The Holiness of the Cross
Text: Matthew 27:45-54
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
March 19, 2023 Fourth Sunday in Lent
We have been focusing on the different sides and views of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in these Sundays of Lent. And today we come to yet another side of the cross: the holiness of the cross.
More attention is given to the final week of Jesus’ life in each of the four Gospels than to anything else in Jesus’ time on earth. Jesus’ entering Jerusalem, some of his teachings, that first Communion in the upper room with the disciples, and his betrayal, arrest, crucifixion and resurrection all take place in only one week. But the Gospel writers spend more time on these few days than anything else.
About one-fourth of Matthew’s Gospel is given to Jesus’ last week. Mark dedicates a full one-third of his Gospel to it. Luke gives about one-fifth, and John spends about one-half of his Gospel on Jesus’ last week.
The Gospel writers saw Jesus’ final days leading up to his cross as the most decisive part of Jesus’ life. That the Gospel writers would spend so much space on this is their way of saying “This is what you have to get.” They want us to know how it happened, why it happened and what it was all about.[1]
Jesus wasn’t special because he died by crucifixion. Dying on a cross was not an exclusive event. Plenty of men, thousands upon thousands of men had died at the hands of the Roman empire upon a cross. This type of thing happened all the time. There was nothing unique about a man being crucified.
Death by crucifixion came by way of shock or asphyxiation. Often the victim was flogged beforehand. Iron nails would be run through the forearms and the heel bones and the person would be attached to the wood. It was a slow death. An agonizing death.
But the agony of the death and the cruelty done to Jesus wasn’t unique. It was common to all crucifixions. On the one hand this was just another cross.
But this cross, unlike any other cross, was holy. What makes this cross different is that this wasn’t just another person suffering - and certainly not a criminal. What makes this cross different
…and wondrous
…and holy
is that on it hung the very Son of God.
And because of that, this was a crucifixion like no other. When Jesus died on the cross things happened that were way out of the ordinary: Meteorologically, biologically, geologically, and theologically.
Matthew tells us that when Jesus died darkness came over the whole land. And after suffering for hours on the cross, Jesus cried out one last time with a loud voice gave up his spirit. Tombs were opened. Dead bodies were raised. The earth quaked. The curtain in the temple was torn in two. There was something in the death of the Son of God that shook the world in more ways than one.
When the centurion soldier and all who were with him saw all that had happened when Jesus died, it was unmistakable to them. It brought terror to them, and they said, “Surely he was the Son of God!” Centurions were not known for their religiosity or spiritual awareness. They tended to be pagan and secular, hard and aggressive. What kind of experience would change someone’s perspective so drastically?
Martin Luther said, “The blood of Christ not only wakens dead bodies, but also sinner’s souls.”
This was not just another man. This was Jesus the Christ. That is what makes this cross holy.
The word “holy” can be a little intimidating. We think of it in moral terms. We usually think of being holy as being kind of “goody-two-shoes”, pure, a moral standing out of the ordinary. A holy person is someone who doesn’t do any wrong.
But “holy” means to be set apart, distinct, separate, unlike any other. In the Bible, when the word “holy” is applied to God it speaks of his quality and character. God is unlike any other being in existence.
Otherwise, the word holy is speaking about the purpose of something. It can mean for special and dedicated use. We call the Bible the Holy Bible not because the paper and binding is special, but because the words and content of what is printed is unlike any other book that can ever be printed. Communion is holy because it is a special meal, different from what you do for breakfast or lunch. It is a meal that involves God and God’s people.
Jesus’ cross was holy because it was unlike any other. That cross would do something that no other cross, or event in history, could ever do. God hung on this cross. And because it was God, cosmic things were happening. Everything that happened combined to show that this death was earthshaking. It shook this world to its core.
A sky that should have been light with the noonday sun became dark. God spoke centuries earlier through the Old Testament prophet Amos:
“On that day…I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight…I will make it as if someone were mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.”[2]
Matthew is the only Gospel that records that the tombs broke open, and after Jesus’ resurrection the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
It says that the curtain in the temple was torn in two. This is a fact that Matthew, Mark and Luke all record and it needs to be noted.
This curtain separated the most sacred area of the Temple from the rest of the Temple courts. This most-sacred area was called the holy of holies, or the Most Holy Place. This was a small room in the middle of the Temple that was so holy, so sacred that only the high priest was allowed to enter, and he, only once a year, the Day of Atonement.
On the Day of Atonement a lamb would be sacrificed, the high priest would go into the Most Holy Place and sprinkle the blood on the altar for the sins of all the people. After the sacrifice of a lamb, the priest would take a goat, lay his hands on the head of the innocent victim to symbolize the transfer of sins of the people to the goat, and the goat would be driven into the desert, carrying on itself all the sins to a solitary place.[3]
God’s very presence dwelt in that room which was why it was set apart like it was and called the Holy of Holies.
This curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the courts was not a thin curtain like you hang around your windows. This was more like a large, heavy, thick curtain that might hang in a theater stage. It was an elaborately woven fabric that was 60 feet high and 30 feet wide.
The curtain was about separation. It was about what was holy and what was not holy enough. It was meant to keep out. It was a barrier. The message was “no just waltzes into God’s presence.”
When that curtain tore in two upon Jesus’ death, God was saying that the way to his holy presence has been opened up for all by this once-and-for-all sacrifice for the whole world. In Jesus’ death the sacrificial system has been fulfilled, and cancelled.
All who by faith lay their hands on the head of this innocent victim, who is Jesus, are allowed to be with God and know God. People who were always thought to be unholy and unable to come to God without sacrifice, religious ritual and the help of a priest, could now freely come into the presence of the holy God. There is no more curtain. The way to God is open.
Throughout human history people have felt an unworthiness before God, and that something has to die because we cannot get to God on our own. Jesus’ cross speaks to this and says, “The sacrifice has been made and the veil has been split. Come into my presence. Know me.”[4]
The Son of God came into the world, and the world put him to death. What does this say about our world?
Sociologists study society and make pronouncement about how bad things are. All you have to do is look at the cross. How bad is it? God’s Son had to die.
If you want to see how serious human rebellion is, if you need to know how bad things are and how messed up we can be, look at the cross. What kind of a world would kill God’s Son?
It wasn’t just a group of a few rebellious hooligans who killed Christ. Think about it: he was condemned by everything that we that we would call most respectable and correct. He was killed by the religious leaders, people who prayed and worshipped and gave alms to the poor. Christ was killed by most advanced government known to that time. The Roman system made strides in law and culture. There was even a little democracy in there when you think that the people were asked to vote if they should save Barabbas or Christ.
All of what we hold to be good and right saw to it that Jesus Christ died on that cross.
The cross was a condemnation of all we like to think is best in humanity. We might think those were more barbarian times and we are too civilized and morally advanced to do anything like that. Yet, we have nothing on those who were a part of that cross. We are part of the same human race as they were.
Let’s not be like Pilate who said, “I’m free of this matter” and washed his hands of it. If we don’t know that the cross was about us, too, then we really can’t deal with the problem of sin in our lives.[5]
The irony of the cross is that the very one who killed Jesus are the very ones who need him. The Son of God came into this world, and the world killed him.
If a king were to send a messenger to his people, and they killed the messenger, what do you think would happen? The wrath of the king would come upon those people. If a police officer is shot and killed, not only does every officer within twenty miles drop everything and rush to be there, but the killer is in deep and certain trouble with the law. If your boss tells you to perform a task and you say “forget it” and curse her, you can expect trouble. I remember the fear I had as a kid when I did something that would make one of my parents mad.
If the very Son of God comes to us, and is crucified, then what can we expect? We should be running for cover, for shelters, and wearing crash helmets. Surely the punishment from the Father will be great. No wonder the sky turned dark, and the earth shook, and cataclysmic things were happening. What will God do to a world that killed his anointed Son?
But here is the good and amazing news: the very One we killed is still with us. Not in judgment or anger, but in love and mercy. He spares us. He justifies us. He makes peace with us through his blood shed on that cross. He invites us to come to him. He prays for us. And we are welcomed into his presence.
Some might say it is too easy. The reason it is so easy to gain such a salvation is because it cost God so much.[6] It was unlike anything else this world has ever known.
I remember several years ago when I traveled back to Idaho to bury a friend – his name was Jim. He didn’t go to my church, and I wasn’t his pastor. I did some basketball coaching while pastoring in Idaho. Jim was the head coach of the girl’s varsity basketball team, and I was an assistant to him and the junior varsity coach.
But when Jim was diagnosed with kidney cancer that had spread to his lungs, Jim sent me an email saying he had some things we wanted to talk with me about. He was a dying man and wanted to know what would happen to him on that hour when he would leave his wife, his children and friends, and this world. He knew they could not help him at that moment.
His diagnosis and email began a profound two-and-a-half year conversation between Jim and me about life, death, family, prayer, God and faith. Over that time the Lord drew Jim to himself as Jim read the Bible, prayed, and asked questions even as he struggled through the hell of chemotherapy treatments and trial cancer medicines. Jim learned about Jesus, learned how to pray for healing, for forgiveness, for strength, and about the cross.
In Jim’s last email to me he told me how the tumors had grown and he knew his time was short, I told him that how he died is so important. Was there a way for Jim to stand before a holy God when the moment came for him to die? Cancer or not, we are all dying men and women.
There is a way we can stand before the holy God. It is through that holy cross. That cross is holy because God was on that cross. And his holy life makes our lives holy. I know we don’t feel like it, but take it by faith, when we come and stand at that cross, Christ comes to us and transfers his holiness to us. He welcomes us into his presence, to know him, and for us to be his children.
Prayer: Truly, Jesus, you are the Son of God. Truly, your cross is holy. God, we plead the cross for our world, for our families and friends, for ourselves. Keep our hearts and minds on what you have done for us. Amen.
[1] See Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Eugene Peterson, p.142
[2] Amos 8:9-10
[3] See Leviticus 16
[4] Dale Bruner, Matthew, vo. 2, p.1058
[5] Adapted from Herbert Butterfield, A Diary of Readings, Day 67
[6] Oswald C