Lesson 11 - Matthew 27:41-52
LAST WEEK (Mt. 26:63-75): We covered Jesus' trial before the Sanhedrin and then Peter's denials of Jesus when confronted in the courtyard. What two important points of application did we take away from those verses?
THIS WEEK: In this week's lesson we come to Jesus during the final stage of His crucifixion and events surrounding Him just before His death. All of you are certainly familiar with the details of the gruesome Roman practice of crucifixion. It was probably the most painful and cruel method of execution ever devised by man. Matthew did not state whether or not he saw the event in person or learned the details from others who were present. In any case, he presents a factual account that places emphasis on how Jesus willingly endured the humiliation and agony of the cross in order to pay the price of redemption for us.
Summary of Mt. 27:1-40-Skipped:
vv.3-9: Judas changed his mind and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and then went and hanged himself. While the verses indicated regret, it is not considered true repentance.
vv.11-26: Jesus is delivered to Pilate, the Roman governor, for execution of the death sentence. When Pilate addressed the crowds and according to custom, offered to release a prisoner awaiting execution, the people shouted for the release of Barabbas, a notorious criminal. When he asked the crowd about Jesus, and said, "Why, what evil has he done?" The people shouted, "Let Him be crucified!" Jesus was then scourged and delivered to be crucified. Scourging was a Roman punishment where the victim would be tied to a post and beaten with a leather whip interwoven with bits of bone and metal that literally flensed the flesh from the victim.
vv.27-31: Tells of how the Roman soldiers mocked Him, spit on Him, and put a crown of thorns on His head, before they led Him away to crucify Him.
vv.32-40: As Jesus was too weak to carry the cross, the soldiers forced Simon of Cyrene (N. Africa) to carry it. Reaching Golgotha, the soldiers nailed Him to the cross, divided his clothes by casting lots, and put a sign on the cross that read, "this is Jesus, the King of the Jews." Two robbers were crucified with Him, one on each side. Many passers by, probably visitors during Passover, mocked Him and challenged His claims.
41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying,42 "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
v.41: "chief priests...scribes and elders, mocked Him..." - Here we see the highest levels of Israel's religious elite seeking one more opportunity to take stabs at Jesus, adding their insults to His physical suffering and agony. In their remarks, notice that the religious officials are not addressing Jesus directly but mocking Him with contempt before the crowd present.
v.42a: "He saved others...cannot save himself" - They had probably heard reports of Jesus' healing miracles but to them He appeared unable to help Himself.
v.42b: "let Him come down...we will believe" - This is a malicious and utterly false joke. Jesus had the divine power to rescue Himself, to call a legion of angels, but He did not because of His love for humanity-to complete the mission He came to accomplish.
v.43a: "let God deliver Him, if He desires Him..." - They implied that if God truly cared about Jesus, He would certainly come to His rescue; however, they had it totally upside down; Jesus was there because He was performing His Father's will, taking the cup filled with God's wrath.
v.43b: "Son of God" - This claim by Jesus (Mt. 26:63) formed the basis of the blasphemy charge for which he was being crucified. In other words, if that was so, they asked, why had God refused to rescue His Son. In that, they were completely, utterly, spiritually blind.
v.44: "robbers...also reviled Him..." - With the mockery of the two criminals hanging on either side of Him, Jesus' rejection by His people is complete-even the robbers rejected Him. (Although according to Lk. 23:39-43, one of the robbers later repented and trusted Christ.)
Read Matthew 27:45-49 - Foresaken
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land[b] until the ninth hour.[c] 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, "This man is calling Elijah." 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.49 But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him."
v.45: "sixth hour...darkness...ninth hour" - On Roman time, from noon to 3:00 p.m. The darkness, unusual for that time of the day, lasted 3 hours, much longer than a natural eclipse.
Note: From other Gospel accounts, Jesus is estimated to have hung on the cross for about six hours, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Comment: Spurgeon remarked that darkness is a symbol of the wrath of God, and God was so angry this day at the murder of His only begotten Son that His frown removed the light of day.
v.46: "ninth hour Jesus cried out...My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" - Jesus' words quote Ps. 22:1, written by David to express great anguish. Jesus had known great pain and suffering during His earthly life, both physical and emotional, but He had never known separation from the Father. At this moment, a divine transaction was taking place: God the Father regarded God the Son as if He were a sinner and laid upon Him all of the guilt and wrath that our sin deserved, and Jesus perfectly took it all upon Himself, totally satisfying the wrath of God. This was the true agony of Jesus on the cross. Commentators say the separation wasn't complete at this point, as Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:19, "in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself...."
v.47: "bystanders said...'man is calling Elijah." - They misunderstood, mocking Him to the end. He said "Eli," which is "My God" in Aramaic. This is the only place in Matthew where Jesus addresses God in a name other than the Father.
v.48: "one of them took a sponge filled with sour wine...gave it to Him to drink." - Feeling pity, one of the bystanders gave Jesus a drink, which He presumably accepted. This alludes to Ps. 69:21b, where David says, "for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink."
v.49: "others said...let us see whether Elijah will come" - This was a jest. The mockers and scoffers didn't believe in Jesus in the first place, and even thought they had misheard Him, the reference to Elijah coming was pure sarcasm.
Read Matthew 27:50-52 - Sacrificed
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,
v.50a: "Jesus cried out again in a loud voice" - This was unusual. Most crucifixion victims spent their last hours either mute from exhaustion or unconscious. But Jesus, in spite of everything he'd been subjected to, was conscious and able to speak right up to the moment of His death. That tells He was controlling events, not His persecutors.
v.50b: "yielded up His spirit" - No one took Jesus' life from Him. Jesus, in a manner unlike any other man, voluntarily yielded up His spirit. Death had no righteous hold over the sinless Son of God. Rather, He stood in the place of sinners, but never was or became a sinner Himself; therefore, He could not die unless He chose to yield up his spirit.
v.51a: "the curtain of the temple was torn in two" - The curtain (60' x30') was what separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place in the temple. It represented the separation between God and man and could be entered only once a year by the high priest on the Day of Atonement.
Notably, the curtain was torn from top to bottom, and it was God who did the tearing, signifying from that point the removal of the separation between God and the people.
v.51b: "earth shook..rocks were split." - This phenomenon was reported only by Matthew. Palestine sits on a major seismic rift, so earthquakes are not uncommon, yet the splitting of rocks was unusual and points to divine intervention.
v.52 "tombs also opened...many bodies of...saints raised" - This is one of the strangest passages in the Gospel of Matthew. We don't know about this event from any other source, and this is all that Matthew says about it. In any case, commentators compare this to Lazarus and others raised from the dead who were, in effect, 'resuscitated' back to life,' but weren't resurrected, and later died a natural death. We simply don't know the details of these raised saints. The term "saints," the Greek word hagios, appears only in the NT as a reference to followers of Christ, and is not applied exclusively to persons of exceptional holiness.
APPLICATION:
Israel's religious elite and the hostile bystanders at present Jesus' crucifixion are like many of the unsaved people today who, like the original group of guests in the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Mt. 22:1-14), are invited, but due to their self-imposed spiritual blindness, reject Christ as Lord and Savior. Does that mean we should write them off-make no attempt to share the Gospel? No, whether they are "chosen" or not, is God's choice, not ours. In Gideons, we have seen some of the most reprehensible Jesus-haters come to repentance and salvation.
2. Although Jesus had known great pain and suffering during His earthly life, both physical and emotional, He had never known separation from the Father. At the moment described in v.36 of today's lesson, a divine transaction was took place: God the Father regarded God the Son as if He were a sinner and laid upon Him all of the guilt and wrath that our sin deserved, and Jesus perfectly took it all upon Himself, totally satisfying the wrath of God. This was the true agony of Jesus on the cross.
3. No one took Jesus' life from Him. Jesus, in a way unlike any other person in the world, either before or since, voluntarily gave up His spirit. Death had no righteous hold over the sinless Son of God. Rather, He stood in the place of sinners, but never was or became a sinner Himself; therefore, He could not die unless He chose to yield up his spirit.
