The crucifixion happened because God permitted it. As Jesus himself said, he could have called up a hundred legions of angels to stop this awful crime at any point.
Once Jesus had been nailed to the cross, the first sign was darkness coming over all the land from the sixth to the ninth hour (12 noon to 3 pm). Luke adds the details that the sun stopped shining. This was no solar eclipse over in a couple of minutes. This was creation bowing its head in homage and grief as the Lord of all light was crucified. How could the sun still shine as the Prince of Peace, the Son of God was murdered. It had to be done in the darkness of night.
Then, Jesus’s heartrending words, ‘My God why have you forsaken me?’ As the sins of the world were laid upon Jesus and the wrath of God fell on his beloved son, the perfect Lamb of God, Jesus was separated from his loving Father. What a sacrifice.
As the time came for Jesus to die, he cried out in a loud voice. Jesus did not die the death of the crucified in exhaustion, unable to hold up his body anymore and suffocating to death. He died in triumph with the loud cry on his lips, ‘It is finished’. Jesus gave up his spirit and breathed his last.
The work of salvation was complete. The wrath of God had fallen on Jesus for all the sins of sinful, wicked men and Jesus, the perfect, innocent Son of God could now proclaim his victory over sin, death, the grave, sickness and all the other outworkings of man’s rebellion to their Creator.
The temple curtain, woven of a heavy material more like a carpet, was supernaturally torn in two from top to bottom – nothing a man could do. Access to the holy place, to the Father had now been granted to all who came in humility trusting in Christ’s work of salvation and not their own efforts.
Matthew recorded two more events, first a great earthquake which then caused tombs to break open and the bodies of holy people came to life. This speaks I think of salvation now coming to all, even those from the past, who then testify about Jesus in the city. What better testimony could there be to challenge the lies of the Romans that Jesus’s disciples had stolen his body. Instead, people known to have died have arisen as a foretaste of the many who would come to life by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Finally, the ungodly Roman centurion, the one who had carried out the execution, proclaimed, ‘surely this was the Son of God.’ Salvation had come to all – Jews, Gentiles and even Romans.
These were not random events but carefully orchestrated to reveal to all those willing to see that Jesus’s crucifixion was in the hands of God the Father. The great work of salvation for all who believe and trust in the Lord Jesus was complete, and they would now have access to him and eternal life in heaven.
What a wonderful work salvation is – complete and perfect in every detail.
