"I am the Son of God"

“And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (Matthew 27:39-43 ESV)

Having crossed the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus and the Apostles waited. Jesus knew His time was short, and the apostles had not yet grasped the totality of what was about to happen. Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot and handed over to the Pharisees. In a whirlwind of trials before the Pharisees, Pilate, and Herod, Jesus remained virtually silent. He was sentenced by Pilate and crucified. Fulfilling scripture. On top of His suffering, He was mocked, spit on, cursed, and humiliated; that is what crucifixion was about. This is why the Romans used it and were so adept at torture and punishment.

If you have faith in Jesus Christ, imagine you did not know what we know on this side of the cross. The man you believed was the Son of God was hung on a tree. What about the miracles you witnessed? What about the teaching you absorbed, taught with an authority you had never known? You watched the dead, some you knew, raised to life before your eyes, and the man who did this has been brutally beaten, bleeding profusely, broken, and nailed to a cross. How can this be? What would you do? You had faith; is it gone? You are confused, frightened, and distraught. I, for one, cannot imagine being in that situation. The apostles hid and remained in prayer.

According to Matthew (27:62), John (19:14-16), and Mark (15:42), this was the day of preparation, the day before the Passover, when the Passover lambs were slaughtered as a sacrifice. By late afternoon, Jesus would die a physical death, the perfect sacrifice, the unblemished Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Only John and some of the women were with Jesus. No other apostles were present, which was astounding. While on the cross, Jesus blessed those who cursed Him. In the only instance in His ministry, He promised heaven to a sinner, assigned a brother the care of His earthly mother. The sky turned black, the sun refused to shine, and an earthquake damaged the holy of holies in the temple. Lastly, a Roman soldier said, "Surely this man was innocent." This crucifixion would leave Jerusalem stunned, with some celebrating and others in deep mourning. The mixture of emotions in the city must have been polarizing.

It was on this day that Joseph of Arimathea obtained permission from Pilate to remove the lifeless Jesus from the cross. Both Joseph and Nicodemus risked much, but they believed in Christ. Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb, exiting the world as He had entered it, poor, a servant of others with no place to rest His head. Both the manager and the tomb borrowed resting places.

That late afternoon, evening, and the next two days and nights, Jesus would remain underground just as Jesus had prophesied to the Pharisees in Matthew 12:40 ESV, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The parallel between Jesus and Jonah is obvious. It is the cross in the Book of Jonah. I think Jesus used a pesher style of interpretation in which He, knowing the Book of Jonah, applied Jonah’s three days in the great fish with His being underground, sending a resounding message to the Pharisees of the impending coming of the Kingdom. While Jonah delivered a message to Nineveh, Jesus’ message was not only to Rome but to Israel and all the nations. It did not come from the tomb but from His ministry. The proof of His message, the coming of the Kingdom of God, and the calling of sinners would be driven home in the resurrection deeper than any nail of the crucifixion.

Now, all anyone could do was mourn and wait.

Grace and Peace!