The Effects of the Cross

Introduction

Do you believe that good always wins? This can seem like a dream for fairy tales, that “they lived happily ever after” is for the child and the neive. However, all good stories are an excercise in this belief. Think of some of your favourite stories: a hero goes out to accomplish something or defeat some evil, they encounter resistence, and at some point there is usually a moment when it seems almost impossible that there could be a positive ending. In LoTR, Sam puts it like this, “sometimes you don’t want to know the end, because how could the end be happy.”

A good storyteller, however, pulls through and shows a way in which good wins in the end. “A new days comes, and when the sun shines it shines out all the clearer.” These kinds of stories ultimately point us to faith in a good and all-powerful God, and they are the stories we come back to again and again because they awaken in us a desire to believe that good will win at the hands of a good and faithful God.

Hope in the darkness is our theme today; victory in defeat....

True Victory

From Matthew’s perspective, and from our current perspective as well, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on a Roman cross was a great victory. Its effects are recounted over the rest of the New Testament as victorious, saving, effective, and perfect. And yet, this was not apparent to those witnessing the event, at least not entirely. We do see that certain events happened at that time which, though not painting the full picture of victory, do point to the very real victory; that death itself died the day God the Son died on the cross.

The Curtain Torn

In verse 51 we see that the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now, the Temple had two curtains, one on the outside serving as a door from the courtyard into the Temple, and one inside in the Holy of Holies. Some early Jewish sources from around this time do speak of a time when the door of the Temple, the outer curtain, opened of its own accord. Since only the priests would see the inner curtain, it may make the most sense to think that this was the outer curtain. However, Matthew does not tell us so this is just an educated guess.

There are two possible meaning for this tearing of the curtain the moment Jesus died, and most likely both are true as they do compliment one another.

First, the tearing of the curtain is a sign of judgement on the Jews and their religion. This is a fitting theme in Matthew, as Jesus had already described to his disciples in 24:2 that not one stone of the Temple would be left upon another. This was right after Jesus had challenged the Pharisees and scribes to “fill up the measure of (their) fathers” by putting him to death as their fathers had put the prophets to death. Although the Temple is not destroyed at this moment, and even the early Jewish Christians would at first continue their Temple worship, the days of Temple worship were numbered and the Old Covenant was coming to an end. The author of Hebrews, when speaking of the New Covenant in Christ being greater than the Old Covenant in Moses, wrote in Heb 8:13

Hebrews 8:13 NIVUK

By calling this covenant ‘new’, he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Although God is not finished with his people, as we are about to see, he is finished with the Old Covenant. He is finished with the covenant of law, temple sacrifices, and a merely external religion. Christ has come as the true Israel, the only Isrealite to fulfill the law, and in his blood he is making a New Covenant. Those who are the true Israelites in heart, those who believe upon the promised Messiah, the Son of David, the King of the True Jews circumcised in their hearts, are brought into this New Covenant. Those who remain in what is merely a religious external are condemned, because it was by the leaders of such religion that the Son of God was killed. The tearning of the curtain was a sign of the end of an age and the customs of that age, the end of Israel as the ethnic identity of God’s people, and the end of a covenant constantly broken because the law could never save.

2. But it was not only the end of something, but signalled the beginning of something as well. This is especially true if the inner curtain was torn, but is effectively communicated even if it was the outter curtain. This was the beginning of a free entrance into the presence of God for all people. Like I said, God had not ended his plan to save Israel, he had expanded it. God had not given up on the Jews, but had made a way for Jew and Gentile, man and woman, young and old, rich or poor, to come into the presence of God without division. The Temple was not going to cease, it was simply moving from being inside a building to being among a people, a community we call the church. It is here, with the Word preached, with the Table and Baptism administered, with Love practiced, with prayers and praises made, with sins confessed and forgiven, with each the other’s servant, that the Temple of God exists. God is with us, he has Tabernacled among us. When the Temple was first dedicated by King Solomon, a great cloud of glory descended onto it, and when the day of Pentecost would come, tongues of glorious fire would descend on the men and women in the church. So the author of Hebrews says later in Hebrews 10:19-22

Hebrews 10:19–22 ESV

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places 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 priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

And so there is a great victory over sin, for the sins of those who used religion as a cover for sin are exposed and judged in the destruction of the Old Covenant, and the sins of those who believed are cleansed by a perfect sacrifice so that they are able to enter the holy place with confidence in the blood of Jesus.

The Tombs Opened

This victory is highlighted further is an earthquake. This is not uncommon in Jerusalem, which sits on a techtonic faultline. The fact that this earthquake breaks open the tombs, however, is interpreted as a defeat of death itself and prepares for an event that Matthew mentions now, but happens only after the resurrection: many of the dead saints are raised and seen. This is a fulfilment of Ezekiel 37:12-13

Ezekiel 37:12–13 ESV

Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.

Both of these events signal a victory over death for God’s people in the death of Christ. By his death comes our life, and by his wounds we are healed.

Christ Confessed by the Gentiles

The final sight of victory in the death of the Son of God in this text is in the Roman guards who, having seen the earthquake and the darkness come just as Jesus cried out his light breath, admit him to be the Son of God. What they understood this to mean is unclear, and it is possible that they are thinking of demi gods in their own pagan religion. However, these Romans were likely quite familiar with Jewish religion, enough to know that they waited eagerly for the Son of God, the Messiah, to come. Either way, their confession is significant to Matthew as the beginning of an age when the Gentiles would be drawn into the Kingdom of God as well. This theme will be further highlighted in the Great Comission at the end of chapter 28.

Seeming Defeat

Now, as we look at all of these signs of victory, and as we look back on the events in the context of the resurrection, the giving of the Spirit, and the spread of the church for 2000 years of church history, it can be easy to forget just what this looked like to the disciples and the women who had been ministering to Jesus along the long road from Galilee. As Christians, it is so easy to forget that a cross does not look like victory. In fact, if you wanted someone to look utterly and totally defeated, there is no better way to do so than to make them look like Jesus looked hanging bloody and naked on a cross.

Jesus Buried

It was illegal to have a public funeral for someone put to death by Roman authority, so the women are forced to silently mourn as they sit accross from the tomb into which Jesus is put. It is surprising that Jesus was buried at all, as crucified victims were typically left to decompose on their crosses as a warning to other would-be rebels. However, since it is clear to Pilate that Jesus was no true political rebel, he consents to the wishes of a secret follower of Jesus from among the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Aramathia. He and another secret disciple from among the Pharisees, Nicodemus (John tells us), take Jesus down from the cross and bury him in Joseph’s own tomb, which was new so although tombs usually housed multiple family members, Jesus’ body was the only one here, meaning confusing it for another body was impossible.

The only site for the tomb and for Golgotha itself which has both tradition and some archealogical support is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which is a large church that covers what is believed to be both the site of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus as well. If this is the case, then the tomb was quite close to the site of the crucifixion and, fittingly, also quite close to the tombs of many of the kings of Jerusalem, including King David. That being said, we cannot know the site for certain.

With a large stone stone rolled down an incline to seal off the tomb and make it very difficult to open again, you can imagine the finality which must have been felt by those witnessing this silent, uncerimonial burial. From the lists of women from the different gospels, it seems that the women present here definately included Jesus’ mother (Mary the mother of James and Joseph), Jesus’ aunt Salome, Mary Magdalene, and the mother of James and John. The great joy and hope which Jesus had given all these people is now stiffled to tears they are not even legally allowed to cry.

The Body Under Guard

The guard is to add insult to injury as well, but is also ironic as it makes the Pharisees seem quite paranoid that they need to guard the body of someone who said they would come back from the dead, fearing that the disciple’s would steal the body. They call Jesus an imposter, though they knew his miracles were legitimate. The “first” deception they mention is Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God, but the last “fraud” in verse 64 refers to an apparent resurrection. While they themselves do not believe in a resurrection, they believe that a fake resurrection could cause the trouble Jesus made for them to continue. Their victory, as they see it, is so close.

Jesus has not only been killed, but killed as a crimminal in a way both humiliating and cursed. All they need now is for Sunday to go by without the body being stolen and they have won. Christianity is over from the starting line.

Pilate, who is quite tired of the religious leaders at this point, allows them to take the Temple guard, rather than Roman soldiers, and do whatever they want to make the tomb secure. They put a wax seal on the tomb and set soldiers to guard it.

This is the part of the story where it seems nothing could make it end well for the disciples. Although we can see the clear signs of hope, this wasn’t the case for those living on that horrible day. They lived in the chapter of the story where it seemed impossible for the end to be happy. Where it seemed like evil had won. But all this would give way to showing the victory of the cross through the defeat it appeared to be.

Conclusion

The cross is the pinnical event in history, and its effects have reverberated throughout the world as the faith has spread and changed lives, empires, and cultures.

And yet, the true victorious effects of the cross are not visible to the eye, nor to the scholar of history, but only to those who view them in faith.

The faith of a Christian is faith in the ultimate good of the cross, and of the sacrifices of our lives for the sake of the Gospel.