The Miraculous Events at the Cross

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2015 · 16 August 2015

The most powerful signs ever given on the cross came from God. The sufferings of Jesus physically were not unique, even the Apostle Paul was scourged five times by the Jews and beaten three times with rods. In order to really understand what is going on there, we have to understand the signs that God gave while it was happening, and it is found in Matthew 27. Six miracles occurred in those verses we are going to read now.

Matthew 27:45-54, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.”

“51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Miracle number one, supernatural darkness. Verse 45, "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour." When Christ was born, Luke 2:9-11 says there was great light that dawned. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, in the anticipation of the arrival of the Messiah says in Luke 1:78-79, "whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” When Jesus came, the light went on, the gospel shining in the face of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world, whoever believes in Me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life." Our Lord was identified with light, He was the light to the Gentiles, to the world. But at His death there is darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. The Jews begin to measure their day from 6 A.M., the sixth hour is noon. From noon to three it was dark.

Mark 15:25 says, "He was crucified at the third hour," 9 A.M. So the first three hours He was hanging there naked in the light. Those three hours passed. Soldiers had nailed Him there. They had placed the sign over His head. He is suspended there in indignity as the passers-by, the soldiers, the curious, the religious leaders watch and mock and insult Him.

During that three hours He only spoke three times. Once He said of the soldiers to the Father in Luke 23:34, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." The second time He spoke to a penitent thief at His side in Luke 23:43, "Verily, this day you will be with Me in paradise." Once more in John 19:26-27, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” All three of them were revelations of His grace and of His compassion.

But as the second three hours began, at noon when the sun had reached its apex, an incredible miracle took place. The Bible just says, "There was darkness over all the land." There was a Roman historian named Flagon who mentioned this darkness. Tertullian also wrote to some pagans mentioning this darkness. So there are historical records of this strange darkness at this place at that time.

God had interfered on other occasions. Do you remember in Joshua 10:13 the sun stood still for a whole day? Do you remember in 2 Kings 20:10-11 the shadow moved back-wards from the sun on the sundial? And those seem to have affected the whole earth. On the other hand, there was at least one time, when God blackened only a certain area and that was in Exodus 10 during the plagues in Egypt.

What caused this darkness? Some have suggested it was some local heavy clouds obscuring the sun or an eclipse. But this is not an eclipse because Passover is in the middle of the month and the month always began with a full moon that is on the opposite side from the sun. So what happened was a supernatural darkness, there is no natural explanation. And God made it happen in the middle of the day.

So why did God do this supernatural miracle? God who turned on the lights at creation has every right to turn them off. Was it mother nature, or was God throwing a veil over the sufferings of Christ? Was this an act of sympathy to cover the horror of His dying? Was this some kind of divine protest so that men couldn't see what they had done? What was God really saying about the cross with the darkness?

Darkness in Scripture is a symbol of judgment, darkness characterizes hell. Isaiah writes of the darkness of judgment. Joel, Amos and Zephaniah all write about it. Jesus speaks of it. God's salvation is always seen as light. God's judgment is always seen as darkness. And God was saying by the darkness that the cross was a place of judgment. And God only judges one thing, and that is sin. God turned out the lights because this was a judgment on sin.

This is a judgment on sin being borne by an innocent man. That is what the Old Testament sacrificial system pictured, a judgment on sin in the death of an innocent sacrifice. Isaiah 53 says, "The Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief, rendering Him a guilt offering He will bear their iniquities and justify many." Romans 4:25, "He was delivered for our offenses." 1 Corinthians 15:3, "He died for our sins." 1 Peter 2:24, "Who in His own self bore our sins in His body on the tree." And Matthew 20:28 says, "He came to give His life a ransom for many."

This was the wrath of God to once and for all end the discussion of who killed Jesus, God did it. It was by the determinant plan and counsel of God. It was God who was pleased to crush Him. There were secondary causes, the Jews and the Romans, but the primary cause was God Himself. Jesus was being judged by the wrath of God and God was pouring out His full fury on Jesus as He bore all the guilt of all believers. The darkness showed that God's wrath was being poured out.

That's the first miracle by God at the cross. Sin was really being judged there. Jesus was not dying as an example, He was not dying as a martyr to a noble cause. He was not dying as a good man who shows us how we ought to take our convictions to death. He was dying as a sacrifice for sin and the supernatural darkness shows that God was giving us a sign to make that clear to us.

There is a second miracle. Verse 46, "And about the ninth hour, three o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" As the darkness came to an end, the life of Jesus is almost gone. The fury of God is almost spent, but Jesus can contain the pain no longer. It is not the pain of the cross and wounds of scourges, it is the pain of separation from the Father. Jesus literally screamed.

We are reminded again that this was a man who was sinless and so His physical capacities were not diminished by the curse. Psalm 22:1 says that, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" This cry of Jesus demonstrates the real agony. “As a ransom for many” means He had to die in their place, and He knew He would feel the fury of God's wrath. This is a supernatural separation, and while Jesus was not separated from the Father by nature, He was separated from the Father by fellowship.

Christ did not cease to be God but lost the intimacy of fellowship with His Father which He had eternally known. In fact, it was His Father's perfect love for Him that caused the Father to put the whole redemptive plan in motion and elect people and then set history in place to redeem those people, to gather them into glory in order that He might bring a bride to His Son as a gift of His love. Why? Because God is of purer eyes than to behold evil and iniquity, Habakkuk 1:12-13.

What else does Jesus’ death tell us about the cross? If darkness demonstrates wrath, God's separation demonstrates holiness. Wrath is at work but so is holiness. The word "holy" means separate. At the same time that God is pouring out His wrath in judgment on sin, He turns His back protecting His perfect holiness. He had to turn away from His own Son when He made Jesus sin for us. This is a holy moment that guilty sinners, separated from God, are being atoned for by this man hanging on that cross. God had to abandon Jesus at that point because He is holy and Jesus had become the guilt offering.

Now verse 47, "Some of those who were standing there when they heard it began saying, 'This man is calling for Elijah.'" That is not an honest statement. They didn't mistake what He said. They know the difference between Eli, and Elijah. And He spoke loudly and clearly. This is mockery, with sarcasm they said, "Oh, He's calling for Elijah." Why? Because in Malachi 4, the Old Testament ends with these words, "Behold, I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord."

Before the Lord comes in judgment, before the Lord comes to set up His Kingdom, Elijah is going to come. They did not realize that John the Baptist had already come in the spirit of Elijah. And so they are just mocking, "If you are the Messiah, you must be calling for Elijah." This shows how men manifested their hatred to the Son of God, hanging there dying for their sins.

It was at this point that Jesus said something else. He said, "I thirst," in John 19:28-29. Matthew doesn't record that but Matthew records the response. Verse 48, "And immediately one of them ran and taking a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave him a drink." So this is the second time, but this time He asks, His thirst is great. Verse 49 says, "Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him." More mockery.

There's a third miracle and it appears in verse 50. This is also absolutely supernatural. Verse 50, "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit." And what did He say? John 19:30 says, "It is finished." He did not say, "I am finished." And according to Luke 23:46 He said, "Into Your hands I commend My spirit." The Father had turned at that point. The wrath was over and He can see again the Father's face, and commits Himself to the Father having accomplished redemption.

Jesus did not die at the hands of men. The Jews couldn't kill Him, the Romans couldn't kill Him, nobody could kill Him, He alone voluntarily gave His life. Jesus said in John 10:18, “No one takes My Life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” No person can't end their life by saying it. In the Greek He dismissed His spirit, "Go now." And His Spirit self left that body on the cross and ascended into the embrace of His Father. This is a miracle.

It means that Jesus voluntarily gave His life. That He did it because He loved us. Jesus laid down His life for His sheep. 1 Timothy 2:6 says, “Christ Jesus, 6 gave himself as a ransom for all.” Or Isaiah 53:12, "He poured out His soul to death." The Father is saying the Son did it voluntarily out of obedience to His Father and love for us.

There's a fourth miracle which God shows us in verse 51, "And behold the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." At the moment that Jesus gave up His spirit, when literally He left that human body, the great veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies was ripped from top to bottom. The place where only the high priest could go once a year, after he had cleansed himself. And he had bells all over his robe and a rope tied to his foot in case he went in and the bells stopped ringing which meant he probably died, somebody would be able to pull him out.

This most holy place represented the presence of God where no unholy person could go. But after Jesus died on the cross, the Holy of Holies is ripped wide open and access to the throne of God is now made available. Men would be shut out of God's presence for all time had not Christ paid for their sins and opened the only way to God. At that moment there was no longer a Levitical priesthood, temple, nor any sacrifices. And in 70 A.D., to emphasize that, the Romans came in and totally obliterated the temple and the sacrificial system has never been restored.

And this happened at three o'clock in the afternoon and that temple was filled with hundreds of thousands of people, and priests who were deep in blood, slaughtering one Passover lamb after another for everybody who was celebrating the Passover. And yet in that moment Jesus eliminated the priesthood; no more offerings, no more Holy of Holies, and no more temple. Torn from top to bottom? This couldn't have been done by men. High, ornate, inaccessible and God tore it from the top all the way down.

In Hebrews 10:19-20, there is a wonderful statement, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.” By His flesh He opened up the way into the very presence of God. So we have seen supernatural darkness, separation from the Father, self-giving death and the tearing of the veil.

And now a fifth miracle. It's described there in verse 51 as an earthquake, "And the earth shook and the rocks were split." Jesus Christ promised that one day He will come back as judge. He will split the Mount of Olives wide open and create a great valley. He will judge the nations and set up His Kingdom. After that thousand-year reign, He will change the entire universe as we know it, and replace it with a new heaven and a new earth. This will lead to paradise regained. And here God affirms the reality of that future.

There is a sixth miracle. When the rocks were split, verses 52-53 say, "The tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many." What does this signify? This is a preview again of an actual opening of the grave and the final glorious resurrection of the dead.

Spirits coming down from heaven joined those bodies and three days later they went in to Jerusalem. They had to wait three days in order that Christ would be the first-fruits of the resurrection, that's 1 Corinthians 15:20. And in the resurrection we see the subduing of death and the new physical living in the glories of the new world together with our risen Christ. Wow, what miracles. Bow with me in prayer.