SPEAKER_00: Good Friday invites us to slow down.
SPEAKER_00: It invites us to pause and stand at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Not to rush past it, not to soften it, but to see clearly.
SPEAKER_00: In these verses, we are told that we are not just told that Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: We are shown what his death means.
SPEAKER_00: This scene of Jesus on the cross, it's heavy, it's dark, and it's sacred.
SPEAKER_00: And if we listen carefully, we'll hear what God is telling us through it.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's walk through this passage together and consider three different movements.
SPEAKER_00: First, the darkness, second, the death of Jesus, and third, the response that it all merits.
SPEAKER_00: So Matthew tells us in verse 45 that from noon until about three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not a passing cloud or some kind of natural eclipse.
SPEAKER_00: This is a sign.
SPEAKER_00: In Scripture, darkness often signals judgment.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of judgment seen in the plagues of Egypt or the kind of darkness that the prophets spoke of.
SPEAKER_00: But here, the darkness is not falling on Egypt or Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: It's falling on Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: And at the center of that darkness hangs Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we hear his cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: These words, which Jesus quotes directly from Psalm 22, reveal the mental and the spiritual torment of the cup Jesus accepted when he was in Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_00: Notice here how Jesus, for the first time in Matthew's gospel, he doesn't refer to God as his father.
SPEAKER_00: This is because the relationship that Jesus had always known with his father, it was now broken.
SPEAKER_00: To give his life as a ransom for many for the forgiveness of sins, Jesus must for the moment be separated from his father.
SPEAKER_00: This is the cost of sin.
SPEAKER_00: We often treat sin lightly.
SPEAKER_00: We rename it, excuse it, we manage it.
SPEAKER_00: But here at the cross, we see the true reality of what sin does.
SPEAKER_00: It brings darkness, it brings separation, and it brings suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, he steps into this darkness for us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't crying out because of his own guilt, because he has none.
SPEAKER_00: He's crying out because he has taken our guilt upon himself.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we move on in the story, Matthew tells us that Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: At this moment, Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: But notice the language that's used here.
SPEAKER_00: He yielded up his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' death was not noble or peaceful.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't simply fade away quietly.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, Jesus was in full possession of his senses.
SPEAKER_00: He was in full control.
SPEAKER_00: And this is how we know that this was a willing sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And then at that very moment, at the moment of Jesus' death, something extraordinary happens.
SPEAKER_00: The curtain of the temple is torn in two from top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies, the place where God's presence dwelled from the rest of the people.
SPEAKER_00: Only the high priest could enter, and only once a year, and only with the sacrificial blood.
SPEAKER_00: But now the curtain is torn.
SPEAKER_00: And notice how the curtain was torn from the top to the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: God is so clearly the one doing the work here.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't just a dramatic detail.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't something that's just glossed over.
SPEAKER_00: No, instead, this is a declaration that the barrier between God and humanity has been removed.
SPEAKER_00: Access to the Father has been opened.
SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, the earth shakes, the rocks split, and tombs are opened.
SPEAKER_00: Even creation responds to Jesus' death in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: The death of Jesus, it's not a quiet moment that's tucked away in history.
SPEAKER_00: It's a cosmic event.
SPEAKER_00: Everything has been affected.
SPEAKER_00: The cross, even in this moment, it's not defeat.
SPEAKER_00: It may look like weakness, but it is the power of God at work.
SPEAKER_00: It is where justice and mercy meet.
SPEAKER_00: It is where sin is paid for and grace is made available to us.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the cross, we no longer approach God through rituals or through intermediaries.
SPEAKER_00: We come through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The way is open.
SPEAKER_00: And now we turn in the story to the people watching.
SPEAKER_00: We have a Roman centurion, a hardened soldier who would have spent his whole life fighting for Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And he's likely accustomed to executions.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't the first one that he's seen.
SPEAKER_00: And he sees everything that has just happened: the darkness, the earthquake, the way in which Jesus died, and he responds with a confession: truly, this was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is truly remarkable that a Gentile, an outsider, recognizes what many insiders refused to see.
SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, we're told about the women who were there, watching from a distance.
SPEAKER_00: These are faithful followers.
SPEAKER_00: They had not abandoned Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They stayed and they witnessed.
SPEAKER_00: In every direction, people were responding to the cross in different ways.
SPEAKER_00: Some mocked, some misunderstood, some confessed, and some remained faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And that is still true for us today.
SPEAKER_00: The cross on Good Friday, it confronts each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: It does not allow neutrality.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot simply observe it as history or admire it as a symbol.
SPEAKER_00: It calls for a response.
SPEAKER_00: Will you dismiss it?
SPEAKER_00: Or will you confess like the centurion that Jesus is in fact the Son of God and stand like the women as faithful witnesses to what has happened?
SPEAKER_00: Good Friday, it's not just remembering that Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just looking back and seeing a death that happened in history.
SPEAKER_00: It's about understanding why he died and what it means.
SPEAKER_00: In the darkness that day, we see the weight of sin.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' death, we see the way to God opened.
SPEAKER_00: And in the witness, we see the call to respond.
SPEAKER_00: So the question isn't simply what happened at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The question on Good Friday is this what will you do with it?
SPEAKER_00: Today we stand at the foot of the cross, and it truly changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.