My Walk Through the Book of Matthew by Annette Godtland

Jesus Dies on the Cross (Matthew 27:45-56)

45Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 46And 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?"

47Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, "This Man is calling for Elijah!"

48Immediately 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.

49The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him."

50And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

51Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

54So 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!"

55And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, 56among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

From the sixth hour till the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. Footnotes in my Bible say this means 12:00 till 3:00pm. This is the middle of the afternoon. I’m surprised there was not more total panic with just this event. Was it total darkness? Was it an eclipse of the sun that lasted three hours? Was it heavy storm clouds that made it get dark? Or was this just referring to a feeling of darkness, depression, or foreboding over all the land? Those who knew Jesus felt a great sorrow at their loss of Him. Those who tested Jesus waited to see if Elijah would come to save Him.

What finally took Jesus to the point of crying out to His father, that He was feeling forsaken? All the way up to the cross, I just felt that Jesus was so alone. But Jesus’ cry was not just that He felt alone or abandoned, but that He felt forsaken. I’ve heard it explained that this feeling of forsakeness was due to the sins of the world being placed on Him. It is our sins that separate us from God, and at this point, it is our sins that separated Jesus from God.

It is interesting that our sinning makes us feel like God has forsaken us, when it is our action that is causing the separation. Jesus was in God’s hands this entire time, but the sins Jesus had to bear were so unbearable, that Jesus could only cry out to God from who He felt so separated. How do I know that He was still in God’s hands this entire time? I have read that death on the cross is a slow process. The fact that shortly after Jesus cried out about being forsaken, he cried out again and yielded up His spirit, makes me think that Jesus died a quick death. God didn’t let Him stay there bearing the sins of the world for very long. A death that could have dragged on for a long time ended quickly.

Again, I have to give a new perspective to what I thought some of this text meant before. It says someone offered Him some sour wine when He cried out to God about forsaking Him. I used to take this as meaning they wanted to taunt Him by offering Him some sour wine. But I wonder if instead this was some of this wine that had been drugged that could help dull Jesus’ senses, to ease His pain, and probably speed up His dying. I now wonder if this sour wine was offered as a kindness rather than as a cruelty.

I also wonder who offered it. Was it one of the soldiers? I don’t think so because it just talks of some who stood there, but later it specifically talks of those who guarded Jesus. So I don’t think it was one who was guarding Jesus. Was it one of the chief priests or elders? Was it a spectator who came to watch the crucifixion, one who was influenced by the urgings of the chief priests. Was it simply a passerby?

This text starts at the sixth hour, noon. I don’t know how long before this that Jesus was actually hung on the cross, or if it he had just been placed on the cross at noon. But even still it had been three hours. How long would a crowd stay standing around watching a man die on the cross? You would think that after three hours some of the jeering would have died down, and most of the people would have gotten bored and left. But apparently there were still people standing around. Were they expecting anything, or was the darkness in the middle of the day making them nervous?

Before when I read of the destruction of the veil or curtain of the temple being torn in two, and earthquakes happening, I simply thought of it as the reaction of the heavens to the death of the Son of God, and the fulfillment of Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the temple. But I have recently discovered the significance of the veil of the temple being torn in two from the top to the bottom. The veil of the temple is the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. No one was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies because that is where God resided. With Jesus’ death this barrier to God was destroyed. Jesus gave us all access to God.

I rarely hear comment on the next text: that the graves were opened, the bodies of saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and that they went into the holy city and appeared to many. It is easily conceivable that an earthquake would cause graves to be opened. But the bodies were raised? It does help us to realize that death is not final. It is because of Jesus’ death that our death is more like a sleep till our bodies are resurrected.

Three hours of darkness, a call to God followed by a quick death of the One on the cross, immediately followed by temple destruction, earthquakes, and bodies raised from the graves and appearing to many. I can understand why the guards felt afraid. I wonder how they felt knowing they were the ones who performed the crucifixion, they were the ones who taunted Him with the robes and crown and mocked Him as King of the Jews, they beat Him, the stripped Him of His clothes and cast lots for them. Now they are realizing who this Man really was. It is interesting that it was a Gentile, who likely had never heard any of Jesus’ teaching, who first claimed that Jesus was the Son of God.

One final question I have is when did the resurrected saints appear to many in the holy city? It says after His resurrection. So it seems that this may be stated out of sequence. So I’m not sure if the resurrected bodies of the saints had any part in all that the guards saw.

Where were the people who had followed Jesus for the past three years? They had been scattered. But here it says that many women who had followed Him from Galilee, who had ministered to Him, were watching from afar. Why just the women? Were the women braver? Were the men more likely to get arrested so had to stay away? Actually, I wonder if it has more to do with the fact that I believe that women were responsible for ministering to bodies after death. So these women had a job to do after Jesus died. The men may also have been around, I don’t know, but the women needed to be around in order to take care of Jesus’ body. The women watched from afar. They saw the death of Jesus.