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 Jesus and the soldiers of the garrison came out, 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 the 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 of 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.  See the prophecies of Zechariah 14:5-7 and Amos 8:9.

 

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."   It's important to know that Jesus is praying on the Cross.  These are the words that begin Psalm 22, a psalm which gives even the details of the Crucifixion.   As my study Bible notes, if this beginning of the psalm is taken alone without the rest of it, this cry of "Why have You forsaken Me?" could be misinterpreted as a cry of despair.  Because Jesus took on our nature, my study Bible explains, He 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.  

 

 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.  My study Bible comments that Christ's death was voluntary until the very end, for even on the Cross, His life could not be taken from Him against His will.  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 in order to enter death as the divine Son of God, thus enabling Him to 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, . . .  The veil that separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the temple was a symbol of the separation between God and humanity.  Christ's death opens the way into the presence of God for all people, giving people access to that which is most holy of all, which is God Himself, my study Bible says.  In many Orthodox 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, but is now available to all who approach in faith.  Additionally, Fr. Stephen De Young has said (in accordance with St. Chrysostom) that this tearing of the veil was in fact symbolic of judgment, revealing the Most Holy Place (where only the high priest could go and only on the Day of Atonement) to be empty.  In this Second Temple, it is now devoid of the presence of God and the Ark of the Covenant, no longer containing the glory of God under the high priest who in fact has condemned Jesus and agitated for His Crucifixion.  

 

 . . . and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.  My study Bible comments that the completeness of the salvation won by Christ is signified in the resurrection of the saints from the Old Testament.  This guarantees the promise which was given to Ezekiel that God can and will one day open the graves of all humankind (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).

 

 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 is a Gentile; according to my study Bible, he realizes that Jesus has dominion over nature, and therefore acknowledges Him as the Son of God.  In Church Tradition, he is known as St. Longinus. 

 

 In today's reading, we read of the "powers of heaven" being "shaken."  When Jesus gives His prophecy concerning "end times" (Matthew 24), He says, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken" (Matthew 24:29).  In addition to the prophecies of Zechariah and Amos cited above, we can look at these events reported at the time of Jesus' death and understand that there is a tremendous "shaking up" indeed happening here.  There is darkness at noon until approximately 3:00 in the afternoon (the sixth hour until the ninth hour).  When Jesus cried out with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit, "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."  All of these actions echo the apocalyptic nature of the end times prophecy given by Jesus; they make it clear that there are layers to the reality that we know, and Christ Himself is somehow active and evident in all of them.  So much so, that all is shaken up (quite literally in terms of the earthquake).  This can be understood in various ways, all of which we must take into account, as all may be true at once.  That the veil in the temple was torn in two is the subject of discussion among many Church Fathers, but again, all may be understood as possible at once.  That Christ opened up mysteries in faith to His followers is something He Himself has testified to (Matthew 13:31).  St. Ephraim the Syrian, in addition to agreement with other opinions noted above, also gives an additional poetic understanding of the tearing of the veil, in that it is similar to a person tearing their clothes, and in that sense an expression of grief.  Clearly we might see it as the temple itself expressing grief that its glory had gone, its joy in the form of Christ the Lord, and indicating a change from the old covenant to the new. That the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised" seems to tell us about Christ's entering into the place of the dead and bringing life.  Most interestingly St. Matthew writes of their coming out of the graves after His resurrection, and entering the holy city (Jerusalem) and appearing to many, thus giving us a picture of the resurrection as manifest to many in the city.  We see many layers of reality being manifest at once here:  that Christ is both Lord and Judge (including of the temple), that He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25), even that His body is the true temple (John 2:19).  What we should understand is that in all of these dimensions, Christ spans the reality of existence.  That is, as human He is within time, but as divine He is not limited by time; the same is true of space.  The reality of the Kingdom of heaven, as He has said spans all of these varied dimensions of existence, of reality, and yet it, too, is within us (Luke 17:21).   What that boils down to is simply that each of these things can be true at once, because we are speaking of Jesus Christ, and all of these things can be taken together, even as signs of "end times," yet belonging to things to come, and manifest as echoes and repetitions of one another at that time, and even in our own time, if we look carefully.  For, since His death, we are living in the time of the end as we await His return.  He remains for us the way, the truth, and the life -- and the way to the Father (John 14:6).  We must understand the salvific power of His Person and His identity as both fully God and fully human, bringing divinity to all things He experienced as a human being, even death, and transfiguring and healing all for us, so that we may follow Him.  

 

 

 

 

Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour

 

 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 Jesus was brought 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.  The sixth hour is noon, the ninth hour is about three o'clock in the afternoon.  See Zechariah 14:6-7, Amos 8:9.

 

 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?"  Jesus is praying Psalm 22, which foretells even the details of the Crucifixion.  Without the rest of the psalm, Jesus' cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" could be misinterpreted to be a cry of despair.  Since Christ took on our nature, my study Bible says, Jesus experiences our alienation from God in His humanity, knowing our suffering and distress, but 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 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."  It's interesting as always to note that the Gospels report people misunderstanding Christ; in this case mis-hearing Him and giving a false interpretation to the words they think He says. 

And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.   My study Bible notes that Christ's death was voluntary to the very end, for even on the Cross, His life could not be taken from Him against His will.  It explains that 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).   Whatever divinity touches is healed:  Christ accepts human nature in order to sanctify human nature, He accepts our weakness in order to make us strong, He takes on our sin in order to free us from sin, He suffers in order to transfigure suffering, and He enters death in order to destroy death.  He will be the first human soul not to be taken to Hades; instead His soul is freely given into the hands of God -- therefore Christ frees all of humanity from death's grip.  In transforming every aspect of human nature, we are reconciled to God and thus healed.

Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  My study Bible explains that the veil which separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the temple was a symbol of the separation between God and man.  It says that Christ's death opens the way into the presence of God for all people, therefore giving access to that which is most holy of all:  God.  In many Orthodox Churches, there is a curtain between the altar and the nave which is drawn open during liturgical services in order to emphasize that this communion with God, which was at one time sealed off from humanity, is now available to all who approach in faith.  

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!"  According to my study Bible, the centurion, who is a Gentile, realizes that Jesus has dominion over nature, and therefore acknowledges Him as the Son of God.  Tradition knows this soldier as St. Longinos.

What does it mean to be transformed, to be healed by Christ?  My study Bible speaks of this healing by transformation by saying:  Christ accepts human nature in order to sanctify human nature, He accepts our weakness in order to make us strong, He takes on our sin in order to free us from sin, He suffers in order to transfigure suffering, and He enters death in order to destroy death.  We can experience this sanctification through prayer, and throughout our lives, by taking each struggle and each difficulty to Christ, by seeking God's way for our lives and our choices in this way.  After a lengthy period of such experience, I can say that I believe I have been changed through this process -- that is, led through repentance, or "change of mind," which the Greek word for repentance literally means.  My beliefs and patterns of thinking are completely different from what they were decades ago.  And as life has baffled my expectations in numerous ways, and so frequently that I don't often feel I can see the forest for the trees, this prayer life has led me through the puzzling experiences of life, giving me strength to cope with disappointments, and hope for unforeseen difficulties that my own limited experience had not supplied me with knowledge sufficient to address.  In suffering from such setbacks and baffling outcomes, and the disappointments and heartache encountered therein, I was given meaning to suffering through the practice of forgiveness and of seeking God's way to respond to hurtful people and circumstances.  This is transformation indeed, and a way through darkness, through difficult and limited paths and options for response.  Christ has brought me through problems I did not know how to address, and which conventional response -- or giving in to passions like despair or anger or outrage or envy -- would have resulted in an even worse problem for myself, and an inner nature marred by sin on top of sin.  It has been for me a prayer life fully of salvation, and I can put no other solution or responsible suggestion for the source of salvation in all of the above circumstances except the faith and love of Christ (and by extension, the Father and the Spirit, and all the saints, who always accompany Christ).  It is this consistent love which has never failed, has not condemned but helped, shown me the way, taught me how to live in my still-limited fashion, given me knowledge and a small amount of wisdom, and always corrected in an environment which surrounded me with deep love.  There is no getting around it nor escaping this love, this explanation for survival through very difficult circumstances for which, of myself alone, I could not imagine a way through, and that is my testimony.  As for the final enemy, which is death, I certainly cannot say I have experienced that yet (!), but in effect, if we look carefully at our lives, I can say with many others that I have been through crucifixions of a sort, that reminded me I needed to learn some things, and that I needed to change some things about myself or about the circumstances of my life and relationships with others -- and that once again, it was only the way of the Cross that could provide me with that hope and that outcome, and His way and truth and life to follow.  This is my testimony of my experience of salvation, which I consider to be ongoing, for faith is a journey -- but it is our Lord who provides the road (which is the literal meaning of the word for "the way" in Greek -- ὁδὸς/odos).  We are all on a road somewhere, and sometimes we may feel ourselves being crucified, but He has led the way, and asks us to take up our own crosses.  With Him, we may hope in Resurrection in all things and all ways, for this is truly our salvation -- even when we, too, may experience darkness in broad daylight.

 

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.  

Father, "into Your hands I commit My spirit"

 Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.  Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.  And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, 'into Your hands I commit My spirit.'"  Having said this, He breathed His last.  So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying,  "Certainly this was a righteous Man!"  And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned.  But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man.  He had not consented to their decision and deed.  He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before.  That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.  And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid.  Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils.  And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.

- Luke 23:44-56

On Saturday we read that there were also two others, criminals, led with Jesus to be put to death.  And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.  Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."  And they divided His garments and cast lots.  And the people stood looking on.  But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, "He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God."  The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, "If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself."   And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew:  THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.  Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us."  But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong."  Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom."  And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."

 Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.  Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.  Darkness has already been seen and discussed throughout the Gospels, as that which indicates the absence of God, of evil.  Here it is a sign of His human death, a loss to the world, in which even nature participates just as He was fully human.  Those familiar with deep depression and grief can testify to perceptions of darkness even in the bright sun of the afternoon.  The veil of the temple is that which separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the temple.  It is a symbol of the separation between God and man.  Christ's death opens the way into the presence of God for all people, my study bible says, giving us access to that which is most holy of all:  God Himself.   It is a sign that through His death, He conquers death for all, for our true life. 

And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, 'into Your hands I commit My spirit.'"  This phrase is in quotations because Jesus is praying; it is from Psalm 31:5.  He doesn't have His life taken from Him, but will voluntarily commit it to the Father.  My study bible says that His was the first human soul not to be taken to Hades; rather it is freely given into the hands of God.  Thereby, Christ frees all of humanity from death's grip.  His death reconciles mankind to God, my study bible notes, not by satisfying the Father's need for blood-justice, but rather by causing each aspect of our corrupt or "fallen" human nature to be transformed, for whatever divinity touches is healed.  Christ accepts human nature in order to sanctify human nature.  He accepts our weakness in order to make us strong.  He takes on our sin in order to free us from sin.  He suffers in order to transfigure suffering.  And He enters death in order to destroy it (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).  This complete healing through transformation of all of humanity -- and even in elements of the world such as bread and wine -- is our salvation.  It is true communion.

So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying,  "Certainly this was a righteous Man!"  And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned.  But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.  St. Cyril of Alexandria says of this centurion, "Observe that no sooner had Christ endured the Passion on the Cross for our sakes than He began to win many unto knowledge of truth."  Perhaps the same can be said for many among the crowd who beat their breasts.  Those who stand watching, His followers and acquaintances, form the very image of witnessing.

Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man.  He had not consented to their decision and deed.  He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before.  My study bible suggests that if the apostles had buried Christ, doubters could claim that His body was simply hidden away.  Joseph being both a council member and a good and just man refutes any possibility that Christ's body was deceptively hidden by the apostles.   The spiritual significance of a tomb where no one had ever lain before is that Christ died a death unlike any other who had ever died.  This is a death without corruption, one leading to victory over the grave itself. 

That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.  And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid.  Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils.  And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.  Jesus' birth was in a cave (2:7), which still serves in the Middle East as a place for sheltering animals.  His rest in the tomb fulfills this image of His birth, and also reveals the ultimate purpose of His coming, my study bible says.  The faith of the women, while stronger than that of the hiding disciples, was still imperfect in that they prepared for the corruption of Christ's body.  The women rest on the Sabbath.  My study bible notes that as God rested from His work of creation on the original Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3), so now Christ rests from the work of the new creation on the Sabbath.  By doing so, He gives the Sabbath its ultimate meaning and fulfills the Law even in death. 

Christ's death is such a paradoxical, inescapable conundrum in some sense.  One might ask, with many who do not hold Christ as divine, how can God die?  One might ask, with many Christian believers, why did God die?  Certainly, this one central event in salvation history gave us those paradoxes deliberately, and leaves us with those questions quite deliberately.  His death is voluntary; the Gospels hammer that fact home over and over again to us.  He has warned the apostles repeatedly what will happen to Him before they ever head toward Jerusalem.  And when the time comes, He deliberately goes as He has warned them.  He knows who His betrayer is.  He knows all that will happen.  And yet, in the midst of all this, He holds salvation out to all, even to Judas, even to the men who come to arrest Him.  He holds salvation out to every last minute, to His dying breath, to the criminal at the Cross, even to the centurion who recognizes what kind of Man this is.  This death that is deliberate, which He has called His hour of glory (see John 12:27-33), is that which surrenders and destroys death for all the rest of us.  The veil of the temple is torn in two; by experiencing death, our God severs the power of death over any of us, so that His life may be in us and we may be with Him.  I'm reading a book titled Everywhere Present:  Christianity in a One-Storey Universe, by Father Stephen Freeman.  In it, Fr. Freeman speaks about our understanding of Christ's life, insisting on a wholistic vision of our salvation.  That is, Christ does not "go away" to live somewhere else until we can join Him.  Rather, this death on the Cross is a transfiguration of death, and of all things that suggest death in our separation from God, so that we may live life -- in the here and now -- with the spirit of Christ infusing our lives.  That means that His ministry continues to heal us, is ever-present with us, manifests in our lives.  Certainly the love that people can encounter in Christ, in prayer with the saints, in endless, countless stories of faith, teaches us something about the living power of Christ who has conquered all forms of death for us.  For the lack of love in life is a kind of death, it kills spirit and soul and hope, and puts limitations on children and adults alike.  If nothing else testifies to the great power of life in Christ's death on the Cross, it is the love that people know from their prayers, from encounters with the holy, and from first-hand experience and expression from those other people who have the love of God inside of them and share it.  This is testimony.  It is letting our light shine, as He described.  And it is all that He has died for on the Cross, so that all may see and know and find that transformational reality that takes on all things for us, so that we, too, may be transformed in His life.  God is "everywhere present and filling all things," as the Orthodox prayer to the Holy Spirit proclaims, meaning that Christ has come into our world in order to conquer every boundary that keeps us from union with God.  And this is the power and meaning of that death, the real answer to all our questions.  St. Gregory of Nazianzus famously writes, "For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved."   Our Lord became human in order to save us in all things, through all things, in all ways -- and that required also the experience of a human death to be united to His Godhead, His true life for all of us.  Therein is the great power of the Cross, in all the ways we need His help, His saving energies and life, in all the ways the world may present us, too, with death in any form.  He -- and those with whom He shares Himself -- is the hope of the hopeless, and we put our trust and hope in Him just for the power of that Cross.

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 Jesus was brought 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.   My study bible tells us:  "When the Creator suffers, the creation suffers with Him.  The lights of heaven hide themselves and are darkened until the ninth hour as God hangs suspended upon a Cross."    The sixth hour to the ninth hour corresponds to noon to 3:00 P.M.

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?"  A note in my study bible says that "in His humanity, Christ is really forsaken:  in, and with, and for us, who are forsaken and abandoned.  Eloi is an Aramaic form which means 'my God.'"  These words are the beginning of Psalm 22; Jesus is praying.  Reading the entire psalm is an important way to look at and understand the Crucifixion, and Jesus' place as Messiah:  as both human being and Son of God.

 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."   My study bible tells us that many believed Elijah would come to rescue the pious.

And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.   My study bible says, "The Greek verb for breathed His last or 'expired' connotes a voluntary death.  Jesus' death is that of the suffering Messiah, whose cry is not a defeat but a sign of the separation between the soul and the body, a turning point towards the triumph over death, the trampling down of death by death."

Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.   A note says, "The dividing wall of hostility separating man from God is symbolically represented by the veil of the temple, which was torn in two by the death of Jesus."

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!"   We may well wonder why the centurion was so moved at Jesus' death, but if we look at the language in the Greek referred to in the earlier note on verse 37, in which Jesus "breathed His last" we see an affirmative act.  As my study bible noted, the Greek verb for breathed His last denotes an affirmative action, a voluntary breathing out or exhaling, as if this were His choosing of His time to separate soul and body, allowing the soul to depart.  Even the Greek for the phrase that He cried out denotes His control:  the text reads that Jesus permitted or "let go" a loud cry, indicating a voluntary act and a remarkable kind of self-control or mastery.  We note His praying of Psalm 22 on the Cross and come to see the something of the astonishing witness or testimony of the centurion.  Jesus has never lost His faith, despite being forsaken.  I can't help but focus on the testimony of the centurion and what must have passed in that remarkable time.  We remember the mocking of Jesus by the Roman garrison after His scourging.  We know how Jesus has been treated by the Roman soldiers.  And yet, after witnessing this Man's crucifixion and suffering and mocking on the Cross and His death, the centurion cannot help but exclaim, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"  We can't stand in the shoes of the centurion, but his testimony is essential for us to understand the presence and authority of Jesus, even in this place, and how He stood out -- even in His darkest hours -- to those who had great experience of such suffering, and yet no understanding of the Jewish spiritual tradition, which taught of the coming of the Messiah.  According to early Church tradition, the name of this centurion was Longinus, who became known as a saint.  Tradition also tells us that he was the centurion who pierced Jesus' side with a spear, and stood as well guarding the tomb as one of the soldiers sent by Pilate to do so.  His words here served as testimony for the Church, and Longinus, by tradition, became a martyr in His native land of Cappadocia and is considered a saint.  One story about him says that the water and blood from Jesus' side healed Longinus' eye infection, and there are miracles regarding healing of sight tied to this saint.  I can't help but put together the sacrifice of Christ, the blood shed that tells us of His covenant with us, even the water turned to wine that we drink as commemoration per His instructions.  All of these tells us something about that saint called Longinus, the one who came to see at the Cross, whose life was thoroughly changed -- like "new wine" -- through his own experience of Jesus.   We must see Longinus' declaration that "truly this Man was the Son of God!" as a powerful act of testimony, one that was quite dangerous to make, particularly for a person in his position as one in authority.  We must admire his courage for doing so, particularly as he stands at the foot of the cross of the Man crucified for declaring Himself to be Son of God.  That he would become a saint and a martyr tells us something powerful about Jesus, that no matter what the circumstance, those who will understand with faith will be touched by His love, His Spirit, His power.  Wherever we find ourselves, let us remember St. Longinus, and that Christ is with us, no matter what we think we see around ourselves in the world.  Let us remember this testimony to Christ, most especially because it comes at this moment of Jesus' death, from one of those to whom it was said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."