Truly this was the Son of God!

 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, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, "This Man is calling for Elijah!"  Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.  The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him."  And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.  Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, an the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.  So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

- Matthew 27:45-54

Yesterday we read that as Jesus and the soldiers came out from the Praetorium, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name.  Him they compelled to bear His cross.  And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink.  But when He had tasted it, He would not drink.  Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet:  "They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots."  Sitting down, they kept watch over Him there.  And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him:  THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.  Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left.  And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself!  If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross."  Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save.  If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.  He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, 'I am the Son of God.'"  Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.

 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, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, "This Man is calling for Elijah!"  Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.  The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him."   The sixth hour to the ninth hour is between noon and three o'clock in the afternoon.  The prophecies of Zechariah and Amos tell us of this phenomenon of darkness in "that day" (Zechariah 14:6-7, Amos 8:9).  The words of Jesus tell us something important:  He is praying.  These are the first words of Psalm 22, which tells the story of the Crucifixion.  My study bible warns that if we don't understand that these words begin the Psalm, the words, "Why have You forsaken me?" could be misinterpreted as a cry of despair.  The truth is here that Jesus has taken on our nature fully, experiencing our alienation from God in His humanity.  He knows our suffering and distress.  But He does not despair.  He speaks these words, my study bible says, in the name of humanity, completely identifying with us in our condition, for in his divinity, He is never forsaken by the Father.  Indeed, the Psalm itself tells the story of terrible distress and suffering for a human being, but also of response by God, and praise.  Those nearby fail to recognize the prayer; they believe He is calling for Elijah, who was prophesied to return at the time of the Messiah (see 11:12-14, 17:12).

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.  My study bible comments that Christ's death was voluntary to the very end.  Even on the Cross, His life could not be taken from Him against His will.  He accepts death on the Cross not to receive the Father's punishment on our behalf, nor is this a satisfaction of the Father's need for blood-justice (does God demand such things?).  Rather, by entering death as divine Son of God, He is able to destroy this last enemy -- death itself (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).  As Son, He has entered fully and completely into humanity, even into death, in order to transfigure everything for us by bringing His full divinity into our human experience.

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; . . ..  The veil that separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the temple was a symbol of the separation between God and man.  Christ's death, my study bible explains, opens the presence of God for all people, giving human beings access to that which is the most holy of all:  God Himself.  In many Eastern churches, there is a curtain between the altar and the nave, which is drawn open during liturgical services in order to emphasize this communion with God, which was at one time sealed off from humanity and is now available to all who approach in faith.

. . . and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, an the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.  My study bible says that completeness of the salvation won by Christ is signified in the resurrection of the saints from the Old Testament.  This guarantees the promise that was given to Ezekiel, that God can and will one day open the graves of all mankind (Ezekiel 37:1-14).  The saints entering the holy city, my study bible adds, is an icon of resurrected humanity entering the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 11:10, 12:22-23; Revelation 21:2-22:5). 

 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, "Truly this was the Son of God!"  The centurion, who is a Gentile, witnesses the dominion over nature present with Jesus, my study bible comments.  He acknowledges Him, therefore, as the Son of God.  By tradition, we know this soldier as St. Longinos.

Why this end?  Why this result?  The death of Jesus is a powerful story of sacrifice and heroism, of love, and finally of the cruelty that the world will hand out even to the most innocent among us -- to the One who is most innocent of all and without sin.  This is the story that we are given for our faith.  How are we to understand it?  We can look around at our world and see the cries for vengeance all around us, when someone is left out, loses out on a job, perceives that someone else has gotten what they want.  The Gospel tells us that Pilate understood that Jesus was delivered over to him because of envy (27:17-18, see Saturday's reading).  In some sense, it is fitting to understand this punishment meted out with its not-quite-so-well-hidden motivation of envy, as envy is the archetypal sin of evil.  We're told that the devil envies humanity, as humanity was created by God just so that this story of the Christ could be told -- Creator coming to creature and becoming one of us so that we may become "like Him."  Our collective sin is on display in the treatment of our Lord, our injustice and vengeance.  But Jesus does not take on this sin simply to show us that we are sinful.  The crucifixion, and indeed the Cross, is all about transfiguration, redemption.  He not only challenges the narratives of the world by His death, but challenges our very understanding of ourselves.  What are our lives really all about?  What are they for?  Is our place in the world all that we are?  He asks us what justice is.  His death on the Cross begs us to ask of ourselves what we can achieve if our sense of ourselves does not also include mercy.  He shows us our blindness, and perhaps most of all calls us more deeply to faith than any single event or action in human history -- because without Him, we don't really know at all what we do (Luke 23:34).  But beyond any of those things, Jesus goes through death for us, as an act of love, and transfigures death forever.  He asks us also to take up His cross, and to follow Him, because our lives may also become acts of exchange and transformation:  the false for the true, sin for redemption, death for life.  He opens us up to God, to a kind of communion not possible without the Cross, by completely becoming one of us and even experiencing death for us.  Jesus' transfiguring power is the ultimate call of hope when there is no hope, of life where we think life cannot be.  In the Orthodox Church, the hymn of Resurrection says that "by death, He tramples death."  What does this mean, but that the very things given to us by evil are used by God to destroy evil.  By His death, He destroys death.  In taking on the sin of the world, He offers us transfiguration, cleansing, redemption -- and the same becomes true of our own suffering through injustice and cruelty.  Only God could have such power to transform and transfigure, to change our suffering into something that gives life, to show us the way first to redeem our own lives with beauty even through suffering.  With faith, we may transcend whatever the world will give us, the way that He does, and return to the world His glory, His love instead.  This is the story of Jesus.   In John's Gospel, He tells Nicodemus, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15).  He offers us the answer of life, the only answer of life even in the face of evil and death.  This is the answer that only He can give to us.