The Death of the Savior

The Scandal of the Cross

Paul writes in the first part of his letter to the church in Corinth about how ridiculous the cross is.

1 Corinthians 1:18 CSB

18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.

The words of our text today make no sense to those who do not understand who Jesus was and why He came.

Paul says later in 1 Cor 1 that the Jews wanted to see signs that Jesus was the Messiah.

They wanted to see a dramatic display of power and authority, not a humiliating death on the most disgraceful torture device the Romans had thought of.

And for the Gentile (non-Jews/everyone else), how could they have any respect for someone who seemed so pathetic, weak, and unpopular.

Who would follow such a loser?

Today we wear crosses around our necks, tattoo them on our arms, and see it as a symbol of our faith.

The ancients would have been appalled by this, as if you saw someone wearing a golden electric chair around their neck.

But the Cross of Christ isn’t foolish to those who understand what was accomplished in those last moments of Jesus’ life.

For them, for us who know, it is the power of God that opens up the path to forgiveness, to salvation.

Matthew 27:45–61 CSB

45 From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the whole land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” 47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling for Elijah.” 48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and offered him a drink. 49 But the rest said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” 50 But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. 51 Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs were also opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 And they came out of the tombs after his resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” 55 Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and looked after him were there, watching from a distance. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons. 57 When it was evening, a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph came, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58 He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body. Then Pilate ordered that it be released. 59 So Joseph took the body, wrapped it in clean, fine linen, 60 and placed it in his new tomb, which he had cut into the rock. He left after rolling a great stone against the entrance of the tomb. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were seated there, facing the tomb.

What did the Cross Accomplish?

Jesus was likely put on the cross sometime mid-morning on Friday.

At noon something very unusual happened. Darkness came over the whole land.

2 historians of the day wrote about the darkness, appearing around noon, and even the earthquake that happened the same day.

Was is a solar eclipse? A storm of some kind? Something random that just happened to line up with Jesus hanging on the cross.

We have had 2 solar eclipses in the past several years, neither of which lasted 3 hours in total darkness. And boy do we know about storms...

But this wasn’t like that.

This darkness wasn’t a natural/explainable event.

It was God setting the scene for the most terrible and most amazing event in human history.

The darkness was a sign of judgement, like the plague of darkness in Exodus 10.

The darkness came at noon and lasted until 3 in the afternoon, at which time Jesus spoke for the first time in hours, as Matthew records.

“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” “My God, My God, why have you FORSAKEN me?”

It was in that moment that, in some way we can’t fully understand, God the Father turned away from Jesus.

All the pain Jesus had felt was nothing in comparison to the pain He felt in this moment.

Though He never ceased being God, in that moment the communion He had felt with God was broken.

In that moment, Jesus took the full weight of God’s judgement for all those who would believe in Him.

1) Jesus took the FULL WEIGHT of God’s JUDGEMENT for us.

Paul explains what happens in that moment powerfully in 2 Corinthians 5.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

On the cross, Jesus, the sinless one, became the representative for all the sins of all people in all times and in all places.

Jesus experiences the consequences of sin; he absorbs the disfavor or the wrath of God.

He embraces the consequences of sin, and that is why Paul says that “he became sin.”

Jesus embodied all that is wrong with sin.

In a real sense, Jesus becomes an adulterer,

A liar.

A thief.

He becomes a gossip.

An addict and a drunk.

He becomes a racist and an oppressor.

A self-righteous Pharisee.

A cheater.

A fraud.

A murderer.

He experienced the full consequences of sin which was the terrifying and agonizing separation from the Father.

Jesus was clothed with our sin so that, in His death, we could be clothed with His righteousness.

Guilty, vile, and helpless we; Spotless Lamb of God was He; “Full atonement!” can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior!

The crowd misunderstand His words, thinking He was crying out for help.

One goes to get a sponge to give Jesus a mixture of wine and a pain killer of some kind.

But the others call him off, wanting to see if Elijah would actually come.

And then, for a second time in Matthew, Jesus cries out.

Matthew doesn’t record words, only a cry, but John tells us that Jesus cried out, “It is finished.”

What was finished? The judgement and wrath of God.

The full weight of sin was paid for. The entire cup of wrath was finished.

Those who trust in Jesus are fully forgiven.

Renamed, reborn, made new, washed clean, set free… That is what was accomplished on the cross.

2) The Cross of Christ BROKE the CURSE of SIN and DEATH.

The three miraculous events that happen after Jesus cries out and breaths His last breath point to the overturning of the curse brought be sin recorded in Genesis 3.

Galatians 3:13 CSB

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

a) The curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

It isn’t clear if this was the curtain separating the court of the Jews from the Court of the Gentile. Or if it was the curtain guarding the most holy place (the Holy of Holies) where only the High Priest could enter.

Regardless of which it is, or if it was both, the message is clear, the separation sin caused between God and man was healed the moment Jesus breathed His last breath.

Hebrews 4:16 CSB

16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

New access to God was provided by Jesus’s atoning death on the cross.

Now, through Jesus and Him alone, the whole world has access

Jesus defeated the curse of sin that separated us from access to God.

b) The earth quaked and rocks were split.

Darkness and now an earthquake, that would have been quite the day if you were hanging out at home, doing laundry, oblivious to what was happening in Golgotha.

This is an announcement that something seismic is happening, something that is shifting the landscape of the entire cosmos.

Jesus has shown the glimpses of this shift in healing, calming storms, and raising the dead, but in His death, Jesus is breaking the curse of sin that has held captive all of God’s creation.

Jesus is making all things new.

c) The death were raised.

The third miracle is a two part miracle. It starts at His death and finishes at His resurrection.

Matthew tells us that tombs were opened when Jesus died.

And when He was resurrected on Sunday morning, the saints in those tombs were raised with Him and they appeared to many.

We don’t know the specifics and are really left with a lot of questions.

I assume the ones raised also ascended into heaven with Jesus, but that isn’t in the bible.

Matthew leaves us with a lot of questions, but what he wants us to understand is clear.

Not only is Jesus;s death strong enough to split the veil of the temple, it is strong enough to open tombs and so cancel death.

Jesus’ death defeated death.

3) The Cross DEMANDS a RESPONSE.

You can’t remain neutral or undecided.

After experiencing all that happened after Jesus breathed His last breath, one of the Roman soldiers was “filled with awe”.

He was one of the ones mocking Jesus and bargaining for His clothes just a few hours earlier.

but something was different now.

The guy he had just witnessed die was not like anyone he had seen before.

He couldn’t ignore what he saw. Couldn’t explain it away. He couldn’t help, but believe.

If what we read in Matthew about Jesus is true, how will your respond?

The soldier doesn’t say: “He must have been a good man.”

Or “He must have been a great teacher.”

No he says “He truly was the Son of God.”

In view of the Cross, you can’t remain neutral

There is another man mentioned by Matthew, Joseph of Arimathea.

We learn from John that Joseph was a religious leader like Nicodemus.

Likely wealthy, powerful, and connected, Joseph had believed in Jesus and considered himself to be a disciple, but had been quiet about his devotion.

Perhaps he didn’t want it to effect his position, how people thought of him, or his financial status.

But the cross demands a response. You can’t stay neutral or in the dark.

The Cross called Joseph to make his faith in and devotion to Jesus public.