The death of Jesus
Matthew 27:45-56
Jesus had been mocked, scourged, and put on a cross, but that was not his deepest agony. As awful as the physical and mental sufferings of the Lord must have been, during three hours of darkness, instead of suffering from men, he suffered from God himself. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. (See II Corinthians 5:21.) At the end of these three hours Jesus cries with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”—a cry we are allowed to hear, but cannot understand.
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Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God. And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him: Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children. |