Truly this Man was the Son of God!

 Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!"  Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down."  And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.  Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!" 

- Mark 15:33-39

Yesterday we read that they brought Jesus to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.  Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it.  And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take.  Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.  And the inscription of His accusation was written above:  THE KING OF THE JEWS.  With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left.  So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He was numbered with the transgressors."  And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha!  You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!"  Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save.  Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe."  Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.

  Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!"  Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down."   This sixth hour is noon; the ninth hour is 3:00 PM.  My study bible refers us to the prophesies of Zechariah and Amos (see Zechariah 14:6-7; Amos 8:9).   Jesus is praying Psalm 22, which foretells even the details of the Crucifixion.  If we take Jesus' words without the rest of the psalm, we would understand this only as a cry of despair.  But if we see Christ in His true identity, as both fully human and fully God, we understand Him to have taken on all of human nature, and here He experiences our alienation from God.  He therefore knows our suffering and distress, but He is not despairing.  These words, my study bible says, are spoken in the name of humanity, completely identifying with us in our condition, but in His divinity He is never forsaken by the Father.  It was prophesied that before the Messiah came into His Kingdom, Elijah would return first.  Jesus Himself referred to John the Baptist as Elijah, returned in spirit (see Matthew 17:12-13, Mark 9:11-13).

  And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.  Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"  Jesus' death on the Cross is voluntary to the very end, my study bible notes.  Even at until this point of death, His life could not be taken from Him against His will.  He accepts death on the Cross neither to receive punishment on our behalf, nor to satisfy the Father's need for blood-justice, my study bible says (for why would God demand this?), but so that entering death as the divine Son He can destroy the final enemy -- which is death itself (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).  It is the veil of the temple, torn in two from top to bottom, that tells us of the significance of this death on the Cross:  the veil was a symbol of the separation between God and man.   Christ's death opens up for all human beings the access to the most holy of all:  God Himself.  This centurion is identified by tradition as St. Longinos.

St. Longinos is an interesting character of the Gospels.  He has presumably seen the display of darkness from noon to 3:00 PM.  He has stood keeping watch directly opposite Christ.  One presumes that he has seen many crucifixions and many die on their cross.  But what the text tells us literally is that he watched as Christ breathed His last.  In the Greek, this word translated as "breathed His last" is ἐξέπνευσεν/exepneusen).  That word is interesting for us, because the word for breath, πνευνα/pneuma, also means "spirit."  He has watched Christ exhale His "spirit," so to speak.  The word here implies a deepening of the sense of voluntary giving up on the part of Christ.  The centurion has watched Him die -- as He cried out with a loud voice, He gave up His spirit to God.  One can imagine that this image of Christ, praying the psalm, accepting His death, giving up His spirit to the Father, marks a severely powerful way of dying, one that so impresses the centurion that he exclaims, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"  In Luke's Gospel, we are told that at this very end Jesus was praying Psalm 31, saying, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46).  It must be extremely hard for us to really imagine the gruesomeness of a death by crucifixion, especially the final moments of a man's life.  Psalm 22 gives us something of a description of what the effects of this sort of a death must be like:  "I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it has melted within Me.  My strength is dried up like a potsherd,and My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death."  But added to the physical effects of crucifixion are the torments of this time for Jesus, which the rest of the Psalm also describes well:  "Be not far from Me, for trouble is near; for there is none to help.  Many bulls have surrounded Me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. They gape at Me with their mouths, like a raging and roaring lion. . . . For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.  They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones.  They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.  But You, O Lord, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me!
Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog.  Save Me from the lion’s mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen!"  And the next line of the psalm replies:  "You have answered Me. I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You."  To transcend everything on the Cross, to die as He did, surely impressed this centurion who has no doubt witnessed many scenes of death on Golgotha.  Once again we take careful note that Christ does not gloss over His human feelings; instead, He prays them.  Everything here is also a sacrament, a gift to God -- it is all given to the Father for His way.  To understand this scene it is necessary to know that Christ took on all of human nature so that it is all transfigured, even our experience of death.  This is the one way in which death has been defeated, so that He being lifted up, lifts all the rest of us with Him (see John 3:14-18, 12:32).  The reality of this transcendence and transfiguration lies in one place:  our faith.  We go through what the world does and will do, but we are saved with our faith.  We may be changed by all that we experience, and rightly so.  We learn lessons, we take strengths, we become more aware and alert.  It is He who has taught us to be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves (Matthew 10:16).  But through all things, we give up our experience even as a kind of sacrament to God, even as thanksgiving, we pray, we hold fast to the work of our faith -- and on the other end is transcendence, transfiguration, the life that persists through all things, the "lifting up" with Him that He promises us.  

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, and 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 the soldiers came out of the Praetorium leading Jesus away to the sight of crucifixion, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name.  Him they compelled to bear His cross.  And when they had come o a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, they gave Hm 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.  My study bible refers us to the prophecies of Zechariah and Amos.  Amos quotes the declaration of the LORD:  "I will make the sun go down at noon and I will darken the earth in broad daylight."  The sixth hour to the ninth hour correspond to the hours between noon and three o'clock in the afternoon.

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?"  My study bible says here that Jesus is praying Psalm 22, which "foretold the very details of the Crucifixion.  Taken without the rest of the psalm, His cry of 'Why have You forsaken Me?' could be misinterpreted as a cry of despair.  Since He took on our nature, Jesus experiences our alienation from God in His humanity, knowing our suffering and distress, yet He does not despair.  He speaks these words in the name of humanity, completely identifying with us in our condition, for in His divinity, He is never forsaken by the Father."

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.  My study bible comments on the phrase yielded up His spirit that Christ's death was voluntary to the end.  Even on the Cross, His life could not be taken from Him against His will.  The note reads, "Christ accepts death on the Cross neither to receive the Father's punishment on our behalf, nor to satisfy the Father's need for blood-justice (as if God would demand such things), but so that by entering death as the divine Son of God, He can destroy this last enemy, which is death itself (1 Corinthians 15:20-28)."

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, . . .  My study bible notes that 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 opens the way into the presence of God for all people, giving people access to that which is the most holy of all:  God Himself."  It notes that in most Christian churches of Eastern Christianity, there is a curtain between the altar and the nave which is drawn open during the liturgical services in order to emphasize that communion with God, which was at one time sealed off from humanity, is now available to all who approach in faith.  Some denominations use the curtain either drawn or open in order to emphasize these differences at different seasons of the liturgical year, or during parts of the liturgy itself.

. . .  and 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.   Here, a note reads:  "The completeness of the salvation won by Christ is signified in the resurrection of the saints from the Old Testament.  This guarantees the promise 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 is an icon of resurrected humanity entering the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 11:10; 12:22-23; Revelation 21:2-22:5)."  Let us note this sign of resurrection of those who had not heard the name of Jesus of Nazareth; in this is "the completeness of salvation" as my study bible phrases it.

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!"  Another note says, "The centurion, a Gentile, realizes Jesus has dominion over nature, and therefore acknowledges Him as the Son of God.  Tradition knows this soldier as St. Longinos."

Immediately upon Jesus' death on the Cross, two significant events take place, giving us already the power of the Resurrection and its unlimited capacity:  (aside from the tearing of the temple curtain, the darkened sun, the split rocks and earthquakes) we are given the resurrection of the Old Testament saints, and the conversion of the centurion standing guard at the crucifixion itself.  He will also come to be known as a saint in the early Church.  Neither the earlier faithful of the Jews nor this Gentile (Roman) soldier were beneficiaries of Jesus' direct ministry, but here at this giving up, or "yielding up" of His spirit, immediately the effects of Resurrection begin -- even in those who might have been considered outside of His "followers."  Not so, according to God's mystery, God's judgment.  And the really "good news" hasn't been given yet to His disciples, who are scattered.  That will come soon.  After this "darkness at noon" we await the coming of the Light, dawning of the Resurrection.  But God's mysteries of resurrection are already at work.  Jesus' resurrection isn't just about Jesus, and it's not just about what happened to Him. It's also about where He takes us with Him, what He shares with us, and offers to us all of the time.  The Resurrection is unlimited as is God's mercy, something immeasurable by any of our standards, something that remains a mystery we can't predict, we can't call nor judge, and is not ours to decide for.  It is ours to accept as a gift, it is ours to pray for, its effects in our lives are those we share with others.  It's something we invite others into, and we pray might be shared by everyone.  The statement, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6) manifests immediately following Jesus' giving up of His spirit (in Luke Jesus says He "commits His spirit" -- again an active choice).  At this moment of what seems to be the greatest limitation possible at the hands of others, let us remember the power of His Resurrection, the true reality behind what we see.  It will always defy our expectations.