The Death of Jesus
45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[a] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).[b]
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and[c] went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs.56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph,[d] and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
The Burial of Jesus
57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
The Guard at the Tomb
62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
I think sometimes we have a hard time reading about the crucifixion and really "feeling" it. Many of us have heard the story so often, all through our lives, that we just kind of read it with the "yep, read this before" mentality. It doesn't help that it is written in a very succinct, almost matter-of-fact way. Most of the stories in the Bible don't talk much about how anyone felt about things that were happening. It's kind of like a factual news report. Many things are conveyed in a single sentence and it is up to us to think about that sentence and the connotations that go with it.
There are several supernatural events in this part of Jesus' story. There isn't anything supernatural about crucifixion. That was standard operating procedure at the time. However, for three hours God blotted out the sun. This wasn't just a big storm cloud passing over. This was utter darkness during the normally brightest part of the day. From John MacArthur:
And God was affirming by the darkness that the cross was judgment, the place of the severest, most comprehensive divine judgment, then and there on Jesus Christ. And since God only judges one thing, that is sin, it is a judgment on sin. God then affirms that he is judging our sins in Christ, as we heard tonight in Isaiah 53, he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement to produce our peace fell on him, and by his stripes, we are healed.
The darkness then is God's commentary, God's way of saying that his fury is unleashed on Christ. Here is judgment on sin, born by the innocent sin bearing substitute. But there is more. Verse 46, and this is something only our Lord could know. "About the ninth hour," 3:00 in the afternoon, the end of the time of darkness, "Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Only he would know that God would have forsaken him. And by the way, it says he cried out, and it is literally the Greek word for scream. After six hours of immeasurable agony, three of them in total darkness. After six hours, the feeling, the fury of the wrath of God upon him, as his sin bearing comes to a climax, he is strong enough to cry and express the sense of alienation he feels for the first time in eternity from God. And by the way, this is exactly what Psalm 22:1 says he would say. It is the fulfillment of that prophecy which says the same thing, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
"And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit." He cried out again. Very interesting. This is intended by the writers of Scripture, and by the Lord himself to indicate how strong he is. It's six hours into his crucifixion; he is still able to scream. It's cradzhas, it means literally to scream. He's not gonna slowly fade into some kind of coma, which with crucified people could take days. He will not die of exhaustion. He will yield up his spirit when the time is right. And if you compare the gospel of John and the gospel of Luke, you find that Jesus had already said "it is finished", John 19:30, and he had already said "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit".
And then we have the veil of the temple being torn from top to bottom. This is something of great significance - huge significance - and it gets one sentence. But people from that time would have understood what that meant and we don't, off hand, because we live in a different culture and a different time.
Now you have to understand that the temple is naeas, the holy of holies, and the holy of holies had a barrier so that no one could go in there. Only the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement could go into the holy of holies, where the arch of the covenant was, and there sprinkled blood on behalf of the nation for their sins on the mercy seat on the top of the arch. And the high priest going in there had to have bells on his garment so that if he had gone in there in any sense unclean, and God had killed him, they would know he was dead because they wouldn't hear the bells. As long as they heard the bells, they knew he was still alive, and moving around.
This is symbolic of the fact that people were shut out of God's presence. No one really could go in there. But it wasn't a gradual change. When Jesus died on the cross, God himself ripped that curtain from top to bottom, ripped it, because Jesus had done what no priest could ever do. Only one priest, a high priest, could go in there, and he couldn't take anybody with him, nor could he make the way for anyone else to come. But at the death of Jesus, God himself ripped the curtain wide open and the holy of holies was open to all. And by the way, this was 3:00 in the afternoon on Passover, and the temple would have been jammed with people. Notice it was ripped from the top to the bottom to show that men didn't do it. I doubt that they could have done it, so heavy was it. But for sure they couldn't have done it from the top to the bottom. The finger of God did it. In one moment, the holy of holies that no one had ever seen was completely exposed to everyone. No more Day of Atonement. No more high priests. No more priests. No more sacrifices. No more barrier. And soon, the whole temple would be trampled by the Pagan Romans. And to this day, never ever rebuilt. At this moment, the corruption of that robber's den started to come down. And what was the father saying? Access is open to all. Christ the great high priest did what no priest could ever do. He threw the way to God open. He ripped the barrier. And the father punctuated his work by himself ripping the curtain. And then in verse 51 again, you see another act of God, "the earth shook and the rocks were split." God was giving people preview of what is going to come to those who do not come by way of Christ into his holy presence. One day in the future, God is gonna shake the whole earth. There will be massive earthquakes described in the Book of Revelation, the likes of which no one could even comprehend. And finally, the whole disintegration of the world as we know it. Hebrews chapter 12 talks about the fact that we are a part of an unshakable kingdom. But there's coming a day when God will shake the world.
And one more supernatural thing that I was really curious about today, as I read, and I don't know if I've ever really thought about this one sentence before either. "The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life."
There was a resurrection, folks. There was a resurrection. Did you get that? You say, "What came out of the graves?" Somata, bodies, bodies, not spirits. This isn't some ethereal thing. These aren't ghosts. Bodies, this is a real resurrection. What bodies? Many bodies...not all of them, it was a very discriminating one. Only select ones. Who were they? Saints. What are saints? Holy ones...from out of the Old Testament era who were waiting for their resurrection, who had been waiting perhaps a long time. When Jesus died, their spirits came from the abode where righteous spirits dwell and were joined with glorified bodies that came out of those graves.
You say, "Is this a real glorification? A real resurrection?" Absolutely. So many people who know the story of the cross, miss this. This is important. This is another statement by God. This is a resurrection, a real literal physical bodily glorified resurrection.
But what happened? They came out of the graves..period. The next sentence says, "After His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared unto many." Can you imagine what kind of testimony they have? "We have a guest for dinner tonight, you won't believe this..."
You say, "What would they be testifying about?" I'll tell you what they'd be testifying about, resurrection. But they didn't go into the city and do it until Christ had risen. Why? Because 1 Corinthians 15:20 says He's the firstfruits of them that slept, right? So it wasn't until after He was raised from the dead that they along with Him began to speak. And I don't think they spoke to anybody except those who already believed. There's no biblical evidence Christ ever appeared after His resurrection to anyone other than a believer. And they went in and I'm sure the believers were thrilled to meet them. And they would say Christ is alive and His being alive is the guarantee that you will live and we're living proof of that. Glorious miracle.
People in all times and cultures have been fascinated with supernatural events. Some out of superstition, some out of avid curiosity, some out of fear, some out of a need to prove that they are actually NOT supernatural, but explainable scientifically. And many practical, down-to-earth, common sense people would probably use these supernatural events that we've read about today as proof that this story couldn't possibly be true and that the whole Bible is just a book of fables. But we who believe that the Bible is true and that all the supernatural events described therein really happened, and that these particular supernatural events were a foreshadowing of what is still to come, need to read these passages and look deeper into what those single sentences are trying to tell us so that we can be prepared when that day comes.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 28:1-19.
1 comment:
Those supernatural events are incredible - especially the saints being raised from the dead. Amazing how many incredible things happened, that people just outright ignored in order to remain in their unbelief.
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