Matthew Series, Week 46 - “Meeting in Galilee”

 I’ve told the story before about the catalyst to the founding of the Alliance. A.B. Simpson was the pastor of a very prominent church in New York City. In his spare time he would go to the docks and evangelize to the Irish immigrants that were coming off the boats. When he brought these new believers to his church, the church rejected them, and so Simpson left his pastorate. 

What happened next is the heartbeat of the Alliance. A new congregation began where the emphasis on evangelism and missions took centered stage. The mantra, “Bring Back the King,” became the cry of a movement that we are a part of today. Missionaries would be trained and sent out with all there belongings in a casket, because they weren’t coming back. Offerings were received where people would toss in every piece of jewelry they had, even wedding bands, because the call of Christ was so heavily on their hearts. They were all in, because the call of Matthew 28 was everything.

This call is what brings us back to our sermon series in Matthew were we are coming to a close after forty-six weeks of moving through the book, looking at the overarching themes that it contains. And as we open to the 28th and final chapter of Matthew, let’s look back at the five over-arching themes that we have seen.

The first theme we saw was that of who Jesus was. We saw his linage and the Magi. We saw the challenge of the devil, and the words Jesus spoke from mountain sides. Yes, he was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy of a coming Messiah, but he was more. Through the actions of those around Jesus, in addition to his own actions and words, we saw that Jesus wasn’t just another Old Testament Messiah type, but God come down to his creation. God took on humanity in its entirety except for sin. This is why the Magi worshiped him and why the devil tried to usurp him. 

The second theme we saw came from Jesus’ words to put his teachings into practice. His disciples needed to be those that not only said they believed, but did so too. Jesus wasn’t looking for lip service from his followers, but transformed lives that had at their foundation his words.

A natural question followed about who then could be Jesus’ disciple. It’s here that Matthew’s third theme was shown. Anyone could be a disciple, all it took was to trust in the Lord Jesus. If you put your trust into Jesus, you showed it by acting upon his word. Your life changed from your own and now was seen through the person of Jesus himself.

That trust was the focus of the fourth theme. Trust and Faith are usually synonymous in the Scriptures and section four of Matthew focused on the type of faith Jesus’ disciples are to have. This faith is a growing trust in Jesus, that is actively seeking him. It’s not a religious faith that checks the boxes, but a relational faith that seeks God’s will in our individual and collective lives. Individual as a disciple of Jesus and collectively as the Church of God.

Finally, we came to the last section of Matthew. It was here that the authority of Jesus was challenged. Again and again Jesus showed his authority over all aspects of life. From creation to the spiritual realm. And that authority was not hampered by the cross. To the world, the cross was a defeater, but Jesus willing sought the Father’s will, which was the salvation of humanity, but that was only through the sacrifice of the cross. Even to the end, Jesus was in full control of the situation, even willingly giving into death, but only once God’s prophetic word was accomplished.

As we come back to the final chapter of Matthew, that the sacrifice is seen as acceptable by God on behalf of humanity. Let’s read the final verses of Matthew, found in chapter 28.

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This is it! This is the climax of Jesus’ story in the Gospels. The resurrection, the restoration of the disciples, and the commissioning of Jesus’ Church. 

Let’s take each of these three moments of the resurrection story and look at how they connect to what we have seen in Matthew’s Gospel.

We start with the resurrection itself. Last week we saw that it was the women who saw where Jesus was laid to rest. So it’s only logical that it is the women who go to the tomb first. This detail is immensely important. The presence of the women signals authenticity to the events. In the ancient world, a women’s testimony in civl matters was either not highly valued or dismissed all together. Yet it is the women and not the men disciples, who are the first human carriers of the good news of the resurrection.

It is the women who see the empty tomb first. By presenting the women as the recipients of the resurrection proclamation, Matthew is more interested in keeping historical accuracy than to fit in the social norms of putting men first.

But it’s in the empty tomb moment that we get connections to the beginning of the Gospel. Like at the beginning, it is an angel that proceeds Jesus. In chapter 1, an angel comes in a dream to Jospeh to announce the birth of Jesus. Here the angel again shows up to make the announcement of the resurrection to the women.

Also in the announcement of Jesus’ birth, the angle gives comfort to Joseph by telling him not to fear Jesus’ birth. Here the angel gives the women comfort by telling them not to fear what has happened, but that Jesus has risen. Both proclamations signal a type of birth, both proclamations lead into a worshipful encounter.

The angel then reminds the women about Jesus’ words to meet him in Galilee, signaling restoration. But then something happens. Jesus appears and the women instinctively worship him. 

This is the first of two moments of post resurrection worship of Jesus. But worship is very important throughout Matthew. Worship is mentioned nine times and I want you to see the moments of those mentions. First the Magi seek to worship the new born Jesus (2:2); in response King Herod feigns interest in worshiping the new born also (2:8). Then the Magi find Jesus and actually worship him (2:11), but Herod doesn’t. The next time worship is mentioned it is in the devils temptations of Jesus. Here the devil wants Jesus to worship him (4:9), but Jesus responds with God’s word that only God is worthy of worship (4:10). Jesus’ words point back to the worship of the Magi as being right and head to other moments of people worshiping Jesus as being correct. We then fast forward to Jesus calming the sea, and his disciples worshiping him (14:33). This is followed by Jesus quoting Isaiah rebuking the false worship that the religious leaders were participating in (15:9). The alternative being that true worship is to turn to Jesus. From there we get the worship of Jesus by the women at the resurrection (28:9) and eventually by all the disciples in Galilee (28:17). 

But it’s at the command to go get the other disciples to Galilee that Matthew takes a moment and gives us a historical situation with the Jewish leadership.

  The guards return and report that the tomb is empty. The fears of the Jewish leaders has been realized. They have to move fast to quell any reports that Jesus actually raised. They paid off the guards to say the disciples came and got the body. Even though they had made the tomb secured just like Pilate had allowed them to. Then they made a political move to protect any guard involved from the repercussions of dereliction of duty, a protection they would need, because their punishment would have been death.

And so they started their own rumor to counter the resurrection story. Jesus didn’t resurrect, his body was stolen. This has given rise to four possibilities as to what happened that morning. 

First the Jewish leadership was right and Jesus’ disciples stole the body. This would mean that the disciples over powered professional soldiers, took the body, hid it, and then died in horrible ways professing that Jesus had risen, all the while knowing they made the whole thing up. This seems pretty farfetched in itself, because just the idea that a person would die for a lie they knew was a lie is something that has been proved doesn’t happened. Sure people will die for a thing they believe is true, but who dies for an idea they know is false? No one.

The second story that has come out, is that Jesus never died. Stories that Jesus either passed out, or was replaced became popular. But just the excruciating torment that Jesus had to go through, coupled with the evidence from the other Gospels, of Jesus’ pierced side that produced blood followed by water, points to the definitive death of Jesus. Also, the historical writings outside of the biblical account speak to the death of Jesus as being a historical truth.

The third story is that the women got the tomb wrong. I mean women are notoriously bad at directions, so they must be wrong, right? Seems kind of sexist to me, plus if that were the case, the Jewish leadership could have easily pointed to the correct tomb and shown the body.

No the only story that fits all of the facts surrounding the empty tomb, is the resurrection of Jesus. This is why when journalists and detectives who’ve looked at the evidence come away with an assured conclusion that Jesus was actually raised on that first Easter Sunday.

It’s after this that we come to the conclusion of Matthew’s Gospel, something that has been in the background for several chapters, the meeting at Galilee.

On the mountain is where the disciples meet Jesus. They have met him in places like this many times. It’s where a lot of God’s people meet their Savior. The mountain represents the closeness of God to humanity and just like God met the man Abraham on Moriah, and Moses on Sinai, God is meeting his people once again on a mountain. 

It’s here that we get another moment of worship that is given rightly to Jesus. But even in the worship there is doubt from some of the disciples. Does it come from the core eleven, or are there others there that doubt? We don’t know, but they are there, they are worshiping even if parts of them doubt. They are not rebuked for it, but they are given a point to focus on.

Jesus proclaims that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” The way it’s stated in our Bibles might seem like Jesus didn’t have authority, and now does. But we have seen in the final section that Jesus did have it, so what does he mean? A better understanding is to read like this, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been put back in its place.” Jesus left the throne that he had sat on from eternity past, to come to earth to walk with his creation. God the Son wrapped himself in human flesh, by doing so he set aside certain aspects of his authority for a time. This is why Paul states in Philippians 2, “[Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross (v.6-8)!”

By taking on human flesh, Jesus put a self restriction on certain aspects of his authority, one of which was his omnipresence. Yet, after he was killed by his creation and resurrected, his authority, in its full, was put back into place. And it's from that place that he commissions his disciples.

Out of Jesus’ full authority he sends out his disciples, “Therefore go,” is an emphatic call to action. It’s telling his people to arise and do what they have been saved to do. And this call to work echoes down to us today. 

And what is that work? To make disciples. Make others like us. Worshipers of the risen Savior Jesus. And how do we do that? Through baptism in the name of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey Jesus’ commands. We are not called to have people say a prayer, or make a one time commitment, but to lay down their lives and pick up the life of Jesus. To turn away from their sin and to his righteousness. To live not in our own will, but the will of the Father. Not to live life in our own power, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

And as we do this work, he will be with us until his return. There is no hope outside of Jesus. There is no power or authority greater than his. And so we turn to him, follow him, build our lives upon him, until the day we are called into his kingdom through the death of this dying body, or he returns in glorious trumpet sound. 

Matthew’s Gospel is a connection from God’s salvation work in his people Israel, to his salvation work through Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is a call to understand God’s prophetic words in the Old Testament, God the Son’s arrival, his crucifixion, resurrection, and our need for it all. We cannot help ourselves, only Jesus can. We cannot save ourselves, only Jesus can. We cannot fix anything in this world, only Jesus can. So we must embrace this Jesus, who from eternity created the universe, watched as it fell into death, came to rescue it through his own sacrifice, and lives now to embrace all those that would trust in him.

My challenge is two-fold. First, if you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Savior what’s holding you back? If its questions, I’d love to speak to you about them. There are so many answers that we can easily miss, I would be glad to walk through them all. But don’t miss the calling of Matthew to embrace Jesus, because if you do, the return of Jesus will not be pleasant.

The second part of the challenge goes to those who have embraced Jesus as their Savior. Are you working in the commission Jesus has given you? Are you making disciples of all nations. That means you are doing Gospel work. Are you praying for and speaking to your neighbors, family and friends about their need for a Savior? Are you supporting the work of Gospel ministries at home and across the world? It is our highest calling to accomplish the task given to us on that mountainside in Galilee. No political campaign, no social war, no discussion or debate is more important than someone hearing the Gospel. And we who have trusted in Jesus as our Savior are called to arise and go to accomplish the work before us; that all nations would have a testimony to Jesus’ death and resurrection. When our work is accomplished, as Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, then his return will follow.

A mantra of the Alliance has always been, “Bring Back the King!” We do this by being about the work he has given. So let us be his people, doing his work, until his return. Amen.

Matthew Series, Week 45 - “Trusting a Trusting Savior”

 You know what makes a good leader? They can lead you somewhere that you want to go but don’t know how to get there. You know what makes a great leader? They can lead you somewhere you don’t want to go, but know you have to. You know what makes an excellent leader? They can lead you somewhere you didn’t know you needed to go, and they help you overcome the challenges along the way. 

Our world has a lot of good leaders, but they’re usually the ones that speak to the choir. A lot of political and pastoral leadership lands in this category. You already believe in a set of principles on an issue, whether it’s small government or following Jesus. You know what you want, you just don’t know how to achieve it, a good leader helps you get there. 

Great leaders are a little harder to come by. These are usually military leaders that call their troops to war. They can be presidents guiding a nation during a time civil unrest, like Lincoln, or parents trying to help their child overcome depression.

But excellent leaders are almost impossible to find, because they have to know something that no one else knows. They have to have insight into the deeper recesses of a person’s life, things they didn’t know about themselves. Most leaders work on the obvious, but excellent leaders work on the unknown of the inner person. And they move us from where we think we should be, to where we ought to be. But these leaders just don’t say, I know you need to go, they walk with you along the way. 

Out of all the leaders I’ve read about in history who are consider noteworthy, they fall into either being good or great, but only Jesus, in my opinion, is excellent. Because he doesn’t call us to something we know we need, he reveals what is most needed, then sacrifices to bring it to us, and then lives with us along the journey. 

And it’s Jesus’ work that brings us back to our sermon series in the book of Matthew, where we’ll be picking it back up in chapter 27, verse 32. And as we open to Matthew 27:32, let’s look back on the previous weeks.

This last section has been focused around Jesus’ authority. And so we have seen that as disciples, we are to be satisfied in Jesus’ authority by seeking and doing his will. This means that we do not seek our own satisfaction apart from Jesus’ will, but instead, seek his will above our own, which leads into the satisfaction that our souls long for. 

We then saw that as disciples we must be on our guard for the trap that calls us to be self-reliant. That says, “I am strong without God.” It’s a trap that we can easily fall into, when we believe the lie that we can do things without the work of Jesus. We must always remember that without Jesus we are doomed to fail, but with him, we have already won.

Following that, we saw that to overcome this trap we must resolve ourselves daily to follow Jesus. Like Jesus resolved himself to go to the cross, we must look to God and say, your will be done, not mine. This has to be a daily commitment and more often, a decision by decision commitment. Like we breath and blink, we must seek the will of God above our own.

Finally last week, we walked through the final trial of Jesus. There we saw the humiliation that Jesus had to go through. It was in that humiliation that we talked about how if we were there, it would be us who stood in the place of the mockers. Being honest about our responsibility in leading Jesus to the cross, both humbles us and should cause us to praise him. Because it was our sin that held him to the cross, our rejoicing at his sacrifice should be daily, just as our submission to him should be.

This now leads us into the final verses of chapter 27, where we see the cross. Let’s read Matthew 27, starting in verse 32 together.

32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene (sa-ree-knee), named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

38 Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[c] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

In these 34 verses, a lot of Scripture is fulfilled, and there is so many minor details that are integral to the layering of what is happening, that we could spend a few weeks going through each. Yet as usual, we are looking at the overall picture that the Holy Spirit is painting through the pen of Matthew. So let’s walk through these four parts of the cross to see this portrait’s brush strokes.

After Jesus’ horrific beatings at the hands of the both the Jewish guards, and Roman soldiers, Jesus is led out to the place of his execution. We can see that the beatings have taken their toll on Jesus, because the soldiers conscript a man named Simon to help carry Jesus’ cross. The soldiers led Jesus to Golgotha and there nailed him to the cross and raised him to suffer for hours on end.

It is here that we must pause and recognizing something that is happening in this passage. Jesus cries out in verse 45, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” This  phrase comes from Psalm 22. By looking at this Psalm, we can see that it is a parallel to the crucifixion and will be referenced several times. Listen to this from Psalm 22:11, “Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. 13 Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me (v.11-14).”

These words of the Psalmist parallel the moments leading to the crucifixion. Jesus’ time in the Garden, the unjust trials that he had to go through, and as we’ll see the moments throughout his cruxifixction. This Psalm is very important to the crucifixion story because it carries a lot of the imagery to the act of crucifixion. In verse 16 of Psalm 22, listen to the imagery of the piercing nails, “Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.” In imagery the Psalmist is prophesying of Jesus on the cross.

So let’s turn to the Jesus on the cross, and see how this Psalm plays out.

It’s here on the cross that we get a series of moments that are very important. Matthew starts by letting us know that Jesus was presented with a wine and gall mixture. This had become a custom of the Jews to help with the pain for those being crucified and was based on Proverbs 31:6-7, “Let beer be for those who are perishing, wine for those who are in anguish! 7 Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Yet, Jesus rejects this pain reliever, choosing to embrace the pain of the cross. Now Jesus isn’t rejecting this compassionate act because it would be wrong of him to, but rather that he would be fully aware of what was going on. Jesus needed his mental faculties as clear as possible so, as we’ll see, prophecy could be fulfilled. Again we see this in Psalm 22, verse 15, “My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.”

In the next moment we see the people casting lots for Jesus’ clothes. Basically they are gambling for the only earthly possessions Jesus had. This was customary for the executioners, and was seen as sort of a bonus to the job. Yet, this moment is again fulfilled in the words of Psalm 22:18, “They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”

In the next moment, we hear of mockers yelling at Jesus. They says things like, “‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God (Mt. 27:40)!’” And “‘He saved others…but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, “I am the Son of God (MT.27:42-43).’””

Now listen to the words of Psalm 22, “6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. 8 ‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say, ‘let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him (v.6-8).’”

These people mock Jesus, yet they are falling right into the prophetic words that they say they believe, but show they do not.

Matthew then takes us to where the as sun reaches its highest point in the sky, where several moments follow each other. First, the shine of the sun over the land goes dark. It’s here that we should pause. Because we have a record of this event outside of the Bible where the sun was darkened in such a way and an earthquake occurred. In the writings of Phlegon (flee-gone) of Tralles, we get this quote, “In the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad, there was a great eclipse of the Sun, greater than had ever been known before, for at the sixth hour the day was changed into night, and the stars were seen in the heavens. An earthquake occurred in Bythinia and overthrew a great part of the city of Nicæa (https://www.freechristianteaching.tv/the-ad-33-date-of-the-crucifixion-according-to-phlegon-a-secular-greek-historian).” Working out the years of Phlegon (flee-gone), we get the spring of AD 33. This corresponds with the Passover of that year. So not only is the prophetic word fulfilled, but its events are witnessed by others in the world.

This is followed by Jesus’ crying out, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” People in the crowd hear the Eli, and think that Jesus is calling out for Elijah. A man taken by God in a chariot instead of dying like everyone else. But here again, Jesus isn’t succumbing, he’s pointing his disciples back to Psalm 22, by quoting it’s opening. The opening of the Psalm reads, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? 2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.”

And we might think that Jesus is succumbing. He’s succumbing to the pain, he’s succumbing to this torture, but we must remember Jesus was resolved. He resolved himself in the garden to go to the cross, because it was the will of the Father. And if we keep reading in Psalm 22, we can see the resolve of the Psalmist as well. “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. 4 In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame (v. 3-5).”

When Jesus quotes the beginning of this Psalm, it’s to point his disciples to it. It wasn’t me Jeremiah, or Paul, or Matthew, or any other theologian that said, “Oh hey, Psalm 22 fits with this Jesus story.” No it’s the Holy Spirit reminding Matthew, that Jesus spoke this opening to point his disciples to see how this crucifixion was spoken about hundreds of years earlier, so that his disciples would trust in the fact that this horrific scene had purpose. Jesus’ authority, God’s work, was not being defeated, but instead was being fulfilled. 

And then we get what Matthew says in verse 50, “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.” This lets us know that Jesus held on as long as he willed so that all prophetic words would be fulfilled. Jesus didn’t just die, be purposefully let go, so that the full sacrifice and what was spoken through the prophets would be satisfied.

It’s then that we get creation’s response to it’s Creator’s sacrifice. Notice the sequence of events. The curtain is torn from top to bottom. Since the days of Moses, that curtain represented the separation between God and man. Only one person could pass by that curtain, but now it was torn in two, and the pathway away from the separation between God and man was established through Jesus. 

Next, the earthquake. The quake didn’t cause the curtain to rip, Jesus’s sacrifice caused that, but the earth shook in response to the Savior’s death. From this quake, old saints were raised in a miracle never seen before, even to this day. This seems to be a taste of the full resurrection that is to come, but even these saints waited to come out of their tombs until after the resurrection of Jesus came out of his tomb, so that he would be the first in all things.

Following Jesus death on the cross, it isn’t a Jewish person who speaks these words, “Surely he was the Son of God (v.54)!” No it was a Gentile soldier. It wasn’t one of the Pharisees or priests of the Jewish people, the ones that should have made this statement. No it was an adversary of the Jewish people. A man who represented the subjugation of God’s people. He was the one who recognized the greatness of Jesus. But Matthew also mentions that the women were there as well. The men disciples, those, like the religious leader, who should have stayed by Jesus’ side, they were no were, but the women were there and they were watching. 

The women were watching as Jospeh of Arimathea took Jesus’ body down from the cross. They watched as this Jospeh took Jesus to a new tomb and laid him there. And unknown to them they watched as yet another prophecy was fulfilled; this one from the Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah 53:9, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”

But you know who was also watching? The religious leaders. They knew where Jesus was buried, they knew that he had prophesied that he would raise from the dead, and so they sought to position guards outside of the tomb so that no one would be able to claim Jesus rose again.

And that’s where we leave it. We leave it as the world left it. Jesus was dead, mocked and defeated on the cross. As the rock rolled over the tomb, the disciples, both men and women, saw their Master taken and his teachings failing. As the guards were posted, the religious leaders left it as just another failed Messiah come and gone. Their power secured. To Pilate, it was left as just another Jewish squabble dealt with. 

But we know, as the disciples should have known, that this was all done for the purposes of God. We walked through several prophecies that this fulfilled. From the Servant Songs of Isaiah, to the Crucifixion Psalm 22, we have seen that the work of Jesus was purposeful and powerful. It tore the curtain that separated God from man. It shook the ground and raised saints from the dead. And as the stone rolled over the tomb, Jesus rested as he once did on the seventh day. In that creation week, Jesus spoke the universe into existence and started a relationship with his creation. In the week that led to his crucifixion, Jesus again worked, but this time to bring out reconciliation between God and man. That the rebellion of the first man Adam, was rectified in the man Jesus.

This is why Paul proclaims in Romans 5, “12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many (v.12-15)!”

Jesus did it! And we are the result of it. If we recognize our sin, that we have rebelled against God and his word, and accept Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, we now live in the death and life of Jesus. The Cross of Christ is the pathway to God. No more religious rituals, no more separation, Jesus is the pathway, his cross the sacrifice, and as we’ll see, the resurrection God’s stamp of approval that it was accepted. 

My challenge for you this week is to read though Psalm 22 and then to re-read the crucifixion story. From the Garden of Gethsemane to the tomb of Jospeh. Read the two together, so that you can praise God for his work through the Psalmist and his work through the cross.

Let us be a people who stand on the revealed Word of God, trusting that what God has spoken has and will come to pass. That in our darkest day, we may trust as our Savior trusted, in the will of the Father. Amen.

Matthew Series, Week 44 - “My Mocking Voice”

 As most know, the Queen of England died a few weeks ago. I haven’t been following much, just did bits here and there. I’ve never been a person that was interested in the death of people that I don’t know. When an act or actress dies, it doesn’t impact my life. But I thought I would at least keep myself up to date on the proceedings just because it’s a historical moment. But one of the things that I think is interesting is that there’s three sides to the coverage of this event. 

On one side you have the funeral itself. There’s all this royal etiquette and procedures that have to take place. One another side, you have King Charles III and the changing of positions for the royal court. Finally the third side, and the side that I see the most in the various newsfeeds I follow, the drama that follows Harry and Megan. If you don’t know Harry and Megan have been very defiant in their rolls as royals, causing splits within the royal family. Megan I find the most interesting, because she’s an American who was brought into the royal family, but disregards the protocols of the that group. 

Now I don’t care at all, but I find it interesting how many girls would love to be in that position. Many girls dream of being a princess. To be like Cinderella, or Snow White. To have Prince Charming sweep them off their feet. Yet here is someone that disregards that position, and there have been several times, that even her husband Harry, has had to correct her. Whether these rules are good or not, whether they need to be done away with or not, to a lot of people in the United Kingdom, they are tradition and should be held to a high respect. So when an outside comes and mocks these very sacred traditions of the people, it comes off as pretentious and disrespectful. And looks bad on the person seen as mocking, rather than on the situation itself.

And it’s this idea of mocking that brings us back into our Matthew series, where will be picking it back up in chapter 27, verse 1. And as we come back to Matthew 27:1, let’s bring ourselves back to the text, by looking back on the last couple of weeks.

In the last section of Matthew we have been looking at the authority of Jesus. We have looked how a disciple of Jesus’ must live under his authority. Because it’s there that we are satisfied and doing the will of the Father. Yet there is a trap that we can easily fall into. It’s where we think that we have enough strength on our own to live outside of the authority of Jesus. This usually happens when we see God’s great work, or we see great victories in our lives, and we begin to believe the lie that it’s because of us. When in reality it’s because of God working in and through us. We are shown to watch out for such a trap and instead to resolve ourselves daily to Jesus’ authority. Only when we resolve ourselves to live God’s will not ours, will we experience the satisfaction that our soul longs to experience. Because only God can satisfy us. 

This brings us back to Matthew’s Gospel, where we’ll be picking it up in verse 1 of chapter 27. Let’s read together. 

1 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed. 2 So they bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor.

3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 4 “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”

“What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”

5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

6 The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7 So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. 8 That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, 10 and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”

11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.

15 Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” 18 For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.

19 While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”

20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.

21 “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.

“Barabbas,” they answered.

22 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.

They all answered, “Crucify him!”

23 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

25 All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”

26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

This is the second of two trials that Matthew gives us. The first is the one we read through last week, which focused on the Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin, or the ruling council of the Jews. But before we’re given the second trial, we are given a glimpse into what happened with Judas. 

It seems that Judas comes to his senses when he sees Jesus being found guilty of false accusations. In trying to rectify the situation, Judas goes to those who he made the betrayal deal with, and tries to give them back the blood money. We need to notice a couple of things in this interaction.

First, Judas does not ask for forgiveness from God. By giving the money back, he isn’t repenting, but trying, like we saw before, by approaching the situation in his own strength. Even when Judas is feeling conviction, he continues to miss the need for Jesus. He continues in his own strength, though convicted of doing wrong. Which shows us that just because we might feel bad about something, true repentance is coming before God and asking forgiveness. We have an example of this in the life of David. The story comes from 2 Samuel 11, where we’re told that David slept with another man’s wife. Her name was Bathsheba and his name was Uriah. David gets Bathsheba pregnant and to cover it up tries to get Uriah to come home from war to sleep with his wife. But Uriah chooses to stay with the other troops and David has him sent to the front lines to die. David is then confronted by Nathan the prophet for his sin. David then writes Psalm 51 where he states, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” This is repentance, truly understanding that we have sinned, that God is right in his judgment over us, and we lay down our life at the mercy of God. Judas has none of it. He is convicted of his sinful action, but never repents of it. 

The second thing we need to notice, is the lack of justice from the priests and elders. Here is a confession of guilt, a confession to overturn the false claims against Jesus, but the ruling leaders reject it. One of the primary charges that God brings against Israel is a lack of justice. Listen to how Proverbs puts it, “Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent—the Lord detests them both (17:15).” The word “detests” is the word abomination. And it’s this type of abomination that led to God sending the Israelites into seventy years of exile in Babylon. These men are repeating the history of those who corrupted Israel before, and which led to the dispersal of the nation.

Yet, even so, the works of these evil men were used by God to bring Jesus to the cross, and salvation to all. This is why Paul states in Romans 8:28, “…God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

This brings us to the trial, where we get two sides, Pilate and the Jewish leaders. What’s interesting is that Jesus speaks to Pilate, but not to the Jewish leaders. In the other Gospels, we get a lengthy conversation between the Roman governor and the King of the Jews. But Jesus stays silence when accused by the the Jewish leadership, and we should ask the question why?

The silence before the Jewish leadership has parts to it. First, it’s a fulfillment of prophecy. This is a fulfillment of Isaiah’s suffering servant passage. In Isaiah 53:7, we’re told that the Messiah, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

The other part of it, is that there was no convincing these leaders. They had heard Jesus’ message and they had rejected it. In Matthew, we have seen Jesus quote from the Old Testament about the ears of people being shut. One of these places that Jesus quotes is from Ezekiel 12:2, where God address the prophet, “Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.” There’s no convincing the Jewish leadership, because they have shut their ears to the Word of God.

But Jesus isn’t silent before Pilate, why? Because this is a turning point. The work of God has never been for one people. It has been through one people, bringing about salvation through Jesus the Messiah, but the intention of God has always been to open the way to all people so that they can return to their Creator. Throughout Matthew we have seen Jesus interact with Gentiles, non-Jews. He never turned them away. Not the Wisemen, not the Centurion, and the not the desperate mother. Jesus is fulfilling another Servant passage from Isaiah where it states, “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth (49:6).”

Jesus speaks to Pilate because Pilate needs the Gospel, and now has the opportunity to either embrace the true King or reject him. But instead of embracing Jesus, even though everything in him knows that the Jewish leadership is there out of envy, and that his own wife has told him to not go through with it, Pilate thinks he has a way out. 

Pilate gives the crowd a choice, Barabbas or Jesus. The criminal or the King. We can see it now that this is a fitting trade, because it is for the condemned that Jesus dies. It is for the sinful that Jesus takes their place, so why not free a criminal in the process? But Pilate, though he washes his hands, isn’t free of guilt. He has the power, he has the choice to not send a condemned man to death, but his choice is based on his own survival. Pilate sends Jesus to the cross, so that there wouldn’t be a riot. Politically, Judea was a hotbed for political uprisings. Pilate’s job was to subdue those uprisings. If he couldn’t do that, he would be stripped of his station. A fate, we know happened only a few years later. So the condemnation of Jesus didn’t save him in the long run.

It’s here that Jesus is then turned over to the Roman guards. Mocked, beaten, stripped of all dignity. This God who came down for the salvation of his creation, now mocked by it. Yet, again, a fulfillment of the suffering passage of Isaiah 53, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem (v.3).”

And in another Servant Song passage of Isaiah, we see this moment prophesied. Isaiah 50:5-7 reads, “The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away. 6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. 7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.”

Again and again and again, the words of the Old Testament play out in the life of Jesus. The world rejecting the God who came for their salvation, resigns himself to the cross and all the pain that it entails. And the final words that we read from the passage in Matthew 27:31, “After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him…” should bring us joy. My God, my Savior, died for me. It is a proclamation of the love of God, wrapped up in the horrors of humanity.

All the evil in the world, comes not from the work of God, but through the work of each of us. We brought God’s creation down into our sin, and given the opportunity we even brought God down. Yet, God willing came to the earth, he willing was led to trial, he was willing led mock and beaten, and he willing led to the cross, all for us.

The words of Paul in Romans 5:8 would humble us and cause us to praise God, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Every single person from the runaway disciples, to Judas, to the Jewish leadership, to Pilate and his guards, we’re shown love through the cross and a pathway to God’s everlasting life. This was the purpose of Israel as a nation. That God would work out his will for this moment, when Jesus was being led to the cross through injustice and perversion of humanity’s sin. Yet he died for us, though he was completely alone while the world conspired against their God. 

We see it today don’t we? There are three camps, those who recognize the great love of God and so fall willingly at his feet in thankfulness of the price that was paid and the debt that was forgiven. These are Jesus’ disciples, who live under his authority, who seek the will of the Father over their own, and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to be conformed into the image of Jesus. 

Another camp are those who openly mock God. They conspire to strip him of the praise that’s due him. They stand in the way of the Gospel reaching ears. They make up lies and tell half-truths so that others would turn away from the salvation that is alone in Jesus. They are the Jewish leaders, the Roman guards.

And then there’s a third group, that are fence setters. They, like Judas and Pilate, think that in their own strength they can do enough to stay out of the way. That they will not bow to Jesus, but they won’t openly mock him either. They hope, if there is a God, that they can get by on their own merit, after all they were upset with the injustice of it all, isn’t that enough?

No, there is only one thing any of can do and that’s bow at the feet of Jesus. Like the modern hymn “How Deep the Father’s Love For Us” states, 

“Behold the man upon a cross

My sin upon His shoulders

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished.” (second verse)

When we recognize that it was our sin that led Jesus willing to the cross, that held him in place on that tree of aguish, then we can turn from our sin. Repenting with the understanding that we sinned against God, yet he loved us even while we were in that state, and now we must accept Jesus’ work on our behalf, turning away from our own strength and submitting to his authority over us. Here then can we now live, because we live not in ourselves, but in the life of Jesus himself.

As we pointed to last week, Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20, become a trumpet call in our lives, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Let us praise God all the louder, that I had nothing to do with my salvation. Jesus did it all, and willingly so. That all I do now is accepted and rely on the work of the Holy Spirit. That it is in his strength and by his will I live until the day he comes back for me, or I go to him.

My challenge this week is to read Isaiah 46-53. Read a chapter a day and re-read Matthew 27:1-31 with each chapter. See the prophecies fulfilled in Jesus work, and see what is yet to be fulfilled. Then praise God that he has done the work that you couldn’t. That he saved you though you didn’t deserve it. And pray for those who mock God, that they would see his greatness and bow willingly before they are made to. Also pray for those who who are fence setters; who think that can just slide through on their own merit. That they see their need for Jesus, before they can no longer willing choose.

Let us be a humble people, recognizing that Jesus did everything for us, so now we get to live for him in everything. Amen.