Jesus’ Descent into Death

Matthew 27:45-61

Immanuel Outdoor Service – 7/20/25

          Last week I said we had come to the climactic moment in the Gospel of Matthew: Jesus’ crucifixion. Today we continue in that dark moment. Jesus still hangs upon the cross: the King of kings, pierced, naked, ridiculed, enduring staggering physical pain, all of it alone.

          Yes, Jesus is so utterly alone on that cross. Last week we considered much of the physical agony Jesus sustained. Today we will give more focus to the spiritual torment he suffered. The depth of Jesus’ aloneness is utterly hellish.

          But the spiritual agony of Jesus will not be our primary focus today. Rather, Matthew wants us – his readers – to understand what Jesus’ death means to us, and to the world. The Father uses dramatic events to signal a whole new reality breaking upon the earth through the death of his Son. The old covenant era is over. Jesus is the dawning of a new heavens and a new earth.

          And the first of these strange and supernatural events is a midday darkness.

          Read vs 45

          The sixth hour to the ninth hour, that’s from noon to 3 pm. And for those three hours, Matthew writes, darkness hung over the region of Jerusalem. In some depictions of this event, the darkness is explained by a thunderstorm. Others cite an eclipse. But these do not explain what Matthew describes: a three-hour, afternoon darkness. This is not a natural phenomenon. The failing of the midday sun is a divine perturbation, a supernatural disturbance.

          In the Old Testament, darkness is a familiar motif – of God’s judgment and displeasure. For instance, the ninth plague in Egypt was a three-day darkness, a judgment God used to set his people free.

          Additionally, as we saw in the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24 (vs 29), the darkening of the sun is an Old Testament symbol for the collapsing of religious and political systems and their leaders. Centuries after the Exodus, Ezekiel prophesied against Egypt

“When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and put darkness on your land, declares the Lord God.”

                                                                   -Ezekiel 32:7-8

          This prophesy was about God’s judgment against Egypt’s religious and political systems. When darkness hung over Jerusalem, as Jesus hung on the cross, was it not a two-fold judgment?

First, and we’ll dive into this shortly, Jesus was receiving the judgment his people deserved. Second, though it was a real, physical darkness, it was still symbolic of God’s judgment against Jerusalem. The Jews – especially the religious establishment – had not recognized the time of their visitation. They had crucified the Son of God. Their end was coming. A new beginning was dawning.

          Read vs 46

          Jesus’ native tongue was Aramaic. Matthew translates for us. In his fading moments, Jesus cries words of prophetic fulfillment. For as King David was carried along by the Holy Spirit, he wrote,

          My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.                                                -Psalm 22:1-2

Again, we see the prominence of Psalm 22 in Jesus’ crucifixion. In his agony Jesus quotes its opening words. Jesus was so completely saturated with God’s word, he used it to voice to his heart-wrenching devastation, his unqualified aloneness.

          These words, the opening lines of Psalm 22 which Jesus quotes, give expression to the most severe pain Jesus felt while on the cross – a pain that was not physical. He felt, fully felt, the Father had turned his back away. The Father abandoned his Son. Jesus’ words on the cross might also be translated as, “Father, Father, why are you so far from me?”

          Can we possibly understand this? For all eternity, in endless ages past, Father, Son, and Spirit were in perfectly loving relationship; so united in their love, in such complete harmony, they are One – a Triune Oneness!

          But on that cross, the Father looked upon his suffering Son, and he turned away. And we must ask, why? Why did the Father forsake the Son?

          We first need to understand that God is supremely holy, and to be holy is to forsake all things evil, wicked, sinful. As the prophet Habakkuk writes:

          Are you not from everlasting. O Lord my God, my Holy One…You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong?                -Habakkuk 1:12,13

          God is so pure, so perfect in holiness, sin is reprehensible for him to look upon. And on that cross, Jesus became sin.

          For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.                                               -2 Corinthians 5:21

          Jesus was the substitute, dying in our place. And while he hung on that cross, he took upon his shoulders the weight of the world’s sins – past, present, and future. He became sin, and thus he became the object upon which God’s wrath for sin was poured out. The wrath of God is our curse for sin, and Jesus absorbed our curse.

          Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”              -Galatians 3:13

          Jesus clothed himself in our sin, to bear our curse. And God, disgusted by sin, forsook his sin covered Son. The Father turned his face away. There is no better way to say it than, on the cross, Jesus felt the fury of hell. Indeed, hell is when objects of God’s wrath are forsaken, cast aside and into the outer darkness. Jesus felt the hellish outer darkness.

I am not saying Jesus descended into hell when he died. I am saying, in some mysterious way, Jesus felt the effects of hell folded terribly into that moment, as he was forsaken by the Father. It was searing pain upon his soul; like the existential terror of suddenly waking in the middle of space with no stars in sight, with neither up nor down, lost and alone and screaming through the infinite nothing, nothing, nothing. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

          How deep the despair in those words! Yet we have only scratched the surface of them. Let us consider again the significance that Jesus quotes Psalm 22. Three things

1.      Jesus quoting these words means he knew all that was going to happen to him. (John 18:4) He knew Psalm 22 was about him. It’s almost a script of what unfolded that Good Friday.

2.      In the worst moment of Jesus’ life, in reaction to a deluge of cascading agonies, the things spilling off Jesus’ lips were not curses or complains, but Scripture. His life gave expression to Scripture, and Scripture gave expression to his life. He is the Word, the Word become flesh to dwell among us!

3.      As hellish as everything was for Jesus, he trusted in the hopeful promises found at the end of Psalm 22. He knew it was all going according to plan. It’s why, even in unimaginable agony, Jesus still cries, “My God, my God.” The end of Psalm 22 speaks of life after death, worship given to the King, and generations yet unborn bowing down before the Christ! It was the plan of his Father!

So much meaning, so much power, behind these four Aramaic words. But even in these, Jesus is misunderstood.

Read vs 47-49

Jesus cries, “Eli, Eli” in Aramaic (My God, my God). But in Hebrew it sounds similar to the name of Elijah. The Jewish bystanders think Jesus is calling Elijah to come to his rescue. Both Jews and Gentiles, how blind they have been to what was really going on.

Yet it seems there was someone among them who felt pity, offering Jesus for a second time the drink to alleviate some of the pain. This time Jesus did not shut his mouth to it – his mouth was so dry, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth. He knew he was at the end; there would be no time for sour wine to provide any numbing effect.

Read vs 50

Death on a cross was designed to be horrifyingly slow. As I said last week, history records people lingering on crosses for three days and more before death. When the end did finally come, it would be like fading away. The crucified would grow weaker and weaker, eventually slipping into unconsciousness. Then, after any bystanders had long gone home, they would quietly breath their last without anyone noticing.

But it was not this way for Jesus. First, as John tells us, in a strong voice Jesus declared, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Then, with a loud cry, Jesus yielded up his spirit. Luke tells us these final words: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46) And then he bowed his head and died.

This is not a picture of a man quietly slipping into death. This is Jesus, King over life and death, choosing this moment, after some six hours on the cross, after drinking the cup of the wrath of God to the last drop. Jesus chooses this moment to give up his life – committing his spirit into his Father’s gracious hands.

Then the created orders seems itself to convulse with the death of the Son of God.

Read vs 51-53

The earth shakes. An earthquake strikes Jerusalem at Jesus’ death. Though it really happened, it is another Old Testament symbol for God’s judgment. The earthquake evidently percusses the temple, the curtain torn in two.

This is certainly the curtain which hid the Holy of Holies, the place where the presence of God rested upon earth, where only the high priest could tread, and that only once a year. 60 feet tall, 30 feet wide, 4 inches thick, and it tore from top to bottom – as if God reached down and rent it himself.

As the Son’s flesh was torn, so was the curtain torn. The Father was opening wide the way to him, entrance into the Holy of Holies through faith in Jesus Christ. Anyone who repents of their former life and comes to Jesus for newness of life, they are given full access to God – forever forgiven and declared righteous.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.      -Hebrews 10:19-23

Hear that brothers and sisters! Jesus died to open the way for sinners to come to God. It is why Jesus said of himself,

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”                                                                    -John 14:6

No longer is God obscured behind an impenetrable curtain. We see the fulness of God in the face of Jesus Christ. No longer is God accessible to only one man once a year, but all may come at any time through faith in Jesus Christ. And your heart is sprinkled clean, and you are given pure water with which to wash.

See how great the cost to open the way! See the love poured out in the life and death of God’s beloved Son. Christ has opened the way, so run to him! Give to him the brokenness of your heart and be flooded with rivers of living water! Give him your garments of sin, and let him place his robes of righteousness upon your back! Come to Jesus and find life everlasting beyond the grave!

And the people coming out of their tombs in verse 53 are a foreshadowing of this great promise – Jesus’ death is our resurrection!

Matthew says these people, recently dead, came from their tombs when Jesus burst from the grave. But he places that detail at Jesus’ death because – like the darkness, the earthquake, and the sundering of the temple curtain symbolized – a new order was breaking upon the earth. It was a foreshadowing of coming and eternal things unleashed in Christ’s death and resurrection. The kingdom of heaven had dawned upon earth, and Jesus is its King, Lord of life and death!

These disturbances were so tremendous, so otherworldly, that even the bloodthirsty and godless Gentiles couldn’t help but see God’s hand in it all.

Read vs 54

These Romans witnessed the sufferings of Jesus, they heard his voice from the cross, they saw the darkness, they felt the earth beneath them quake at his death, and they knew this man was different. Truly this was the Son of God!

Even just a few moments ago, the Jews thought Jesus was trying to summon Elijah to save himself. But these Romans recognize something of the truth about Jesus, and that God was working in the death of Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

And then, almost out of nowhere, Matthew introduces a new group of Jesus’ disciples that had been following him all along – a band of faithful women.

Read vs 55-56

Jesus’ male disciples had all fled (though in another Gospel we learn John was there). But when the men hid, the women stood courageously and mournfully by, witnessing the death of their Lord.

Matthew inserts the female disciples at this late stage in his Gospel because it is they who will provide continuity from cross, to tomb, to first sightings of the resurrected Christ. The women, not the men, will be the primary witnesses to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

If anyone tries to tell you the Bible demeans women, they do not understand what they are saying! In an age when women were not considered credible witnesses, the Father defied those conventions and planned for women to be the primary witnesses of the most significant events in human history. Only they were there to see it all.

Read vs 57-61

          From the four Gospel accounts we know Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin, a wealthy man, and had previously been a secret follower of Jesus. But when he sees the bloodied cross, and the lifeless body there, he suddenly chooses to out himself as a disciple. The cross sent the other disciples into hiding, but this one makes known his faith at the cross.

Indeed, approaching Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body would not have been something kept secret. Joseph owned a new tomb, cut into the rock. These types of tombs were large enough for generations of his family. As such they were an incredibly expensive investment. But to lay a criminal’s body inside meant the Jews would condemn the tomb as forbidden for Joseph’s family. He would have to have another dug. Joseph didn’t know he would get it back.

The Romans left crucified bodies to rot on the cross, waiting for decomposition to eventually bring them down. The Jews would not allow such things, but they would have buried a criminal in an unmarked grave. It is remarkable then, that Jesus is buried like a rich man, surrounded by the graves of the rich.

Scriptures foretold the Messiah would die as a criminal, though he was innocent. Then, against all reason, would have his body laid with the rich.

          They made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.                  -Isaiah 53:9

          Joseph makes all the arrangement to have Jesus’ body placed in his own, new tomb; having a large stone rolled in front of the opening. When he and his men leave, there again are the women, mourning, watching.

The women are the ones to see Jesus nailed to the cross. They are the ones to see him die there. They are the ones to watch his body taken down. They are the ones to witness that same body placed in the tomb. They are the witnesses. They are the ones who can testify that the Jesus placed in the tomb is the same Jesus crucified on the cross. The women are the witnesses of continuity.

          Jesus died. He truly died. But in his death we find life. For he gave his life as a ransom, to take the punishment our sins deserved. So if by faith we believe, we are forgiven all our sins – past, present, and future.

As Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”                                                                                  -John 3:16-18

          If you have come to Jesus in faith, have been forgiven of your sins, have gained full access to come before the Father in favor, it does not now mean life continues on as it once did. Jesus gave his life to ransom you, to purchase you.

As Paul writes,

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.                                                                          -1 Corinthians 6:20

Your old self has gone, behold, the new has come. You are a new creation, not re-made to live for yourself, but wholly made to live unto Jesus. His death is the death of your old self. His resurrection is your present and eternal newness of life!

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.                                                          -Galatians 2:20