“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.” It was during those three last hours that the Lord, shut in from man and all around, was alone, drinking that awful cup of the judgment of God against sin. It was then that He was “made sin”; “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). It was then those mighty waves and billows of eternal judgment rolled over His holy soul. It was all this that forced Him to utter that cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He was there making atonement. He was forsaken that sinners who believe might never be forsaken. There He destroyed the power of him who had the power of death, that is the devil.
Then, having cried again with a loud voice, Jesus yielded up His Spirit to the Father. All was over. Atonement was made. Redemption was accomplished. “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” Like the bursting of a mighty dam, the river of God’s grace could now flow forth to a world of sinners. God could come out in all His grace to man, and man could now go into the presence of God in virtue of the perfect work of Christ.
Burial
“The earth did quake, and the rocks rent.” It was a token of the passing of the old creation and the bringing in of the new, founded on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”
When the Roman centurion and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw all these things, they feared greatly and said, “Truly this was the Son of God.” The heart of the heathen was bowed while the hearts of the Jews remained unmoved.
We read of the suffering Messiah in Isaiah 53:9 (JND): “Men appointed His grave with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death”. God had a vessel prepared to fulfill that prophecy. Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, came to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. Pilate gave consent and Joseph took that precious body of the Saviour, wrapped it in a clean cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb. Then he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and departed. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, however, sat by the sepulchre and watched.
No Seal for God’s Power
The bad conscience of the Jews is seen in their coming to Pilate and asking that the sepulchre be sealed until the third day. They remembered that the Lord had said He would rise the third day, and they suggest the thought that His disciples might come and steal His body away and claim that He was risen. Pilate, however, in contempt for their malice, tells them to look after the matter themselves. So the stone is sealed and also a watch set. But what were guards and seals against the power of God? We see how God only used the wicked thought of the Jews to accomplish His purpose, for they themselves were made witnesses of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Further Meditation
1. Why was there an earthquake when Jesus died?
2. How did the Jews’ carefulness in sealing the tomb work out for God’s glory?
3. Notes and Reflections on the Psalms by A. Pridham might be helpful in considering the Psalms such as Psalm 22 which was quoted in this chapter.