Have you ever felt really alone? It may be that you felt deserted, or abandoned, or forsaken in some way. Being betrayed is a type of loneliness.
School can be a very lonely place. The tide of popularity at school can turn very quickly. I remember a fellow at my high school, who was part of one of the most popular groups for a number of years. One day during year 12, we don’t know why, but his friends turned on him. They verbally abused him. They violently and physically shoved him and pushed him out of their presence. They mocked and humiliated him, one who had been one of them, and part of them. I don’t know what offence he had committed to be so rejected after so many years of acceptance. All I know is that his face said ‘forsaken’, ‘rejected’. He was spat out by his group and held out to be ridiculed by those at school who were up until that time his friends.
Sometimes a family rejects one of their own. They cut off a father, a son, or a daughter. We see it on current affairs shows, as they run an expose on some sect or cult. It is sometimes called a shunning. A family member might do something unacceptable, something most others would consider normal, and they are forcibly kicked out of the group and treated as if they are dead.
Jesus knew this deep sense of loneliness, even better than we do. Throughout the events that unfold from the Thursday night when Jesus had his last supper, to the Friday morning, when he was crucified, Jesus was very much left to go on alone. He was deserted by God and man, according to plan. The cup the Father had given him was very much for him alone. Friend or foe, individual or institution, all leave him to his fate.
In Mathew chapter 26, we see the disciples forsake and abandon Jesus. In chapter 26, Jesus’ followers stop following Jesus. Only a few days before this, James and John wanted the positions at Jesus’ left and right hand (Matt 20:21). But soon those positions will be taken. It will be two condemned criminals who are given the positions at Jesus’ left and right hand.
His best and boldest follower, Peter, bravely promised “Though all shall fall away, I shall never fall” (Matt 26:33, cf. v. 35). But the gentle probing of some slave girls and bystanders was enough to make him deny that he knew Christ (Matt 26:69-75).
Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was alone (Matt 26:36-46). Jesus asked his three best friends to come and pray with him, but they cannot. Overcome by grief and the big Passover meal, Peter, James, and John sleep instead of pray.
The ultimate abandonment and betrayal was Judas. For thirty pieces of silver, the going price of a slave, Judas sold Jesus. And then, in one lucid interval, Judas realizes his crime. Guilt overwhelms Judas, and drives him to suicide. The wages of wickedness only bought Judas’ burial plot (Matt 27:3-10; Acts 1:18-19).
To a man, his disciples abandoned him. The shepherd has been struck, the sheep have been scattered, as Zechariah prophesied (Matt 26:31; Zech 13:7). Jesus’ words to his disciples, “All of you will fall away”, come true (Matt 26:31). Matthew poignantly records in Matthew 26:56, “Then all the disciples left him and fled”. Jesus confronts his enemies alone. Only Jesus is able to drink the cup the Father has put before him. And Jesus must drink it alone.
The end of Matthew chapter 26 and the first part of Matthew chapter 27 records the abandonment of Jesus by the religious leaders and the crowd.
We know that the right to a speedy trial is important in a fair judicial system. It is not just or fair to keep the accused unnecessarily waiting, being deprived of liberty, until their trial is heard. Justice delayed is justice denied. But what happened to Jesus Christ is a travesty of justice: arrested on Thursday night, first trial before Caiaphas and the council that very night, there found guilty and deserving of death, then the first thing next morning taken to Pontius Pilate, because the Jewish leadership could not administer the death sentence.
Periodically, Australians have found themselves on death row in other countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. Their appeals forestall their execution, and it may take a decade or more for the matter to be brought from charge to execution. Compare that to what happened to Jesus Christ: arrested, tried, and executed within 24 hours. Does that not suggest something unjust has gone on? There has been a hastily convened night time trial, then, first thing in the morning they deliver the accused to Pilate, pressuring the governor with both crowd and threats. It all stinks. This is judicial murder, murder made legal, an abuse of the legal processes. The religious leaders want Jesus dead, and have the ability to make it legal. And Pilate prefers to peace to truth. Pilate knows Jesus is innocent, so washes his hands of this inconvenient and annoying problem, and hands Jesus over to execution.
They say a week is a long time in politics. You can be the flavour of the month one week, and then a stench in the nostrils the next. Jesus knows what it is to have fairweather friends. He rode the wave of popular opinion, and was the latest celebrity. But popularity is fickle. At the beginning of the week, Jerusalem gave Jesus their version of a ticker tape parade. Jerusalem rolled out the red carpet to Jesus. They spread their cloaks before him on Sunday. But by Friday they want him dead. Perhaps those who waved the palm branches now wave their fists. “Give us Barabbas”, they say. Give us a murderer for the author of life. Barabbas goes free, and Jesus is condemned to crucifixion.
But it would be a mistake to think that Jesus has now been outflanked, that he has lost control of the situation. The situation is just as Jesus predicted, just as He wanted it. Things are going according to plan—not the religious leaders’ plan, nor Judas’, nor Pilates’. Things are unfolding according to God’s plan revealed in the Old Testament. And they are unfolding just as Jesus said they would.
Each one of us, from the time of our birth, is heading towards our death. This unpalatable fact is only tolerable because we forget about it, distracted by the living of our lives. But for Jesus Christ, this fact takes on a new significance.
In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth, we saw that the angel told Joseph, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). Jesus has dropped many hints that this will involve his own death. At Matthew 12 verse 40, Jesus cryptically says, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt 12:40 NIV). And from Matthew 16:21 onward, from the time when Peter leads the apostles in confessing that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus predicts in the clearest possible terms that he must die and rise again. Matthew Chapter 16 verse 21:
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. (NIV)
And again in chapter 17, and in chapter 20, Jesus reminds the disciples of this basic mission (Matt 17:22-23, 20:18). Jesus is giving his life as the suffering servant, who offers his life as a ransom for many (Matt 20:28). His own blood which is about to be shed is the blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matt 26:28). Jesus is conscious that these last hours will be the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures.
Of course, there is the famous passage in Isaiah 53, already quoted by Matthew in chapter 8. In Isaiah 53, the suffering servant would be “pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6-7). The silence of Jesus we read about reflects Isaiah 53 verse 7, that “As a lamb before her shearers is silent, so He did not open his mouth”. His crucifixion between two criminals echoed the servant’s fate that he was “assigned a grave with the wicked” and Joseph of Arimathea’s provision of his tomb reminds us that he was buried “with the rich in his death” (Isa 53:9).
But to do this section justice, we must refer to Psalm 22. In fact, Jesus clearly had this in mind as he hung on the cross. We know this because he actually quotes the first words of Psalm 22, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus didn’t make that up. It was a direct quote from Psalm 22 verse 1. And if we go back and read the Psalm Jesus quotes, the Psalm’s phrases and descriptions are continually echoed by Matthew’s account of the crucifixion and death of Jesus. So the mockery that Jesus endured on the cross (Matt 27:39, 43) is almost a quote of Psalm 22 verses 7 to 8:
All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue Him. Let him deliver him since he delights in Him. (NIV)
Matthew records that the soldiers divided Jesus’ clothing, echoing Psalm 22 verses 17 and 18:
I can count all my bones and people stare and gloat over me. They divde my garments and cast lots for my clothing. (NIV)
And perhaps most pregnantly, most poignantly, Psalm 22 speaks of the very wounds which crucifixion brings to a man in verse 16:
A band of evil man has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. (NIV)
The interesting thing about Jesus’ death is who he holds responsible. Jesus doesn’t say, “Judas, Judas, why have you forsaken me?” or “Peter, Peter, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus doesn’t articulate his complaint against Pilate, Caiaphas, or the crowd. It is God, in the words of Psalm 22, to whom Jesus pours his complaint. Matthew chapter 27 verse 46:
About the ninth hour [that is, 3pm] Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi Eloi, lama sabachthani?”— which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (NIV)
My God, my God, why you? Et tu, Brute? You too, Brutus?
So given that Jesus ultimately asks God ‘why’, let’s try and work out an answer. Why did God forsake Jesus Christ, his one and only Son, with whom He was well pleased?
Well, Matthew shows us, in the events that surround the death of Jesus. Jesus has already said that he will give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus has said that his blood is the blood of the covenant for the forgiveness of our sins. And now Matthew shows us the same by recording the events that occur around Jesus’ death.
Matthew’s Gospel works a bit like an old suspense or horror movie. The old suspense or horror movies left much more to the imagination. When the scary bit of the movie approaches, the music gets scary, the audience sees the woman’s horrified face. She screams and faints. Big strong men run for their lives. You don’t have to see the monster to be scared of it. You just see the effects on those around.
And so it with Matthew’s account of the death of Jesus. You learn what it means not only from the words of Jesus—what he expressly says it means—but also from the effects and results of Jesus’ death—the events that are expressly linked to his death. Jesus’ death had immediate and cataclysmic effects, and these effects tells us why God forsook Jesus. The events Matthew records tell us what is happening when Jesus died.
We read in verse 45, “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land” (NIV). The land grows dark from noon to three pm (cf. Amos 8:9-10; Exod 10:21-23). Darkness in the daytime in the Old Testament is often expressly stated as a judgement of God. The plague of darkness over the Egyptians was expressed as judgment on Egypt’s gods. In Amos 8 verses 9 to 10, God’s coming judgment is accompanied by darkness.
I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight […] I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. (NIV)
The darkness tells us that when Jesus died, a great divine judgement occurred. God’s hatred toward sin—his wrath—is concentrated on one person at one point of time. It is as if God takes a huge magnifying glass, and concentrates the punishment for the world’s sin on this one man, in this one place, at the one time. He who knew no sin became sin for us.
In verses 50 and 51, we read of Jesus Christ’s dying breath.
50And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. (NIV)
The temple in Jerusalem at Jesus’ time was where a person went to meet God. It consisted of walls that stopped a person approaching any further. Gentiles were admitted so far, then Jewish women could go into the court of the women, but no further. Then Jewish men could go further, into the court of Israel, but not into the courtyard of the priests. And then, in the Court of the Priests, was the temple proper, containing its two rooms. There was the holy place, in which only the chosen priests could go for their service. And separated from the holy place by a curtain was the most holy place. The most holy place symbolized the throne room of God in heaven. It represented the dwelling of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with his people. Only one man, the High Priest, could go beyond the curtain into the most holy place. Only once a year could the High Priest enter the most holy place. Only on the Day of Atonement could he enter the most holy place, and only after the slaughter of numerous animals for his own sins and the sins of all his people.
But when Jesus died, that curtain was torn in two. It was torn in two from top to bottom, showing that it was God who was doing the tearing. Jesus himself had entered the most holy place to pay for sin once and for all (Heb 9:11-15). And because Jesus paid for our sins by his own blood, there is no longer any need for sacrifices for sin. The temple’s job is done. It is now obsolete, for it pointed to what Jesus would do. And Jesus had now done it.
That is why Jesus had said, “destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days” (Matt 27:40). The passers by mocked him as they threw Christ’s words back into his face. But the irony is, in Christ’s death, he does destroy the temple. By entering into the most holy place, and making his perfect, complete, once and for all sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, the Jerusalem temple’s job was fulfilled. It was from that day on made obsolete as a place for sacrifice. There is now free access to God to all who come to Jesus Christ, the new temple of God. And in less than four decades, in AD 70, the Romans would level what was left of the temple, just as Jesus predicted. Not one stone would be left on another. But that is OK, because the temple existed to point to Jesus Christ, who he is and what he did.
We also read in verse 51 that at the moment of Jesus’ death, that “The earth shook and the rocks split.” (NIV) Earthquakes are often seen as a symbol of God’s judgment. And God again shakes the earth as sin is judged as it is placed upon Christ’s head. It is through judgement that free access to God is won.
Then in verses 52 and 53, Matthew records for us an incident unique to his account. Verses 52 and 53:
52The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. (NIV)
When Jesus dies, holy people, those who were waiting for the consolation of Israel, and who had died, again awaken to life again. When Jesus dies, there is a mini-resurrection. Why?
A little resurrection occurs to emphasise that Jesus’ death means resurrection for us. The Son of Man dies and the saints arise. Jesus’ death means we live. And as a little foretaste, as an earnest and a deposit, we are shown by Matthew this mini-resurrection, so that we can learn that “He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (1 Thess 5:10). His death, and our eternal lives, are inextricably linked. The death of the Son of God means the resurrection of the saints.
And this resurrection whets our appetites for more resurrection. If Christ’s death means new life for others, how much more will his righteous life and justifying death issue in life for himself? Jesus’ death must issue in resurrection. The sinless Son of God, who rejected all the temptations of Satan, whose death occurs not for his own sin, which he doesn’t have, but as a ransom for many for the remission of our sins and must be vindicated by his own resurrection. The law that Christ came to fulfill says “the man who does these things will live by them”. And Christ did fulfill the law, down to every last jot and tittle. So Jesus must receive resurrection life from God, because he kept God’s law. And all this fulfills what Matthew has quoted from Isaiah 9:2:
The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, a light has dawned (Matt 4:16 NIV).
Good Friday must be crowned and completed by Easter Day. The sinless and holy Jesus Christ cannot stay dead. He must rise.
I don’t want to spoil Easter Day for you. I still want you to come to church on Sunday. I just want you to see how Matthew builds Easter day into Good Friday. Matthew makes sure that we know that Jesus’ death means the saints' resurrection.
So the question is, how do you get to be a saint? How do you get to be one of the holy ones that Jesus Christ will raise from the dead. He prefigured it on the day of his death. He will finish the job in his second coming. How do you get to be part of it? Well, Matthew’s way of telling us, again in the account of the death of Jesus, is the reaction of the centurion. Verse 54:
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!" (NIV)
Here is a violent, hardened soldier, the leader of the soldiers who mocked Jesus, struck him, spat on him, crucified him, and killed him. The centurion saw it all. It was his professional duty to kill Jesus. And Matthew records for us his fearful confession, “Surely he was the Son of God”. He agrees with God himself, who testified of Christ at his baptism, “This is my beloved Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.”
And the centurion, one of the party who killed Jesus, shows us the way of salvation. It is to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is who he said he was, “The Son of God”.
The apostle John would later bid his little children to make the same confession:
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. (1 John 4:15 NIV)
Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:5 NIV)
10Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:10-13 NIV)
I hope this Good Friday you can make the same confession, that surely this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Son of God, and by this confession you too might have eternal life in his name.