Good Friday Service: Matthew 27:45-56
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As a church, we have spent the last four weeks studying Isaiah 53. An Old Testament passage that vividly foretold the horrific yet glorious events which occur in Matthew 27 and 28. In a way Isaiah 53 is a giant sign that points us to the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It validates Jesus’ true identify as God’s faithful and Suffering Servant, and it authenticates the sufficiency of His sacrifice for the sins of man.
In Matthew 27:45-56, the text that I just read, we see more signs. Miraculous signs that make it crystal clear that everything changed when the Messiah poured out His life as a guilt offering for our sin. Tonight, I aim to draw your attention to the signs that assure us that Christ’s death on the cross appeased both God’s wrath and justice toward your sin. I want us to explore together how these signs grant us a living hope that both sin and death have been defeated once and for all, for everyone who repents and believes in Christ. Notice with me the signs of Matthew 27:45-56 that certify the great significance of Christ’s death on the cross.
1) The darkness of God’s judgment.
Verse 45 reads… “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.” Darkness fell! By nature, people are notcomfortable in the dark. With our young children we often place night lights in their room, because we know how the dark can be uncomfortable and scary. Even in the Creation account recorded in Genesis 1, we can easily see how vital light was, as it created very close to the beginning. Our text informs us that from the 6th hour to the 9th hour, that would be 12 noon till about 3pm, the earth went completely dark. This certainly was a supernatural sign, as this is the time of day when the sun would be its brightest and most intense. This wasn’t a dark thunderstorm, nor was it an eclipse that simply occurred, for it transpired not in minutes but hours. John Calvin wrote “this supernatural darkness was an incomparable proof of God’s anger towards sin.” This darkness was surely a sign of divine judgment on our sin that Christ bore on the cross. For God is too holy to even look upon sin. You see the One who had come and entered our sinful and dirty world as the very incarnation of light had now become the incarnation of darkness. When He was born there was supernatural light displayed in the sky, a new star that led the wise men to worship the newborn King, and yet in His death there was supernatural darkness, to proclaim the darkness of our sin.
Notice also that verse 45 tell us that darkness covered all the land. This was not an isolated event outside of Jerusalem, but the entire world darkened at this moment. The Greek word used here is ekleipo, which is the term from which the English word eclipse is derived from, but interestingly, the word literally means failing or ceasing to exist. If this was an eclipse, then no doubt it that was a supernatural one meant to reveal something significant was occurring. Perhaps the Lord cast dark clouds and deep gloom across the face of the earth to say, meteorologically, naturally, physically, and in sign language that “judgment has come.”
The Old Testament, testifies to the darkness that will occur during God’s judgment. In Isaiah 13:10-11… “For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.” No doubt, the cross was a place of immense divine judgement, where the wrath of God was poured out onto the innocent, righteous, and perfect Lamb of God. At that moment in history, the world grew quickly and strangely dark to signify that God could no longer look upon His Son who had become our sin, and this explains what occurs next. Notice the second sign, if you will, that…
2) The Righteous and Holy One is forsaken.
Verse 46 tells us that three hours of darkness, and countless hours of silence, Jesus, the very Word of God speaks. He cries out, meaning He shouts or yells, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus was not simply quoting Psalm 22 when He loudly spoke these words, for He was in true darkness, completely separated from the Father so that we may never be. I have been told that the closest experience to hell on earth is to be abandoned by someone you love. Death, desertion, divorce, and even rejection, Jesus personally knew this hell and He descended into it. His loneliness was complete… His disciples abandoned him, the crowds that once praised Him and shouted Hosanna in the Highest, now curse and mock him, and we are told that the Father turned His back on His Son. This was perhaps Jesus’ greatest agony, greater than the physical pain, was this separation that He experienced from His Father and closest friends.
Psalm 22 fits this occasion perfectly and so Jesus uses this passage that He knew so well to express His grief. Inspired by the Spirit, the psalmist prophesied this psalm a thousand years before it occurred. Just consider Psalm 22: 6-8… “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
If we had time to probe the depths of Psalm 22, you would discover that the psalm much like Isaiah 53, prophetically and vividly describe the realities of a Calvary. The Psalm describes dislocated limbs, a failing heart, terrible thirst, pierced hands and feet, even gambling over the clothes of the condemned. But the chapter begins with the words “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” You see, the only Righteous One, though He remained fully righteous while He hung on the cross had become sin to God. Notice that the desire of His heart is nothing but fellowship with God. He’s Holy, but at this moment in time God accepted Him as a sin offering, whose blood was shed for those who would believe. Therefore, God justly treated His only Son as a sinnner so that He can forgive us and treat as Holy and righteous! You see when God looks at the cross of Calvary, He sees us, He sees our sin, and our shame; but when He looks at those who believe in Him, He sees Christ, His righteousness, and His holiness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 reads… “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” He was forsaken so that we might be forgiven. There is a third sign we must consider tonight…Notice…
3) The sacrificial nature of Christ’s work on the cross.
In verse 50 we read that Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. The time was 3pm. The exact time the chief priests would make the Passover sacrifice in the temple. That’s when we read this phrase that Christ yielded His spirit to the Father. This act clearly reveals that the Messiah was completely sovereign over every detail of His suffering. It is as if the fully obedient Servant of God– the very moment His heart was about to rupture, or His lungs asphyxiate, or right at the second He was to bleed out, whatever the ailment was, He never lost control, as He handed His Father His very last breath as a gift of worship, as He literally became our Passover lamb.
Yet, right before this darkest moment of time we hear one last cry. The Gospel of John said He cried out: IT is FINISHED! (John 19:30). It’s literally one Word in the Greek language: Tetelestai, which interestingly carries two profound meanings: 1) It can mean paid in full. As a term used when paying off a tax or a debt. In other words, Jesus paid in full the debt of our sin the very moment He breathed His last. Yet, Secondly, 2) It can mean, It is finished! Implying that a task has been completed. By dying on the cross Jesus fulfilled the task that God had given Him to do. John 4:34… “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”’ Jesus’ atoning death on the cross, was His mission, His assignment given by God alone, and when Jesus yielded His spirit, it was perfectly completed. For it was finished! And make no mistake, Jesus’ life was never taken from Him, instead He laid His life down as a guilt offering, so that we could be completely forgiven. And when Jesus’ breathed His last, notice three more confirming signs that occur rather quickly.
4) The veil was torn welcoming us into God’s presence.
We are told in verse 51, that the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, signifying that God Himself tore the veil in two. This huge woven and decorated veil separated the Holy of Holies, the dwelling place of God, from the rest of the Temple. This veil symbolized the barrier of our sin that kept us out of God’s presence.
Once a year, and only once a year, and only for a very brief moment in time, the high priest alone was allowed to pass beyond the veil into God’s presence. On the Day of Atonement, the priest would enter the Holy of Holies to sprinkle blood on the alter for the sins of the people. This ritual had to repeated year after year, anticipating a greater and final sacrifice for sin, it anticipated a perfect atoning sacrifice for the sins of man, that the Servant of God Himself, would one day offer.
When Jesus completed His sacrificial work on Calvary, there was no longer a need for this veil, so God symbolically and joyfully tore the barrier in two. The entire Epistle to the Hebrews is commentary on the veil that was torn that day. We should read it often with wide eyed wonder to celebrate this wonderful truth that we have direct access to God through Christ. Hebrews 10:19-22 perhaps says it best… “Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy placed by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
Think of the irony here, it’s through Jesus’ momentary separation from the Father- where He cried out to God, why have You forsaken Me?-, it was through that separation that the entire world has been granted eternal fellowship with God, through faith in Christ. That’s the beautiful sign and lesson of the veil that God tore apart the moment His Son perfectly fulfilled His will, as He died on the cross!
5) The ground violently shook in response to the redemption offered by the Lamb.
God gives us an eye-opening earthy inclusio right before and after Jesus’ death. Before Jesus died the earth turned black, and immediately after Jesus’ dies the ground shakes. Verse 51 also proclaims that the earth shook and rocks were split. It is as if the earth is shouting to its inhabitants that something seismic was occurring. The sun hid and the earth shook as God judged our sin on the cross. This earthquake wishes to say to all mankind throughout history that Jesus’ death is like no other death in all the world.
Now, the Old Testament again grants us insight into the significance of the earthquake being another sign of God’s anger and judgment. King David in Psalm 18:7 and in Psalm 77:18 would sing of the earth’s shaking and trembling when Yahweh became angry. The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah also spoke of the earth quaking as a result to the Lord’s wrath. And then finally, in the book of Revelation chapter 6, we are told of the mountains and the islands will be “moved out of their places” during the final judgement. Make no mistake, the earth shook as God dealt with man’s sin through the death of His Son. Judgement had occurred, and a greater grace and mercy had been poured out to man and the earth couldn’t remain still!
What another glorious sign, that the death of Jesus on the cross, was something far greater than simply a man dying on a cross, or even an innocent man dying on a cross, but rather it was the holy Son of God, the Righteous One, who had just appeased the Father’s wrath over our sin. Everything changed at that moment in time, forgiveness, grace, and hope were available to those who repent from their sin and believe! But there I one last sign that is so important to note, and it serves as an appetizer to our time together on resurrection Sunday…
6) The resurrection of the saints who long awaited the Messiah.
The final sign is revealed in verses 52-53 and it is the greatest by far! Out the gospel writers, Matthew is the only one who gives us this amazing detail. We must remember the Jews did not bury people in the ground, instead they buried them in tombs, usually hollowed-out spaces in the rock. It was quite possibly the earthquake that opened many of these tombs on Good Friday, but on Easter Sunday, along with the resurrection of Jesus, some of those who were in those tombs were also raised from the dead, and they came into the holy city and were seen by many people. It’s as if Matthew can’t wait to tell the Easter story, so he includes this miraculous resurrection detail here in his telling of the Good Friday events.
The lack of details in these two verses beg many questions: Who were these saints? Did they die again, or did they like Jesus ascend into heaven? What did they say? What was their story? Matthew answers none of these questions. His aim is simply to stress one point: Jesus’ death crushed the very power of death, and His death is as retroactive into the past as it is proactive into the future! Those who live by faith in the Lamb of God, in Jesus the Messiah, are saved. Those in the Old Testament who lived by faith longing for the Christ to appear, looking forward to his coming were saved by that faith, and those of us who look back in time to the cross and behold the Lamb in faith are also saved. His death is that effective! His death triggers the resurrection of all who believe. Jesus’ death secures and guarantees the resurrection of those who call Him Lord and live for Him. You see in Jesus’ death, He removed the sting of the grave, so that death now is not a punishment for our sin, but transition to a better place, to a more wonderful reality. A place where there is no pain, no suffering, no tears, and better yet, there is no sin. This is a holy place reserved only for those who live by faith in Christ crucified.
These miraculous signs that occurred the hours before and the days after Jesus’ death prove that Jesus was truly the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of man. The earth grew dark, the Son was forsaken, He yielded His life to the Father, the veil was torn, the earth shook, and saints who long awaited their Savior, rose from the dead. So convincing were these signs that the Roman centurion and the soldiers who earlier mocked, beat, and crucified Jesus would conclude in verse 54… “Truly this was the Son of God!!!!” It was Friday afternoon when Christ died, and if you have your Bible open look with me to verses 57-61, it reads… “As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 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. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.”
That evening, the marred dead body of Christ was placed in a tomb, there His lifeless body grew cold. And that is where we end tonight. Jesus was dead, crucified, and laid in a tomb. And that is where we must leave the story tonight. Broken over our sin that the Savior bore on the cross. Good Friday calls us to behold the cross of Calvary and stand in awe of God’s love for us. It challenges us to die to ourselves, to turn from our sinful ways, take up our own cross, and follow Christ’s humble example. Sunday, we will return to celebrate the empty tomb, but tonight we embrace the darkness of the cross, the cold nature of the grave, and allow it to lead us into lifestyle of repentance. Church family, don’t just feel this night, live this night! Live in brokenness over your sin, live in light of the cross, live in Christ who died so that you may live… Pray with me…