Matthew 27:45-56
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, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
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 split 52 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 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, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
The 10 Stages of Christ’s Suffering in Matthew
1: Jesus’s agony in Gethsemane 6: Jesus led away to crucifixion
2: Jesus’s betrayal and arrest 7: Jesus crucified
3: Jesus turned over to Pilate. 8: Jesus insulted and mocked
4: Jesus is flogged 9: Jesus’s cry of abandonment
5: Jesus’s robe and crown of thorns. 10: Jesus dies
The solar eclipse
“In the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad, there was a great eclipse of the sun, greater than had ever been known before, for at the 6th hour the day was changed into night and the stars were seen in the heavens. An earthquake occured in Bithynia and overthrew a great part of the city of Nicea.” –Phlegon Roman historian
The context: Utter darkness sometime between July of 32 to June of 33.
The cry: Eli Eli lama sabachthani (My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?)
The linguistic lens: the multi-lingual suffering Savior
The communicative lens: the danger of presuppositions
2 Cor. 5:21
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” NIV
The death of Christ: the surrounding events
1. An earthquake and resurrection 2. The Temple curtain torn
‘If His sacrificial death has the immediate power to resurrect a few nearby tombs, what does the full expression of his sacrificial resurrection envision for humanity?’
The Closing Snapshot: Society’s most unlikely
1. The Romans. 2. The Women
The Jewish Prayer: God I thank you that I am not a Gentile, a slave or a woman
“It is not a slight rent through which we may see a little; but it is rent from the top to the bottom. There is an entrance made for the greatest of sinners. If there had been only a small hole cut through it, the lesser offenders might have crept through; but what an act of abounding mercy is this, that the veil is rent in the midst, and rent from top to bottom, so that the chief of sinners may find ample passage!” –Spurgeon
Communion: Direct access to God.
Hebrews 10:19-20 NIV
