was separated from
God for a brief time at Calvary, as the furious wrath of the Father
was poured out on the sinless Son, who in matchless grace became sin
for those who believe in Him.
Habakkuk declared of God, “Thine eyes are too pure to
approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor”
(Hab. 1:13). God turned His back when Jesus was on the cross because
He could not look upon sin, even-or perhaps especially-in His own
Son. Just as Jesus loudly lamented, God the Father had indeed
forsaken Him.
Jesus did not die as a martyr to a righteous cause or
simply as an innocent man wrongly accused and condemned. Nor, as some
suggest, did He die as a heroic gesture against man’s inhumanity to
man. The Father could have looked favorably on such selfless deaths
as those. But because Jesus died as a substitute sacrifice for the
sins of the world, the righteous heavenly Father had to judge Him
fully according to that sin.
The Father forsook the Son because the Son took upon
Himself “our transgressions, … our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5).
Jesus “was delivered up because of our transgression” (Rom. 4:25)
and “died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor.
15:3). He “who knew no sin [became] sin on our behalf” (2 Cor.
5:21) and became “a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). “He Himself bore
our sins in His body on the cross” (1 Pet. 2:24), “died for sins
once for all, the just for the unjust” (1 Pet. 3:18), and became
“the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Jesus Christ not only bore man’s sin but actually
became sin on man’s behalf, in order that those who believe
in Him might be saved from the penalty of their sin. Jesus came to
teach men perfectly about God and to be a perfect example of God’s
holiness and righteousness. But, as He Himself declared, the supreme
reason for His coming to earth was not to teach or to be an example
but “to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28).
When Christ was forsaken by the Father, their
separation was not one of nature, essence, or substance. Christ did
not in any sense or degree cease to exist as God or as a member of
the Trinity. He did not cease to be the Son, any more than a child
who sins severely against his human father ceases to be his child.
But Jesus did for a while cease to know the intimacy of fellowship
with His heavenly Father, just as a disobedient child ceases for a
while to have intimate, normal, loving fellowship with his human
father.
By the incarnation itself there already had been a
partial separation. Because Jesus had been separated from His divine
glory and from face-to-face communication with the Father, refusing
to hold on to those divine privileges for His own sake (Phil 2:6), He
prayed to the Father in the presence of His disciples, “Glorify
Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had
with Thee before the world was” (John 17:5). At the cross His
separation from the Father became immeasurably more profound than the
humbling incarnation during the thirty-three years of His earthly
life.
As already mentioned, the mystery of that separation is
far too deep even for the most mature believer to fathom. But God has
revealed the basic truth of it for us to accept and to understand to
the limit of our ability under the illumination of His Spirit. And
nowhere in Scripture can we behold the reality of Jesus’
sacrificial death and the anguish of His separation from His Father
more clearly and penetratingly than in His suffering on the cross
because of sin. In the midst of being willingly engulfed in our sins
and the sins of all men of all time, He writhed in anguish not from
the lacerations on His back or the thorns that still pierced His head
or the nails that held Him to the cross but from the incomparably
painful loss of fellowship with His heavenly Father that His becoming
sin for us had brought.
Soon after He cried out to God about being forsaken,
“Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in
order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, said, ‘I am thirsty’
” (John 19:28). As John then makes clear (v. 29), it was at that
time that immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he
filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink.
The one who ran to help Jesus was probably
one of the Roman military guards, and by taking a sponge and
filling it with sour wine, he hoped temporarily to slake
Jesus’ thirst. The sour wine was a cheap wine highly diluted
with water that was a common drink for laborers and soldiers. Because
it had a high water and low alcohol content, it was especially
helpful in quenching thirst. John gives the added detail that the
reed was a hyssop branch (John 19:29), which would not have
been longer than eighteen inches. In order for such a short branch to
reach Jesus’ lips, the horizontal beam of the cross would have had
to be rather low to the ground.
Offering the drink to Jesus was perhaps an act of
mercy, but it was minimal in its effect and served only to prolong
the torture before death brought relief. But the rest of those
standing near the cross used that gesture of kindness as another
opportunity to carry their mockery of the Lord still further, saying,
“Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.”
It seems incredible that even the pitch darkness of
midday did not alarm the wicked crowd. They were so bent on scorning
Jesus that even such a momentous phenomenon as the blocking out of
the sun did not deter them. Being aware of the many Old Testament
associations of unnatural darkness with judgment, it would seem they
would at least briefly have considered the possibility that divine
judgment was occurring at that very moment. But the single thought
now on their minds was to make Jesus’ death painful and
humiliating. They had no comprehension of the amazing alienation of
the Son from the Father.
Self-giving Death
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and
yielded up His spirit. (27:50)
A third miracle of the cross was Christ’s
self-giving death, the Son’s willing sacrifice of Himself for the
sins of the world in obedience to His Father’s will.
The fact that Jesus cried out again with a
loud voice (cf. v. 46; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46)
demonstrated considerable physical strength, even after the beatings,
scourging, crown of thorns, nail wounds, and hanging in agony for
several hours. Jesus did not gradually fade away, His life ebbing
little by little until gone. Even now He made it evident that He was
not at the point of utter exhaustion and that He had the resources to
stay alive if He so desired.
The last words the Lord cried out from the cross
were first, “It is finished” (John 19:30), indicating that the
work His Father had sent Him to accomplish was complete. Then, once
again addressing God as His Father, He said, “Father, into Thy
hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46).
Aphiēmi (yielded up) has the basic
meaning of letting go or sending away, indicating an act of volition.
Jesus’ life was not taken from Him by men, but rather He
surrendered His spirit by the conscious act of His own
sovereign will. As He had explained to the Twelve, no one could or
would take His life from Him. “I lay it down on My own initiative,”
He said. “I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to
take it up again” (John 10:18).
As just noted, Jesus’ ability to speak from the cross
in a loud voice indicated a reserve of energy unheard of for a person
in His physical condition. Nevertheless, even in light of His severe
bodily condition, Jesus died much sooner than normal. Therefore when
Joseph of Arimathea informed Pilate of Jesus’ death and asked for
His body, the governor was surprised and asked a centurion to give
verification (Mark 15:43–45).
Both of those facts attest to Jesus’ voluntary
surrendering of His spirit. He did not take His own life, but
He willingly gave it up to those who sought to take it and who
otherwise could not have succeeded.
On the cross the Father judged the sin of the world that
the Son took upon Himself, and the Son, who divinely controls living
and dying, willingly surrendered His life as penalty for that sin.
Sanctuary Devastation
And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two
from top to bottom, (27:51a)
The fourth miracle that occurred during the
crucifixion was the divine devastation of the sanctuary, as the
veil of the temple was torn in two.
Naos (temple) does not refer to the Temple
as a whole but to the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, where God
dwelt in His symbolic presence. A huge woven veil separated
the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple, and Josephus reports
that this massive curtain was predominantly blue and was ornately
decorated.
Once a year the high priest was allowed to pass through
the veil on the Day of Atonement to sprinkle blood on the altar for
the sins of the people, and that only for a brief period of time.
Because, like God’s presence in the Holy of Holies, even that
special sacrifice was only symbolic. The ritual had to be repeated
every year, anticipating the one, true sacrifice for sins that the
Son of God Himself one day would offer.
When Christ gave up His spirit, that once-for-all
sacrifice was completed and the need for a veil no longer
existed. By coming to the Son, any man could now come to God
directly, without need of priest, sacrifice, or ritual. Consequently,
the veil was torn in two from top to bottom by God’s
miraculous act, because the barrier of sin was forever removed for
those who put their trust in the Son as Lord and Savior.
By rending the Temple veil, God was saying, in effect,
“In the death of My Son, Jesus Christ, there is total access into
My holy presence. He has paid the full price of sin for everyone who
trusts in Him, and I now throw open My holy presence to all who will
come in His name.” The writer of Hebrews admonished, “Let us
therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we
may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need” (Heb.
4:16).
The Father’s dramatic tearing of the veil was made
while the Temple was filled with worshipers, which included not only
countless priests but also many thousands of pilgrims who were at
that very moment celebrating the Passover sacrifice. Although the
Temple was not destroyed until some forty years later, in a.d. 70,
the sacrificial system of Israel and its attendant priesthood ceased
to have even symbolic value when the veil was torn in two and the
Holy of Holies was exposed. The ceremonies and priestly functions
continued until the Temple was destroyed, but their divine
significance ended when Christ died, as the Old Covenant was
abrogated and the New inaugurated.
Soil Disturbance
and the earth shook; and the rocks were split,
(51a)
A fifth miracle that occurred during the crucifixion
was a supernaturally caused earthquake. Immediately after Jesus
died and the Temple veil was torn in two, the earth shook; and the
rocks were split. Making still another statement about His Son to
the world, and especially to His chosen people, the Father brought a
devastating earthquake to Jerusalem and the surrounding area.
Again the Old Testament gives insight into the
significance of the occurrence. When God appeared to Moses on Mt.
Sinai, “the whole mountain quaked violently” (Ex. 19:18), and
when He appeared to Elijah on a mountain, “a great and strong wind
was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the
Lord, … and after the wind an earthquake” (1 Kings 19:11). David
sang of the earth’s shaking and trembling when the Lord became
angry (2 Sam. 22:8; Ps. 18:7; cf. 77:18). Isaiah spoke of the Lord’s
punishing His people through “thunder and earthquake and loud
noise” (Isa. 29:6), and Jeremiah of His venting His wrath on the
nations of the earth by causing it to quake (Jer. 10:10; cf. Nah.
1:5). The book of Revelation tells of God’s causing the stars to
fall to earth and of mountains and islands being “moved out of
their places” during the final judgment (6:13–14).
In the original creation there were no earthquakes,
because the earth, like all else that God made, was perfect. Before
the Fall, Adam and Eve lived in a perfect environment on earth in the
very presence of God. But when they sinned, not only were they cursed
and separated from God but the earth they inhabited was cursed as
well. Since that time, both literally and figuratively, the earth has
been reeling under the destructive forces both of Satan’s evil
corruption and of God’s divine judgment. One day there will be a
new heaven and a new earth, but until that time when the usurper will
be forever banished to the lake of fire and the true Sovereign, Jesus
Christ, reigns in His kingdom, the earth will continue to suffer
corruption and destruction.
Speaking of God’s judgment on unbelievers, the writer
of Hebrews declares, “His voice shook the earth then, but now He
has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the
earth, but also the heaven.’ And this expression, ‘Yet once
more,’ denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as
of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken
may remain” (Heb. 12:26–27).
At the cross Jesus earned the right to take the title
deed to the earth from the hand of His Father (Rev. 5:9–10).
Therefore when God shook the earth at the death of His Son, He gave
the world a foretaste of what He will do when one day He shakes the
earth in judgment at the coming of the King of kings. Because Jesus
became “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross,”
His heavenly Father “highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the
name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the
earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:8–11).
Subduing Death
and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the
saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs
after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to
many. (27:52–53)
The sixth miracle at the crucifixion was closely
related to the previous one, as the supernatural earthquake not only
gave the world a foretaste of divine judgment but also caused many
tombs to be opened.
The significant miracle of that event, however, was not
the mere opening of tombs, as could occur during any earthquake. The
great miracle was that many bodies of the saints who had fallen
asleep were raised. After the veil of the Temple was torn in two
and the earth around Jerusalem was violently shaken, the Lord
selectively raised the bodies of certain believers who
had died.
Matthew points out that many, but not all, bodies
of the saints who had died were resurrected, making clear
that this resurrection was divinely restricted to a limited
number of believers. They had trusted in God during the time before
and under the Old Covenant, and some of those bodies may have been in
their graves many hundreds of years. When Jesus died, their spirits
came from the abode of righteous spirits and were joined with their
glorified bodies that came out of the graves. This was full and final
resurrection and glorification, making this miracle another foretaste
of God’s sovereign work during the end times, when “all the dead
in Christ shall rise” (1 Thess. 4:16).
It is important to note that the phrase and coming
out of the tombs should be followed by a period, indicating the
close of the sentence. After His resurrection begins a new
sentence and introduces a distinct truth, namely, that those select
resurrected saints then entered the holy city and appeared to
many.
Those saints did not appear in Jerusalem until after the
Lord’s own resurrection, because He was divinely appointed to be
“the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). And
just as Christ Himself appeared aft+er His resurrection only to those
who already believed in Him, it would also seem that the many
to whom the resurrected saints appeared were all believers. We are
not told what they said to their brethren in the holy city,
but their appearance in bodily form not only testified to Christ’s
resurrection but also to God’s promise to raise all those who put
their trust in Christ (1 Cor. 15:22, 51–53).
Through those six miracles the Father was saying that
the cross is the only hope for eternal life. When one’s sin is
carried away by Christ’s atoning death, the wrath of God is
appeased for that believer, and he is delivered from the death and
condemnation that the Lord endured on his behalf. For those who
believe in the Son, access to God is open wide, and they are assured
of living in His eternal and indestructible kingdom in eternal and
indestructible bodies.
The
unusual phenomenon of darkness over the land from the sixth hour
(noon) until the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.) was not an eclipse of the
sun, for the moon was full at Passover time. It was God’s act, and
amidst the darkness as His time of death approached, Jesus cried with
a loud voice, “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani?” “My God, My God,
why have You forsaken Me?” The cry was interpreted by some of
the crowd as having messianic connotations, that He was calling for
Elijah! They ran to get vinegar for Him to drink to sustain Him till
they could see if Elijah would come! But He cried again “with a
loud voice [and] yielded up His spirit.” In these last words
Matthew presents Jesus as having given His life. Perhaps he was
recalling Jesus’ words, “The Son of man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many”
(20:28, kjv).
We will look at this statement by Jesus in a later
paragraph. Note how Matthew stressed the unusual phenomena which
attended the death of Jesus. First, the curtain of the temple was
torn in two from top to bottom, symbolizing that the old order had
come to an end (Heb. 8:6–13). This curtain veiled the most holy
place and hung before the place where the High Priest was offering
the Paschal lamb. It was no small curtain, but was sixty feet long
and thirty feet wide, woven a handbreadth thick of seventy-two plaits
with twenty-four threads each. Second, the earth quaked and the very
rocks reeled and shattered. Third, Matthew reports that graves were
opened and that after the Resurrection of Jesus, saints arose from
these tombs and appeared to people in the holy city. Following the
occurrence of darkness and the earthquake, the Roman centurion cried
out in awe, “Truly this was the Son of God,” or “a Son
of God.” The language does not identify a full awareness but
suggests that the Gentile centurion was transfixed with the certainty
that Jesus was the very One they had said in mockery that He was. It
is of interest that this centurion was probably quartered in the
garrison at Caesarea where Cornelius was stationed (Acts 10:1).
Matthew records only one of the seven sayings of Christ
on the Cross, emphasizing that what was happening on the Cross was
affecting God in heaven. Luke gives us the first two sayings: (1)
Jesus’ prayer as they nailed Him to the Cross, with the imperfect
tense meaning that He prayed it repeatedly, “Father, forgive them,
for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34); and (2) His words
in response to the faith of the repentant robber, “Today you will
be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). John gives us the next two
statements: (3) Jesus’ words to His mother Mary and to His disciple
John, as He looked out for His mother’s care, “Woman, behold your
son… . Behold your mother” (John 19:26–27); and then, (4) His
words reflecting the depth of His physical suffering, “I thirst”
(John 19:28). The next statement is given us by Matthew in this
passage (v. 46), (5) “My God, My God, why… ?” Martin Luther,
reading this statement, cried out, “God-forsaken of God, who can
understand it?” The poet Browning expressed it:
Yea, once Emmanuel’s Orphan cry
His universe has shaken
It went up single, echoless
My God, I am forsaken,
It went up from holy lips
Amid His lost creation,
That of those lost,
No son should use
Those words of desolation.
The last two statements are found in Luke and John
respectively. Jesus’ words, (6) “Father, into your hands I
commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46), give evidence of His abiding and
meaningful relation with the Father. His last words, (7) “It is
finished,” meaning “completed,” are a shout of victory:
“Tetelestai!” “We’ve won!” (John 19:30). Isaiah 53
is finished, confirmed by 2 Corinthians 5:21. Jesus is the expiation
for our sins.
The cry of Jesus found in Matthew was a statement of
utter loneliness and desolation we cannot fathom. One interpretation
has been to describe it as God’s turning His back on the Son, while
He poured out His wrath over our sins on Jesus. This is not an
adequate representation of the Father, even though it does emphasize
the cost to Jesus of substituting Himself for us. But to His last
breath He was conscious that He was the well-beloved of the Father.
Forgiveness, as we have noted in chapter 18, means that the innocent
carries his own wrath over the sin against him. So here at Calvary,
God in Christ is carrying His own wrath on our sin (2 Cor. 5:19). He
carried it to the depth of death, suffering man’s sin in the act of
destroying Him, beyond which sin cannot go. The cry from the Cross
let the world know that suffering of this depth was happening to the
Godhead. The full Godhead was involved in bearing the sin of the
world at a cost so inconceivable as to mean the death of the Son of
God. This cost affected the full trinitarian aspects of God: the
Father suffering in giving His Son (John 3:16), the Son suffering in
giving His life, and the Holy Spirit suffering in associating with
the world’s pain through the centuries.
Many issues important in a theology of the Atonement are
suggested in this Gospel account and have been unfolded throughout
salvation history: (1) the representative character of Jesus’
sacrifice for men; (2) the vicarious character of His suffering (Is.
53:6); (3) the substitutionary element of bearing for another in
forgiveness; (4) the penal nature of suffering, that God may be just
in dealing with sinners (Rom. 3:23–26); (5) reconciliation in which
God reconciles men to Himself by revealing His love for man and
turning man to trust (Rom. 5:8); (6) the sacrificial principle in
which Jesus in self-identification with sinners brought them to union
with Himself (Rom. 6:1–6; Gal. 2:20); and (7) the emphasis on
covenant, the new covenant in His blood, by which God’s act of
grace is met by our act of faith in worshipful identification with
Him. There will always remain the element of mystery, but our faith
holds that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all
sin” (1 John 1:7).
Matthew concludes this section with a reference to the
presence of many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee (vv.
55–56). He gives specific names for three of them, but does not
mention others further, including Jesus’ mother, Mary. The
reference identifies followers of Jesus who were near the Cross. The
presence of the women is in contrast to the scattering of the
disciples. The only one of the twelve whom we know to have been
present was John. The reference shows the faithfulness of the women,
their presence and aid in removing the body for burial (v. 61), and
their reason for coming to the tomb early on Easter morning (28:1).
Jesus was crucified at 9 o’clock in the morning; and
from 9 until noon, He hung in the light. But at noon, a miraculous
darkness covered the land. This was not a sandstorm or an eclipse, as
some liberal writers have suggested. It was a heaven-sent darkness
that lasted for three hours. It was as though all of creation was
sympathizing with the Creator. There were three days of darkness in
Egypt before Passover (Ex. 10:21–23); and there were three hours of
darkness before the Lamb of God died for the sins of the world.
Jesus had spoken at least three times before this
darkness fell. While they were crucifying Him, He repeatedly prayed,
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke
23:34). He had spoken to the repentant thief and assured him a place
in paradise (Luke 23:39–43). He had also given His mother into the
care of His beloved disciple, John (John 19:18–27). But when the
darkness came, Jesus was silent for three hours.
After three hours, the darkness left. Then Jesus cried,
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” This was a direct
quotation from Psalm 22:1. It was during the time of darkness that
Jesus had been made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). He had been forsaken by
the Father! That darkness was a symbol of the judgment that He
endured when He was “made a curse” for us (Gal. 3:13). Psalm 22:2
suggests a period of light and a period of darkness; and Psalm 22:3
emphasizes the holiness of God. How could a holy God look with favor
on His Son who had become sin?
Jesus spoke these words in Hebrew, and the spectators
did not understand Him. They thought He was calling for Elijah to
help Him. Had they listened carefully and consulted Psalm 22 in its
entirety, they would have understood the truth.
In rapid succession, the Lord spoke three more times. He
said, “I thirst” (John 19:28); and this fulfilled Psalm 69:21.
Someone took pity on Him and moistened His lips with some sour wine.
The others waited to see if perhaps Elijah would come to His rescue.
Then Jesus shouted, “It is finished! Father, into Thy
hands I commit My spirit!” The fact that Jesus shouted with a loud
voice indicates that He was in complete control of His faculties.
Then He voluntarily yielded up His spirit and died.
Though He was “crucified through weakness” (2 Cor.
13:4), He exercised wonderful power when He died. Three miracles took
place simultaneously: The veil of the temple was torn in two from top
to bottom; an earthquake opened many graves; some saints arose from
the dead. The rending of the veil symbolized the wonderful truth that
the way was now open to God (Heb. 10:14–26). There was no more need
of temples, priests, altars, or sacrifices. Jesus had finished the
work of salvation on the cross.
The earthquake reminds us of what happened at Mount
Sinai when God gave the Law to Moses (Ex. 19:16ff). The earthquake at
Calvary signified that the demands of the Law had been met and the
curse of the Law forever abolished (Heb. 12:18–24). The torn veil
indicates that He conquered sin; the earthquake suggests that He
conquered the Law and fulfilled it; and the resurrections prove that
He defeated death.
We are not told who these saints were; they were simply
believers who had died. The King James Version suggests that
they did not come out of the graves until after His
resurrection; the New American Standard Bible agrees with
this. It is difficult to believe that they were given life on Friday
afternoon and yet remained in their tombs until Sunday. The New
International Version suggests that these saints were resurrected
immediately and came out of their tombs, but that they did not visit
in Jerusalem until after Jesus had been raised from the dead. It is
not likely that many Jews would be in the cemetery on Passover, since
they might be defiled by the dead. These resurrections could have
taken place with nobody finding out at that time.
The result of all of this was the testimony of the
centurion and those watching. “Truly this was the Son of God.”
Did this indicate saving faith? Not necessarily. But certainly it
indicated hearts that were open to the truth.
The
only disciple at the cross when Jesus died was John (John 19:35). But
many women were watching from a distance, undoubtedly those who had
assisted Him in His ministry (Luke 8:2). Three women were named: Mary
Magdalene, who had been delivered of seven demons (Luke 8:2); Mary,
the mother of James and Joses, who also was at the tomb on
Resurrection morning (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1); and Salome, the mother
of James and John. Salome had asked Jesus for special thrones for her
sons. We wonder how she felt as she saw Him hanging on a cross.
45–50. From the sixth hour … unto the ninth hour
means from noon until 3:00 P.M. Mark (15:25) indicates
Jesus had been placed on the cross at the third hour (9:00 A.M.).
It is questioned whether this is Jewish or Roman time. The darkness
was evidently supernaturally imposed since an eclipse of the sun at
full noon is impossible. God’s wrath was poured upon His Son during
this time of darkness. At the ninth hour (3:00 P.M.) Jesus cried:
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani (Aramaic) for My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Here we have the high cost of the atonement to
Christ, who was accursed of God for us as our sinbearer (cf. 2 Cor
5:21; Gal 3:13) and suffered the agony of spiritual death for us. The
sense of being forsaken was not necessarily caused by God the Father
looking away from Him, but from His looking at Him in wrath, as He
would look in judgment at a condemned sinner. He … cried … with a
loud voice, as a shout of triumph, and yielded up His Spirit. In
other words having borne the wrath of God’s judgment against sin,
He knew that He had triumphed over Satan and the curse of sin. His
heel was “bruised,” but the serpent’s head had been “crushed.”
The yielding of His life was the result of His voluntary surrender of
His life for the sake of His own.
51–53. The events immediately following Jesus’
death were remarkable indeed. The veil of the temple refers to
either the curtain over the entrance to the Holy Place (which could
be viewed from the porch) or to the curtain separating the Holy Place
from the Holy of Holies (cf. Ex 26:31). The latter is most likely
here and symbolizes the permanent opening of God’s presence to man
and man’s direct access to God through the atoning death of Christ.
Henceforth, all ceremonial services of priests and sacrifices would
be done away for the Christian believer (cf. comments on the book of
Hebrews). The earth did quake which was a visible
manifestation of God’s judgment on those who had wrongly crucified
the Lord of Glory and it caused the graves to be opened
and the saints which slept (departed Old Testament believers)
arose. This incident is stated only by Matthew and indicates
that the Old Testament believers were resurrected after His
resurrection and appeared unto many. It is properly
supposed that they were resurrected from “paradise,” or
“Abraham’s bosom” and taken to heaven by the resurrected Christ
(cf. Eph 4:8–9). For a discussion of a wide range of views on this
see Lange (p. 528).
ATONEMENT — the act by
which God restores a relationship of harmony and unity between
Himself and human beings. The word can be broken into three parts
that express this great truth in simple but profound terms:
“at-one-ment.” Through God’s atoning grace and forgiveness, we
are reinstated to a relationship of at-one-ment with God, in spite of
our sin.
Human Need. Because of
Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:18; 1 Cor. 15:22) and our own personal sins
(Col. 1:21), no one is worthy of relationship with a holy God (Eccl.
7:20; Rom. 3:23). Since we are helpless to correct this situation
(Prov. 20:9) and can do nothing to hide our sin from God (Heb. 4:13),
we all stand condemned by sin (Rom. 3:19). It is human nature (our
sinfulness) and God’s nature (His holy wrath against sin) that
makes us “enemies” (Rom. 5:10).
God’s Gift. God’s
gracious response to the helplessness of His chosen people, the
nation of Israel, was to give them a means of Reconciliation through
Old Testament covenant Law. This came in the sacrificial system where
the death or “blood” of the animal was accepted by God as a
substitute for the death (Ezek. 18:20) the sinner deserved: “For
the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you
upon the altar to make atonement for your souls” (Lev. 17:11).
The Law required that the sacrificial victims must be
free from defect, and buying them always involved some cost to the
sinner. But an animal’s death did not automatically make people
right with God in some simple, mechanical way. The hostility between
God and people because of sin is a personal matter. God for His part
personally gave the means of atonement in the sacrificial system; men
and women for their part personally are expected to recognize the
seriousness of their sin (Lev. 16:29–30; Mic. 6:6–8). They must
also identify themselves personally with the victim that dies: “Then
he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will
be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him” (Lev. 1:4).
In the Old Testament, God Himself brought about
atonement by graciously providing the appointed sacrifices. The
priests represented Him in the atonement ritual, and the sinner
received the benefits of being reconciled to God in forgiveness and
harmony.
Although Old Testament believers were truly forgiven and
received genuine atonement through animal sacrifice, the New
Testament clearly states that during the Old Testament period God’s
justice was not served: “For it is not possible that the blood of
bulls and goats could take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). Atonement was
possible “because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins
that were previously committed” (Rom. 3:25). However, God’s
justice was served in the death of Jesus Christ as a substitute: “Not
with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered
the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption”
(Heb. 9:12). “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant” (Heb. 9:15).
Our Response. The Lord
Jesus came according to God’s will (Acts 2:23; 1 Pet. 1:20) “to
give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), or “for all” (1
Tim. 2:6). Though God “laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Is.
53:6; also 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13), yet Christ “has loved us and
given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God” (Eph.
5:2), so that those who believe in Him (Rom. 3:22) might receive
atonement and “be saved from [God’s] wrath” (Rom. 5:9) through
“the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:19).
No believer who truly understands the awesome holiness
of God’s wrath and the terrible hopelessness that comes from
personal sin can fail to be overwhelmed by the deep love of Jesus for
each of us, and the wonder of God’s gracious gift of eternal
atonement through Christ. Through Jesus, God will present us
“faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy”
(Jude 24).
The Four Gospels, as we
noted in the previous chapter, mainly give us a straightforward
record of the events that surrounded the crucifixion and death of our
Lord Jesus Christ. It is mainly in the Epistles, the New Testament
letters that were written by some of the Apostles and their
associates, that we find explanations of the meaning and significance
of these events, and those men were able to provide these
explanations only because of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So,
anyone who was there at Golgotha on that first Good Friday and
observed the crucifixion of Christ would not have understood that he
or she was watching an event of supreme importance, a cosmic
transaction, as the Man on the cross offered a perfect, once-for-all
sacrifice, a propitiation of the wrath of God, an atonement for the
sins of His people. They needed—and we need—the teachings of the
Apostles to grasp these truths.
Nevertheless, Matthew offers some very interesting
details about that day that are absent from the other Synoptic
Gospels, and these details at least provide clues to the significance
of the death of Jesus. As we will see in this chapter, these events
made deep impressions on numerous people that day, and they have much
to teach us as we read of these things twenty centuries later.
The Death of the Savior
First, Matthew reports the details of Jesus’ final
moments. He writes: Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour
there was darkness over all the land (v. 45). In the heart of the
day, from noon until 3 p.m., there was darkness. It was not just
gloomy, as might be the case on a cloudy day, but dark as in the
deepest night. Some people speculate that a solar eclipse took place
at the same time Jesus was being crucified. Personally, I think this
was a supernatural darkness, a “divine eclipse,” if you will. I
believe it was in this time period that God the Father imputed the
sins of His people to His Son, and the sight of Jesus bearing all
these iniquities was so repugnant, the Father turned away from Him.
In order for Jesus to pay for the sin of His people, He had to be
cursed, and to be cursed meant that He had to be sent into the
darkness, the darkness outside the camp, outside the holy city. The
darkness was a sign of divine judgment on the sin Jesus was carrying,
for God is too holy to even look at sin. The One who had come into
the world as the incarnation of light was now the incarnation of
darkness.
This explains what happened next. Matthew tells us, And
about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli,
Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?” (v. 46). These are the only words of Jesus from
the cross that Matthew records. He was at the end of His life. He had
almost no breath left in Him. Death was only moments away. We would
expect that whatever He might say at this point would be murmured or
whispered. Not so. Lest anyone miss His words, our Lord used every
ounce of energy in His being and cried with a loud voice, “Eli,
Eli, lama sabachthani?” which is a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic
that means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Why did He say this? Some say he was quoting Psalm 22:1,
where this statement appears, but I doubt that. Others say He was
feeling forsaken. I believe this is true, but He was not simply
feeling forsaken, He was forsaken. He was forsaken not
by His best friends, not by His mother, and not by His brothers and
sisters, but by His heavenly Father. God had forsaken Him because He
must forsake sin. If He had not forsaken Jesus, He would have to
forsake every human being who is not covered by the blood of Christ.
It is only by His forsakenness that we can be received into His
family. It is only through His rejection that we can be adopted into
the household of God.
Matthew writes that some who were there misunderstood
what Jesus said: Some of those who stood there, when they heard
that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” (v. 47). They
thought He was appealing for the help of Elijah, though there is no
biblical reason to expect that He would have done so. When this
happened, Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it
with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.
The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to
save Him” (vv. 48–49). It seems that at least one of the
bystanders felt some compassion for Jesus and offered Him a drink, or
perhaps he simply wanted to keep Jesus talking. However, others urged
him to desist so they could watch to see whether Elijah would come.
While they were waiting, Jesus cried out again with a
loud voice (v. 50a). Matthew does not tell us what He said; He
may have simply uttered a guttural cry. Luke reports that Jesus said,
“Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit’ ” just
before He died (23:46), and John tells us that He said, “It is
finished!” at the moment of death (19:30). Matthew simply writes
that Jesus yielded up His spirit (v. 50b).
What was finished? The forsakenness. If the time of
forsakenness had not been complete, it would have been a futile thing
for Jesus to commit His soul into the hands of the Father. At that
point, however, He knew He could do so. The atonement was final. He
had done the work the Father had sent Him to do. The work of
redemption was complete. He would entrust Himself to the Father and
wait for Sunday morning.
Significant Manifestations
Matthew then reports on a number of strange
manifestations that accompanied Jesus’ death. He writes: Then,
behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom
(v. 51a). The New King James Version speaks of a “veil,” but
Matthew was referring to a heavy, thick curtain that hung in the
temple, not a thin, gauzy veil. It was the curtain that formed the
Holy of Holies, the most sacred place in all of Judaism, in the
interior of the temple. Originally, the ark of the covenant had been
kept in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and in Solomon’s
temple, but it was lost around the time of the Babylonian conquest of
Jerusalem. Only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and
then only once each year on the Day of Atonement. After several acts
of purification, he would take the blood of the offered sacrifice
into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, the lid of
the ark, which was regarded as the throne of God. This ritual was
established by divine command immediately after the exodus from Egypt
in the days of Moses, and it continued every year for fifteen hundred
years.
Of course, the sprinkling of the blood of sacrificial
bulls and goats on the mercy seat had no spiritual efficacy. It could
not take away sin (Heb. 10:4). This ritual was designed to foreshadow
the coming of the One who would offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice
once and for all, giving His people access into the presence of God.
When sin first intruded into the creation in the garden
of Eden, God banished the human race from fellowship with Him, and He
placed an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance to the garden
lest His fallen creatures should come again into the garden and into
His immediate presence (Gen. 3:23–24). So, after sin came the
barrier that blocked man’s direct access into the presence of God.
That barrier was symbolized by this massive curtain that blocked off
the throne room of the holy God.
Finally, after fifteen hundred years of symbolic
sacrifices, that which was symbolized actually took place on the
cross, when the Lamb of God was offered once and for all as an
atonement for the sins of His people. Immediately upon His death, God
caused the eighty-foot-tall curtain that separated the people from
the presence of God to be torn asunder, ripped from top to bottom,
which indicated a divine action. This was a symbolic statement that
the barrier was now removed. Therefore, when we come to church to
worship God, there is no curtain that separates us from the presence
of God. We gather in His presence each Lord’s Day morning. We enjoy
personal fellowship with Him. Jesus ended the separation by His
sacrifice of Himself.
Matthew adds, and the earth quaked, and the rocks
were split (v. 51b). Just as darkness had fallen over the land as
Jesus hung on the cross (v. 45), there was another natural phenomenon
at the moment of His death—a rock-splitting earthquake. Earthquakes
are not uncommon in Palestine, but the timing of this quake reveals
that it was of supernatural origin.
Finally, Matthew relates an even stranger occurrence:
and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had
fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His
resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many
(vv. 52–53). Matthew is the only Gospel writer who gives us this
detail, and this is the only mention of it in the entire New
Testament, for which reason some skeptics dismiss it as pure
mythology. But we are dealing with the Word of God, so we must treat
this account as factual and true. What are we to make of it?
The Jews did not bury people in the ground. They buried
them in tombs similar to the one in which Jesus was buried, usually
hollowed-out spaces in the rock. Perhaps as a consequence of the
earthquake, many of these tombs around Jerusalem were broken open,
exposing the bodies of those who had been buried in them. But not
only were the tombs opened on Good Friday, but also, on Sunday, along
with the resurrection of Jesus, several of those who were in these
tombs were raised from the dead, and they came into Jerusalem and
were seen by many people.
We do not know whether this resurrection was like that
of Jesus’, who rose with a glorified body (such as we will
experience in the final resurrection), or more like the resurrection
of Lazarus, who was given a second term of life on this planet but
who ultimately died once more, to await the final resurrection. But
no matter which it was, why did God cause this event to happen?
One of the classic works of Christian theology is titled
The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. It was written by
John Owen, the Puritan. The title expresses the biblical truth that
one of the dimensions of the atoning death of Christ was His conquest
over the last enemy, death itself (1 Cor. 15:21, 26; 2 Tim. 1:10;
Heb. 2:14). In His death, Jesus removed the sting from the grave, so
that death now is not punishment for sin but a transition to a better
dimension.
The Apostle Paul said he was torn between two things—to
stay among his people for their well-being or to depart and to be
with Christ, which the apostle said was far better (Phil. 1:23–24).
I do not think that the church has really understood that. We cling
to life on this planet as if there is nothing else beyond it. But the
message of the gospel is that Jesus is risen and has conquered this
enemy, so that now our deaths are mere transitions and we have a
continuity of personal existence, a continuity of consciousness. When
we die, we do not go to sleep, but our spirits immediately go into
the presence of Christ, which existence is far better than what we
have in this world (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8).
In this incident, we see, as it were, an earnest, a down
payment, a promise that in the death and resurrection of Christ,
death is defeated. The graves are opened and people come forth alive.
That’s the message of the Christian faith.
These incidents were not easily overlooked, and Matthew
tells us, So when the centurion and those with him, who were
guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened,
they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
(v. 54). The centurion and the Roman soldiers who had carried out
Jesus’ crucifixion noticed what happened. They had mocked Jesus
when He was condemned and then had carried out His crucifixion. It
was just another day on death-penalty duty for them—until the
moment Jesus died. When the curtain was split, the earth was shaken,
and the graves were opened, the centurion and his men were overcome
with fear. I would venture to guess that they had seen hundreds of
crucifixions, but they had never seen a prisoner’s death bring
about such manifestations. It all prompted them to say, “Truly this
was the Son of God!” Jesus was rejected by His own people, but a
Roman pagan observed the manner in which He died and made a
profession of faith about the character and the nature of the
crucified One.
Matthew also notes that quite a few others observed
these manifestations: And many women who followed Jesus from
Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among
whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the
mother of Zebedee’s sons (vv. 55–56). These women were
present at the crucifixion and saw everything that happened.
O. The Death of Jesus (27:45–56)
27:45–50. The sixth hour … until the ninth
hour (v. 45) was noon to 3:00 p.m. Darkness sometimes
suggested God’s judgment (Ex 10:22; Jl 2:2, 31; Am 8:9), and its
presence here shows the upheaval in creation that took place when God
poured out His wrath upon His Son who was dying as a sacrifice.
Jesus’ cry (v. 46) was a citation of Ps 22:1, and by citing it
Jesus was probably calling attention to His fulfillment of all that
is contained in Ps 22:1–18, and not strictly 22:1 alone. This is
supported by Matthew noting several connections with Ps 22 in the
immediate context (Ps 22:7, 16 in Mt 27:39; Ps 22:8 in Mt 27:43; Ps
22:18 in Mt 27:35). Jesus’ cry, Eli, Eli (My God, My God)
was mistaken as a cry for Elijah (v. 47). The drink He
was given (v. 48), judging from vv. 47 and 49, was, once again, not
an act of compassion but of mockery. The sour wine (usually
wine mixed with vinegar, a common drink of soldiers) was administered
to improve His enunciation and enhance their sadistic amusement.
Matthew probably intended his readers to view this in connection with
Ps 69:21b. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and
yielded up His spirit [or “gave up breath”] (v. 50). That He
still had a loud voice is remarkable, for people who died of
crucifixion usually did so in such a weakened condition that they had
no voice left. Yielded up is an active-voice verb, putting
into grammatical form Jesus’ sovereignty over His own death and the
voluntary surrender of His life. His spirit is ambiguous, and
could refer either to Jesus’ immaterial nature (His “soul” or
“spirit,” but probably not “the Holy Spirit”), His “life,”
or His “breath” (“spirit” and “breath” employ the same
word, pneuma, in Gk.). However it is understood, life went out
of His body.
27:51–56. Matthew gives no clues regarding the
significance of the tearing of the veil of the temple (v. 51).
However, many of Matthew’s fulfillment verses (e.g., 5:17–20;
11:11–13), including those related to the new covenant (26:26–29),
suggest that it served as a sign of the obsolescence of the Mosaic
covenant’s sacrificial system and the free access of humankind to
God through Jesus’ blood. The earthquake and cracking of rocks also
sometimes functioned as a display of God’s coming in the OT (Jdg
5:4; Ps 18:6–8; 77:18), frequently associated with judgment (Is
5:25; 24:17–18; 29:6; Ezk 38:19) or great tragedy (1Sm 14:15).
Bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep (on “sleep,”
see 1Th 4:13–18) were raised (vv. 52–53) but only after
His resurrection. Matthew may have included this occurrence here,
rather than in chap. 28, to connect it to the other effects of Jesus’
death mentioned in 27:51 and to avoid distracting from the more
important narrative elements about the resurrection in chap. 28. It
is impossible to say from Matthew’s account if the saints
were resuscitated and subsequently died or actually received their
glorified resurrection bodies and somehow ascended into heaven with
Jesus. Matthew may have referred to this episode to ground the
resurrection of OT and NT saints in the death and resurrection of
Jesus. The Son of God! (v. 54) was the title used to ridicule
Jesus in vv. 40, 43, but here was spoken with sincerity by the
centurion (see 8:5–13), his rank lending credibility to his
observation. The mention of many women (v. 55) provides
continuity with 27:61 and 28:1. For a suggestion on how to harmonize
27:56 with Mk 15:40–41 and Jn 19:25, cf. Carson, “Matthew,”
583.
