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Part 4 of 16
Matthew 27:45–56
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We find ourselves near the end of our three-year journey through the Gospel of Matthew, approaching our final series called "Cross to Commission," where we study Matthew 26–28 together. Our text today comes from Matthew 27:45–56, a passage that reveals one of the most significant moments in human history.
Throughout history, empires like Rome executed millions of people through crucifixion—somewhere between 300,000 and 2 million during Rome's reign. These were nameless faces whose lives had little bearing on history. Yet there was one man who was crucified during Rome's reign whose execution changed everything. Because of that one man, all of society is split into years BC (before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini—in the year of our Lord).
In 1968, archaeologists discovered a skeleton in Jerusalem with a seven-inch spike through the ankle bone, testifying to the brutal reality of crucifixion. But his name had no bearing on society. However, the one man executed by Rome whose name is known throughout all of history is Jesus Christ—the Lamb of God who hung between two criminals, bearing spikes through His wrists and ankles.
Matthew records in Matthew 27:45: "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour." Mark tells us that Christ was crucified at the third hour—9:00 a.m. So Jesus hung in the light for three hours, during which time He spoke from the cross.
In those first three hours of light:
At 12 noon, an ominous darkness came over the land of Palestine. This was not an eclipse, nor a sandstorm—God Almighty turned out the lights of the sun. God used creation to grieve over the Creator who had now been hanging on that cross for three hours.
Seven hundred years before the crucifixion, the prophet Amos prophesied this very moment. In Amos 8:9, God declared: "I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight." At 12:00 in the afternoon, as the Lamb of God hung on the cross, God fulfilled that ancient prophecy.
Throughout the Old Testament, darkness is synonymous with judgment. When darkness shows up, judgment shows up. God was not only using creation to grieve the dying Creator, but also using creation to speak a message: judgment was coming upon humanity—judgment upon sin. From the cross, God declared His hatred for sin and all works of iniquity.
As Christ hung in darkness, He was silent. What was happening was that Christ was becoming sin for you and me. He was so overwhelmed by what was occurring that for almost three hours He said nothing. The Father was making the Son sin.
The Apostle Paul would later write about this moment in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
In those second three hours of pitch blackness, the Father was laying upon the Son the sins of all humanity—past, present, and future. Christ was absorbing sin; Christ was becoming sin. What Christ was feeling was worse than the nails, worse than His beating, worse than His scourging, worse than His mocking, worse than the crown of thorns. The worst thing Christ felt that day was absorbing all your sin debt and mine.
The Man who had never known sin, the Man who had never committed sin, now absorbed and became sin. Those of us who have grown in maturity and hate our sinful nature can barely comprehend the weight of what Jesus felt in that moment. We cannot even conceive of bearing the sins of every man, woman, and child for all eternity.
The evidence that the Lord was feeling the pain of becoming sin comes in verse 46. At about the ninth hour—three hours later—Jesus cried out with a loud voice: "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
The Scripture says in Habakkuk that God cannot look upon sin. Now God, who is so holy, had to turn His back on the Son. For the first and only time, the Father and Son who had been in perfect fellowship for the endless ages of eternity now experienced a breach in their fellowship.
For the first time, Christ felt what we are born into—separation from God. Because of this separation, He cried out in the blackness: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
But notice the word "my." Even in feeling abandoned, Jesus put ownership in front of God. He did not say "God, God, why have you abandoned me?" but "My God, my God." This shows us the Christian ethic of what it means to be in a difficult season when God feels distant, when He is not answering our prayers or moving on our behalf—yet we do not rob ourselves of the confession that we are still in fellowship with Him, that we still trust in the Person who has turned His back.
This is a reminder for all of us in seasons of hardship, trials, and difficulty. Although we may feel like the Lord is far from us or not listening to our prayers, we must not allow our emotions to override our theology. Although we may be in pain, we will not be forsaken. The Lord has not abandoned us.
The bystanders hearing Jesus cry "Eli, Eli" misunderstood His words. In Hebrew, "My God" sounds very similar to "Elijah." Elijah was a prophet whom God raptured—a man who never saw physical death. The bystanders thought Jesus was calling for Elijah to rescue him. They said, "Let us wait to see whether Elijah will come to save him."
They thought Jesus was hanging on the cross because of nails, but He was hanging there because of love—absorbing the sin debt of yours and mine. They misinterpreted what He was saying from the cross.
This happens to us. We hear the Word of God preached to us and we misinterpret what God is saying, and as a result we close our hearts to the revelation we should be receiving. Whenever the Word is being preached with fidelity, integrity, and theological clarity, that is an opportunity to repent, to be changed, to be challenged, to be corrected, to be inspired, to be encouraged, to be coached, to be led back to God's Word, to be strengthened, to be renewed, to be guided, to be healed.
One man had compassion and ran out to give Jesus a drink. The rest continued to mock Him while He was dying.
In verse 50, one of the most important verses in all of Scripture, Matthew writes: "Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit." His last words were, "It is finished." (John recorded these final words.)
In this moment, Christ had accomplished the mission for which He was sent. He came to die to make a way of escape for humanity who could not deal with their own sin debt. Christ yells to all humanity: "It is finished. I have now paid the full debt of sin and have satisfied the wrath of God towards humanity."
Now mankind has the opportunity to receive righteousness, so that when they die they can be justified before a holy God. Without this moment, no person could be justified before God. No person would be headed to heaven.
What about the Old Testament saints? They were the same recipients of grace that we are right now. God does not live in time. That is why God says Jesus was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Although the crucifixion happened in time (AD 33), those in the Old Testament who placed their faith in God, He credited to them the grace of the cross retroactively. That is why Abraham is in glory, David is in glory, Ruth is in glory, and Esther is in glory. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Notice that Matthew says after Jesus cried out, He gave up His spirit. This means nobody took His life. When the gospel writers write about the death of Jesus, they write about it with a theology of voluntariness—the Lord's life was not taken from Him. When He saw you and when He saw me, He laid His life down.
Anyone else being executed would have been exhausted by this time. But Matthew tells us in detail: "He cried out with a loud voice"—to show us that He still had the strength to keep hanging there if He wanted to. But when He was ready, when He had finished absorbing sin, when He had done the work the Father sent Him to do, He said, "It is finished."
The Lord stayed alive long enough to deal with your sin debt. And when He paid the price for your sin in full, He said, "Now into your hands, Lord, I commit my spirit." He stayed alive long enough to make sure that when you die, you would remain alive. He stayed alive long enough to make sure that your body would not remain in a grave. He stayed alive long enough to take care of what your good behavior, your church attendance, and your morality could never take care of.
When Christ said "It is finished" and gave up His spirit, God from heaven unleashed apocalyptic events on the earth to make sure the whole world knows that they just crucified His Son.
In verse 51: "Behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook. And the rocks were split. And the tombs were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised from the dead. And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city of Jerusalem and appeared to many."
In the temple, there was a massive curtain—thick, ornate, impossible to rip with hands. It separated the holiest place in the temple from every other place. Once a year, a priest would have to go behind that curtain to make a temporary atonement for the sins of men. That curtain represented the separation of God from human beings.
But when Christ died, God took His finger and ripped the curtain from the top all the way down to the bottom. This signified to all humanity: "No longer will My presence dwell away from you. Now all people have access directly to Me."
The Christian has access. The repentant sinner has access. The unknown writer of Hebrews says we should approach His throne boldly. Because of the death of Christ, you and I have access to a holy God. This sinful man from Queens, New York—I have access to a holy God who allows me to come into His presence through a whisper and prayer because blood made it possible.
How then can we see prayer as a chore and not as a joy and a liberty? Any place, any time, anywhere, in any posture, I can go into the presence of my Savior. No matter what is going on in my life, I can approach Him.
God shook the entire earth when Christ died, so that people in Jerusalem would know this was not some ordinary man, and people on the other side of the world would have felt something had happened in the year AD 33. He shook the entire globe, and He will shake it again when Christ returns in glory and power to set up His kingdom in Jerusalem.
Because of the massive earthquake, tombs that stayed above ground shattered on Friday. Then, two days later on Sunday, those bodies came out of those tombs. They walked into the city and knocked on the doors of family members. "I was once dead. Somehow I am alive." God was testifying to the power of the cross to deal with death and the hope of the resurrection that was coming.
There is no need to fear death, because if we are in Christ, we will not sleep. Our bodies will not see decay. People may mourn at my funeral while I am walking the streets of gold. So we fear who? For what?
When the centurion—the boss of those who had persecuted Christ—and those with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and what had taken place, they were filled with awe. Even the ones who nailed Him to that cross testified of His identity: "Truly, this was the Son of God."
I don't have to fight to prove my identity to anybody. The Lord knows how to vindicate all His children. Make all the videos about me you want. We will see in the end who was real and who was fake.
Many women were there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him. Among them were Mary Magdalene (from whom He cast out seven demons), Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee, James and John.
While men abandoned Him, women stayed close to Him. They were faithful. They were devoted. They were dedicated. To all women, this is what Jesus wants of you. And to all men, these are the women we should honor—women we should love for their devotion, not just try to abuse with infatuation. Where we see godly women like this, honor them.
There is the message of the cross: In the cross, God condemns sin. In the cross, God speaks hope. And on the cross, He hung up the Savior of the world.
You and I should have a unified response to the cross. Whenever we see it on top of a steeple, swinging from somebody's neck, tattooed on somebody's arm—wherever we see the cross, it should give us a hatred for sin, a hatred for the thing that put Christ there. And it should speak to us a type of hope for the future.
Whenever I see the cross, I see the image of God's love for me and for all humanity. When I see the cross, I see the thing I must despise—sin. When I see the cross, I see the hope of my future resurrection. When I see the cross, I see the One who absorbed my sin debt.
The only response to the cross is a life fully surrendered. Any other response is unacceptable.
To the unbeliever listening right now: Throw yourself down at the foot of the cross and cry out for mercy and for the forgiveness of your sins, lest you die and be separated from God in judgment for all of your life, for the endless ages of eternity.
To the son and daughter of God under the sound of my voice: Look upon the cross. From that place, begin to hate the sin in your own hearts, the sin of your own mouths, the sin of your own thoughts, the sin of your own lives. From the cross, have hope for your future. And from the cross, be compelled to live for the One who fully absorbed your sin debt—the One who died in the dark, that we may live in the light.
May our eyes, our hearts, and our lives be burned by the message of the cross, and may we never be the same.
