INTRODUCTION

Orthodoxy claims that Jesus of Nazareth is God the Son in human flesh, but the test case of orthodox Christology has always been the crucifixion of Jesus.  Especially here, we confront the mystery of the incarnation, for God the Son died on the cross just as surely as He was born, lived, hungered, suffered and sorrowed.

THE TEXT

“Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice . . . .” (Matthew 27:45-54).

DARKNESS VISIBLE

Darkness is the original condition of the creation (Genesis 1:2), and darkness falls over all the land in anticipation of a new creation (Matthew 27:45).  Darkness is associated with the end of the world, when the sun, moon, and stars go out (e.g. Joel 2:31), and a world is ending with the crucifixion of Jesus. Darkness was also the final plague in Egypt prior to the Passover (Exodus 10:21-29), which took place at night.  Israel has become an Egypt (Matthew 2:15), and Jesus dies in the darkness as the final Passover Lamb to deliver His people from slavery.

GOD-FORSAKEN GOD

At the creation, the voice of God rang out of the darkness with “Let there be light.”  At Golgotha, the voice of the incarnate Son cries out in anguish (Matthew 27:46; cf. Psalm 22:1).  Jesus is overcoming the darkness, but He does that be entering into the darkness.  There is no rupture in the Trinity here; God doesn’t cease to be Triune for the few hours that Jesus dies on the cross.  To speak of the “death of the Son of God” is not to say that the Son of God ceased to exist.  Even normal human beings don’t cease to exist at death.  At the same time, the Son of God enters fully into the God-forsaken condition of humanity, so that He can restore communion between God and man.  God the Son entered so fully that He endured a human death, to triumph over death.

RUINED TEMPLE

Jesus goes to the cross as the temple who will be torn down and restored in three days.  His cry of dereliction is the cry of the temple being forsaken by its Lord (cf. Ezekiel 8-11).  As Jesus gives Himself in the final sacrifice, the architectural temple in Jerusalem is ruined.  Temples are barriers between God and man, but with the death of Jesus, the barrier is removed (Matthew 27:51).

EARTHQUAKES AND RESURRECTIONS

After Jesus “yields up the spirit,” the land is shaken by an earthquake, and the tombs of the saints are opened (Matthew 27:51-53), divine signs that vindicate Jesus and explain His death.  Earthquakes accompany Yahweh’s approach, usually as a warrior (Judges 5:4; 2 Samuel 22:8; Psalm 68:8), and the opening of the graves shows that Jesus’ death triumphs over death (cf. Ezekiel 37).  Jesus uses the cry of David from Psalm 22, but His death, like that Psalm, ends in triumph and confession (Psalm 22:25-31).  The centurion and his soldiers who confess Jesus as Son of God (Matthew 27:54) are the firstfruits of the Psalm’s promise that “all the families of the nations shall worship before Him” (Psalm 22:27).