God's Commentary on the Cross

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I invite you to take your Bible this morning and turn to Matthew's gospel, where we'll be studying in just a few moments. This week I was reminded that it was the Persians in the ancient world who created the form of capital punishment that we know as crucifixion. Alexander the Great learned of it from the Persians. He adopted it. In fact, we're told that after he captured the city of Tyre, he crucified some 2,000 of the survivors along the shoreline. And eventually the Romans embraced it as a method of public execution, and they perfected it. Large numbers of people were crucified by Rome. You're familiar with the name Spartacus. History tells us that some 6,000 of the slaves that were captured with him were crucified along the Apian way. Augustus Caesar boasted that he had captured some 30,000 fugitive slaves and all of those who had not been claimed he had crucified. Historians tell us that by the time of Christ, the Romans had crucified 30,000 people in Judea alone. But we don't know a single one of their stories except for Jesus of Nazareth as it's recorded for us in the gospel accounts. For six hours on a Friday, some nineteen-hundred and seventy-six years ago Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on a Roman cross. Today I want us to look at a portion of that account that's reported for us in Matthew's Gospel.

Unlike contemporary attempts to portray the crucifixion of Christ, Matthew has almost nothing to say about the physical torture of crucifixion. In fact, you'll notice in verse 26 he describes the scourging that Jesus endured with a single word. In verse 35, he likewise describes the entire process of crucifixion with a single Greek and English word. Instead of the human suffering, what mattered most to Matthew was what Jesus' death actually meant. Why did He die? And beginning in verse 45, Matthew provides us with the reason. In fact, he gives us God's commentary on the cross. Perhaps you've heard all of your life what this event meant. Maybe you have some ideas of your own. But this morning it's God's turn. I want us all to listen to God's commentary on the cross. You see, through a series of divine miracles that accompanied the death of Jesus Christ, God the Father made His voice heard above the taunting and the ridiculing and the mocking men. I want us to look at the cross, not from the perspective of man, but from the perspective of heaven, as we look at the series of divine miracles that accompanied that momentous event.

The first miracle that day is found in verse 45. It's a supernatural darkness. "Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour." John the Apostle tells us that Jesus was crucified at 9:00 AM on that Friday morning and during the three hours from nine until noon nothing extraordinary happened. The crowd who had gathered there that day taunted Jesus, but that was to be expected. These spectacles of crucifixion had even become a crude sort of public entertainment. Jesus, however, throughout those three hours remained silent except for three brief statements. He addressed one of those statements to God, he said, "Father forgive them, for they don't know what they do." Another of the statements he made during those three hours was addressed to the thief that hung on the cross next to him. He said to that repentant thief "Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise." The silence was only shattered through those three hours by one other statement of Christ, and that was addressed to his mother. As his mother stood there with the apostle John at the foot of the cross, he said "Woman, behold your son" and to the apostle John, he said, "behold, your mother."

But after those three hours from nine to noon, something truly dramatic occurs. At noon, the sky becomes as pitch-black, not as the starless sky, but as a cave buried in the heart of the earth. And it stayed like that for three hours. Matthew tells us the darkness was over all the land. Now that Greek expression could mean the land of Israel, or it could mean the entire earth. We really can't be sure, but probably the darkness covered only the land of Palestine where there would have been a message contained in it. But however widely felt it was, this darkness cannot be explained by natural causes. Some want to say it was an eclipse, but it could not have been because it was Passover and Passover was always at the time of the full moon where the moon was in exactly the wrong location to create an eclipse. No, God miraculously covered the sun over Palestine that day for three hours as His Son hung naked on the cross. Why is it that God sent this darkness? What is the message that God intended to bring to bear about the nature of the suffering that was occurring there? Well, there's been a variety of reasons offered for the darkness that God sent. Some say that the creation itself was showing its respect for the Son of God, its maker. This is popularized in the words we often sing, written by Isaac Watts: "Well might the sun and darkness hide and shut his glories in when God, the mighty maker died from man the creature sin." Others say the darkness was a sign of God's disgust with the blackest of all crimes. You see, the rabbis, and particularly the Babylonian Talmud, taught that the darkening of the sun was God's judgment because of an especially wicked sin. And certainly that was true that day, the world's worst crime, the worst sin ever perpetrated occurred on that Friday. Others say no, the darkness was meant to picture the spiritual blindness of God's own people Israel as they crucified their Messiah. And that was true as well. But the most clearly biblical reason for this darkness was to show something about God. It was to show the judgment of God against sin.

If you trace how God uses darkness throughout the Scripture, you'll see that it always accompanies judgment. It is the absence of light. Isn't it interesting that there'll be no darkness in heaven? For example, if you were to turn to the Prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah's prophecy chapter 13 he writes of God's judgment on the nation of Israel and in verse 10 he says:

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.

You turn to the prophet Amos, you see the same darkness attached to the judgment of God. Amos chapter 8, as he speaks of God's judgment poured out again at Israel at a different time, he says, in verse 9:

"It will come about in that day," declares the Lord God,
"That I will make the sun go down at noon
And make the earth dark in broad daylight.
"Then I will turn your festivals into mourning
And all your songs into lamentation;
And I will bring sackcloth on everyone's loins
And baldness on every head.
And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son,
And the end of it will be like a bitter day.

When you come to the New Testament, you see that same judgment, that sense of impending judgment attached to darkness. Jesus often spoke of the ultimate destiny of those who refused to follow Him as being a place of outer darkness. A pitch-black sky where not the pinpoint of light can be absorbed by the human eye. Total absence of light. That day on Calvary, that day on the cross, there was a display of darkness because God wanted to illustrate, just as He has in the passages we've read, that it was an act of judgment against sin. D.A. Carson writes: "The cosmic blackness of that day hints at the deep judgment that was taking place." Think about it for a moment. If God's wrath and judgment against sin could not be appeased in any other way than in punishing His Son and in bringing darkness upon the earth while He accomplished it. What a terrifying statement it is about God and how God must view our own sin. John Calvin writes: "It was an astonishing display of the wrath of God that He did not spare even His own begotten Son, and was not appeased in any other way than by that price." God's commentary on the cross. To all that had gathered there that day, to all those around the land of Israel was that it was an act of divine judgment on sin. And He showed that through the miracle of supernatural darkness.

The second miracle that day was a divine separation. At noon this darkness settled in across the land of Israel, and from noon until 3 nothing is recorded as having occurred. Simply darkness and silence from the mouth of our Lord. For three hours, from noon until three, that's all that transpired. But about 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon, the gospel records tell us that a series of miraculous events occur in almost staccato fashion. The last three hours Jesus had suffered in silence, and He breaks now the dark silence in verse 46 by crying out with a loud voice in Aramaic, which was the language he spoke: "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" And of course Matthew translates it for us into Greek and our translation into English: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" This is the only place in the Gospels where Jesus ever calls His Father anything but Father. He addresses Him now on the cross as "My God, why have you forsaken me?" Martin Luther the reformer once set himself apart to contemplate and study that statement of our Lord on the cross. It's recorded that for a long time he continued without food in deepest meditation and in one position in his chair. When at length Martin Luther rose from his thoughts, he was heard to exclaim with amazement "God forsaken of God, who can understand that?" That's exactly right. We can never plumb the depths of all of this means. If Jesus himself called out "Why?" then who are we to understand? And yet there is revelation for us here. Matthew tells us it was a loud cry. Matthew wants us to know that Jesus still had a reservoir of physical strength. He also wants us to know that this was the deepest soul-shattering cry of misery that we can imagine. And he also wants us to know that Jesus intended to be heard not only by His Father, but apparently by those who were gathered at the cross that day. Because there's a message in this cry, a message from God about why it is that Jesus died. Forsaken. We speak of a place that is utterly barren and undeserving of human occupation as godforsaken. The cross that day was godforsaken. Perhaps you know what it's like to be forsaken or abandoned by someone you love. Perhaps by a spouse or by child, maybe by a friend. Then try to imagine with the nature of the relationship that Jesus and His Father had enjoyed, what it must have been like for Christ that day. Try to imagine how deep the sense of isolation that must have belonged to Him. You see from eternity past Jesus and the Father had known the most intimate relationship. In fact, the perfect model of all human relationships. As He began His ministry just three years before, as He was baptized you remember a voice spoke from heaven, and the Father said, "this is the Son I love, in whom I am well pleased." Just a few months before this crucifixion at the Transfiguration the disciples heard God again speak from heaven. "While Jesus was still speaking", Matthew 17 says, "a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, this is the Son I love, with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him." But in a miracle of divine love toward us, for the six hours that Jesus hung on that cross, somehow in a way that you and I can never understand, without ceasing to be God, that eternal fellowship and communion between the members of the Godhead was severed. Jesus was separated from the Father and from His love. God forsaken of God, who can understand that?

Why is this? Well, the words that Jesus uses here in this cry from the cross come from Psalm 22 verse 1. "Why have you forsaken me?" the psalmist says. And I think the answer to why comes in two verses later in Psalm 22, verse 3 when the psalmist says, "For you are holy, O you, who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel." God turned on His own Son because he is holy and His Son was bearing our sin. Paul's commentary on this in Romans chapter 3 makes it very clear, Romans chapter 3 verse 25 it says, "God publicly displayed Christ as the satisfaction of His wrath in His blood through faith, that is to demonstrate His righteousness." Listen at the cross God forsook His Son, God abandoned His Son because that day he publicly displayed Him as the object of His wrath. As a Bible teacher of mine used to describe it, it's as if that day there on the cross there was an inverted pyramid coming from heaven and all of the wrath of God that your sins and mind deserve poured out in concentrated form on the person of Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 we read "God made Christ, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." In Galatians 3:13, Paul says "He became a curse for us." God that day cursed Him instead of us. God the Father turned His back on His own Son for us. Listen, do you understand this? That day, if you are in Christ, that day, God treated Jesus as you deserve to be treated. Jesus endured the separation from God that you and I deserve for all eternity, condensed into those six hours. Now notice back in Matthew 27, the crowd's response to this cry of our Lord. In verse 47 we read "And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, 'This man is calling for Elijah'." It's possible that these people really did misunderstand Jesus and thought he was calling for Elijah. But frankly, because of the scenario of what's going on at the cross, it's much more likely that they are just continuing to mock Jesus Christ, even though they're shrouded in darkness. The Old Testament records, of course, that the prophet Elijah didn't die, but was snatched by God into heaven. And so the Jewish tradition taught that he would respond, that His Elijah would respond to the cry of the righteous and the time of their need, and so they're saying maybe he's calling for Elijah to help him. Now, right after this cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? John tells us that Jesus said, "I thirst." And in response to that cry, someone here in verse 48 of Matthew's gospel, someone, and we're not told who it is -maybe a soldier, maybe a bystander- is moved with genuine sympathy and compassion for Christ. Nearby is a jar of cheap, sour wine diluted with vinegar, the common beverage of soldiers and laborers. And this compassionate person takes a sponge, puts it on the end of a short hyssop reed, according to John's gospel. It would have been no longer than 18 inches, you see Christ was not suspended far above the earth, but just enough to hold His body above the earth, and so only a short reed was needed for a person to take that sponge now soaked with sour wine and hold it up to the mouth of Christ and Christ drank it. But verse 49 says that the rest of the people weren't very happy about this intervention. "But the rest of them said, 'Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him'." The cry that Jesus uttered and which these people now ridiculed Him far, was intended by God to be a message about the cross, about what was happening there that day. God told everybody gathered there that day through this cry of His Son, that the death of Jesus Christ was about divine separation from sin and sinners. They were too busy mocking him to listen to the voice of God.

God provides His commentary on the cross. He spoke through the miracle of a supernatural darkness, divine separation. And there's a third miracle through which God speaks here. It's in verse 50. A unique death. "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit." This is really remarkable. You see, usually death by crucifixion was a slow, gradual process of suffocation. Historians tell us that on average, a typical crucified man would last about 36 hours on the cross. With each desperate lunge of the body upward pulling against the nails and pushing up against the nail in the foot, less air was received into the lungs with each motion. And as each hour passed, and as the person grew closer to death, the victim grew weaker and weaker, and before death mercifully came, they were eventually unable to gain even enough air to speak or to whisper. So when Jesus cries out here again with a loud voice, it was a sign to all who understood crucifixion that He was nowhere near death. We can't be sure which of the seven sayings of the cross Jesus spoke here in verse 50, but it's probably the sixth. John records it in John 19:30 "when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!'." There's an eternity of meaning in that expression of our Lord. But that's for another message or series of messages. Matthew adds that after he had uttered those words, He yielded up His spirit. The other gospels tell us that he yielded up His spirit with the words "Father into your hands I commit my spirit." The word yielded up; the Greek word that translated yielded up here literally means "to send away". It's even translated in places in the Gospels as to divorce. It's to send something away. John says Jesus bowed His head and gave up His spirit. John 19:30. The point of the gospel accounts is this: Jesus was sovereign over the exact time of His own death. Through the miracle of Jesus' unique death, God was providing His own commentary on the cross. No one took Jesus' life from him, He gave it up, He yielded it up when He chose. Listen carefully, Jesus did not die because he was crucified. He still had plenty long left. He could have endured for many more hours on that cross, as most crucified victims did. He died because He chose to lay down His life at that exact moment for you and for me. Jesus during His ministry on Earth made this point very clear to His followers. In John Chapter 10 you remember He said, "I am the Good Shepherd", verse 11 of John 10, "the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." Verse 17:

For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.

There's a sense in which we could say Jesus wasn't killed that day. The crucifixion didn't kill Christ, He chose the moment of His death to lay down His life for us. You remember that Pilate was surprised when he learned of Jesus' death that very afternoon because it was much too soon for a crucified victim to die. In fact, to hurry the process with the thieves on each side of Christ so they could get them off their crosses before Passover began at sunset, the soldiers -as was typical in Roman crucifixions- took either a heavy wooden mallet or perhaps an iron bar and literally crushed the lower part of the legs of these men. The purpose was simple: remove the capacity of these men to push up in order to get oxygen and thereby hastening their deaths. But when they came to Jesus, he was already dead. It's because His was a miraculous death. He sent away His spirit. He laid down His life. God wanted everyone to know that Jesus' life was not taken from Him, He laid it down willingly for us. And you know what's remarkable about His sovereign choice of times? It was 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon all the gospel accounts tell us. At that exact moment that Jesus chose to lay down His life, just inside the city walls of Jerusalem there at the temple, the priest was slaying the Passover lamb. Jesus becomes our great Passover lamb. Purposefully laying down His life, sovereignly choosing the time of His death. Certainly this was a unique death.

There was a fourth miracle that day. In verse 51, we discover it was a torn curtain. "And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." Herod's temple was a magnificent piece of architecture. In fact, Herod the Great had initiated a reconstruction project. During his lifetime back around 17 or 18, perhaps 19 BC, and by the time of Jesus' death the construction project had been ongoing for almost 50 years. There were huge courtyards surrounded by beautiful arched balustrades. But the focal point of that huge temple mount was a building, it was the temple proper, and a magnificent building it was. At the front, if you stood at the very front of Herod's temple, you would discover that it was 150 feet high, 50 yards tall and 50 yards wide. It was a massive structure. As you walked inside into the first expansive room you would notice that at the back of this place -called the holy place- at the back of this massive structure, 50 yards high was a small room in the shape of a perfect cube, 30 by 30 by 30. It was the Holy of Holies, is what it was called. It was accessible by only one man once a year. The high priest and he could only enter on the day of Atonement with blood for his own sins and the sins of the people. The Holy of Holies was separated from the rest of the temple, that massive expansive room by a veil, a curtain, and some curtain it was. The Jewish Mishnah tells us that that curtain was 30 feet by 60 feet, made off of 72 squares. It was suspended from four huge gold-covered pillars. Josephus tells us that this curtain this veil was primarily a rich blue and it was beautifully decorated with gold emblems and thread. The Jewish authorities also tell us that this veil, this curtain that separated the Holy of Holies is from the holy place was a handbreadth thick. In other words, that curtain was almost four inches thick. The priest claimed that it took nearly 300 men to handle it. And there was a reason for this curtain. It was there as a barrier. It pictured the distance that sinful people must maintain from the presence of a holy God. But at the moment that Jesus died, the priests who were serving that day heard that huge curtain four inches thick began to rip. And it ripped completely in two, as Matthew puts it, it ripped in two from the top to the bottom. From the top. Intended to be a divine statement, God's commentary on the death of His only Son. But what exactly is the message of this torn curtain? Well, it was the end of symbolism with all of its shadows. It's the end of the priesthood, the end of the sacrificial system. It's the end of a barrier between the sinner and God. Our great high priest had entered into the very presence of God to offer himself as a perfect sacrifice. And unlike the other high priest, Jesus didn't come back out, carefully closing the curtain behind Him; but he tore it from the top to the bottom, and He invited us in. The writer of Hebrews states that in those beautiful words in Hebrews chapter 10. He says in verse 19:

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

The writer of Hebrews says Jesus Christ in His death was the perfect fulfillment of all that that high priest accomplished on the day of Atonement. But instead of offering the blood of an animal, He offered His own blood, and He initiated for us into the presence of God a way, and that way was His own torn body. It was through His death that the presence of God was thrown open to us. Through Christ we can now come to God directly. We need no priest, no sacrifice, no ritual. God the Father wanted us to know that in the death of His Son, a way had been made into His presence for all of those who will turn away from their sins, away from their own way, and follow His Son as Lord and Savior.

God the Father spoke clearly that day. There was a fifth miracle. Last part of verse 51. A major earthquake. "And the earth shook." Like Southern California, where my family lived for 16 years, earthquakes are very common in Israel. In fact, a major fault zone runs beneath the Jordan Rift Valley. Over the last 2000 years, Israel has averaged one major quake every hundred years. Historians record, Josephus specifically records that in 31 BC 10,000 died in an earthquake that struck the land of Palestine. Other historians record that two quakes in the first century AD damaged the Temple, one in 64 AD and another, interestingly enough, in the early 30s AD, maybe a reference to this very quake that Matthew records. God shook one of Israel's faults at the exact moment that Jesus died. And it was a significant quake according to Matthew, the rocks were split, the tombs were open, some of the rock tombs were broken open and rocks, massive boulders split off from their mountainside. What's the message behind the earthquake? On the Bible, earthquakes often accompany the divine presence. You remember it Mount Sinai when the people of Israel gathered around the foot of the mountain, and God himself descended onto the top of that great Mountain. Clouds, dark clouds and lightning was heard. The blowing of a trumpet. We also read in Exodus 19 verse 18 that the whole mountain quaked violently. It was a reminder that God was present. Earthquakes also often portend divine judgment. In Jeremiah 10 verse 10:

But the Lord is the true God;
He is the living God and the everlasting King.
At His wrath the earth quakes,
And the nations cannot endure His indignation.

That day, as Jesus died, God spoke. He sent an earthquake to indicate that His divine presence was there in the death of His Son, and that He would pour out His wrath on men for their complicity in that death. God gave His commentary on the cross through the miracle of a supernatural darkness, a divine separation, a unique death, a torn curtain, a major earthquake, and He also spoke to the miracle of an unexplained resurrection. The second half of verse 52 says "And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many." Now, this particular portion of Matthew's Gospel has some very difficult issues in the Greek language, and a number of suggestions have been made to solve them. I think it's probably best to put a full stop after the statement "the tombs were open." The tombs were cracked open as a result of the earthquake. Then I think Matthew jumps ahead in time to Sunday for a moment to tell us what came of those open tombs. You see, after Jesus' resurrection, many bodies of the Saints who had fallen asleep were raised. We don't know who these people were. We don't know if they were, as some believe, Old Testament believers, perhaps even heroes of the faith, or if they were people who had been alive during the ministry of Christ, but who had since died. But regardless, after Jesus' resurrection they were raised. They came out of the tombs. They entered the city of Jerusalem, and they appeared to many, presumably to believers, just as Jesus did after His resurrection. You know, I'm always struck with the question of why Jesus and these who were raised didn't show themselves to others beyond the disciples and followers of Christ. Why not to the rest of the Jews? Why not to Pilate? Why not to Herod? I think it's because this message from God about the death of His Son was not intended for unbelievers, it was intended for us who believe. It's the message of Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20 says:

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming.

You see the resurrection of these believers from their tombs was a reminder of the reality: there's another resurrection coming. The Christ was merely the first fruits, and there's a full harvest coming of those who will be raised from the dead. It was 22 years ago last night that I was sitting in my apartment as a seminary student reading this very passage, 1 Corinthians 15, it was the Saturday night before Easter. I was reading this passage and suddenly the phone rang. On the other end was one of my older brothers telling me that my dad had just died of a massive heart attack. I can't tell you how comforting it was to read that Christ's resurrection was a preview of coming attractions, that because He lives, we too shall live and all of those who love Him and are in Him. He was the first fruits and God punctuated the reality that in the death of His Son, death itself was condemned and will someday die. The sting, in the words of 1Corinthians 15, has been plucked, its victory overrule. If you're in Christ, let me tell you your death is not final. The death of those you love who've died in Christ, it's not final. This resurrection it's God's commentary that there would be life that would come out of His Son's death.

God performed one more miracle that day to show us what the cross really means, found in verse 54. A miraculous conversion: "Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus." As I mentioned to you last week, every crucifixion was overseen by 4 seasoned veterans of the Roman army. One of the men was usually a Centurion. Centurion, of course, over about 100 men. The centurions were the backbone of the Roman army. These were men who were known for their courage, for their integrity. Unlike perhaps officers that were over them who had been appointed to that place simply because of their last name, because of who they knew, the centurions were men who were in their positions because they had earned it. They were widely respected. But they were not kind, gracious men. Roman soldiers were career soldiers. They were forbidden to marry, and if they were married when they entered the service, they were forced to divorce their wives and to abandon their families. There was no family life whatsoever for a Roman soldier, nothing to temper the natural male tendency, particularly in this setting to cruelty and coldness. And this man like the three soldiers under his charge that day was undoubtedly, as Scripture even presents him, a hardened, profane, callous and irreligious man. He apparently joined the rest of his companions that morning in hitting and spitting and ridiculing the Lord Jesus Christ. It's been just a few hours, but a lot has happened since then. He's watched as the intense hatred of the crowd that gathered that day pours out against this man on the center cross. It seemed Jesus remained silent before all of that instead of cursing like so many who were crucified did. He heard all seven of our Lord's last sayings. He's sat in that mysterious darkness for three hours, wondering what might be the message of the gods. And then he listened as Jesus dismissed His own life, that Centurion knew death, he knew what death by crucifixion was like. And he knew that the crucified died in a whimper, unable to even speak, and here Jesus shouts with a loud voice and yields up His spirit. He felt the earthquake at the death of Christ. And with all of that, the Gospel of Matthew reaches its crescendo. Here is the high point. Here is what Matthew has been driving toward through all of the words he's written, and it's left to a gentile at a Roman soldier to deliver the line. But he's not just speaking for himself, it says that the other soldiers, the other three, had exactly the same response. Verse 54: "when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, they became very frightened" (the Greek word is stronger than our English word very it's actually a word that means extremely), "they became extremely terrified and said, 'Truly this was the Son of God!'". As the other Gospels record, they said this was a righteous man, He didn't deserve this, He was the Son of God. Those who are the enemies of Christ have made much of the Greek construction of this expression. They've said that it could mean a Son of God, or it could mean the Son of God, and that's true. But as is often the case with Greek language, the context explains exactly the meaning, and in this case the context demands that it mean the Son of God. You see, these men had heard the accusations made against Christ that morning. They had heard what Jesus had claimed his trial before the Sanhedrin. They had heard that he had said that he was the Son of God. Blaspheming Israel's God by claiming to be equal with Him, and that's why he was charged, that's why he was dying. The soldiers had heard the enemies of Christ gathered around the cross, throw that back at him and say "if you're the Son of God, then rescue yourself." Now these soldiers understood exactly what they were saying. These profane men heard Jesus' claims to be the unique one-of-a-kind Son of God, to be as the expressions put it "God the Son", and they were convinced that His claims were true. Can you imagine for a moment what it was like for these men? You would have been extremely terrified as well. What if you in the in the display of your duty, carrying out your orders as they've been given to you as you've done many times before, were part of the detail that crucified Christ assuming He was an ordinary man, and as you watch the events unfold that day, and after six hours, and he cries out in death, you realize that you have literally crucified the Son of God.

Their confession appears earlier in Matthew's gospel from the mouth of the Apostles. In Chapter 14, verse 33, in almost the exact same Greek words: "Those who were in the boat worship Jesus, saying you are certainly God's Son." They're claiming exactly what the apostles of Christ claimed of who he was. This is a miracle of God's grace. I am confident we will see these four soldiers in heaven. You see, five times, five times in six hours God has answered the prayer of His Son for the forgiveness of others. First, with the repentant thief and now these four hardened profane soldiers who witnessed the death of the Son of God and came to Christ. You see, by making these men followers of Christ, by saving them from their sins, God was making the point that the death of His Son was all about rescuing sinners from their sins and his coming wrath against it. Amazing thing. But you know, as wonderful as the miracle of conversion was, it was the exception that day. Most of the people gathered at the cross had an entirely different response. Luke records it for us, Luke 23:48: "And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts." Now, don't miss this point: most of the people walked away from the crucifixion knowing about Jesus, about his claims, about his death. They had witnessed all the same miracles that we've just studied that these Roman soldiers saw. They saw God's commentary on this monumental event. And they even felt bad about it. They went away beating their breast as if a wrong had been done, it affected them deeply emotionally. But they never did anything about it. You know, I was struck with that this week and I found myself wondering how many times does that happen today? Let me ask you: how many times have you done exactly the same thing as this crowd that witnessed the crucifixion of Christ? Perhaps you grew up in a home where you heard what I'm telling you today until you could preach the sermon yourself. You've heard about the crucifixion. You've been to dozens of Easter services like this one. And perhaps you've even been deeply emotionally stirred, just like that crowd. Perhaps it's made you more sober, more contemplative. But if you're honest with yourself like that crowd that day, you've left each time unchanged. The same person you've always been, still in love with your sin whatever expression that takes in your life. You still make all the calls about what you're going to do. You're still Lord and master. The theme song of your life is still in Sinatra's words, "I did it my way." You might call yourself a Christian, but you know in your heart that you are not a genuine follower of Jesus Christ. It's all charade, it's a facade. Matthew has presented the evidence today, what's your response going to be? Are you going home with the crowd? Sad about what you've heard, sad about the scene that was displayed that day, but tomorrow resumes your life as it's been before? Or will you -like the Centurion- willingly fall and worship at the feet of Christ, acknowledging him to be your Lord, your savior, your sovereign, your king.

Let's pray together. Our Father, our hearts are deeply stirred by what we've read and studied today. Thank you for how clearly you spoke through the miracles that day to tell us exactly what the significance of the death of Christ was. Lord, we thank you for the clarity of your word. We thank you for its power to reach inside our hearts. Indict us, remind us of who you are and who we are. Lord, I pray today for all of us who are truly followers of Christ. Not just those who call Him Lord, Lord, but we who do what He says as He Himself said. Father, I pray that you would work in our hearts. That you would give us a deeper devotion to Christ, a greater desire to follow Him. Lord help us to praise you and exalt you for your grace and love poured out at Calvary. We're amazed that you treated Jesus that day as we deserve to be treated, so that you could treat us for all eternity as he deserves. Father, I pray for those here this morning who come perhaps for the first time, perhaps they've been to many services like this one. But they recognize themselves in the crowd, the crowd that leaves emotionally affected but unchanged. Father, I pray that today you would strip away the many layers of false professions, of religious practice, of self-deception. I pray that today they would see themselves as you see them: lost and undone, the enemies Christ and headed toward Christ-less eternity. I pray that today would be the day that you would produce in their hearts what you produced in the heart of the Centurion and those other soldiers that were with him that day: genuine faith in our Lord Jesus Christ for his glory. And in His name I pray. Amen