Matthew 27:45-55
Have you stopped and reflected on the day God’s Son, His
only Son, gave up His life so that anyone; did you get that, everyone,
everybody, who confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in
their heart that God raised Him from the dead, will be saved. You and I do not have a vote, if we did it
would not be grace but our opinion of goodness, but God so loved the world that
He gave His only Son, and it all happened on this day!
It began like any other day with a few exceptions, it was
the time of the feast of the Passover and Jerusalem is busting at the seams
from the number of people who have come for this most holy of feasts. It is the sixth hour and darkness comes over
the land till the ninth hour. Matthew gave
this account, “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?” Many have
stated it was just an eclipse, but each Bible scholar that addressed this
darkness said something like this: “That this general darkness was wholly
preternatural is evident from this, that it happened at the Passover, which was
celebrated only at the full moon, a time in which it was impossible for the sun
to be eclipsed, natural eclipses happening only at the time of the new moon.”
It
seems that the bystanders interpreted the darkness, as God’s judgment, but it
seems they believed the judgment was against Jesus. It is only after the resurrection that they
saw the darkness in a total different light, it was judgment against the sin
that Jesus became on our account.
(Thoughts taken from page 1669 of HCSB)
The apostle Paul is addressing this in his second letter to the church
at Corinth, “For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Matthew
tells us that some of the bystanders heard Jesus’ cry and said he must be
calling for Elijah, and one of them “took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a
reed and gave it to him. And others
said, “Wait, let us see where Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice
and yielded up his spirit.” A few things stand out that need to be
addressed, Jesus at the time of taking on your sin and mine did not call God
Father, but God, it was the first time Jesus was alienated from the
Father. The Jewish people put to memory
the Psalms and yet on this day they they did not recall Psalm 22 by David, when
he prophesied these words of Jesus, words that were coming true on that
day. In the first one David states; “My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?” In
verse seven, “All
who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusted
in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!’ If
you have any doubt it was Jesus that David was referring to, keep reading in
Psalms 22 verses 14-18. Jesus death at
3:00 p.m. coincided with the afternoon sacrifice. Thus the priests were present in the temple
to observe the rending of the curtain.
The curtain of the sanctuary separated the holy of holies from the rest
of the temple. According to the Mishnah,
it was 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and as thick as a man’s palm. It was so heavy that it took 300 men to lift
it when it was wet. That the curtain was
torn into from top to bottom shows that it was an act of God and signified Jesus’
death granted sinners new access to God. (Taken from page 1670 of HCSB)
This
also happened on that day; “The tombs also were
opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and
coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and
appeared to many. 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!” (Matthew 27:52-54) Jesus is still asking this question: “But who do you say that I am?”
From
the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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