Matthew – Part 71: Death and Life

Matthew 27:45-53

⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. ⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ⁴⁷ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹ But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” ⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

⁵¹ And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, ⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. ⁵⁴ When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

⁵⁵ There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, ⁵⁶ among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. ^[i]

We are nearing the end of Matthew, which means we are coming face to face with the core doctrines of Christianity. That is particularly the case in this and the next two studies, which cover Matthew 27:45–28:15.

In 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul sums up the gospel, which he says had been given to him and which he is passing on to others, the great apostle writes, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve” (vv. 3–5). Those verses contain three core doctrines: (1) Christ’s death, (2) Christ’s burial, and (3) Christ’s resurrection, attested to by Peter and the others who saw him. We come to these doctrines now and must deal carefully with them in these studies.^[ii]

Matthew does not explain to us in propositional language his doctrine of the atonement. He doesn’t, as Paul does for example, say “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3). Matthew does not explain, as Peter does, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Gospels are of a different genre than epistles. Matthew shows us his crucifixion theology through Christ’s last two cries from the cross and God’s four supernatural signs before and after Christ’s death.

FIRST SIGN, FINAL CRIES

We will start with the first supernatural sign and Christ’s last two cries as Matthew records them. The first supernatural sign is found in verse 45: “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.”

The 6th hour is high noon. As you know, that is when the sun is at its zenith. But in our text, the sun hides its light for three hours. Why? Is it because the sun had never seen such wickedness? Most likely the sun’s eclipse symbolizes a mix of God’s judgment (like the plague of darkness that was over all Egypt in Exodus 10:22) and because of the great evil of Christ’s sufferings. Whatever the precise meaning of the darkness, the mood of this most decisive moment in the world is painted black and Matthew has painted it black by dipping his pen in the ink of apocalyptic language, particularly that of Amos 8: 9, 10:

“And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. ¹⁰I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. ^[iii]

Darkness is the first supernatural sign. The world’s outer darkness corresponds to Christ’s inner darkness “⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” After three hours of darkness and silence, it is now about 3:00 PM, the time the lamb was being brought into the temple for sacrifice. The Lamb of God opens his mouth. But unlike the moment of the creation of the world, where he said, “let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), here his voice joins the darkness as he echoes the cry of Psalm 22:1.

Matthew gives us the Aramaic in verse 46. It is the only time he lets us hear how Jesus would have sounded on a day-to-day basis. Jesus spoke in Aramaic. It also reveals something of the rawness of Jesus’ cry and explains why the people would believe he was crying out for Elijah. Why did he cry out the first sentence of Psalm 22? Why not cry out its last three victorious verses: “All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. ³⁰            Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; ³¹ they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.” ^[iv]

Or why not quote Psalm 21:1-6: “¹ O Lord, in your strength the king rejoices, and in your salvation how greatly he exults! ² You have given him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah ³ For you meet him with rich blessings; you set a crown of fine gold upon his head. ⁴ He asked life of you; you gave it to him, length of days forever and ever. ⁵ His glory is great through your salvation; splendor and majesty you bestow on him. ⁶ For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.” ^[v]

Why did Jesus ask a question and not quote an affirmation—something like, “God loves all of you”? Why this question about where God is when Jesus needs him the most? Why a question that sounds so normal, so human, so unsanctified? Why such a dark cry in such a dark hour? What caused this cry was the theology of the cross in one word: “forsaken.” The great Roman Empire, the strongest and most civilized empire of its time, has forsaken him. His own countrymen have forsaken him. His own apostles have forsaken him. And now Jesus feels forsaken by the Father.

We can understand the feeling of being forsaken. But it’s another thing to actually be forsaken. Could the Trinity be broken? Was there a divine divorce? Did God really forsake his Son on the cross? What was the nature and purpose of this forsaking? Matthew doesn’t really tell us. But he does record the darkness and the dark cry of desolation to move us in a direction. It is the direction Paul summarized in 2nd Corinthians 5:18-21. God made sinless Jesus to be sin so that we might be forgiven of our sins.

But Matthew gives us no indication that this is anything other than a real abandonment of the Son by the Father. The paradox is that while this God-forsakenness was completely real, the unity of the blessed Trinity remained unbroken. But the Father and the Spirit could offer no fellowship to the Son as the Son carried all of the sins of his people. He was forsaken. He was the scapegoat, alone with the sins of the people.

Contemplating his forsakenness moves us to join Paul’s doxology in Romans 11:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ³⁴“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” ³⁵“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”  ³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. ^[vi]

FINAL CRY

Now we’ll turn our attention to Christ’s second and final cry on the cross. “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit” (v.50). That first follows the confusion about Elijah in verses 47 through 49:

⁴⁷ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹ But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” ⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

To be honest, those 3 verses seem unnecessary to the plot. The bystanders misunderstand Christ’s cry. The Jews of that time had a heightened expectation that the prophet Elijah would return “before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes” (Malachi 4:5). Elijah was seen as a kind of Jewish patron saint for lost causes. So people wondered, would Elijah who went up to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11) come down in one and rescue this Jesus. People likely saw that as a possibility since Jesus had a great reputation as a miracle worker.

Perhaps Matthew records this incident to highlight one last time that the Jews completely misunderstood their Messiah. Or maybe it is to highlight what Matthew has been highlighting in nearly the whole chapter, the mockery Jesus endured. Some commentators speculate the sponge of vinegar was offered to Jesus as compassion. Others speculate it was offered as mocking. Psalm 69:20, 21 suggest it was more mocking. “Reproaches have broken my heart… and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” In Matthew’s account, the Son of God is utterly forsaken.

Finally, we come to verse 50. Jesus, who has been so silent throughout chapter 27, “⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.” Note that the language (“yielded up his spirit”) portrays Jesus as once again sovereign over his sufferings. In the moment of his death he hands his Father his last breath as a gift (Luke 23:46). John tells us the content of Christ’s final cry, “It is finished!” We should read that as a divine victory cry. Jesus dies a victor with a shout of triumph on his lips. But here in Matthew, we do not know it is a cry of victory. Here it is the raw cry of human agony and death. The Son of God’s final moment is his most human. He dies like a man.

THREE SUPERNATURAL SIGNS

God answered Christ’s prayer. He gives the world three supernatural signs to reveal the mystery of the meaning of his Son’s death. At the moment Jesus dies, the Spirit of God goes to work on the world. God’s justification shouts over the voices of scorn and confusion. The father has not abandoned his righteous suffering son, and he gives an earth-shaking, tomb-breaking, curtain-tearing ceremony to celebrate! The Father unmistakably affirms that Jesus’ sacrifice was accepted.

Let’s read these three thunderous signs together. Here and see and feel now the divine fireworks set off by Christ’s death:

⁵¹ And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, ⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

The first supernatural sign is the rending of the temple’s veil. We know it is supernatural because huge, hand-woven tapestries aren’t usually torn in two from top to bottom (v.51). There are two large curtains in the temple and Matthew does not tell us which one was torn. Was it the inside veil that separated the holy place from the most holy place (the sanctuary where the ark of the covenant was kept and only the high priest could enter once a year and only with blood)? Or was it the outside veil that would have hung at the gate dividing the Court of the Jews from the Court of the Gentiles?

If it were the outside veil it would have made a more dramatic and public spectacle. That veil was 80 feet high and visible to everyone. If the veil was the one protecting the entrance of the Holy of Holies, it is less public but no less dramatic or theologically rich. In the end what does it matter? Three decades after this moment in Matthew the temple was completely flattened to the ground. No tapestries, torn or otherwise, survived the destruction.

What does this tearing of the veil mean? It says 2 truths about the temple: (1) judgment is over, and (2) salvation is open to all people! The spiritual life of the temple dies with Jesus. The true high priest had appeared; The true Lamb of God had been slain; the true mercy seat was at last revealed and there is no more need of an earthly high priest, a mercy seat, a sprinkling of blood, an offering of incense and the day of atonement. Christ death brings final judgment to the temple.

Christ’s death closed the door to the temple but opened another period now through Christ alone. The entire world is invited into the presence of God. It’s open. All demanding restrictions on access to God and the distinction between Jew and gentile have been abolished. Those “who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). Now it is not merely the high priest and him alone who can enter into the holy of holies and lay his hands upon the head of the innocent lamb to find forgiveness for the people.

Now all the people, Jews and gentiles, clergy and laity, old and young, male and female, can obtain direct access to God by faith. St Author of Hebrews puts it this way in Hebrews 10:19-22:

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. ^[vii]

The entire epistle to the Hebrews is commentary on the split veil. Read through it today. Let that scripture soak into your soul. We can enter into the most holy place, behind the 1st and 2nd curtains, because Jesus, through his atoning death, grants all new access to God through his own blood.

That is as effective BC as it was AD. His death is as retroactive into the past as it is proactive into the future. His death is cosmic in time (BC, AD: past, future) as it is cosmic in space (the split veil) giving the whole universe access to God. The death of Jesus reaches out as far horizontally into history as it reaches up vertically into eternity. The irony is that through is momentary separation from the godhead, the world has been granted, through faith in Jesus, eternal access to God. That is the beautiful lesson of this supernaturally split veil.

SIGNS TWO AND THREE

The second supernatural sign is the earthquake. In fact there is an earthquake inclusio right before and right after Christ’s death. Before he dies, the earth turns black. After he dies, the earth shakes. The earth is telling earthlings that something seismic is happening. The sun hides its face, and the earth shakes its feet to teach us to see and hear that a new earthly era has dawned in the death of Christ.

The crescendo of these signs, however, is not the ground shaking or rocks breaking. It is the tombs opening and real resurrected human beings (not The Walking Dead) stroll about Jerusalem. This is the third supernatural sign. Like one of Jesus’ parables, verses 51, 52 are structured with extensive parallelism as well as an end stress on the resurrection of Jerusalem’s citizens.

The final line is the climax. And that climax continues into verse 53: “and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” Notice that the actual event happens after Jesus’ resurrection, not after his death. Yet Matthew places it here to open our eyes to the resurrection power of Christ’s death.

The language and image here might remind you of Daniel 12:2, “and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,” Of Zechariah 14:4, 5, “on that day his feet shall stand on the  mount of olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of olives shall be split in two from east to West by a very wide valley… And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him,” or of Ezekiel 37: 1-14 where the breath of God raises to life the valley of dry bones:

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. ² And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. … ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. …¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

…Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.” ^[viii]

Jesus’s death is a resurrecting death. The dead are revived by his dying. As he passes from life to death they pass from death to life. That’s the point of these resurrected people. Matthew doesn’t say how many people were raised. He doesn’t tell us whether they were ancient Saints like Moses or David or Christianity’s new ones like Joseph or John the Baptist? Were they celebrity Saints or common ones? Who did they talk to and what did they say? Did they die again soon after? Did they go on living for another two decades? Did they ascend to heaven with Jesus? Matthew fails to satisfy our curiosity. He is comfortable with mystery. He only wants us to know something significant about Jesus.

Christ’s death killed death. Not only is this death strong enough to split the veil of the Holy of Holies and so cancel sin, but it is also strong enough to open tombs and so cancel death. Sin and death are mankind’s two greatest problems, and Christ’s death conquers both. You see, the cross has turned from the tree of death, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, to the Tree of Life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations!

I challenge you to think of funerals you have been to. Some are held for those who have died in Christ and the great hope of the service is the resurrection we have in Christ. Others are held for those who have died without Christ and offer only meaningless platitudes and illogical phrases such as “she is in a better place now.” The power of the resurrection is the power of the universe and if you’re trusting into Christ this morning, it is your power now!

Christ conquers the world (the darkness and the earthquake) he dies victorious. He rules and reigns. He conquers death (the resurrected bodies). That is the cross of Christ to Matthew, and that is to be the cross of Christ to us.

O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. ^[ix]

^[i] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 27:45–56.

^[ii] James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 621–622.

^[iii] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Am 8:9–10.

^[iv] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 22:29–31.

^[v] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 21:1–6.

^[vi] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 11:33–36.

^[vii] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Heb 10:19–25.

^[viii] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eze 37:1–14.

^[ix] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Co 15:55–58.