Introduction
In the passage we studied last week we saw how the Roman soldiers and three groups of Jews mocked the Lord. The Roman soldiers mocked him when they dressed him up to look like a king and when they pretended to hail him as their king. And then three groups of Jews mocked him: those who passed by; the members of the Sanhedrin; and those who were being crucified alongside him. They mocked the Lord for claiming to be the Son of God and their king. And yet, most of what the Romans and Jews said about him is true, because he is God the Son, who came into the world as God’s Anointed King to save his people from our sin and misery by giving up his life for us on the cross. Though the people knew the truth about him, they did not believe in him. But if only they believed, they would have received forgiveness for all their sins and the free gift of eternal life.
And I also said last week that Matthew doesn’t go into the details of what took place when someone was crucified. And this is because the focus of the gospels is not so much on what the Lord suffered at the hands of the Romans, but on how he suffered the wrath of God in our place. And that comes out in today’s passage as well.
Verses 45 to 50
Matthew tells us in verse 45 that there was darkness over all the land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. That is, from 12 noon to 3pm. Darkness is associated in the Bible with God’s judgment. It was one of the ten plagues which the Lord inflicted on Egypt in the days of Moses. At that time, the darkness lasted for three days. Here it lasts for three hours. In Amos 8, the Lord announced that a day was coming when he will make the sun go down at noon to darken the earth and the religious feasts of his people will be turned into mourning and weeping and they will wear sackcloth. In other words, they will suffer God’s judgment. And in Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus quoted from the book of Isaiah about a time when the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. He was referring to the time of his second coming, when he will come in glory and with power to judge the living and the dead. At that time, there will be darkness.
And so, darkness in the Bible is associated with God’s judgment. And it is therefore fitting that it should become dark at the time of the Lord’s crucifixion, because God’s judgment on our sin was being poured out on the Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered the wrath of God in our place.
And at the ninth hour, the Lord cried out words which mean, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.’ That is the first line of Psalm 22, which depicts the Lord’s suffering servant, crying out to the Lord because of his enemies who have surrounded him to mock him and to pierce his hands and feet. It’s a psalm which foreshadows the suffering of the Lord Jesus; and the Lord Jesus quotes the first line, because it makes clear to us what was happening on the cross, because on the cross the Eternal Son of God, in his role as the Suffering Servant of his people, was forsaken by God so that we may become the children of God. As our Suffering Servant, he was cut off from God’s love, so that we might know God’s love. He suffered God’s wrath and curse so that we might receive the blessing of God, which is life in the presence of God forever. And so, the judgment of God on our sin fell on Christ our Saviour.
The Lord cried out probably in Aramaic. Those who heard him misunderstand the Aramaic word ‘Eloi’ which means, ‘my God’ and thought he was calling out for Elijah. You might recall from the Old Testament that Elijah did not die, but was taken up to heaven. And the commentators explain that it was widely believed among the Jews that Elijah would sometimes appear from heaven to help people in time of need. And since that’s what the people believed, it makes sense that some of them would think that the Lord Jesus was calling out to him. One person ran to fetch him some wine vinegar. This may have been an act of kindness to quench his thirst. However, Matthew tells us that the rest of the bystanders said they should leave him alone and wait to see if Elijah comes to save him. This is probably said in mockery, because it’s similar to the taunt in verse 43 about letting God rescue him. Just as they did not believe that God would rescue him, so they do not believe Elijah that would rescue him. They do not believe he deserves to be rescued. Instead, as far as they are concerned, he deserves to die.
And in verse 50, Matthew tells us that the Lord cried out again in a loud voice. And then he gave up his spirit. Matthew does not tell us what he cried, but John tells us that his final cry was, ‘It is finished’. He had finished what he had come to do, which was to suffer the wrath of God in our place. And notice that Matthew says that he gave up his spirit. It wasn’t so much that the Romans and Jews took his life, but that he gave it up in obedience to his Father for the salvation of his people. As our Great High Priest, he willingly offered himself on the cross as the perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins and to make peace for us with God.
Verses 51 to 56
And at that moment, strange things began to happen. Matthew tells us that the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And the earth shook and the rocks split apart. And tombs were opened.
There were two curtains in the temple. There was an outer curtain which separated the outside court, where the people gathered, from the sanctuary, which only the priests could enter. And then there was another, inner curtain which separated the Most Holy Place, containing the ark of the covenant, from the rest of the sanctuary. Whether it was the outer one or the inner one, the significance of the tearing is probably the same. And the significance is multi-layered.
Firstly, it signifies that the death of Christ on the cross has opened the way for sinners to come into the presence of God. The inner curtain of the temple signified that the way into God’s presence was closed. Only the High Priest could go through the curtain and he was only permitted to do so on the Day of Atonement. Everyone else was barred from God’s presence, because sinners cannot come before a holy God and expect to live. However, since Christ has paid for our sins with his life and made peace between us forever, the way into God’s presence has been opened up to us. We can now come before God in worship; and one day we’ll come into his presence in the new heaven and earth. By his one sacrifice, he has done everything necessary to reconcile God and sinners.
And that means, secondly, that the tearing of the curtain signifies the end of the temple. Because Christ gave up his life as the perfect sacrifice for sins, there is no need to offer up any more animal sacrifices to God. And therefore the temple and its sacrificial system is no longer needed. Its function has come to an end. And the tearing of the curtain signified its end.
And so, thirdly, the tearing of the curtain anticipates the destruction of the temple which would take place in AD70 when the Romans destroyed it.
And fourthly, some Bible scholars believe that the temple was designed to represent the whole of creation: the outer court represented the earth; and the sanctuary represented the visible heavens; and the Most Holy Place represented the invisible heaven where God is enthroned over all. And in that case, the tearing of the curtain of the temple anticipates the coming destruction of creation which will take place when Christ comes again. However, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ three days later was the beginning of God’s new creation. And so, the old is passing away and the new has come. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. We begin a new life when we believe in Christ; and we are being renewed inwardly by the Spirit; and we will be made new completely in body and in soul when Christ comes again and we will live with him forever in the new heavens and earth. Since the temple represented the present creation, the tearing of the curtain signified how this creation is coming to an end to be replaced by God’s new creation.
And so, it was fitting that the Lord’s death and the tearing of the curtain was accompanied by an earthquake which shook the earth and which split rocks apart. The earthquake at that time anticipated what will happen when Christ comes again and this old creation is destroyed.
And after telling us that tombs were opened at that time, Matthew jumps forward in time three days to the time of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead. And he tells us that, at that time — at the time of the Lord’s resurrection — the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. In other words, there should be a fullstop in verse 52 after the words, ‘The tombs broke open’. So: The tombs broke open when the Lord died. Full stop. And later, after Jesus’s resurrection, many holy people were raised from the dead and they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
It’s not clear whether they were resuscitated or resurrected. If they were resuscitated, as Lazarus was, then their life on earth was extended for a time before they died a second time. If they were resurrected, then presumably they were taken up to heaven in the same way that the Lord Jesus was taken up to heaven in body and soul.
And Matthew goes on to tell us that, when the centurion and the other soldiers saw the earthquake and all that happened, they were terrified. And they exclaimed about the Lord Jesus: ‘Surely he was the Son of God’. It’s possible they merely meant that the Lord Jesus was a divine man or a righteous man. In other words, they now believed he was innocent and did not deserve to die in this way. However, Matthew no doubt records their words for us because, without realising it, they were confessing what is true: that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, who in obedience to his Father laid down his life on the cross to pay for our sins and to reconcile God to us.
And Matthew concludes his account of the Lord’s crucifixion by telling us that many women were there, watching the Lord’s crucifixion from a distance. These were women who had followed the Lord from Galilee. And Matthew names three of them: Mary Magdalene; Mary the mother of James and Joses (or Joseph); and the mother of Zebedee’s sons. John, in his gospel, tells us that Mary Magdalene was the first person to see the Lord after he was raised. The James who is named here as the son of Mary may have been one of the disciples. And Zebedee’s sons were James and John. There was no sign, of course, of the disciples, because they had fled for their lives from Gethsemane. However, we read in John’s gospel that John was with the women. So, he too was watching from a distance.
Conclusion
I said last week and at the beginning today that Matthew does not dwell on what the Romans did to the Lord and he does not describe the Lord’s physical suffering in any detail. The focus is not on what the Lord suffered at the hands of the Romans, but on how he suffered the wrath of God in our place.
And he was forsaken by God and punished in our place so that we might have forgiveness and peace with God as well as the hope of eternal life. Since we have forgiveness and peace with God, then we can always look to God for the help we need while we go on living on the earth. And since we have the hope of eternal life, then we need not fear the grave, because the curse of death has been removed, because Christ bore it in our place. And therefore death has become for us the doorway into God’s presence to await the resurrection of our bodies and eternal life in the presence of God in the new heavens and earth, when we will see God in the face of Christ and where we will be happy forever and forever. And the only reason we will be there is because of Christ who was forsaken by God and punished in our place.
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